how often do I really need to change my oil?

[phil conrad]

Now that I have 5 toys I am beginning to feel like I work at jiffy lube I always use mobil 1 and a new filter. These cars maybe get 4,000 miules a year on them at most. I have been doing it every 3 months. Does this seem like overkill to you ? Thanks

 

[Two Lane]

Overkill? What's that?

Seriously, it's all up to you & your budget...they're your rides, & you're entitled to pamper them in anyway you want & can afford!

I'm often accused of "too-much-maintenance" by well-meaning friends, and I change my Mobil 1 every 3000 street-driven miles, or every 6 months, whichever comes first.

HTH

 

[blackbuick87]

If you drive like a ricer then yes change every three months. Otherwise you are killing the environment. I would say every six months at the most. When you put an engine away for storage always make sure it has fresh oil in it, so the acid by products created by internal combustion do not eat away at your internals

 

[strikeeagle]

I change the oil religiously in my turbo cars because it gets diluted with gas from big injectors and racing.

On my truck Wal-Mart changes it for exactly what it would cost me to buy the oil and filter, so why would I bother? It gets changed every 6-8,000 miles. I don't worry about it too much. The exception would be when I'm up for a long tow, then it gets new oil.

I use synthetics in all.

 

[salvageV6]

3 month changes with Synthetic? About 1K miles?

Bottle that stuff up and send it to ME!

 

[gn1220]

I change my Mobil 1 oil every 2-3000 miles. What is the reason to change every 6 months, regardless of miles? I heard regular oil breaks down over time but does Mobil 1? If so does it really break down that fast just from sitting?

 

[tminer]

Similar question here. I put on 2-3000 miles per year and change my Mobil 1 and filter every Spring. I don't winterize per se, I just make it a point to get it out on a few good days during the winter months. I thought that 30 minutes of driving will burn off the bad stuff created while it was sitting.

Tom

 

[FJM568]

Now this isn't about turbo Buicks, but I've known some people and heard of others doing a filter change and adding a quart every 3000 miles when running synthetics, with a full drain of all the oil at 50k miles...Haven't heard of anyone doing that on turbo Buicks though...

 

[Awesome T]

10K miles

Porsches, Audis, and Mercedes all use Molbil 1 and recommend the first oil change at 10K miles, and then for Porsche every 15K miles thereafter. Porsche and Audi both sell turbo cars, just not 100 % sure if they're oil cooled bearings, but pretty sure. For the Porsches, which don't usually see 10-15K miles a year, recommended oil change is every year. HTH.

 

[gn1220]

So every 2-3000 miles is overkill?!