Turtle256

Hey Everyone,
Since I have nothing better to do this weekend I am going to change the oil in all of my vechicles and I was thinking of using that new Mobil One oil that is supposed to last for 15k. Has anyone used it or have an opinion. Sounds to good to be true, but with 4 cars it would be nice not to have to change so much oil so often. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Turtle

85944na

Ok, even if...IF the oil is ok for 15k, (which I do not trust at all) the filters are NOT. I work part time at a BMW/Benz dealer and I've seen the filters after the recommended oil change interval(which is around 15k) and they scare the hell outta me. The insides just crumble away. I asked multiple master techs about oil changes since i switched to synthetic, seems like 5-7k is alright, but no more.

PaulStewart

My 2001 Boxster's owner's manual tells me to replace the oil every 15,000 miles or 1 year and the oil filter every 30,000 miles. Of course it uses 9.5 quarts of 0W-40 Mobil 1.

Since then Porsche has stated that if the car is driven at least 9,500 miles per year, then one can wait for 15,000 miles for an oil change even if more than a year has passed.

85944na

wow, you'd put 30,000 miles on a 10$ filter? I'm sticking with 3-5k

fezz

sorry, but i wouldnt run the oil in my lawn mower for a year.

ApexCars

In my opinion, and that of many respected mechanics, you can run regular oil and filters for 5-7k. The 3k rec. was put in place way back before there were additives and high tech oil and filters. I think most manufacturers still reccomend it because they get money from the oil companies and to overprotect themselves from warranty issues. I mean it's not their money, if you decide to replace the oil every 200 miles that's ok with them too. The companies that pay for standard maintainance on new cars never pay for 3k oil changes as far as I know. I wouldn't hesitate to run synthetic oil and high quality filters for 15k. Hell, Amsoil says 30k with there complete kit, IIRC.

Mike B

Doug Hillary, of the 928 board, has been doing a very indepth study on oils. Read the nine oil condition reports he has submitted. Very informative!

https://rennlist.com/forums/search.php?searchid=369369

Imo000

In Europe most cars, even 4 cylinder ones, don't have to chanage the oil for at least 12000km or one year. The oil filter is usually changed once for every two oil changes.

The 3K oil change interval is nothing more than propaganda for the oil industry. Think about it, It sounds alot if you are not used to it and that is exactly what they want you to think. Europeans look at us the same way when it comes to driving for days at a time. It's unheard of to drive that much over there, therefore it sounds unreal.

And the comment of the oil filter condition above. If the filter needs to collect so mutch out of the oil that it falls apart , the least of your problems is the filter. Oil filters don't get clogged up like air filters. The oil should have very few contaminants between oil changes. If there is alot, the engine is on it's last leg anyways.

My 2000 Jetta TDI only needs an oil change every 15000km (4.5l of oil). This is clearly stated in the owner's manual. Most people don't read it and take it in every 5000km (3k miles). I also know for a fact that for a 2002 Cavalier(2.0l base model engine) the interval is 12000km.

I know a person that asked the dealer if 7500km interval was ok for his 2000 Golf and they said it's fine. They failed to mention that recomended is 15000km........ wonder why???? I had to ask him to bring up his manual from the car and showed it to him. Otherwise he wouldn't have belived me that 15000km is normal.

This is one of the reason's it's imortant to read the owner's manual at least once.

I hope this helps!

Geo

Amen to that.

They play on people's insecurities and hey, why wouldn't someone want to pay $20-25 every so often to protect such a big investment. We have it so well we can do this and not even thing twice about it, although we should due to the problems of used oil (although recycling is much better now).

My Sentra SE-R friends were shocked that I changed my oil every 7.5k miles like the manual said. Then they tried to tell me everyday driving was harsh driving requiring change every 3.75k miles. BS.

Now, my Bimmer calls for changes every 15k or so miles. I just changed it recently. Filter looked great. No problems.

Techno Duck

My father changes the oil in his Toyota Camry every 7,500 miles. No synthetic, only dino. The car is on 175,000k miles and is still driven between 500-800 miles a week. Car still runs like a champ with the exception of a distributor cap with 100k miles on it that was just replaced. Thats enough proof for me that changing oil in 3000k mile intervals isnt necesary. I tend to change every 5,000k with dino. Maybe even that is overkill now that im reading this thread!

black944 turbo

Fact is the more you change the cleaner it is. But hey you probably don't need to do it as often as I do. I have a very clean engine no deposits. Good luck.

DanG

Keep in mind that your oil filter works BETTER as it gets dirtier. Efficiency approaches 100%. Thats not to say that you should never change your filter, but its filtering much better at 5k miles than it is at 0 miles.

Same goes for air filters.

Bryan Welch

Hmmm. The best advice I received was to change oil when it needed to be changed. Look at the oil, feel what it is like, and consider. It is dark and full of particles? Is it still slick like oil, or does it feel more like dirty water?

That said, I change our Honda and Porsche every 5000 miles because it looks time to change at those intervals. Our Ford needs new oil every 3000 to 4000 miles, depending on how it is driven.

Jfrahm

You'd be very suprised if you sent that dark oil off to Blackstone for testing. It's probably still in great shape despite the look, unless you are getting a lot of blowby.

-Joel.

Mike S

I would think that the 944 Turbo would need more frequent changes than 15k though, simply due to the large amount of heat the turbo creates and the elevated oil temps that a lot of folks have seen while taking our cars to the track. The temps for some folks were really high without an extra oil cooler.