It's a myth that is perpetuated by big oil and people who are afraid of change. There is study after study that proves that 3000 is a complete waste, but people still hang on because they believe that the $50 they spend in doing more frequent oil changes in cheap insurance. However that is a very selfish opinion. Look at the bigger picture. There is an extimated 250 million cars in the United States. Based on the average of 12,000 miles driven per year each person uses approximately 5 gallons of engine oil per year. That's 1.25 billion gallons of oil. If everyone were to extend their oil change to 6000 miles, then we as a country could save 62.5 million gallons of oil per year. That's about 1.4 million barrels of oil per year.
I use Amsoil and change it every 10,000 miles.
John (USN Ret) and Debbie
The Paw Pack (Freckles, Stinky & Ranger)
'96 Monaco Windsor 36' DP 8.3L Cummins
Ready Brake w/ Demco Excali-bar
'03 Ford Explorer (Toad)
'04 Honda Insight
'04 Volvo S80 AWD
'74 Dart Swinger Drag Car
14' Boat 9.9 Mercury
I change the motor oil on all my vehicles every 3000 miles, using the cheapest "On Sale" SAE approved regular motor oil. It's almost always the Quaker State or Pennsoil brand, though I have been known to use Wal-Mart's Tech brand on rare occasion.
Though the properties & additives of the oil is formulated to last a lot longer, I do it this often to get out the dirt that accumulates in the engine.
It is unacceptable to me to allow 5,000 to 10,000 miles of dirt to accumulate in the oil.
Bought new in June 2007, Phoenix Cruiser-2350
Fits inside our garage.
Dingy towing a red Toyota MR2 Spyder
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Back in the late 70's or early 80's Mobil did a test of their synthetic oil on NY taxi cabs. They drove the cars for 100,000 miles without a oil change, just changed the filter every 3,000 miles. They took the engines apart and found virtually no ware at all. They advertised Mobil 1 as the 100,000 mile oil.
The ad did backfire on them, when people were driving their cars with Mobil 1 and not changing the filter. There were some lawsuits and Mobil pulled the ad. I have Mobil one in all of my vehicles except my MH. I change the filter every 3,000 miles and leave the oil in for 10,000-20,000 miles with no problems and all are well over 100,000 miles.
Ken
95 Georgie boy Encounter 37ft 5.9 cummins DP
Saturn SC2
tatest wrote: In the 1950's, it wasn't 3000 miles, it was 1000 miles. We had the same overheated discussions when oils and metallurgy improved, and manufacturers raised change intervals to 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 miles and more.
Maybe some old timers can comment but I think the 3000 was initially maketed as better oil that can last 3000 miles instead of 1000. The 50s prosperity was coming off the decade long depression and then war rationing. So the big oil companies were selling on quality and cost savings. Now many stick to the 3000 miles marketing to retain volume. This has been a shift in our culture from conserving, repairing and extending the life of products to a society of disposable products that are encouraged to be replaced before they wear out.
kenbert wrote: I have Mobil one in all of my vehicles except my MH. I change the filter every 3,000 miles and leave the oil in for 10,000-20,000 miles with no problems and all are well over 100,000 miles.
What color is the oil at 3000 miles, 5000 miles, 7000 miles, & 10,000 miles? Standard oil filters get the bigger dirt particles. Those super fine filters get smaller ones, but increases oil restriction when the filter gets restricted more quickly.
You are surely making a good point regardless, but I cannot be convinced.
turninghawk wrote: Changing oil at less than the manufacturer-recommended intervals is a waste of time, money, and oil. Unless you are driving under extreme conditions (heavy dust, all stop-and-go driving, etc.) changing oil at 3000-mile intervals is foolish....
For the record, every class-C motorhome built, falls into the "Heavy Use" category.
Been doing this for over 10 years and never had an engine problem, probably had 8 or 9 cars and trucks in that time frame. I will stick to what I know works. Also spoke to a Mobil rep once and he said on the QT you could go 50,000 miles. Also saves me alot of money and I am conserving oil.
I have always followed the owners manual for my gassers. My Dodge is the first diesel I have owned. I send out a sample of the oil to be analyzed when I change the oil. They check for the additives as well as things that would indicate bad things. They keep telling me to extend the intervals every time. I am up to 8500 miles between changes. There is no way I would change the oil every 3000 miles with the diesel. 3 gals of oil is not cheep.
turninghawk wrote: Changing oil at less than the manufacturer-recommended intervals is a waste of time, money, and oil. Unless you are driving under extreme conditions (heavy dust, all stop-and-go driving, etc.) changing oil at 3000-mile intervals is foolish....
For the record, every class-C motorhome built, falls into the "Heavy Use" category.
With the clean fuels, tighter engine tolerances that produce less ring blowby, better oils and filters, the 3000 mile oil change just isn't required anymore. I nod my head to air cooled engines, dusty roads and mountains being the exception. Both of our cars have oil life displays and I have them changed at 30% which is about 7000 miles for the Honda and about 4000 miles for the Cadillac. The Caddy conveniently uses a quart every 4000 miles so I change it rather than waste adding a quart.
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