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I have a 2010 honda accord that I hardly drive, I have only put 6000 miles on it since buying it new in 2010. It uses synthetic oil that only has to be changed every 7000 miles, I already changed it once in 2011. How often do I have to change it? Does it break down over time or am I good to wait awile more. It has been about a year and a half since I last changed it at about 3500 miles.
It's probably still in good shape. If I were you, I'd change it every 5k miles, since that could be around 2-3 years for you. Oil doesn't just break down by itself sitting there, it's caused by contaminants in the oil like gasoline that washes down the cylinder walls and gets past the rings (just a little bit for a well running engine.) I wouldn't go running the engine to redline on old oil, but for the occasional driving that you do, it should be just fine.
I think Honda recommends that oil be changed at least once a year if the MID does not indicate to do so in that time frame.
But this is with Honda oil.
I would check with your oil brand to see what is recommended.
However, if it was me, regardless of what the oil manufacturer says, I would do it once a year at the bare minimum.
The following is from Mobil website on Mobil 1 Extended Performance
Mobil 1 Extended Performance motor oils provide guaranteed protection of critical engine parts for 15,000 miles or 1 year, whichever comes first. Excluded service includes: commercial and racing applications; frequent towing or hauling; extremely dusty or dirty conditions; or excessive idling.
If a change every year is recommended or the subject of a guarantee, you can usually rest assured they have a factor of safety built into that number. Usually I consider it to be 300%.
I have never had an engine burn oil even with 300,000 miles it if I had changed the oil the first 100 miles (new). If you think this makes no sense then the next time you have a new engine dump the oil at 100 miles and then shine a light into the oil, the oil will have thousands on shiny metal flakes in it from the manufacturing process. The first 100 miles of operation knocks lose metal flakes of the engine casting and it floats around inside the engine causing damage. This 100 mile oil is always the dirties oil I ever take out of an engine. By changing the oil early, the metal flakes can be removed before they do any damage.
After the original oil change at 100 miles, I change synthetic oil every 5000 miles and non synthetic oil every 3000 miles.
Thus to be safe, I use 200%. In other words, they probably figured the synthetic oil is good for three years, so they guaranteed it for one year. therefore I would comfortably change it every 2 years and expect to be fine. However each person has their own acceptable level of risk. For my business we take less risk and we woudl change the oil every six months in all likelihood. Personally, if it were my personal vehicle in that situation, I would change it every two years.
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