General consensus on long interval oil changes.

General consensus on long interval oil changes.

Author
Discussion

Willy Nilly

12,511 posts

166 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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powerstroke said:
Nobody thinks it should be free of charge , however another consequence of these stupidly long service intervals possibly less but more costly servicing , personally I think the yanks have the best idea ,go to a small lube bay every few months have the oil changed ,tyres and brakes checked while you have coffee cheap as chips and back on the road in half an hour,this booking your car in and wasting hours is bullst as is so called service history on everyday cars, they a worth sod all with or without it after about 5 years ...
The cost of the service is irrelevant, the cost per mile is the important figure.

Americans are still getting their heads around a 5000 mile oil change and are just pouring money down the drain (or in this case into the waste oil container) by changing modern engine oils as frequently as they do. A more enlightened poster I saw on another channel had extended the oil change interval on a 14 litre Cummins engine from 300 to 1500 hours with the use of oil analysis and calculated that the money he would save over the lifetime of the engine would pay for the overhaul.

Robert Elise

956 posts

144 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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big fan of regular oil changes between more lengthy garage full services.
I have 2 of these in different locations:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alpin-72539-Change-Suction...

snoopy25

1,858 posts

119 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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iva cosworth said:
£149 seems excessive to change the oil.
I thought that as well yikes

Ive only got a 2009 Megane Coupé and im pretty sure the oil change was only around £40 not even that .....

Qwert1e

545 posts

117 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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St John Smythe said:
For all the posters stating that manufacturers are wrong and it should be changed every 12 months, do you have any evidence to show sticking to the manufacturer schedule causes problems?
Precisely.

I suspect it's the same rocket-scientists who think a car needs thicker oil as it gets older....

Dodsy

7,172 posts

226 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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Daily driver XJR every 10k miles (4 months). Other 3 cars either annually, when I remember or when the service light comes on. Never had an engine problem yet. One of those cars is a Golf V5 , now 14 years old and we have had it for 12 of those. Years of school runs (~1 mile) and local shopping trips. It barely ever gets warm before being turned off. It still runs fine, just hit 98k miles.

I think oil is important but modern ones dont seem to turn to sludge the way they did in the 80s when I started driving.


Qwert1e

545 posts

117 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
Willy Nilly said:
Americans are still getting their heads around a 5000 mile oil change and are just pouring money down the drain (or in this case into the waste oil container) by changing modern engine oils as frequently as they do.
I'd like to see your evidence for that one as well. AFAIK the USA has been on extended oil change interval for at least as long as UK. And they were certainly in first with the light 30 and now even 20 weight synthetics.

Megaflow

9,345 posts

224 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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GreigM said:
Oils have significantly improved. Engine machining tolerances have improved. Normal road cars are very rarely put off the road or damaged due to oil-related issues in the engine - most are scrapped with perfectly healthy engines because other MoT repairs are not economic (particularly suspension issues).

So long as the oil used is to the manufacturer spec and your usage of the vehicle would be deemed "normal" then I wouldn't worry about long interval changes.
What he said. Manufacturers don't just pluck a number of out the air when it comes to oil change intervals. Yes, the marketing department want them longer and longer, but there will be thousands of hours of testing behind the number as well.

Modern engines also give oil an easier time in terms of the containments in the oil, much less excess fuel, metal particles, etc than when 6k changes were common place. Factor in improvements in oil and it's easy to see were the increased figures come from.

ChocolateFrog

24,847 posts

172 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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Heaveho said:
Well' I'm clearly going to be in the minority, but I change oil and filter on my stuff at 5k.......I'm not happy running turbo'd stuff for longer than that, I think the temperatures generated give oil a harder life, and oil's cheaper than engines.
Yep me too. Most will say it's overkill but 5000 miles is a bloody long way so for no more than £50 I've got piece of mind.

Shurv

955 posts

159 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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I'd do it annually, and as the interim one is oil and filter only, I'd do it myself. If you are not able to do this, any independent garage would do it. You could get an OE filter from the supplying dealer, and get the recommended grade of oil from anywhere. One of the reasons Toyota's have such a great reputation for reliability is their insistence on sticking with annual or 10k oil changes. Extended oil changes bother me a lot.

AlexHat

1,327 posts

118 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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I had my car serviced between manufacture intervals, though that was me wanting the car to have a final 'in warranty' check. These two year/18,000 mile services are fine until you realise the warranty period is only three years, so if they find something has failed on your second service, tough luck.

Even my handbook says if you're doing less than 6-8,000 miles a year, or heavy town miles you should have a service yearly.

Robert Elise

956 posts

144 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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modern engines and oil are very different to a few decades ago, very true.
biggest problem with extended service intervals is low oil, and subsequent damage.
Not sure i'd be happy with a used car whose previous owners only ever topped up when oil light went red (ignoring amber).
Some modern engines can be very reliable but not bullet-proof to abuse. MX5 comes to mind, i understand the original engines could tolerate abuse and low oil levels, MK3 units quite the opposite apparently.

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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Ahhhhh, service intervals. The horror when they started to move from 6000 to 9000 or even (gasp!) 10000 miles for was palpable. The engines would suffer excessive wear! These crazy manufacturers and their over-long service intervals!

Does that sound familiar at all? smile

Service intervals have been "too long" according to the internet for about as long as I can remember. I just stick to what the manufacturer advises and make sure to use the right spec oil and a quality filter.







Heaveho

5,278 posts

173 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
Qwert1e said:
Precisely.

I suspect it's the same rocket-scientists who think a car needs thicker oil as it gets older....
I'm not happy with 15k oil change intervals on a hard worked turbocharged engine, so I do it every 5. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the benefits of clean oil, just common sense.

DKS

1,669 posts

183 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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I dunno. Are these people belittling people for changing the oil too often the same people who are moaning about their engines using a litre every 1k miles or so?
For me, the engine should be treated as best as you can, not down to whether it's under warranty, or you're going to sell it to a friend or whatever. That's a NIMBY attitude.

I change mine around 4k or annually. But then all my cars have outlived their expected lifespan (14 to 26 years) and in some cases mileages (120k to 224k) and some are used well outside their design specs, so I don't think the recommendations really apply now.

babatunde

736 posts

189 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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Still don't understand why all the "armchair" experts think they know better than both the manufacturers of the vehicles and the oil.

The manufacturers will always err on the side of safety when was that last time anyone heard of a modern car lurching its engine due to overused oil, 99% of the people in the real world simply service their cars according the the manufacturers schedule.

Remember when we used to change spark plugs every 5000miles as part of regular serving, well nowadays iridium plugs last 100,000 miles +. I don't understand why some people refuse to accept that engine and oil technology have moved on from the 1970's


iva cosworth

44,044 posts

162 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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TVR1 said:
iva cosworth said:
£149 seems excessive to change the oil.
Why? Or do you think an hours labour, oil and filter should be supplied free of charge?
Where did I say free of charge ?

I would think 50% of that price is acceptable for most cars.

Gotta love PH.

Edited by iva cosworth on Sunday 20th July 12:57

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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oilslick said:
If it takes you an hour to change your oil then you're doing it wrong wink
Not always, you want to see the crap in the way on some of these Eco boxes, undertrays etc to help with drag and such forth, nightmare.

imagineifyeswill

1,223 posts

165 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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Im a fulltime mechanic dealing with all makes of vehicle on a daily basis and cant remember when I last saw a major engine failure. Oils and engines have come a long way in the last twenty years, vehicles scrapped nowadays for engine problems are ussually because of failed electronic injectors or high pressure fuel pumps rather than the basic engine internals. A company I used to work for bought a Renault Midlum recovery truck in 2004, a service light would come on to tell you when it required an oil change and it once went 72000kms between changes. When I left the company in 2009 it had done 875000 kms with nothing but oil and filter changes done to the engine.

ChocolateFrog

24,847 posts

172 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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babatunde said:
Still don't understand why all the "armchair" experts think they know better than both the manufacturers of the vehicles and the oil.

The manufacturers will always err on the side of safety when was that last time anyone heard of a modern car lurching its engine due to overused oil, 99% of the people in the real world simply service their cars according the the manufacturers schedule.

Remember when we used to change spark plugs every 5000miles as part of regular serving, well nowadays iridium plugs last 100,000 miles +. I don't understand why some people refuse to accept that engine and oil technology have moved on from the 1970's
That's not entirely true though is it.

Average Joe compares cars from two manufacturers, one has service intervals at 10k the other at 20k. Both cost the same to buy, which one are they likely to err towards.

Manufacturers want us to buy a new one every 2-3 years, do they really care what happens 10 years and 150 miles down the line.

My cars are on 150k and 250k, have I been saved major engine work, maybe not but its half an hour and £40 quid I don't mind spending.

david_h

579 posts

262 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
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It's not the engine which suffers so much with long service intervals, it is the turbo. I have spent a lot of time on my bmw dismantling it and unclogging all the pipes and breathers which are ruined thanks to manufacturers service intervals.