Help prove my father wrong with oil changing 5000m or 3000m?

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Here are the reasons to change it at 5-6k miles:

It's cheaper It's saves finite resources It reduces any disposal issues It saves wear on the drain plug It stops fat-cat parts merchants getting even more money It's a small but significant nail in the coffin of globalisation Volvo, and nearly everyone else will tell you it is perfectly OK

Here are the reasons to change it sooner:

New oil is uncontaminated New oil's molecular structure will be intact New oil will not have oxidised any New filters are freer flowing It encourages the habit of caring for your car Oil is THE MOST important part of any engine

Now go and buy your dad a beer and do what you're told. Kids today, eh?

Hi, BK - - -

It's all a matter of habit and war stories. For many years, the long-chain molecules in oil were beginning to get tired at about 1K miles. This hasn't been true for any "quality" lubricant for *years!* It's particularly true of the synthetics, and is one of the better reasons for using same.

I don't know about your dad, but being older than dirt, myself, I remember one of my early cars, a Jaguar 120M. The "performance" engine in this car was designed to run on 85 octane fuel (good), but wanted you to change filter and oil every 1.5K miles - all 14 quarts of it (bad!).

Also, consider this - no engine suffers from having the oil changed too often. Yes, I also remember the days of "break-in" oil, usually changed at 1K miles or less, with a more rational cycle on the regular oil thereafter.

Whose car is it, anyway? Of course, I do some pretty silly things (I think) to avoid spousal wrath . . . As we say, "pick your battles."

bob noble Reno, NV, USA

Every 3 months or 3,000 miles with dino oil.

Every 6 months or 6,000 miles with synthetic.

The above are for regular driving conditions. Highway + city.

It's cheaper to change oil than to change engine.

My 2 cents.

Listen to your father, he's right. You can extend the period between changes safely to 5000 miles if you use synthetic oils.....

Remember the simple mantra: "Oil is cheaper than bearings"......

PC

10000 MILES on standard oil??? Are you sure? My TDI Golf needs oil changes at 16000Km intervals (10000miles) and that uses a synthetic... I'm worried to go above 10K Kms with one change.

I saw that too when reading the manual after buying my new-to-me Volvo a couple years ago. I was astonished, and then wondered if that was a typo in converting from kilometers to miles. I change the oil in mine every 3,000 miles or so out of habit and wanting to get another

130,000 miles out of my 1990 240 with 136,000 on the clock now. It's cheap insurance.

How true. (I like this way of thinking.)

Very similar to my old man's mantra:

'Changing the oil is the single most important thing you can do for your car.'

cheers,

Henry

'95 850T

new synthetic every 5000 km.

(Like the man said, 'Oil is cheaper than bearings.' That's a nice turn-of-phrase, too.)

True re: the cheap insurance bit but here's another angle and rather than me requote, here's the link

Don't forget also that there's a whole business around oil in the US and it's in certain industries interest to ensure that the "customers" are brainwashed to wish to have their oil changed regularly.

If oil changes at 3000 miles were recommended in the UK for a certain car (can't speak of the rest of Europe), I'd doubt that the car would sell because it would be perceived to be requiring too regular maintenance and therefore costly to run.

David.

I try to change my oil every 3750 Miles which is more that 3000 miles but it is twice the 7500 miles that Volvo recommends. It seems the 7500 miles must be at the dealer since they have to reset the service reminder etc.

Another 2 cents.

G

Just a couple of Ideas/thoughts,

Are you using Synthetic or traditional oil, My current Volvo850 recommends every 10K miles, but the one I pick up next week (V70) goes 12KMiles. I would only trust Synthetic for this, and having had two identical cars in days gone by, one "looked after by normal oil", 140K miles later dead, the second only ever having Synthetic, which was still going fine when written off at 220K (Not a Volvo may I add), I take no persuasion now as to where my loyalties lay.

The Audi A3 (I think) has variable servicing, and looks at how you drive, my Bosses is reckoning his second service will be at 39K by his current standards, so this is even greater than we dare go.

Last comment, I was told that if in doubt, change it, even if you only change the oil (Not Filter), it can not do any harm, other than wear the drain plug, and of course the world resources:-)

Listen to your dad, You don't want an expensive "I told you so", and while arguing over this, he may decide not to pass on other valuable pieces of learnt information, as he will not always wont to get into a "You know best" argument. Bear in mind his advice wont always be there, and god knows I wish mine was still around with all his knowledge and quirks.

Clive.

I started driving in 1946, when oil was changed every 1000 miles. Since then, engines and lubricants have improved. I figure that the engineers who designed the engine know better than I do, so I follow their advice. Does your father know more than the engineers?

|| > I get home, and I get flak, because he says he knows best, | > and that he's driven all the cars, tractors, trucks, volvos, etc etc. | >

| > I quoth: "I dont care if volvo says it, volkswagen says it, the | > highest paid mechanic in the world says it, im telling you that | > it needs to be done every 3000 miles" | >

| > Now, I personally would trust Volvo, the maker of my car, | > who gave birth to my car, to be honest. That wouldnt stand. | >

| > How often do you change your oil? | >

| > Do you have any credentials, that would possibly sway him | > to let it go for 5000 miles? | >

| > Thanks, BK | | I started driving in 1946, when oil was changed every 1000 miles. Since | then, engines and lubricants have improved. I figure that the engineers who | designed the engine know better than I do, so I follow their advice. Does | your father know more than the engineers?

His father probably knows more than those who developed the owner's manual. These days engineers - especially engineers who designed the engines - have little or nothing to do with such things, manuals, etc., are produced by marketeers who publish what they think makes their car "look" like a better buy than the competition.....! Paint colors and fabrics, etc., along with how many cupholders the car has, determines who buys what.....almost nobody cares a whit about oil change intervals or any other "semi" technical stuff is included in manuals......

Every engineer *I* know changes oil more frequently than the manufacturers "recommend".....!

PC

every 10k miles for me...easy to remember changing on every 10miles rolled on the odo....never any major motor problems on my volvos...i have done this w/about 5 volvos....

They probably check tyres too and washer fluid and wipers and lights, not forgetting brake fluid and all the other fluids too.

I think it's fair to say that new cars are considered disposable by many who will buy the car new, expect it to last 3 years, which from an engine point of view is not exactly difficult. Bodywork doesn't typically rust and a 10 year old car with no rust is not much of a challenge compared to a even just a decade or so.

So on that basis if you bought a car and considered the bonnet a sealed unit, why bother changing your oil if the recommended service intervals will take this engine to 100k miles and beyond?

For the second hand buyer @ 60 or 100k miles onwards, damage might already have been done if the car just did short journeys (see "school run") and so beginning an oil change period of 3000 miles might be nice but not going to remove all the previous wear and on a car that only costs a couple of thousand to buy, if it last a short while and goes pop, then just buy another so even the pre-used car is disposable too.

David.

It depends on how you drive!!

For the past 25+ years I've used Mobil 1 synthetic in all of my vehicles. I change the oil every 50,000 miles and the filter every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. I've never had any problem that could be related to oil choice or frequency of change.

I just got a used 960 and last week changed the oil for the first time, using Mobil 1. It will get the same treatment.

RCB

50000 miles? It lasts that long?.... That would take the average person around 2 years or so... Maybe more.

Depends, I wouldn't do that to my cars, but the important part is changing the filter. Still, I figure if I'm gonna change the filter I may as well change the oil too, but then even if I only do it every 4-5k miles we're talking 6 months between changes.

really?...50,000 or 5,000 ??

was that a typo?

Yah I change my oil at the same time as the filter.... The manual says

16000kms for both... I'm too afraid to go beyond 10000kms since there is a turbo - this equates to 3 oil changes per year. - This is for my diesel VW.