Oil Change Frequency

[importracer]

Curious as to what frequency folks follow for oil changes?

Do you wait for your service indicators to tell you it’s time?
Do you wait for a certain KM interval?
Do you do it annually, regardless, even if you drive low km?
What about those of you with cars that are stored over winter and only put a few thousand km a year? Still annually? Or do you wait until you hit a certain km interval?

[Tik-Tok]

Twice annually, every Spring and Fall, but not like clockwork because I wait for Mobil 1 to go on sale. Regardless of our low mileage, as I consider Alberta to be "extreme conditions" with our cold winters and dusty as fuck summers.

When I had a summer car, it was at the end of the season.

[ExtraSlow]

If your vehicle has a "maintenance minder" it uses a combination of time, km's and potentially other factors. My Odyssey goes to zero percent remaining at 12 months no matter what.

I go by the maintence minder and I don't stress about getting down near zero percent remaining.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

2006 Subaru Forester - lol oil change
2005 Toyota Echo - 8000km with synthetic and OEM filter, DIY.
2013 Toyota Corolla - 8000km with synthetic and whatever filter the lube shop spins on there.
2017 BMW M240i - 3000-5000km or once a year, high quality LL01FE synthetic, OEM filter only, DIY.

[pheoxs]

I don’t drive enough to care about the km so just stick with 6 month intervals

[ExtraSlow]

Every 6 months seems like a lot for any low mileage person.

[BokCh0y]

MR2 - twice a year. Start of the season, usually May and at end of season before storage, so around September or October. I usually maybe put around 3k on it during that time.
IQ - Usually every 8000km or once year as my wife doesn't hit the 8000km in one year.
RX - Every 8000km and we put maybe 8000km on it in a year - usually for traveling only so maybe twice a year at most.
IS - every 16000km per Lexus
Tacoma - every 6000km

MR2, iQ, Tacoma are via South Pointe Toyota. They charge $39 for an oil change with conventional oil and oem filter, so why waste my time doing it myself.

RX/IS is either LoC or LoR, depending who I want to give me a manicure while I wait for the car

I don't ever follow the every 6 month recommendation per the sticker they toss on.

[vengie]

As per owners manual.


8000km and 10,000km

[ExtraSlow]

Anecdote time. My father-in-law, when I first started dating his daughter swore that it was required to change oil every 3000 km. Eventually I got him to admit that he used to do 3000 miles when he was younger and he had been too lazy to do the conversion. I think I talked him into 5000km.

Also, back on the 'aughts when I was in NZ, I paid a mechanic to change the oil in the shitbox I was driving. Guy laughed at me and said with how much oil I was burning I shoukd buy used oil and jist top it up ever week. I still paid for the oil change.

[ShermanEF9]

F150 and Explorer, when the minder hits ~40%. usually 9-11k
Mr2 gets it twice a year.

[dj_rice]

Every 6-8K for any car I've owned. My Infiniti has 16K intervals for oil changes, I dont trust that shit

[jutes]

Every 10k on the new one.
Once a year for the beater, regardless of mileage.

[pheoxs]

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Every 6 months seems like a lot for any low mileage person.

Doesn't cost much to do with a small car. Manual says at least once a year, but 15 minutes every 6 months is minimal effort.

[killramos]

Once a year on my Germans, twice a year on my domestics and Asians.

Aka as per the owners manual.

I don’t think I have ever miled out an oil change in my life, always time.

[andyg16]

Truck and SUV usually ends up being around 8-10k km or twice a year. Summer car same as others once in spring and once before parking for winter usually put on maybe 3k km on it. I use castrol edge in all of em.

[haggis88]

Typically change before and after winter

With my Type-R, i was doing it about every 2500 miles and then having the dealer do the yearly service to keep up the stamps in the book

I once tried to kill my D16 Civic Coop and went 20,000 miles without changing the oil...couldn't do it so when the engine swap came, the engine got sold for cheap to some old woman who'd snapped her timing belt lol

[JustinL]

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MR2 - twice a year. Start of the season, usually May and at end of season before storage, so around September or October. I usually maybe put around 3k on it during that time.

So the oil you take out in May, has it run at all?

[DonJuan]

Spring and Fall on the daily's with Pennzoil Ultra Plat (when on sale) almost never hit the oil change required interval of 7000km.

The 240 gets oil change at start of summer. Even though I don't drive it much at all. (Diesel Rotella)

[flipstah]

The daily is every 7k intervals; the Mini is every season opener.

[Buster]

When the computer tells me to.

However, I did have dinner once with some very senior managing engineers that design these lubes for a prominent manufacturer. They told me that modern synthetics are so good that they are fine after multiples of the common recommendations. They said that the oil would probably be fine after tens of thousands of km. But the market will absorb shorter intervals, so everyone (manufacturers etc) plays it safe and creates highly conservative intervals.

If you drive moderate mileage and have a 2 to 3 year lease, you probably never even need to change the oil from a technical perspective.