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It's funny how people believe something that was true years ago still applies today. If I remember, either 50 or 500 miles was the maximum recommended for the first change. Seems like this was back in the 1950's or 60's.
I would be curious to see how many cars end up in the scrap heap due to problems related to the engine oil. It seems like most of the time I hear about people having major car problems, it is due to the transmission, blown head gasket, or snapped timing belt.
Yes exactly!!!
And reason for those issues.. You guessed! Neglecting oil change resulting in sludge/crud buildup in engine.
Typical symptom,
Gasket failure/ oil leak is a result of blocked PCV valve caused by sludge/crud accumulating in the PCV valve eventually ceasing it. All due to those wonderful 10k mile service intervals LOL
Let's face it, oil is dirt cheap compared to the inevitable expensive and ultra time consuming mechanical failure that will happen if oil changes are left out.
For the maintenance minded folks, you'd want to change the oil early due to the manufacturing process does not get all of the debris out of the engine. Most commonly these engines are assembled as a short block and then sit in a warehouse. All of the dust and airborn crap gets into the engine. Then the final assembly takes place and then installed in your vehicle. The maker assumes that the oil filter will catch the crap and it will be filtered out. Once the new engine is started, wear metals are extremely high as the engine wears in, primarily at the bearings. So you also have more break in wear particles of metal that you would assume is being caught by the oil filter. But, NO oil filter filters at 100% filtration in a single pass. Most of the oil filters are rated as a multi-pass unit meaning it takes several times thru the filter before all of the crap is filtered out. So yes, there CAN be damage causing particulates floating around the engine and in suspension in the oil. Changing early gets the crap out. You also have a situation where the oil comes to you with specific amounts of additives. As the new engine does not have any of these additives in it until the engine starts and runs and the additives are spread around via the oil, you can run into additive depletion where the engine "plates up" with these anti-wear agents and anti-friction additives. So the oil is easy spent in just a few hundred miles. So if you're a maintenance kinda person, change it early, at least at 1500 miles. If you're not, you're probably among the folks that don't really care due to the fact you probably don't keep a vehicle more than a few years and then trade into something new.
A particle of 40 microns in size can damage an engine. A micron is 1/1,000,000th of a meter.
NO new car maker makes motor oil and they don't make oil filters.
Every new Honda I’ve owned mandated the first oil change be at the first required maintenance. At the factory several break in additives are added to the oil,and these additives need to stay in that engine for 5-7.5k miles,depending on engine and manufacturer. Sounds crazy, but it works.
Also,to the poster who mentioned finding metal shavings in the oil and filter at their first oil change,this is not unusual. Internal to every engine are many drilled and tapped holes. High pressure coolant is used during the mfg process to flush out all shavings,but it is impossible to get them all. This is due to the many oilways and arteries cast and machined on the inside of the block to facilitate better oil flow. Granted, if you were to find large,curled shavings inside of the engine,you’ve got serious problems. Fines,or very small particles however are not a concern.
Very small(quantity)engine builders will typically run a new engine then drain the oil and change the filter which elimates any contamination. You can’t do this when you are building over 3000 engines a day.
Every new Honda I’ve owned mandated the first oil change be at the first required maintenance. At the factory several break in additives are added to the oil,and these additives need to stay in that engine for 5-7.5k miles,depending on engine and manufacturer. Sounds crazy, but it works.
Also,to the poster who mentioned finding metal shavings in the oil and filter at their first oil change,this is not unusual. Internal to every engine are many drilled and tapped holes. High pressure coolant is used during the mfg process to flush out all shavings,but it is impossible to get them all. This is due to the many oilways and arteries cast and machined on the inside of the block to facilitate better oil flow. Granted, if you were to find large,curled shavings inside of the engine,you’ve got serious problems. Fines,or very small particles however are not a concern.
Very small(quantity)engine builders will typically run a new engine then drain the oil and change the filter which elimates any contamination. You can’t do this when you are building over 3000 engines a day.
I didn't say it's unusual, I'm saying that's the reason to change the oil early. Because it's full of extra wear materials. Wear materials cause additional wear to the engine. I find it mind boggling how some people just don't get the concept of changing oil early after the break in period to get rid of contaminants!
The first thing I do whenever I get a car is to READ THE MANUAL - and then follow the recommendations for maintenance.
This does not come as a surprise to anyone who took 5 minutes to read the flipping manual. Whenever the manual says to have the first oil change done, that is when I had it done.
I agree with having the 1st oil change done within the first 1000 miles or so......but I don't agree that one should just blindly follow what the manf. says in the manual about "recommended service intervals" (also: remember that says "recommended"....not mandatory). A lot of what they put in there is err greatly on the side of caution with the not so slight benefit of lining their pockets by suggesting earlier than necessary visits to their service depts at a hefty charge. If you have a new car under warranty you're pretty much forced to follow it to avoid issues with coverage if a problem comes up and they can point to the service intervals not being followed.
However, they put a lot of, IMO, bogus stuff in there in order to run up service visits & profits when not entirely necessary. For instance, wife had a Honda and the manual called for "valve clearance adjustment" every 30K miles. Cost of that service at a Honda dealer???....$600 - $700. Long story short....we never had them adjusted and sold the veh. at almost 200K miles to someone local.....they're still driving it around with no problems (and I saw the owner about 2 months ago and asked about it and he said no issues at all with it). It's not just foreign cars either....an old guy I know has close to 200K on his Chev pickup truck and never had the spark plugs changed even though it was recommended at 30K......I wouldn't go that long myself but my point is the mfg. has a monetary self interest in, for lack of a better word, "forcing" people to do unnecessary service which they can make money on and/or deny warranty service claims if you don't.
And about oil.....I think change oil scams are rampant there too especially these days with 100% synthetic oils.....don't know if anyone remembers this but years ago (early 80's) when synthetic oil by Mobil first came out, there was a TV commercial where they showed an animation of a car driving the circumference of the earth saying with Mobil One new synthetic oil one could go 25,000 miles on an oil change. It was one of their big advertising points about the new oil but shortly thereafter was squashed - probably because the oil companies, car manufacturers and service centers went ape sh*t realizing they'd lose money if they couldn't get people to buy or service oil more often (and/or upsell them on other supposed service needs)...then suddenly it was 3K or 5K limit for oil change again.
As for myself, I use Mobil 1 oil & filters and change my oil once a year (10 - 12K miles)(spark plugs at 100K)....Veh. is going on 15 years old with no issues related to "abnormal" oil changes/spark plugs.
Every new Honda I’ve owned mandated the first oil change be at the first required maintenance. At the factory several break in additives are added to the oil,and these additives need to stay in that engine for 5-7.5k miles,depending on engine and manufacturer. Sounds crazy, but it works.
Also,to the poster who mentioned finding metal shavings in the oil and filter at their first oil change,this is not unusual. Internal to every engine are many drilled and tapped holes. High pressure coolant is used during the mfg process to flush out all shavings,but it is impossible to get them all. This is due to the many oilways and arteries cast and machined on the inside of the block to facilitate better oil flow. Granted, if you were to find large,curled shavings inside of the engine,you’ve got serious problems. Fines,or very small particles however are not a concern.
Very small(quantity)engine builders will typically run a new engine then drain the oil and change the filter which elimates any contamination. You can’t do this when you are building over 3000 engines a day.
To clarify, they aren't "run" as on an engine stand, they are spun with a motor that indeed rotates all internals and spins the oil pump the same as if it were being run by combustion. All oil used is cleaned and used again.
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