Quality control of filters is becoming lax these days as well... search Google and YouTube for numerous examples.
A shorter change interval will help minimize wear should you happen to get a bad one.
Note this passage excerpted from an 08 Honda 'Fit' owners manual:
"Synthetic Oil You may use a synthetic motor oil if it meets the same requirements given for a conventional motor oil, it displays the API Certification Seal, and it is the proper weight. You must follow the oil and filter change intervals given in the maintenance schedule."
that's called "cya". it's also called "if we don't spell something out, some people will never change their oil at all". and i know that for fact.
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it's also covering a situation which is a marketing reality - which is that the word "synthetic" doesn't mean a damned thing. if something sold as "synthetic" is in reality just a standard oil and not capable of extended service, honda would be in for a whole bunch of unnecessary warranty claims that weren't their fault if they didn't cya.
but if you use a quality oil, with analysis, you can use real data to extend your service interval successfully.
The downside of this strategy is that the cost of the oil analysis is a significant percentage of the cost of an actual oil change.
So, how often should you do an oil analysis?
Just taking the sample is not trivial (or free). And my experience is that the Post Office does not want to handle the samples via mail (even though the companies that do the analysis all say the Post Office SHOULD handle the samples).
For a while I would take a sample every other oil change (where I followed the actual vehicle manufacturer's oil change interval recommendation, not Jiffy Lube's). I never got back an analysis saying my oil was kaput. I finally decided not to do the analysis any more since I was clearly not exceeding the life of the oil given my driving parameters.
If I decided to go to greatly extended intervals, I'd take samples somewhere between the vehicle manufacturer's recommended interval and my target to narrow down what was safe.
For me it is just easier (and not much more expensive) to just go with the vehicle manufacturer's recommendations for change intervals and oil requirements. They appear to be very conservative. The Saturn Vue I owned had the GM oil life monitor system. It never recommended an oil change brefore 9500 miles and the sample I sent off after changes at this interval came back as "good." (in other words, the oil could have gone a lot further). My Sister never changed the oil in her old Civic before the odometer driven reminder turned red (7500 miles) and while the rest of the car was a rolling POS at 150,000 miles, the engine ran like new.
The excessive oil change habit is hard to break. It took me 25 years to break it, but from now on, it is the manufactuer's normal service schedule and recommended oil for me (if they say synthetic, then I'll use it, otherwise, I'll use what I consider the best quality conventional oil).
so let's see. at about $25 for 5 quarts of synthetic and $25 per test at blackstone, if you're someone like tegger changing their oil 4 times a year on a 12k mile annual, you can change your oil, test it three times, and still be even. change it once and test it once, and you're $50 ahead. i don't think cost is the issue.
do it a couple of times to see what your numbers are. more if you're trying to maximize, but three should get you what you want - your own reliable change schedule based on your own typical usage.
eh??? all you do is stick the bottle under the oil stream next time you do a change. and if you're taking it to iffy lube, they'll do it for you.
how strange - my experience is that they definitely will. take the pre-printed blackstone letter with you if you're having a problem.
you and most of the rest of the nation.
most people are better focusing their angst on crappy oil filters - there is some real garbage out there. even oem. usa-made honda oem filters for instance almost always have defective anti-drainback valves after just a few thousand miles. even cheapo walmart [champion labs] filters do better than they do.
WHOA.... a while back, some said in another newsgroup that using synthetic on a older car (same engine not rebuilt) might produce some leakage since the stuff is thinner. Personally I'd go with what the manual states or more frequently and never look back. This oil analysis advice is un-necessary for most people.
The idea that synthetic will cause oil leaks is ancielnt wisdom that no longer applies to the sort of synthetics you buy today. Once old (and possibly incorrect) old knowledge gets burned into the collective mind it seems impossible to eliminate. What might have been at least partially true for the original Amsoil and Mobil synthetics from 30 years ago, no longer applies.
I agree that if you are going to follow the vehicle manufacturer's oil change schedule, an oil analysis is not needed (unless you just want to know and / or overcome your fears that lead to ridiculously short oil change intervals). However, if you are looking to go to extended oil change intervals, then they are a good idea.
Regardless of the intervals, I always changed the filter. I didn't like the idea of leaving old oil in the filter to mix with 4 quarts of new oil. Dunno if you really save money but even if you did, I doubt it's much.
dead right - my buddy's p.o.s. jag leaks because it's a jag and it has stupid things like leather "seals". not because he runs synthetic oil.
but that said, modern seal conditioners are an important part of an oil's additive package. on an old vehicle that has been neglected, seals can become hard and inflexible. cutting corners [motorcraft] will lead to seal hardening and significant leakage in that situation. and using an oil with a good additive package can seal that puppy right back up again, provided of course the car was any good in the first place.
the amount of oil residing in an unchanged filter is small* compared to the oil residing in oil galleries, the pump and the bottom of the oil pan. "mixing" is completely unavoidable. any "extra" from the filter is such a minimal percentage of the whole, it's insignificant.
cheapo filters with defective anti-drainback valves can end up being completely empty. if the anti-drainback valve works**, the amount of retained oil can be higher, but it's still a negligible amount of the whole.
** most people "warm up" their car prior to an oil change so on removal, the filter is always full. apart from not really being necessary these days, this habit also serves to mask valve problems. [depending on filter orientation of course] if you let the motor stand for an hour before changing the oil, then remove the filter, you'll then find out if the anti-drainback valve actually works or not. if the filter is empty, it's defective.
other guy said it so it must be true? retard. all you're doing is standing about in a circle eating the excrement of the guy in front of you while the guy behind you eats yours. it doesn't to teach you a damned thing except how to eat that stuff and get brain washed into thinking it does you good.
bottom line, /you/ should avoid polluting usenet with your regurgitated ignorant filth.
On my previous cars where I could change oil myself without car lift, I alway had to wait about an hour after engine shutoff so I would not burn myself during oil change. Come to think of it, the oil filter was always full with oil. But that was in the '90s and before. Maybe they used to make better filters then.
SMS wrote in news:4f566b73$0$12028$ snipped-for-privacy@news.sonic.net:
TYPO. I left out a zero.
That "20K" was supposed to be TWO-HUNDRED-THOUSAND.
The engine now has 380,000 miles. That's three-hundred-and-eighty-thousand, in case I make another typo.
OK, not all GM. Fair enough. But those are all allegations made in Internet posts. Nobody has verified them. It's entirely possible the posters are blaming their oil for problems that had entirely unrelated origins.
Anybody can post to the Internet/Usenet, and anybody does. Including me.
Synthetics are completely compatible with all mineral oils. Synthetics are suitable for new engines, ancient engines, and all engines in between.
Synthetics do not cause oil leaks through /any/ mechanism. If somebody was using a mineral oil, switched to synthetic and discovered an oil leak, it was a coincidence. The leak was bound to happen anyway. Just because "A" follows "B" does not mean "A" caused "B".
There are a lot of silly ideas floating around the Internet and Usenet, and this synthetics-and-oil-leaks thing is one of them.
Mobil 1 is 100% synthetic.
Boy does it buy you a clean engine. 180K after that head job, the head is a sparkly-silver as the day I got hit back. I am frankly astounded.
SMS wrote in news:4f56b95c$0$12044$ snipped-for-privacy@news.sonic.net:
And between 8oz and a pint will be hung-up in the upper reaches of the engine and will not drain for you. "Better flow" won't help with that.
You wanna get as much oil as possible out of the engine? Leave it overnight, then let it sit for 15 minutes after pulling the drain plug. Bonuses to the above: Filter removal is mess-free, and the oil won't burn you.
You drain as much contaminants one way as the other. Unless the oil is so old that it's saturated, all the contaminants are held in suspension with the oil and will come out with the drain in any case. Contaminant- suspension is one of the primary functions of oil.
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