I have a 2003 Lincoln Town Car, the manual says to change the oil every 5000 miles or 5 months whichever comes first, I also has an oil monitor, I am retired and own two cars so I'm hard pressed to put 4000 miles per year on the car, my question is should I use the monitor, or the time to change the oil?
lindy opined in news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net:
IN MY OPINION!!!!! depends. on how you use the car... if you use it once a week for a relatively long trip, 5 months is fine.
if you use it frequently for short trips, i'd do it every 3 months
If your trips are routinely under 10 miles, I would go withevery 3 months. If your trips are routinely over 10 miles, the every year routine should work. The need for an oil change is determined by the amount of contamination in the oil which collects much more quickly in short trips because the engine does not have enough hot run time to boil off the moisture and fuel dilution created during cold start and warmup. The shorter the average trip, the more frequently the oil should be change with respect to mileage.
I'd agree- depending where you are and what the temperatures are.
Up here, half the year 10 miles barely gets the temperature guage to normal. ANything less than 1/2 hour running is a short trip in the winter.
I live in the SE USA where temps are usually mild but, I can't buy a gallon of milk or gasoline within 10 miles. 5K changes come around fairly quick.
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