3000 or 6000 mile Oil Change

[farmfromkansas]

My wife has a Toyota Corolla, 14 model, and it has a miserable little canister where you replace the paper filter.  Luckily my Tacoma has a cartridge filter.  They both count the miles and let you know when to change the oil.  5000 miles.  When I change them, the oil is still clear enough I can see through the stream as it flows out of the drain plug. My John Deere tractors after changing have dirty oil as soon as I start them up? What is up with that?

[red]

I remember this 8 years ago 

[alan gage]

The GM 2.4L engines (like used in the Equinox) have been blowing rear main seals due to the PCV systems plugging and building pressure in the engine. Generally the engine is ruined because the customer doesn't catch it in time. GM has has issued an extended warranty for the issue that covers cleaning the PCV system and replacing the rear main seal (but not necessarily replacing the motor if it's ruined). Part of the repairs listed in that bulletin mention that the PCM will be reprogrammed to shorten the oil change interval.

We've been talking to other techs trying to figure out the best way to handle this issue on customer vehicles that don't yet exhibit a problem. The general consensus among techs who see this problem repeatedly is that it's the vehicles using extended oil changes that are having the problem (sludging leading to plugged PCV orifice leading to seal blowing out). The best preventative maintenance in this case seems to be to change your oil at 3000 miles.

We also continue to see multiple vehicles per day come through the shop that are low on oil. Virtually no one (including us) is in the habit of checking oil anymore and if you're going to run extended changes you have to do that. We're currently replacing a 6.2L Ford engine right now that has bad cam bearings. We're not sure but the likely cause was it running low on oil sometime in the last year. We're also currently replacing a 2.4L GM engine because the rear seal blew out on the interstate. The Ford has 126k. The GM has 103k. They're both very nice vehicles. The GM currently has about 8000 miles on this oil change (full synthetic) and the vehicle's maintenance reminder still hasn't come on.

The customer bought the vehicle brand new and also bought a $3100 aftermarket warranty at the time. It's only a few thousand out of factory warranty and the aftermarket warranty company denied the claim. "We don't cover seals and we don't cover the PCV system, which is the cause of failure." We talked to the selling dealer (who sold the warranty) in hopes they would have more leverage with the warranty company. They said they see about a dozen of these every year and the aftermarket warranty never covers them. So the customer will be paying for this one.

Each of those engine jobs is going to run about $9,000 and likely both could have been avoided by changing the oil every 3000 miles.

Alan

[A-z farmer]

I have a friend that hauls 7000 gallon tankers of used oil from the big apple to New Hampshire sometimes two a day.It goes to a refinery there and is processed into clean new oil and bottled .
I am sure this goes on all over the country but I thought it was interesting.

[Bill]

Back a couple decades ago I had a good after market oil pressure gauge on the " Camaro " . Used race oil in it as I liked to keep the rpm's up and gas was cheap ? though I wasn't a " racer " just wanted the motor to run well and last . Anyways after a few thousand miles I 'd notice the oil pressure was " off " a bit. Time for an oil change and things were back to normal. Don't know why the pressure dropped off a bit, coulda been additives breaking down, heat , higher rpm's ( ? ? ? ) or whatever but that was my tell for an oil change .

Now there's no gauge in the car and the truck's sending unit is not always making " good " contact for consistent readings - some days up and some down. If down for two days in a row its time to check the level - yep a quart ( or less )  low .

So I 'm in the more than the manual is better but with the price of oil - not back to 3000 miles - more like 5 to 7000 of full synthetic but way thinner than the " Camaro " as my buddies tell me the newer engines have closer tolerances and need the thinner oil for less resistance.

[maple flats]

On my old 7.3 diesel, I used to change at 3-4000, then my diesel mechanic said 10,000 was good. I then went to 10,000 and the engine was perfect at 190,000+ miles but in NYS the bodies don't do as well.
My current 6.7 Diesel has a meter that tells me when to change based on how I drive. I now get between 9,000 and 12,000 miles. The truck has almost 200,000 mi.

[Tacotodd]

I change mine every 5k miles just because it is an easy number for me to remember. This is on my ‘99 Tacoma with the 3.4. I’ve always run synthetic in it since brand new and now 21 years later, it’s graduated to being a tractor that can still do 75mph if needed. I try to take good care of it. The only complaint that I can legitimately say that should have been a warranty issue, the seat squeaks. Every other problem, I can see how I’ve caused. BTW, the seat quit squeaking about 60k ago. You can tell, I don’t want to take it back for warranty work for something that piddly.

[Corley5]

Recommended oil change on Ram 5.7 engines is 10,000 miles.  Changed the oil twice on the last lease at 10 and 20 and will do the same on the new one

[Al_Smith]

One thing about this mess  that fell upon us at this time is two fold .With regards to oil changes you would get more months verses miles on an oil change .Plus not need to gas up nearly as often .In these months I've used more gasoline in the zero turn mower than three vehicles .I did however change the oil in all right before the onset.I'd bet I'm good enough to go until next March at that rate .A light at the end of a tunnel.The great 2020 money saver .

[alan gage]

Just looked at a clean '12 Subaru Forester with 100k. Came in with the complaint of an engine noise. Was 4 quarts low on oil. Total system capacity is 5.5 qts. of full synthetic. Noise went away once the oil was topped off.

Tag in the window showed it was last serviced at a Subaru dealer. The tag didn't say what the mileage was at the time but it was still 1500 miles away from the "next service" as printed on the tag. Checked Carfax and it looks like it was last serviced 4000 miles ago. Guess they should have put down to change the oil in 3000 rather than 6000 miles.

Alan

[Tacotodd]

Alan, that’s a good one to NOT get. Chances are good, the damage is already done. It would at least need the oil pan off and rod caps off to look at the bearing shells. Bare minimum!

[Sedgehammer]

We've been doing every 10,000 for 20 years now or so. only use only synthetic only also. Mobile 1 on anything under 250,000k (have 3 gassers with over that), then walmarts oil. It's foolish to not use 100% synthetic and to change more often unless your under using and need to remove water.

[Ianab]

I have a friend that hauls 7000 gallon tankers of used oil from the big apple to New Hampshire sometimes two a day.It goes to a refinery there and is processed into clean new oil and bottled .
I am sure this goes on all over the country but I thought it was interesting.

When you you consider the gunk that comes out of the average oil well, and gets refined in the various fuels and oils. Everything from natural gas to road tar is in the mix. Waste engine oil is probably a pretty good feedstock to pump into a refinery. The used oil is basically "contaminated". It has fuel, water, broken down oil and carbon mixed in, so it's not so good as a lubricant any more. 
Run it through a refining process and I bet you get ~95% of it back as clean oil again, not much different from newly refined oil. 
Now synthetics have the advantage that they aren't a random mix of oil molecules. They are a blend of the best lubricating ones, that resist breaking down in the engine.  With Dino oil some of the random molecules break down with heat or reactions with combustion byproducts. This happens less with Synthetic oils. Hence the oil lasting longer in the engine.

[farmfromkansas]

Was reading what Alan wrote about the Equinox, and reminded me of a woman who came to visit a neighbor, both are divorced, and on her way home in her Equinox, she shelled out the engine.  I heard about it because he said she called and wanted him to help pay for it.  He said no, and their romance went nowhere. I met her at his office, and she was very attractive.  Maybe he should have helped out.