Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Good point, I was going to mention oil changes...
I'd probably only do 2 oil changes per year assuming about 26,000 miles per year. Highway miles are easy, and I've gone 13,000 miles between changes in the Prius and oil analysis always said it had more life left.
I buy synthetic when it's on sale and stock up. Same with filters. One nice thing is my CBR600 motorcycle uses the same filter as my Acura TSX.
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I know a lot of people who (claim to) get away with over 10,000 mile oil changes and can get (or claim to get) 150,000 to perhaps even 200,000 miles or more out of an engine that way without any major problems. But personally I've also seen way too many cars not make it near that far, and the obvious reason was trying to change the oil every 10,000 miles or more (clogged and gummed up oil passages, oil control rings, even the oil pan pitted or eaten through from the acidity). And I've also seen engines with 200,000, 300,000, 400,000 and even 700,000 miles on them and didn't so much as burn a quart of oil between oil changes. So people can squak and bark all they want about how they can do way more miles than what the manual says, but I'm still sticking to the manual.
Sure, an oil change analisys can help. And if you want to send in an analisys every oil change, fine. But is it really easier, cheaper and as trustworthy as just changing the oil on time?
IMO, if you really want to keep the car for as long as possible I recommend going by the most often oil change intraval in the owner's manual, usually 3,000 to 5,000 miles or 3 to 6 months (depends on car and whatever comes first). Unless you drive correctly for the longer oil interchange (6,000 to 10,000 miles). By that I mean, drive exclusively cruising down the highway for over 30 miles per trip, don't idle, don't drive in cold weather, don't drive in the mountains, don't pull a trailer or put on a luggage box, and don't cold start more than once a day. And no, starting your engine in 100°F 40°C weather after parking all day at work does not count as a warm start.
Oil is way cheaper than an engine rebuild or a new engine. Sure, the engineers that know way more about these engines are trying to control us into following their recomendations. But I think I'm going to side with the engineers this time.