General consensus on long interval oil changes.

General consensus on long interval oil changes.

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Discussion

dsuk

Original Poster:

135 posts

123 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
quotequote all
Interested to know what what the general consensus on long interval oil changes is.

My car is 9,000 miles (12 months) since last change, car is indicating another 9,000 miles till oil change. Which will make it 18,000 miles 2 years.

The car is used for 10 mile urban commute, and short distance urban driving at the weekend.

Car is under warranty, but does drink a bit of oil and is engine is known to have timing chain issues.

Dealer cost £149 for oil change, which has the advantage of dealer stamp for resale of car next year and any warranty work identified.

Thoughts?

Condi

17,089 posts

170 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
quotequote all
I do mine every 12 months or approx 10,000 miles. Now it does longer runs it'll probably be 12m or 12,000 miles. For the cost of an oil change (£40 in oil and filters) its not worth worrying about.

powerstroke

10,283 posts

159 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
quotequote all
dsuk said:
Interested to know what what the general consensus on long interval oil changes is.

My car is 9,000 miles (12 months) since last change, car is indicating another 9,000 miles till oil change. Which will make it 18,000 miles 2 years.

The car is used for 10 mile urban commute, and short distance urban driving at the weekend.

Car is under warranty, but does drink a bit of oil and is engine is known to have timing chain issues.

Dealer cost £149 for oil change, which has the advantage of dealer stamp for resale of car next year and any warranty work identified.

Thoughts?
Depends on how long how many miles you will keep it for ??
Sell on to friend or intend to keep it then every 6k or 6 months ..
Keeping it for 3 years then do what it takes to maintain the warranty
Remember service intavals are set to make a new car look cheap to run and not to maximize life ...

beko1987

1,636 posts

133 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
quotequote all
I change every 6 months/8-9k. But I run old snotters so its probably the most important thing I can do.

If I bought your car 10 years down the line for <£500 I'd still do the same I think!

iva cosworth

44,044 posts

162 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
quotequote all
£149 seems excessive to change the oil.

DJP

1,198 posts

178 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
18,000 miles of short trips?

No thanks.

I'm less anal about oil than I used to be, but I still like to change annually or every 10k maximum. Especially with short trips.

Heaveho

5,279 posts

173 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
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.

Driver101

14,376 posts

120 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
If a car has a hard life it is probably wise to change the oil quite frequently.

I do think too many people get their pants in a twist too easily though when they don't change it every 5000 miles.







Nobby Diesel

2,051 posts

250 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
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.
Agree - a good oil is a cheap mechanic.

DukeDickson

4,721 posts

212 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
Characteristics of the engine, how you treat it when cold and so on probably have as much of a bearing on engine health.

Some manufacturers say long service intervals but a litre of oil every thousand miles or so is acceptable. My heap has shorter service intervals, but has only had a litre & a bit between services in almost 150k. Would have been far less bar a silly design fault.


Big thing for me is how you treat when cold & sticking to the regime, for vaguely ordinary stuff anyway.

TVR1

5,460 posts

224 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
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?

BoRED S2upid

19,643 posts

239 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
A lot if manufacturers are now suggesting up to 20k or two years which would mean your servicing it to the manufacturers guidelines come sales time. This may be fine for the first few services but then I'd be changing it far more frequently.

Willy Nilly

12,511 posts

166 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
dsuk said:
Interested to know what what the general consensus on long interval oil changes is.

My car is 9,000 miles (12 months) since last change, car is indicating another 9,000 miles till oil change. Which will make it 18,000 miles 2 years.

The car is used for 10 mile urban commute, and short distance urban driving at the weekend.

Car is under warranty, but does drink a bit of oil and is engine is known to have timing chain issues.

Dealer cost £149 for oil change, which has the advantage of dealer stamp for resale of car next year and any warranty work identified.

Thoughts?
I think those service indicators use a rather complex algorithm that takes into account cold starts, WOT, blar dee blar to work out the oil change interval. A lot of the trips my car does in town show an average speed of 30. 18,000 miles @ 30mph is 600 hours which is a little higher than my company vehicles oil change, but it's 600 hours of essentially idling. You could have an oil sample checked to put your mind at ease as to what state the oil is actually in

GreigM

6,726 posts

248 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
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.

oilslick

901 posts

185 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
TVR1 said:
Why? Or do you think an hours labour, oil and filter should be supplied free of charge?
If it takes you an hour to change your oil then you're doing it wrong wink

Mave

8,208 posts

214 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
TVR1 said:
Why? Or do you think an hours labour, oil and filter should be supplied free of charge?
Surely an hour to change oil and filter is excessive?

northandy

3,495 posts

220 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
I'd change the oil each 10k if your intending to keep it outside the warranty period.

Is it a BMW by any chance?

powerstroke

10,283 posts

159 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
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?
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 ...

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
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.
This.

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?

Tonythesalesman

57 posts

121 months

Sunday 20th July 2014
quotequote all
I've got the Skoda Fabia Greenline '08, I change the oil and filter every 10000 miles using a 'Pela' I think it's called without looking, vacuum pump, it's tube goes down the dipstick hole, a few presses of the handle and the oils out in a few minutes. I use the absolute correct code oil mainly because of the diesel particulate filter, an so far in 85,000 miles - no problems.
I did the same thing on the previous car, An olde Peugeot 405 estate, when I PXed it for the Skoda it had done 293,000 miles with no great problems at all, a few issues of course over that mileage but nothing that I remember ''inside'' the engine. I don't pay £149.00 for an oil change, it seems a lot to me too, or even if that's the going rate in a lot of garages, easy usually to do it yourself.