Being cheap asses when do you change the oil in your car?

Soodmeg

Soodmeg

CAGiversary!
Of course the age old answer is every 3k but if you think about this logically it cant possibly make any sense. The been many years since that rule has been founded and clearly as time goes by the science behind engines and oil has had to advance. Now changing your oil isnt that expensive but I am a cheap ass person and you are not getting a damn dime from me unless I have to give it up. Especially if it seems like you are trying to rip me off.

Now this was prompted when my friend got into my car and notice it has been about 5k miles and I havent had my oil changed. This made him fly into a rage about how it needs to be every 3k and how my engine will probably blow up "at some point in the future."

But listen to this, in my 02 Buick Century (I know its a old man car shaddup) it states in the owners manual, "Change your oil when the oil light indicator comes on. This should be once a year, if it does not come on in a year change it anyway to ensure quality...blah blah blah." ONCE A YEAR!! Now I drive a ton and rack up 3k miles every month and a half but I would think the normal person would go about 5k-7k a year. I looked in my other friends honda civic and it tells him every 5k miles.

Now talking to the jiffy lupe place they insist on every 3k but clearly they have an agenda. But they always hit me with the threat of the unknown, that some time in the future my engine will explode if not every 3k.

So what do you guys think and do? Remember check your owners manual and see whats in there.
 
We're pretty irresponsible when it comes to our oil. When the light comes on is when we get it changed. We usually find a coupon in the local Clipper and try to get it at Oil Can Henry's because they have unlimited oil top-offs for a month or something. The hand-me-down Camry is 22 years old and still no engine problems.
 
I change my oil every 2000-2500 miles. Changing your oil is simply the most important mantenance you can do to your car. I do it myself so it doesnt cost alot and its easy to do and will add alot of life to your car.


Of course my uncle has a oil filter on his truck that uses a roll of toilet paper as the filter and we drained some oil after about 11,000 miles and that oil was just about as clean as the day we bought it.
 
i change my own oil at 2k-2.5k as well. if you're really cheap asses, you'd keep your car well maintained for the long haul.
 
I just got back from the jiffy lupe and they actually put a sticker with 5k miles on it instead of the normal 3k.


Also, you guys who change it at 2k are insane. Can you prove that has any lasting effect what so ever?
 
The old rule of thumb for changing your oil every 3k miles is somewhat archaic in my opinion. Engine technology is so superior now than it was 20-30 years ago when the idea of 3k oil changes were predominant.

I personally change my oil every 5k miles at the recommendation of my owner's manual. My 2008 IS250 uses a synthetic oil blend as opposed to traditional oil.

But yeah, it really depends on the year, make, and model of the car you drive that will help you figure out how routinely you should do oil changes and other preventative maintenance. And of course, once your car hits the 100k mile mark, you may want to baby it more and lube her up more frequently (5k -> 3k, 3k -> 1.5/2k, etc).
 
I change mine at 5-6k, depending on what my dash indicator says. It tells me the current oil life, so I tend to take it in when it's at 20% or so left.
 
[quote name='Soodmeg']I just got back from the jiffy lupe and they actually put a sticker with 5k miles on it instead of the normal 3k.


Also, you guys who change it at 2k are insane. Can you prove that has any lasting effect what so ever?[/QUOTE]

http://wcco.com/local/million.miles.truck.2.651861.html
[quote name='mis0']

I personally change my oil every 5k miles at the recommendation of my owner's manual. My 2008 IS250 uses a synthetic oil blend as opposed to traditional oil.[/QUOTE]
when using synthetic is a bit different. you can probably go 10k with that

i drive a pretty old car. it has about 220k miles on it now. i never had an engine problem, rebuild the tranny or any blown gasket. i can do the little things to maintain the car myself as opposed to going to a quicky lube place to service my car. when i brought my car into a mechanic to get my tranny fluid flushed, he was pretty surprised how well my engine looked.
 
I don't even bother changing my own oil (I couldn't anyway). They charge $34 at the dealership, and after the free car wash, it costs about as much as it would be to do it myself.

I change it after like 5k miles or if the oil looks dirty.

I use synthetic oil and my car is an '09 focus. I've only had two oil changes and it has like 14k miles.
 
I have not changed my own oil probably for 15 years now. I'd rather just pay someone else, especially with modern cars which have much more tightly packed engine compartments. It's too much of a pain and the cost is relatively minimal. I'd stick with whatever your owners manual suggests. There's no reason why they'd suggest every 5k if you actually needed to change your oil every 3k. That would just be stupid. They want you to buy another of their cars when it's time to get a new one, and having the car die on you early is not a good way to grow customer satisfaction. Stick with what they recommend.
 
[quote name='shosh']http://wcco.com/local/million.miles.truck.2.651861.html

when using synthetic is a bit different. you can probably go 10k with that

i drive a pretty old car. it has about 220k miles on it now. i never had an engine problem, rebuild the tranny or any blown gasket. i can do the little things to maintain the car myself as opposed to going to a quicky lube place to service my car. when i brought my car into a mechanic to get my tranny fluid flushed, he was pretty surprised how well my engine looked.[/QUOTE]

You would need so much data to back that story its almost crazy to even make a claim. Under that assumpation every car on the planet should be able to hit a million miles by solely changing their oil every 3k.

Then it doesnt account for that fact that before you even start to make a claim you would need to know how many car break down regardless of changing the oil every 3k.

My college Ford Tempo got me to 123k miles and I treated it like complete ass. I changed the oil whenever I had money to (which was never) and drove it across state 40 or so times.


Now this isnt suppose to be a serious topic, its just a very strange debate that people have.
 
[quote name='Brownjohn']The oil in my car only needs to be changed every 10k miles.[/QUOTE]

same here, regular oil not synthetic, the dashboard tells me the oil life and i change it at about 2 or 3%, roughly every 9500 miles or so
 
[quote name='Soodmeg']Also, you guys who change it at 2k are insane. Can you prove that has any lasting effect what so ever?[/QUOTE]

No, but we can prove that it's very cheap and it can't hurt.

Seriously, first of all, all oil is the same. Doesn't matter. 99 cents a quart is the same as 8 dollars a quart. No difference. Even the 'synthetic' stuff is about 2% synthetic, 98% petroleum based. And the filter? Cheapest one. It's a filter, not an engine. It's a metal tube with paper in it, not a big deal.

So, when you combine a $3 filter with 5 quarts of $1 oil, for $8, why NOT change it every 2000 miles? It's cheap and it can't hurt.

And for those of you who don't change your own oil, do it. I can change my oil in under 5 minutes. I don't, because I let it drain for a few hours, but the point is that it's VERY easy, and it saves you money. And if you let it drain like I do, you get out most of the crap that the shop will leave in there when they do it. Seriously, the worst stuff for your engine is the stuff that doesn't come out right away, it takes time.
 
Typically I shoot for 5k. I remember seeing an article a while back that CR tested various NYC taxis at 6k and the oil was still OK. Most manufacturers now recommend 5k. Obviously if you can do it more like is described above it wouldn't hurt.

So should be fine, but hey, engines are really tremendously expensive. So YMMV.
 
[quote name='shosh']i change my own oil at 2k-2.5k as well. if you're really cheap asses, you'd keep your car well maintained for the long haul.[/QUOTE]

This, except I just do it when the owner's manual says to or every x months if I haven't driven a lot of miles.
 
Mine recommends every 5,000 but I usually change it around 3,000. The oil of an engine is like the blood for your body. You gotta keep it fresh. :)
 
Do it yourself. It's much easier, better and cheaper. When you take it in they put the cheap filters/cheap oil in your car and charge you a high premium for it.
 
My parents didn't change the oil on their Rodeo for years, and it caused an engine problem which would cost around 10k to fix. Don't be a cheap ass, change your oil!
 
[quote name='Malik112099']Free?[/QUOTE]

when I bought my new car they give me free oil changes until 100,000 miles I think
 
[quote name='DestroVega']when I bought my new car they give me free oil changes until 100,000 miles I think[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Saturn gave you full service until your warranty ran out or you hit a certain mileage. Both my brother and a buddy of mine bought one and they'd take it out there for minor stuff.
 
[quote name='Shadows916']My younger brother is an ASE mechanic/tech, he says every 5k miles is fine-[/QUOTE]

Well thats like a computer shop displaying a sign saying "Were microsoft certified". Yeah it sounds good to people who dont know what it means because it sounds important, but to the people that do know they dont care.

Its just a title and you dont need experince, skill, knowledge or good customer service to gain one. Its something shops hang signs in their window about because everyone else has one. It was just a title added from like 4 decades ago during a period of so much bad service being done that they had a congressional hearing. But sadly vocational school, highschool, trade school and community college can used as "experince" towards the titles needed 2 years of experince. Just v school in highschool and trade school shouldnt count as experince because its not real world experince. Id take a guy that has no titles and been working on cars for 10 years over a guy with a ase title any day. Then again I bought my first car when I was 9 years old for 50 bucks because it was shot and I spent next year with my uncle rebuilding it, to this day she is still the prettiest falcon on the road.
 
Where are you getting your oil for $8?

I remember years ago my Dad bought the big cases real cheap at Fleet Farm, those days are over. Now it costs just as much to take it in.
 
I change when I should every 3000 miles or 6 months in between changes whichever comes first. It's nice though because I change my own oil so I don't have to schedule it around work or daily life like a lot of other people do.
 
I've been putting a quart of oil in my car almost every day since...January or February of this year. Then again, the winter of in Pennsylvania this year was fucking brutal and I hit a snow embankment and a log got under my car as well (two separate incidents, the latter happening because I had to swerve to avoid a tree that fell in the middle of the road that I couldn't even see thanks to "blizzard like" conditions). One of the two gave me a pretty good sized oil leak, and having my only job being a paper route (which thank goodness is changing in a week or so from now), you don't exactly make enough money to get things fixed.

Once I get it fixed (or buy a new car which will most likely happen considering all it's other problems), I usually go by every 5k or so. If I drove more often I'd probably do after so many months (or when the oil light comes on), but considering it's not uncommon to drive just to work and home, my mileage doesn't usually rack up very fast.
 
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