auto maintenance myths?

[dcarrb]

fuel for debate

[Landshark]

i've never bought into that - i go 5000 miles with the Mobil1, and even that is probably overkill. i've seen weirdos on forums changing their oil every 1500 miles.


i won't, however, change my oil on a full moon, because i have turned into a wolf-like creature before and got fur all over my interior.

I change mine every 5-6000 in my legacy and every 3000 in my svx. I change the oil in my cav once a year (or every 20 miles haha!)

[NapaBavarian]

I change oil every 5k on the 5k and 10k mark so I won't forget, I could probably go 6-7, but I drive hard. On cars with an indicator I wait till the indicator comes on. I am opening a new local shop up next month, we offer coolant changes on early VWs and Porsches at a discount over newer cars, as well as replacing every spark plug on your diesel engine. For only $10 it is worth the money to have these services done every 3K, and every 10th service is free

I change my oil twice a year, because it is highly unlikely that I put more than 7k a year on my car.

At work though, our company cars are given oil changes every 7500, we follow the manufacturer specifications, and the cars run fine.

[shelfy]

every 3750 in the legacy (until its out of warranty)
every 5000 in claret and jeep
and like mike, once a year in the polo

[manofmayo]

I change my oil every 3000 miles, religiously, in my svx, but most of my trips average 2 miles (which is also why my gas mileage really really sucks). In my Impreza, its usually 6000 miles.

[Earthworm]

I change my oil once it looks dirty. I'm not religous.

[Mr. Pockets]

I change the oil in the Legacy pretty much when I get around to it - but it's usually around 5000 miles.

The SVX gets changed once a year - I usually drive it about 3000 miles or so in a year.

The MR2 I haven't had long enough, but it leaks so every month is like an oil change.

[ensteele]

I change my oil in the SVX every 3,000 miles. I usually try to chage the oil once a year in the cars that are not driven many miles and are only started once a month and warmed up. the oil looks brand new when I change it though. I tend to wonder why though.

[zarmien]

The recommendation in the owners book is 7500 miles for oil and 15k for the filter. So I figure anything before that is good

[lee]

For those who don't follow Toyota motors you might want to type into two words - Toyota, and Sludge. Seems the V-6 DOHC engine for some years has as bad a record as SVX transmissions. The most likely culprit turns out to be failing to check & replace the PCV valve - many US drivers/Jiffy Lube shops think changing the oil on a Toyota is all the maintenance that needs to be done.

Now, we all know what fun changing the PCV valve is on the SVX...and I'm not saying the SVX is subject to the same design "flaws", but forewarned is forearmed.

Now why do I know this and why do I care? My daughter just had the engine go on her 95 Lexus ES300 - guess I get to practice my engine R&R skills.

[NapaBavarian]

Is that the same as the 3.0 4runner engine from about 88-94(5)? Those blew head gaskets, and are dogs, but the cheapest wat to add 33hp to the 150hp engine is to get the heads ported :O and suposedly changing the head bolts to head studs should help too.

Originally posted by lee
For those who don't follow Toyota motors you might want to type into two words - Toyota, and Sludge. Seems the V-6 DOHC engine for some years has as bad a record as SVX transmissions. The most likely culprit turns out to be failing to check & replace the PCV valve - many US drivers/Jiffy Lube shops think changing the oil on a Toyota is all the maintenance that needs to be done.

Now, we all know what fun changing the PCV valve is on the SVX...and I'm not saying the SVX is subject to the same design "flaws", but forewarned is forearmed.

Now why do I know this and why do I care? My daughter just had the engine go on her 95 Lexus ES300 - guess I get to practice my engine R&R skills.

[Beav]

Be careful. The OEMs have different agendas depending on current marketing and customer perceptions (geez, imagine that!) They spend a buttload o'bucks on marketing to know what will entice the crowd into buying their product. My frame of reference on this subject spans more than a few decades and I've seen it come and go.

They don't give a piddlywink about your oil change intervals, they won't recommend anything that will result in warranty dollar losses to them. It takes a long time for oil change abuse to manifest in engine damage. That is, a long time in respect to their warranty period. In the 70's when oil prices were everyone's concern the OEMs 'sstttrrreeetttched' the intervals out, making it appear that the car's service would be less expensive. Then when prices somewhat stabilized the intervals came back down to 3-5,000 miles. When Lexus and others began including 'routine' services in the price of the cars the intervals became longer again. Go figure... they didn't want to pay for any more service than they had to (price of oil and filter, the mechanic's pay, etc.) You can watch what happens as soon as the OEM begins feeling some losses, the first thing that happens is an immediate change to the maintenance schedule. It has happened many, many times.

A quick and dirty way to monitor oil breakdown is to watch the oil pressure gauge, for those that have one. When the oil is fresh watch how the gauge reacts after driving for thirty minutes or so. When the engine comes back to idle the pressure drops off, but just a little bit. After about 3,000 miles that same hot oil will drop about halfway down the gauge, or more, at idle. Not exactly scientific but a pretty good indicator of the oil's condition. Synthetics will fair very well but their main problem is contamination. With electronic injection and ignition contamination is lessened, but what about that old air filter that's allowing more crap to be ingested? (and don't get me started on aftermarket 'performance' filters, anyone that thinks they're better than OE needs to be severely beat about the head.)

I'm not trying to argue with anyone, I'm just tossing in my two cents worth. Applicable old adage: Penny wise and pound foolish.

[b3lha]

I drive around until most of my oil has leaked out, then I fill it up again.