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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:05 Corolla 5 speed. I change myself every 3-4k miles. Daily driver taking me 30 miles 3 times a week

Take care of this car. It has probably the second best engine Toyota has ever put in a car. In 2008 they replaced it with a 2-ring design and oil consumption became a problem. Not just for Toyota but most manufacturers. There won’t be any more 3-ring engines, so take good care of that little Corolla.

[Anonymous]

Follow the indicator on the car (newer and older Hondas.) I drive a lot for work so it is about quarterly. DH primarily works from home, so 2x/year or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We're in the habit of getting the oil changed twice a year, even though we don't drive very much. We could probably do it annually TBH. We put about 5-6k miles on our cars each year. I WFH and my DH only drives a few miles to catch the train. Our families live within 30 miles of us. We do a few road trips, but that's about it. Our activities and things are all within a few miles, so even when we are driving, it's not very far. We are in Arlington, so I'm sure that helps keep our mileage down because it's a small area where friend/sports are contained.

This type of driving is the most severe and oil-degrading driving profile there is. Short trips where the oil never gets fully heated up and at-operating temperature for multiple hours.

Old news. Short trips do not require the oil to be changed more frequently, especially with today's synthetics. Honestly, there was never any evidence that short drives cause oil to degrade faster.

Can you cite proof of this? Because the other poster gave a very detailed description of how oil gets contaminated as an engine runs and it made sense. You just sound kind of like you’re making stuff up. You sound like a salesman actually. Can you please offer some kind of link?

+1, would like to read something substantive.

[Anonymous]

I get my car's oil changed once a year.

[Anonymous]

I have a minivan. I realized I can change the filter myself without even lifting the car because it is high enough. So I got an oil extractor and now I do it myself. Seeing how awful the used oil is has changed my attitude. I will change it sooner rather than later. And I don’t need to drop off my car anywhere. It doesn’t save a lot of money but for me it is actually more convenient.

[Anonymous]

Once a year, full synthetic. Don't drive that much.

[Anonymous]

Never. All electric car.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Wow, everyone should listen to THIS guy!!!!!! Disregard the manufactures, dealers AND the people who would profit from selling you more services. THIS guys knows the best!!!! He turned a few wrenches so he is the ultimate authority.

So glad he got through his post without calling ME an idiot five times. Really adds to his credibility.

I’m not sure exactly what your disfunction is, but all I’m guilty of here is trying to help people prolong the life of their car’s engine and save money. Auto manufacturers would like you to buy cars frequently. Dealer service departments would like you to buy engines after your warranty is over. All I’m doing is offering people a way to avoid spending more money than they need to. I guess you must think that’s stupid, huh? Cool cool. You do you.

Grease is always cheaper than metal. Always.

I've always adhered to the manufacturer's recommendations and never had to replace an engine. Oil changes are not cheap and you are recommending twice or three times the frequency of the manufacturer. So at a $100/pop if you drive you car 10,000 miles/year that's a minimum of $200/year. In 6 -8 years that's $1200-1400 of possibly unnecessary maintenance. So calling people idiots for pointing out that it might be an unnecessary and expensive thing to do is not making you sound smart.

Ok, you’re right. I’m sorry.

I’m just a guy with dirty hands who works on other people’s cars 6-9 days a week running a small business. I really have no idea what I’m taking about. It took the experts here who don’t work on cars to make me appreciate that. Thanks for all your insights.


So you’ve never had an engine problem from exceeding oil change intervals? Cool. I can assume you also smoke cigarettes too, right? Because most people who smoke cigarettes do NOT get lung cancer. You must figure the odds are on your side, huh?

"6-9 days a week"....

[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?

Oh look the angry mechanic is back! He appears ***EVERY*** post on the car boards and insults someone every time.

[Anonymous]

So you should be changing oil based on gallons of fuel consumed and engines hours. Many cars record engines oil and you can track how many gallons of fuel you use.

Car manufacturer may recommend 5000 miles based on oil type, oil reserve capacity, average gallon per mile and average number of engine hours. If you sit in traffic a good majority of your commute you will have more engine hours and gas consumption vs miles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you should be changing oil based on gallons of fuel consumed and engines hours. Many cars record engines oil and you can track how many gallons of fuel you use.

Car manufacturer may recommend 5000 miles based on oil type, oil reserve capacity, average gallon per mile and average number of engine hours. If you sit in traffic a good majority of your commute you will have more engine hours and gas consumption vs miles.

Modern vehicles should have an oil life monitor that counts engine RPM and conditions instead of miles traveled. Moden engines tend to have larger oil capacities which extends oil life. The little v6 in my Jeep takes 6 quarts and has an oil cooler. This isn't the 1980s.

[Anonymous]

Once a year.

[Anonymous]

Every 3 months. 2012.

[Anonymous]

My two cars are 10-15 years old and have maintenance indicators for oil changes, which helps me keep track. I think it's about 7500 miles. I don't know if it's a simple mileage or some sort of algorithm.

Do they still make cars that don't have a built in reminder for oil changes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once a year, full synthetic. Don't drive that much.

Same