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I am using 5w 30 right now, does that make a difference and I recently put in a mix blend of synthetic oil but was not sure what the hype was over synthetics is it better for the car to run full synthetic on a 95 camry how far can I go between oil changes?
Thanks this is helpful because I feel like I am just keeping the oil change places open for business since I burn about 2,000 miles a month
Based on my experience with a car that has an oil life monitor, 6-8K miles is the typical range for a car driven mostly highway. However , your car may(i'm not sure) be equipped with an engine that is notorious for sludge buildup issues. Toyota had, i believe 2 engines, that were prone to having failures if oil changes weren't done frequently. Perhaps someone else here will remember the specific engines.
I don't recall the Toyotas, but the last gen Camry 4 was one IIRC.
Chrysler's 2.7 V6 also sludged regularly. Not the way I want to spend 10 grand.
My Honda told me when it wanted an oil change, the longest interval was about 10K miles. I'll be changing the oil in my Ford every 6 months since I mostly use it for short trips of about three miles.
Sunny, I do 5K miles in our cars with conventional oil and once a year on our one with synthetic (reason being it only goes 2 -3K per year). I also rotate the tires every other oil change (10K miles). That routine seems to be working out ok.
I did my first synthetic oil change on my Honda, and did a 2000 mile road trip and kept using it until 10400 miles on the oil - seem like that was a good interval for synthetic. If the OP used AMSOIL, they say it can last 25,000 - but I but it looks dirty by 10,000. So I'd say 10,000 for synthetic, unless you drive a car like a BMW 330 that takes 8 quarts - maybe you can do 16,000 miles on 8 quarts synthetic.
Several fleet operators have tested the value of oil changes in their fleets ...
For those that routinely ran 100,000 miles and then bought a new fleet, they found that there was no difference in the operation of their cars. Oil consumption stayed normal, and was checked/topped up when needed once a week. I know of one fleet of cars used by an architectural/engineering firm in CA that did this, with a mixed fleet of Ford & GM full size cars; the only service the cars received was routine wear items (brakes, tires, wiper blades, filters). The far greater cost per mile to them was the depreciation of the cars, not the wear on the motors.
Ford tried to find out how long their motors would last in an abusive fleet situation, too. I know of one test they did in San Fransisco where they didn't change oil in a fleet of delivery vehicles, just topped it up when needed. Every vehicle ran quite well into the mid 100,000+ mile range before showing signs of wear with increased oil consumption or lowered performance.
I have no doubt that GM and Chrysler have performed similar tests, but I don't know the specifics of their test programs.
IIRC, PG&E also tried this with their service fleet of light to medium duty trucks all the way back in the 1960's with the same results. Considering that the oils available and the metallurgy in the motors was nowhere near as good as what we have today, that was an interesting result. Their finding was that they saved a lot of money overall.
I change conventional oil in my Subaru 2.2 and 2.5 motors every 6-7,000 miles, and both motors have well over 200,000 miles on them. The 2.2 is finally showing signs of oil consumption and needs a valve job ... it puts out a faint puff of blue smoke on cold start up in the AM for the first few yards of driving. But that's been a pretty hard worked motor all it's life to move that station wagon down the road with the AWD.
IMO, there's few motors on the road today that aren't capable of delivering 300,000 miles of good service with little more than minimal care. 3,000 mile, or even 5,000 mile oil change intervals are excessive with the quality of motors, materials, and oils we have today. Few people keep their cars for that amount of mileage. I still have clients that think a car needs to be traded in at 50,000 miles ... the cars are readily capable of delivering another 200,000 miles of excellent service.
There are certain motors that won't tolerate extended oil changes, however. Don't try this in your diesel powered vehicles, especially Ford Power Stroke motors where the motor oil is used to trigger the injectors. Some, like Mitsubishi Galant's were famous for sludging up the oil pick-up and causing an oil starvation engine failure if run to the manufacturer's suggested oil change interval.
So, if you're concerned that you're doing serious damage to the motor of your vehicle by running some mileage past the suggested oil change interval ... don't be, even if you're planning on running the car 200-300,000 miles.
Normal oil should be changed at 5000 miles or 6 months. Which ever comes first.
Synthetic oils can go a bit more to 7500 miles or 6 months.
This does not change with the age of the car.
What about blends synthetic/regular?
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