Oil change intervals

How do you drive it? Mostly highway? Town? Mixed? Light or heavy foot?

Do you use synthetic and a high quality filter? Then I read you can go

I usually go about 5 to 6K miles on my turbos. I also try to keep the short runs about town to the beater cars. The turbos are generally driven on longer trips (60+ miles) with only one or two stops - heavy foot though :-). I also use synthetics and Saab/Volvo oil filters. My Volvo turbo is still going strong and it is a 1982. I suppose it also depends on how long you want to keep your 9000 running. You can do alot of synthetic oil changes for the price of a turbo charger.

Very true. Changing fluids is cheap insurance for your car.

Something nobody ever talks about though is what happens to waste oil? I don't think there is any 'standard' way to dispose of it, and most places don't seem to have any organised facility that handles waste oil products.

Dumping it into the wastewater system is very harmful. Dumping in landfill (inside a closed container) via the regular trash/garbage/rubbish collection run by the local council or other authority is probably the closest thing possible to being a 'land-friendly' disposal option. Is there any sort of 'Saab-endorsed' way of dealing with waste oil products? 8-)

Regards,

Craig.

Yes, never dump oil into the drains. You will be fined (UK) if it can be traced back to your drains. It is also very anti social behaviour.

It's still definitely a no no. Waste oil can seep into the ground water and pollute your drinking water.

Every council in the UK has collection centres for used engine oil. The oil is either burned as fuel or recycled.

We have regular waste oil collection days in town where it is used to fuel a heating plant.

-Fred W

In the Washington D.C. area of the US, the auto parts stores collect used motor oil and batteries! They also sell them, so there is some incentive for the stores to collect and recycle(hopefully) these items.

That'll depend greatly on your choice of oil. And indeed your driving pattern. Same car / year here btw !

I would be perfectly happy with 10-12k miles oil change intervals using full synthetic oil. I don't do many short journeys and rarely get the opportunity to drive really hard. I do a couple of 22-23 mile journeys most weekdays.

Another important consideration is engine flushing when changing oil ( is this a UK thing ? ). Can be done using an additive, or a drain and short run with flushing oil ( the traditional way ). Helps get rid of any accumulated shit.

OTOH - if your car's in for maintenance anyway and the oil change interval is coming up - why not get it done there and then ? Saves another trip.

As others have said - it's cheap engine insurance. Although my 9k has done 165k miles it never needs an intermediate oil top-up ( well not so far anyway ) - so that bodes well in the engine wear department.

Graham

In Sweden I'm sure they'll recycle. Oil collection / recycling is also used here in the UK. There are penalties for disposal in environmentally unfriendly ways.

Graham

"ma_twain" wrote

Actually I think it is a federal law (if not it is a New York State law) requiring anyone who sells oil or car batteries to accept the same at no cost. Used oil is then either sent for recycling or fuel blending and burning. As for the car batteries, the lead in the battery actually makes it worth something as scrap.

Stephen B. NYC

Every autoparts store I've been to in the last 15 years or so accepts used oil for free, that's where I always go with mine. They just have a big bin you pour it into for recycling.

I know that there are oil recycling facilities here, but it's not something that gets publicised widely. After all, the trucks that rumble around carting waste oil have to be picking it up from somewhere.

I think all Australian state and territory governments have their own version of an EPA (Environmental Protection Authority as it's called here in NSW) which enforces legislation for dumping waste products, including oils. Might see if the local council landfill site accepts waste oils - would be a sensible place to do it.

Regards,

Craig.

Didn't even think of that! Doh! 8-) Next time I visit the local autoparts store I'll ask.

Craig.

Here in the UK, I haven't seen oil collection at auto parts stores ( possibly considered to be hazardous in case of an oil spill ? ) but they certainly take your old batteries. The council depots take both though.

Graham

Erk ! Landfill ? That means the oil will eventually reach the water table unless the site is situated in a very deep bed of impermeable clay !

Best thing to do is to recycle it.

Graham

Sure, but what about used coolant? I'm planning to drain/flush mine this summer, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all the old green stuff.

John

Whatever you do, don't mix it with train oil. You can make an entire tank of recyclable oil unusable if you do.

Oil is the least of your worries - there are far nastier things that can leach out of landfill. All landfill sites (certainly in the UK) *have* to be dug into impermeable ground.

Not really - recycling waste oil isn't an option. The energy cost of cleaning it up would be huge. The only sensible thing to do with it is a controlled high temperature incineration.