Engine Oil Change

[Fat Charlie]

My wife's '11 Grand Caravan with a 3.6 recommends 8000 mile intervals with dino oil.

The shop I'm at recommends 3000 mile intervals across the board, but that's not to be evil, as such. It's more from a customer service perspective (if you buy a new car here, the sales department gets charged for the oil changes for a long time). This gives us a chance to have a tech look at the car more often than annual state inspection time. We can replace a leaking seal under warranty before the rack freezes up or the differential grenades. The customer is happier with a car that doesn't randomly die, and it's less likely to die if someone looks at it periodically. As an added bonus, it gices us the best shot to be the ones pointing out when folks need tires, brakes, etc.

[euromodder]

Plain silly, that is.
Are these cars so bad they need to be inspected every 3000 miles ?

[instarx]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

The shop I'm at recommends 3000 mile intervals across the board, but that's not to be evil, as such. It's more from a customer service perspective

Pure rationalization on the part of the dealer. If customer service were so important the dealer would send a technician around every few months and offer to look at the car in customers' driveways. Dealer recommended oil changes at 3,000 miles to get the car into the shop is a service department sales tactic.

As for the original post, one oil I've seen with change intervals assigned to the oil itself is Mobil 1 Extended Performance oil. Mobil says it is guaranteed to be good for 15,000 miles or one year whichever comes first. So one year seems to an appropriate interval for at least thinking about changing the oil. Given the OP's use of synthetic oil and very low yearly miles I might analyze it at one year and adjust the change interval up or down accordingly. It shouldn't be necessary to have it analyzed every subsequent year.

My belief is that Frank Lee is exactly right - the only reason for 3,000 mile oil changes in this day and age is inertia... as in "My Granddaddy used to do that and he had a great car". There is so much unnecessary angst about engine oil change intervals. It used to be that the life of your car depended on how long the engine lasted, but engines today are made so well that they usually outlast the rest of the car. I've linked to an recent article entitled "200,000 - The New 100,000":

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/au...C84682FE3AEBE4

[Frank Lee]

I recently visited Grampa and somehow oil changes came up... I could see his eyes glassing over when I offered an explanation for why I don't agree with his 3000 mile ritual... Hey, it's worked for them for 70 years, they ain't gonna change (PUN!); maybe the younger set can be reached...

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I recently visited Grampa and somehow oil changes came up... I could see his eyes glassing over when I offered an explanation for why I don't agree with his 3000 mile ritual... Hey, it's worked for them for 70 years, they ain't gonna change (PUN!); maybe the younger set can be reached...

I often wonder if I am doomed to reject new technology and new information when I am old. Does age generally make a curmudgeon out of everyone, or is it more of a personality type?

[gone-ot]

...hey, I resemble that remark...the one about becoming a curmudgeon (wink,wink).

...ie: don't fix or un-fix things that are or aren't broken!

...oh, and, "...stay off my lawn!"

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Plain silly, that is.
Are these cars so bad they need to be inspected every 3000 miles ?

Not at all. The technicians hate it, wasting their time doing a long checklist inspection when there's nothing to find.

Originally Posted by instarx

Pure rationalization on the part of the dealer... Dealer recommended oil changes at 3,000 miles to get the car into the shop is a service department sales tactic.

Except that they aren't trying to sell oil changes. It is a sales tactic, but in a very long term sense- it gets people in the habit of using us, so when they do have a problem it's either already here or they're used to calling us. Apparently our owner thinks it's worth his money because we've been doing it for quite some time. On a new car he (his sales department) gets charged for the oil changes and his technicians are tying up their time inspecting cars that don't have anything wrong with them. Maybe we'll do a $10 seal under warranty. We also get the chance to say "your brakes are getting thin, you're going to want to think about getting them done in a couple of visits." That's sales, but not in a bad way.

To a hands-on bunch like here, the engine manufacturer's or oil producer's recommendation actually means something. To someone who threw money at the shiniest thing on the lot, a windshield sticker with a shorter than necessary interval is apparently reassuring. Why else would anyone go to a dealer for their oil changes if not for the warm fuzzy feeling of having the factory sign out front?

The minivan is going to go just under 5000 for this interval so it gets an eyeball before it passes out of its 36000 warranty. The Bobsled gets done every 3,000 miles, but that's because it consumes oil and I'd rather change it than just keep adding to it. In the winter I usually pay work to do it for me because I don't have a lift at home.

[some_other_dave]

Interesting.

There is controversy (of course!) on this subject over on the MINI boards. The current crop of MINIs use "condition-based service", where the car keeps track of how far you drive and what conditions are, and tells you when to change your oil. It tends to work out in the 15,000 to 17,000 mile range, but many people blame engine problems on that long interval. The more common practice seems to be to change about halfway between what the car tells you to, so on the order of 7500 miles.

And of course, there are those who say the engineers who designed the condition-based service system knew what they were doing and that is all the car needs.

-soD

[redpoint5]

1 more year, 11,000 miles, and another Blackstone report. Click the bar below to see full size.

[redpoint5]

It's been another year, 11,900 miles, and here is the Blackstone report: