99 camry, recommended oil change interval?

Got a '99 Camry (70k miles, bought used), mostly used for flat city driving, usually 5 to 10 miles each way - wife uses it to run errands to the store, library, etc.

Given the sludge history of this kind of car, and our usage, what's the oil change interval? 3k? 4k? 5k miles?

Thanks,

Michael

Reply to
mrdarrett
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I'm running about 5000 miles using Mobil 1 5W30 and a Napa Gold filter. The used oil analyses are suggesting that I could increase this interval substantially. (I'm too chicken to go much higher than 5000 though.)

Mine is a 4-cylinder 5SFE; you don't say which engine you have.

Reply to
Nobody Important

I've got a 4-banger, too.

Wow, really? 5000 miles? I was about to change it at 4000 miles. (It's now at about 3,500 miles since its last oil change. Was about to change the oil today, then changed my mind...)

What's the term... "extreme environment"... from city driving, ~ 5 miles. Afraid of the sludge issue, you know...

Thanks,

Michael

Reply to
mrdarrett

Unless you use synthetic oil and do oil analysis, you should not go more than 3000 miles given your city trips on that potential sludging engine. Not all but only certain synthetics have been recommended for sludging engines by VW for their Turbo 1.8t. The 1.8t also got a larger oil filter and increased oil sump size.

The oil will be dark but still allow light to shine through as you drain it. If it's got a lot of ash and light won't go through easily, then you should shorten the interval. The oil filter for the newer 2.4L

4cyl is a larger version of the one for the 2.2L filter, since you are out of warranty that's the one I'd use. Purolator PureOne PL-14477 instead of PL-14476.

Purolator:

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Reply to
johngdole

Recently, the long change intervals have been losing popularity. It is false economy. Even with synthetics such as Mobil 1, some 'authorities' are now recommending 3000 mile oil changes.

Do as you like...it is several thousand dollars worth of engine versus a few bucks worth of oil.... Hard decision?

Reply to
<HLS

Changing at 3000 miles with Mobil 1 is insanity. You can go at least 6,000 miles or 1 year, which ever occurs first with Mobil 1. I am assuming that one is using a decent oil filter.

When you say "authorities" are you talking about the Sherriff, or what?

Reply to
Mark A

What's the reason for using a larger oil filter...? Are we anticipating that much sludge...?

Thanks,

Michael

Reply to
mrdarrett

Well, you noticed my highlighting of the word authorities. Actually, this comes from several sources, and I don't think it IS insanity. Unfortunately, we would have a hard time finding out the truth on this, unless we had access to industry standard test data. And I dont.

You assume, from what you have read I suppose, that Mobil 1 is good to these higher mileage levels. But do you really KNOW for sure that it is true?

Neither synthetics nor refined petroleum oils 'wear out' very quickly. They do become contaminated with carbon, metal particles, perhaps even water from blowby, unburned gasoline, etc. A recent article in Popular Mechanics by their resident 'authority' suggests that this happens at a more or less equivalent rate, no matter what type oil you use, and that either should be changed at about the same time.

Some lubricating oil websites say the same thing. (Not that they would have a vested interest in having you change, would they;>)?

And, on the sludge prone Toyota engines, Toyota has said the same thing. ( Some of the chat from professional mechanics on the groups have 'suggested' that the design of the PCV system was the real problem on these engines rather than poor maintenance schedules. Toyota, it is claimed, originally specified much longer change intervals and then backtracked when the engines started destructing. I did research this at one time, and it seems to be true)

So, my point was, do what you wish. I personally do not fiddle about with oil analyses (I dont see that they really serve a valuable purpose), I use high quality dinosaur squeezings, and change often.

Reply to
<HLS

Umm, yes, actually. Have a look at a representative sample of used oil analyses done by independent labs on bobistheoilguy.com . BMW and Mercedes are now specifying 15,000 km between changes, and the internal combustion technology they're using is no different than that used in your Camry. Don't try that with your dino oil, though.

These analyses are the only way my engineering training says you can evaluate how much life is left in oil. You can also discover important things like whether there's antifreeze in your oil before it becomes a $5000 engine replacement bill.

People who operate fleets of cars or construction equipment (where an oil change is 50 litres) do these analyses routinely, and there's no reason why regular folks like us shouldn't benefit from used oil analysis technology too.

Reply to
Nobody Important

You can certainly search for used oil reports for the 5SFE engine over on the "Used Oil Analysis - Gas Engines" forum on bobistheoilguy.com to get a feel for what folks who are seeing on their rigs, and make a pretty reasonable decision. Or you can just dump in a decent dino oil every 3K miles. Whatever.

Reply to
Andy Hill

Here's an informative article about oil analysis for those interested:

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In case tinyurl stops working, full link is:

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Reply to
Nobody Important

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