Oil Change at 3000 or 5000

[Edward]

I have a 2010 Acura TL and currently has 125,xxx miles. The car is always on synthetic oil unless my dealership tried to cheat and use regular motor oil even I paid for synthetic. Since the car has that much mileage already, I started to have the oil change done at 3000 instead of manufacturer’s recommended interval. It can be expensive but was that a smart move or not?

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[Richard Kirshy]

Oil and filter changes are quite dependent on driving conditions and habits.
Being the vehicle has clocked 125,xxx miles.
A good quality High Mileage oil should be used along with a good filter.
As to mileage intervals.
Personally I do mine @ 3 months or 3,000 miles since the very beginning on my 2002 Nissan.
Knock on wood.. so far after 16 years no issues to report.
This is what the top of the heads look like after removing the valve covers.

You might also consider a good syn-blend to off set the costs.

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[Steve Klein]

If you are using full synthetic AND your engine is in good running order (not running rich, etc.), then 7500 mile oil changes for that engine are quite conservative. If you are using a synthetic blend or straight conventional then 5000 mile oil changes would be good. 3000 miles per oil change is truely a waste of money. If you are still unsure and want proof of your engines ability to support those change intervals, you can send a sample of your last oil change for analysis using this (or similar) labs: https://www.blackstone-labs.com/. Do some reading on this subject, there is lots of info out there.

[Cameron]

[quote=”mroktober17″ post=194918]I have a 2010 Acura TL and currently has 125,xxx miles. The car is always on synthetic oil unless my dealership tried to cheat and use regular motor oil even I paid for synthetic. Since the car has that much mileage already, I started to have the oil change done at 3000 instead of manufacturer’s recommended interval. It can be expensive but was that a smart move or not?[/quote]

No road car engine ever suffered from running on clean oil.

It’s up to you how more frequently than the manufacturer minimums you choose to do oil changes. Even after 3000 kms on the best synthetic oil, the oil will normally look pretty black when it’s drained.

Manufacturer minimum oil change intervals are based on optimal driving conditions and usage, that hardly any vehicle experiences, as well as maintenance cost considerations. If you read the small print you will usually see that the manufacturers recommend more frequent oil changes in less than optimal conditions (which applies to most of us) such as a vehicle used most of the time in city driving conditions or a vehicle that is doing a lot of short runs and so on.

If you want to do oil changes at 5000 miles or 6 months whichever comes first on your car then that is fine on a fully synthetic oil. If you are concerned about which oil the service center you use is putting in the engine, buy the oil and give it to them to use when you present the car.

I do 3000 mile oil and oil filter changes on my cars also because of the type of use the cars get and amount of time time the oil is sitting in the engine. I see what comes out because I normally do the work myself.

More frequent oil changes than the specified manufacturer book intervals not only optimizes engine wear protection, it also prevents the build up of damaging oil sludge in the engine which will certainly occur with minimum manufacturer recommended mileage intervals for oil changes. There are also other considerations other than typical engine wear. For example the oil pump is critical to the lubrication of the engine but it must constantly pick up unfiltered oil through the oil screen, into the pump’s pick up tube and then through the pump. Frequent oil changes keeps the screen cleaner, the oil pick up tube clear and wear on the pump mechanism itself is minimized with cleaner oil. Furthermore you won’t suffer with a stuck oil pressure relief valve because you are not pumping dirty oil through the pump.
Another example. GM LS V8 engines commonly suffer from failed hydraulic lifters. This is an expensive problem that not only requires a full set of new lifters to be fitted when there is a failure in one or more but usually a new camshaft as well because of damage to the camshaft. One factor that contributes significantly to lifter failure, sometimes at very moderate mileages, is insufficient oil changes and certainly, in the case of these engines, following manufacturer mileage intervals on oil change intervals will pretty much guarantee the LS V8 engine will suffer hydraulic lifter failure.

[Cody]

I change mine every 2500 miles with $17/5qt Supertech (Walmart), full synthetic. 127,xxx and no issues. I use a good Mobile1 filter though, none of the cheap ones that’ll do more damage than anything else.

[Author]

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