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Why? What happens to an oil filter over time that renders it bad while the oil is still good?
The oil filter's job is to catch ,and hold, the dirt and contaminates that the oil carries away during it's run through a running engine. The oil will be clean if the oil filter does its job. Changing a dirty oil filter (should) remove the contaminates while the added oil will supply needed anti-corrosion chemicals to the oil.
I only put 400miles/mo on my car (work from home) and I let the car tell me when to change it. Pretty much once a year. Full synthetic is all I have ever used in my cars.
A new car needs to be broken in with non-synthetic oil for the first 5000 miles - after that, you can go to synthetic. Them cylinders and rings need to be allowed to fit themselves together before you prevent them from doing so.
I use twice a year oil changes due to our ultra low milage of 500 miles per year. Do not forget that the quality of your oil filter is very important in low milage usage since the filter is what neutralizes the acid by-products of combustion. So don't go cheap on oil filters.
I always check the expiration dates on the oil cans.
The oil from my freshly ground flax seeds go rancid within minutes of exposure to oxygen. Rancid oil kills ya!
A new car needs to be broken in with non-synthetic oil for the first 5000 miles - after that, you can go to synthetic. Them cylinders and rings need to be allowed to fit themselves together before you prevent them from doing so.
This was true in the 1970s or so. New engine manufacturing processes (ie,, the ability to machine something well enough that you don't NEED it to wear a bunch) makes this mostly obsolete. Porsche, AMG, Corvette, Aston Martin all come factory filled with Synthetic. On the "every day car" side the Toyota 4 cylinders motors that use 0-20 are all synthetic, and as GM transitions to Dexos Gen 2, I think those will be all factory synthetic as the AC Delco stuff they use is synthetic only.
Exceptions may be if you have a shop build/rebuild an engine. Maybe the new small (lawn/tractor, snow blower) engines mostly made in China now, etc.
Lots of short trips are harder on an engine than long trips. You are dumping unburned hydrocarbons, water, and a variety of other stuff into the oil and it's never getting hot enough to boil those things off.
When you see the "severe service" recommendations in the manual? 400 miles a month accumulated in short trips, that's severe service. No matter what kind of oil you have, all that other stuff getting dumped into it is the same. Change your oil more frequently.
-Buy oil that meets manufacturer specifications. For a few vehicles that may force you into a synthetic (based (like some of the 0-20 specs, and most of the new Dexos v2 stuff), but many won't (now I see it's an F-150). Unless you are doing some serious towing or hauling, no need for Synthetic, just meet the required spec.
- Every oil manufacturer, and I believe every vehicle manufacturer has a time for oil changes if the mileage is not reached. A few are 6 months, many are 1 year. It's not necessarily the oil that is the issue, it's the additives that break down after some heat cycles, moisture and time. I've seen a bunch of oil analysis results that indicate low mileage usage cars (unless used for only short trips) can probably push 18-24 months (sometimes more) on an oil change (instead of a year or whatever the manufacturer recommends) but there is definitely a time component that will vary how on oil and how the vehicle is driven. A year is probably a good, but conservative goal.
-Changing oil filter (only) at 6 months on a car that hasn't been driven much is a waste of time/money.
Good post!
But to wander a bit about oil use - when I paid a mechanic to remove the old engine and replace it with a crated complete newly made engine with all new parts, I also provided an oil accumulator to be installed.
The accumulator was an aftermarket "thing" that I wanted to use, whereby turning the key on, but not to crank, for a minute, the accumulated quart of oil would pump the quart throughout the oiling system, which you could then crank the engine without steel on steel friction. It was designed to refill just by the engine running - and to hold it till the next time the engine is pre-started.
If you have oil cans then the expiration dates passed at least a decade ago.
I don't think today's plastic "cans" are as inert with regard to any chemical reactions with the oil as probably were with old time metal or glass "cans".
My wife drives about 1000 miles per year. Yes that's right. I use synthetic and change it every year to 18 months.
I take the car out occasionally and give it a run because it needs exercise and she just putters around town.
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