The 3,000 Mile Oil Change Myth

[Carl]

If one doesn`t change their oil every 3000 miles is the engine going to fail....probably not however if you read the book the 7500 interval is for a type of driving that no one does.
They back it off if you do any kind of normal driving..(dusty conditions,etc)

My opinion and nothing more then that is do the 3000 miles thing,it is a lot cheaper then a motor job.

Fwiw I have rebuilt many diesel engines over the years in farm tractors and any that were in need much earlier then should have been expected was due to dirty oil and poor or non existent maintenance.

[LC EFA]

I change my engine oil 5000km (~3000 miles) and both oil filters every 10000km (~6000 miles). Gearbox , T-case and both front and rear differentials get changed every 100000km (60K miles) regardless if they need it or not.

[rich_t]

I change oil about every 7500-8000 miles.  I always have.  I have yet to have an engine fail on me.  I typically will keep a car until well over the 100k mile mark.

[OkieJohn]

In the 40's and 50's, a car that would run more than 5 to 6 thousand miles without a trip to the mechanic was a rare thing indeed.  Oils in those days were not the quality they are now.  Engines were not built with same materials they are now. Oils turned acidic after a few thousand miles, and started eating metal parts.  The 3000 mile oil change was certainly no myth in those days.  The fact that every gas station had an on duty mechanic should help prove my point.

I spent 35 years on the road, driving almost 100k miles a year.  In that time I owned over 8 vehicles that had over 300k miles on them, the rest had around 150k.  One, a 1987 Suburban, ran for 525k.  In all those years, I never had an engine problem.  Being from the old old old old old school, I changed the oil every 3000 miles.  A myth, - - not in those days.

Today’s engines, are a tremendous improvement over those of years ago.  Crankcases are no longer vented to the outside world through a breather tube, in fact the  modern engine is pretty much sealed against the outside environment.  You can now drive through dusty conditions, with practically no fear what so ever.

My wife just bought a new Chevy Silverado.  The oil change interval for that vehicle is 7500 miles.  When an oil change is due, the truck just has a fit every time you start it. Then, there are  the emails from Onstar. . . .  I will assume Chevy knows their vehicles, and will follow their recommendation.  Of course, they are the same people who brought us Dex-cool.

I run synthetic fluids in my Miata, a car that is driven extremely hard every day.  It now has 96k miles on it.  Compression checks and noise are the same as when the car was new.  I will be changing the rest of my cars to synthetics shortly.  Even at that, I will change the oil at 10k miles, because that figure has a proven track record.

As doc says, “changing the oil, is cheap insurance.”  That is the best advice in this thread.

Changing the oil may be expensive, but paying for an engine rebuild is horrific.

This is based on my experience people, your mileage may vary.

[RobJohnson]

I have enjoyed every post in this thread.

Thanks!

[DixieBelle]

Okiejohn, OnStar stalks us too We have a Solstice and we get those automated emails.