I typically subscribe to the 3000 mile or 3 month schedule of changing the oil on my Durango. However, since my last oil change on Feb. 2nd of this year, I've only driven 2000 miles. Most of those miles have come in the form of small trips. Should I be looking to get another change soon or can I wait some more? Thanks.
JWhat does the oil look like?
in my limited experience with oil analyse, it's the short trips and short commutes where the engine never really gets a chance to warm up that cause the most acids and crap in the oil... I run synthetic now, and change it once a year, whether it needs it or not..
mac
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Don't buy the hype, or conspiricy if you prefer. If you're still under warrenty, go ahead and do your suggested maintenance. You don't need to change the oil that often. You describe normal service. Stretch it out and do the environment and your wallet some good.
But you do perform more frequent filter changes, yes?
changing
Oil changes are mileage and time limited. No more than 6 months even if it is only 1500 miles and 3 month if it is a harsher climate with stop and go driving (cold weather)
ok in my owners manual it describes the 3000 mile service interval as severe driving condition. this would include as stated in the owners manual short trips city driving condition high ambient temp ect. so my suggestion go by the owners manual.
There is no harm in change oil often and 6 months is a bit to long to leave oil in a modern truck engine regardless of mileage with seasonal changes.
I've decided to just get it changed this Friday. I bet I could probably wait longer and the oil doesn't look bad but better to take caution now rather than take a cab later when my car breaks down somewhere.
Owner's manuals and car dealer insist on 5,000 miles or, as in Canada,
8,000 kms. or six months - whichever comes first. I had mine analyzed after using it for 13,000 kms and seven months and the report showed that it was still OK.
The issue as I understand it is that the oil becomes contaminated with microscopic particles and combustion residue. Besides clogging the filter, it becomes thicker and so therefore presents more of a burden for the oil pump to circulate. Even at the manufacturer's recommended 5000 miles it gets pretty gooey and by which time the filter has also become clogged.
Changing oil at 3000 mile intervals as recommended by all of the various oil change shops and most dealerships only serve to embellish their receivables. Funny story, an old family aquaintance at one time owned a Miller beer distributorship in Danville, IL (Altman Distributing) and had
4 beer trucks on which he paid to have the oil changed every 1,000 miles! The small independent garage next door (Klein's Garage) that did all of Altman's mech. service on the trucks used to keep some of the "used oil" in a big barrel, called "Altman oil" which the garage owner would subsequently put into his own cars.If you want to change something "early" change the filter and then add another quart or 1/2 quart of oil, depending on what was lost in the filter change.
Many years ago, i.e., back in the '40s, '50s and even into the '60s it was quite common to only change the filter at every other oil change. Isn't it interesting how flawed that line of thinking was? Even today with modern oil and synthetics, the FILTER usually fails long before the recommended mileage interval to change your oil. Why anyone would only change their oil and not replace the filter completely baffles me.
I'm also unsure what the "6-months or whatever comes first" is all about. The oil only breaks down and/or becomes contaminated from being used. It doesn't wear out or separate or lose its lubrication qualities from just sitting there. Anyone know what the line of reasoning is behind this recommendation?
Gotta agree with that. The oil change companies scared the hell out of the consumer.
Roy
Yes - good reasoning behind it. If you put on 3000 miles in 3 months, chances are pretty good the engine has been warmed up several times and the moisture has been driven out of the oil.
If you put 1000 miles on in six months, the moisture has most likely NOT been driven out of the oil, and moisture in oil causes sludge and corrosion. Short trips are pure HELL on engines and engine oil.
Well, I had only put on 2000 miles since my last change (February 4th) so I figured it probably was a good time to get it done. Better safe than sorry.
It really depends on how you define "ok" and what they are checking the oil for too.
on the one's that I used to get, (the friend who worked for the oil distributer retired), some of the things shown on the print out were viscosity, contaminates and something that gave a percentage of "original" sample.. we used to change the synthetic when the percentage dropped below 90%...
mac
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