Oil changes

[Anonymous]

DH and I have one car, but we live in a super walkable area and have only driven about 1,500 miles in the past year (Ccar is a 2018 Honda with 6,500 miles total). My oil change reminder came up in the past couple days, but I’m wondering if I actually need the oil change. I got one last December.

Should I take it in, or can I ride it out?

[Anonymous]

Get it changed. It’s been too long. Oil gets old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get it changed. It’s been too long. Oil gets old.

its not that oil gets old, yes it does have a shelf life(but its in years not months or days). not running the car much or for long enough times to really get the engine hot so it burns off the moisture and impurities that are trapped in t he oil is what is putting you at the oil change interval. time vs mileage.

if you are only running the car a few thousand miles a year. then you change the oil once a year and ignore the mileage service interval for the oil change. newer cars with the oil monitor system are much better at calculating run times, dates, mileage, ect.

i'll bet if you change the oil and reset the monitor, it will pop on again in 10-12 months, unless you start putting major miles on it...

[Anonymous]

You are actually doing more damage to your car not driving it than you would if you were driving it 100 highway miles a day.

[Anonymous]

Agree once a year or so is worth doing

[Anonymous]

Absolutely just change the oil. Do you drive it at least once a week? How do you not constantly have a dead battery? This is why I'm very skeptical of super low mileage used cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I have one car, but we live in a super walkable area and have only driven about 1,500 miles in the past year (Ccar is a 2018 Honda with 6,500 miles total). My oil change reminder came up in the past couple days, but I’m wondering if I actually need the oil change. I got one last December.

Should I take it in, or can I ride it out?

I'm like you, don't drive much but change the oil once a year at least.

[Anonymous]

I get our cars’ oil changed when I take them in for inspection every year. Easy peasy,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely just change the oil. Do you drive it at least once a week? How do you not constantly have a dead battery? This is why I'm very skeptical of super low mileage used cars.

Don't drive my vehicle but a couple times a week. Seven years old with 34000 miles and the battery has never failed.

[Anonymous]

What does your manual say?

We bought our car a little over 3 years ago. We have about 18k miles on it. We just got the oil changed last month and it had probably been at least a year and a half between changes. The oil life indicator was down to about 15%.

From our manual:
Engine Oil Change
Every 24 months or when the CHANGE ENGINE OIL SOON
message displays, change the engine oil and filter as soon as possible, within the next 1 000 km/ 600 mi. The engine oil and filter must be changed at least once every 24 months.

[Anonymous]

You should do it every 6-12 months. I would not wait every 24 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should do it every 6-12 months. I would not wait every 24 months.

Why not trust what the manual suggests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get our cars’ oil changed when I take them in for inspection every year. Easy peasy,

This is what my low mileage DH does for his car. It literally goes in for service 1x a year at inspection time and he gets the oil changed whether the car says it needs it or not because he doesn't want to take it back 6 months later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should do it every 6-12 months. I would not wait every 24 months.

Why not trust what the manual suggests?

^ that's the worst thing you could do!! Use it as your guide, but go the car model forum and see real world experiences from current owners. Ever wonder why some relatively new cars have transmission or engine issues even when they've been following dealer recommended service...lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should do it every 6-12 months. I would not wait every 24 months.

Why not trust what the manual suggests?

^ that's the worst thing you could do!! Use it as your guide, but go the car model forum and see real world experiences from current owners. Ever wonder why some relatively new cars have transmission or engine issues even when they've been following dealer recommended service...lol

Why would the car’s engineers put fake info in the manual? We drive a 2017 Volt. The car came with two free oil changes during the first two years. We only drive the car about 5,500 miles a year and only a portion of that is using the gas powered generator. When the first oil change was done we were told by the service department that we could easily go the 24 months, but we still did the oil change since it was paid for. Felt a bit guilty when we did the second one for the same reason.