How often do you *actually* get an oil change, and how old is your car?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought mileage determine frequency of the oil change. For me, it’s every 5000 miles.

I don’t think there are any cars that require them at that low mileage

How old are you? Old cards typically you need to change the oil every 5000 miles or every six months, whichever comes first. I have a 2011 Lexus and I have to get it changed every 5000 miles if I’ve bought a new one, it would be every 10,000 miles.

[Anonymous]

I have a 7 yr old Subaru Forrester. It's in great shape.

I never get my oil changed on time, if going based on the 6 mos out suggested by the little sticker they put on your car when they change it. I probably go for more like 8 to 10 months. I don't rack up a lot of mileage, so I always get it changed before it reaches the recommended milage for the change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 year old Subaru.Mine ends up being like 8 months. Mechanic says 6 months, but I don't drive much - like 2000 max miles in that time.

Are you home bound?

What a weird response. Do you live in a totally non walkeable area with no public transport?

DP. Agree, it is a super weird comment. I have a car, and drive somewhat regularly for errands and what not, but I metro to work. So I rack up very few miles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought mileage determine frequency of the oil change. For me, it’s every 5000 miles.

I don’t think there are any cars that require them at that low mileage

How old are you? Old cards typically you need to change the oil every 5000 miles or every six months, whichever comes first. I have a 2011 Lexus and I have to get it changed every 5000 miles if I’ve bought a new one, it would be every 10,000 miles.

We recently sold our 2012 car and it only needed an oil change every 10,000 miles.

[Anonymous]

Per the Toyota dealership (who I'm sure would love to see me more often) every 10,000 miles so that's how often I do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually once a year. We don't put that many miles on our cars so aim for an annual service. We've been told that 1x/year is enough with high quality oils today. it used to be that the norm was 6 months.

Here's the language for one of our cars:

"How Often Does My Porsche Macan Need to be Serviced? For our Porsche Macan drivers we recommend getting your oil changed every 10,000 miles or once a year."

10,000 mile interval????

Who suggested this? Porsche engine rebuilders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually once a year. We don't put that many miles on our cars so aim for an annual service. We've been told that 1x/year is enough with high quality oils today. it used to be that the norm was 6 months.

Here's the language for one of our cars:

"How Often Does My Porsche Macan Need to be Serviced? For our Porsche Macan drivers we recommend getting your oil changed every 10,000 miles or once a year."

10,000 mile interval????

Who suggested this? Porsche engine rebuilders?

Your thinking is very outdated. Oil lasts a lot longer now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought mileage determine frequency of the oil change. For me, it’s every 5000 miles.

I don’t think there are any cars that require them at that low mileage

How old are you? Old cards typically you need to change the oil every 5000 miles or every six months, whichever comes first. I have a 2011 Lexus and I have to get it changed every 5000 miles if I’ve bought a new one, it would be every 10,000 miles.

Where are you getting this 10,000 crap from? Who’s telling you this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually once a year. We don't put that many miles on our cars so aim for an annual service. We've been told that 1x/year is enough with high quality oils today. it used to be that the norm was 6 months.

Here's the language for one of our cars:

"How Often Does My Porsche Macan Need to be Serviced? For our Porsche Macan drivers we recommend getting your oil changed every 10,000 miles or once a year."

10,000 mile interval????

Who suggested this? Porsche engine rebuilders?

Your thinking is very outdated. Oil lasts a lot longer now.

I turn wrenches for a living.

Do you understand what that means?

[Anonymous]

2021 Mazda Cx-5, get it done once/yr or as needed per the owners manual. I typically drive 3000-4000 miles per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually once a year. We don't put that many miles on our cars so aim for an annual service. We've been told that 1x/year is enough with high quality oils today. it used to be that the norm was 6 months.

Here's the language for one of our cars:

"How Often Does My Porsche Macan Need to be Serviced? For our Porsche Macan drivers we recommend getting your oil changed every 10,000 miles or once a year."

10,000 mile interval????

Who suggested this? Porsche engine rebuilders?

Your thinking is very outdated. Oil lasts a lot longer now.

I turn wrenches for a living.

Do you understand what that means?

Doesn't mean you are good at it or know what you're talking about. Just because you learned something 30 years ago doesn't mean it's still true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually once a year. We don't put that many miles on our cars so aim for an annual service. We've been told that 1x/year is enough with high quality oils today. it used to be that the norm was 6 months.

Here's the language for one of our cars:

"How Often Does My Porsche Macan Need to be Serviced? For our Porsche Macan drivers we recommend getting your oil changed every 10,000 miles or once a year."

10,000 mile interval????

Who suggested this? Porsche engine rebuilders?

Your thinking is very outdated. Oil lasts a lot longer now.

This is terrible, terrible advice. Everyone needs to disregard this idiot above.

Here’s the truth:


For typical suburban/urban use vehicles that see lots of shorts trips less than 20 minutes, your oil change interval should be 3,000 miles for conventional oil, and 5,000 for synthetic oil during the winter and 7,500 miles for synthetic oil in the summer.

For vehicles that see predominantly highway use and regular long/high speed trips over 1 hour, the interval should be 5,000 for conventional oil and UP TO 8,000 miles for synthetic oil.


A diesel vehicle used for mostly highway use with 15w-40 synthetic or similar *could* go as high as 15,000 miles, but I still wouldn’t let it go that long.


Short trip driving is the most damaging type of driving for oil. And as your car ages, it gets even more damaging to the oil than when the car was new.

Inside the engine, there are pistons. They sorta resemble soup cans. They move up and down inside the cylinders, being pushed by the fuel explosions inside the cylinders, turning a crankshaft inside the engine that connects to the transmission to make your car move. So these pistons have these things wrapped around them on the sides called “rings”. Imagine a thin metal bracelet wrapped tight around that soup can. Each piston has 2 or 3 of these rings around it. The job of the lowest ring on the piston is to wipe oil off the inside of the cylinder wall as the piston moves up and down, like a squeegee or windshield wiper.

So as gas and air is forced into each cylinder, and compressed, it then explodes and pushes the piston down. But not ALL the gasoline gets burned. A tiny, tiny amount doesn’t get consumed. It, along with the black soot from the gasoline that DID burn, ends up as residue on the side of the cylinder. The next time the piston comes back up, it’s dragging oil behind it. The oil coats the cylinder wall, dissolving the gasoline and soot residue, and then as the piston comes back down, the oil ring wipes the now-dirty oil off the cylinder wall on the way down.

This is why oil changes color over time from gold to black. All the combustion residue contamination from cylinders firing millions of times. It accumulates the soot and gasoline residue.

That contamination is bad for seals, bearings and any rubber components inside the engine - which there are a LOT of. It is corrosive to these parts.

Now, the reason short trips are really hard on oil is because the oil stays “cool” and never gets hot enough, for long enough, to “boil” the accumulated gasoline residue out of the oil. On long trips, the oil gets hot enough for the gasoline contamination to evaporate away, and this will prolong the life of the oil quite a bit. It will still have the soot residue, but won’t have nearly as much gasoline contaminants as engines that only do short trips.

No matter what idiots like the person above say, the way engines work and utilize oil has NOT changed. Synthetic oil lasts longer because synthetic oil is more pure than conventional oil to begin with - but it still gets contaminated just as quickly. It’s just that it was cleaner to start with. It still gets contaminated at the same rate though.

Hope this helps some of you understand it. Please don’t listen to people like the guy above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually once a year. We don't put that many miles on our cars so aim for an annual service. We've been told that 1x/year is enough with high quality oils today. it used to be that the norm was 6 months.

Here's the language for one of our cars:

"How Often Does My Porsche Macan Need to be Serviced? For our Porsche Macan drivers we recommend getting your oil changed every 10,000 miles or once a year."

10,000 mile interval????

Who suggested this? Porsche engine rebuilders?

Your thinking is very outdated. Oil lasts a lot longer now.

I turn wrenches for a living.

Do you understand what that means?

Doesn't mean you are good at it or know what you're talking about. Just because you learned something 30 years ago doesn't mean it's still true.

Please state your certifications. We can compare them.

[Anonymous]

My car (2008) tells me what % the oil is at. Idk how accurate it is. But maybe 1-2x a year max. Probably 1-1.5x. I wfh mainly and my office is very close when I do go in. We take DH car mainly so mine doesn’t drive a ton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually once a year. We don't put that many miles on our cars so aim for an annual service. We've been told that 1x/year is enough with high quality oils today. it used to be that the norm was 6 months.

Here's the language for one of our cars:

"How Often Does My Porsche Macan Need to be Serviced? For our Porsche Macan drivers we recommend getting your oil changed every 10,000 miles or once a year."

10,000 mile interval????

Who suggested this? Porsche engine rebuilders?

Your thinking is very outdated. Oil lasts a lot longer now.

I turn wrenches for a living.

Do you understand what that means?

Doesn't mean you are good at it or know what you're talking about. Just because you learned something 30 years ago doesn't mean it's still true.

Please state your certifications. We can compare them.

Still waiting.