Bichon

I do my own oil changes. I keep receipts for the oil and filters, and keep a log of the date and mileage at each change. Thanks to Magnussen-Moss, that's as good as having it done at the dealer. But doubling, tripling, or quadrupling the change interval (as you did with your Acura) is not protected by the act.

Technique

They (Acura) never asked me for anything when I had warranty work, nor has any other dealership I've ever been to. I have no idea what crap you guys put up with where you have to document oil changes, that's insanity...

Tammy

Vehicles are at a higher value and in more demand when complete maintenance records are kept.

rys

Well, they won't ask you for it unless they have a reason to ask for it. For instance, if the vehicle's block seizes because the oil is failing to lubricate the engine, they'll probably want to know how often you've changed the oil.

Anyways, about that oil stuff, here's a link to Mobil 1 performance. Independant Lab Testing Results. As you can see, over 18k miles, the oil actually becomes detrimental.

Your milage may vary.

-Brian

Technique

I wonder what the odds of an engine block seizing is nowadays on a reliable Japanese car... Probably pretty close to zero... I think I'll take my chances

rys

You do that, I know for sure that in the community for my last vehicle, one of the owners managed to seize a block on a modern Mitsubishi.

It always amazes me how people can nickel and dime on a vehicle as nice as ours. At minimum it costs $40 to change the oil (or somewhere thereabouts if you're doing it yourself.)

You're saying that instead of spending $160, on 4 oil changes totaling 20k miles, you'd rather run the risk of blowing $5-8k on a new engine?

Hey, whatever you want, I'm not here to tell you how to maintain your car, just the attitude of chancing the engine on a $35k car, just to save $100 is incomprehensible to me.

-Brian

Technique

First off, I don't know where you got the idea that I change the oil myself. I never said that. I said "You CAN change the oil yourself". Personally, I normally take it to a small local shop, but it's effectively the same from a paperwork perspective since they give no documentation and if they did it would just be something hand written...

Second, this has nothing to do with saving money... It has to do with knowing that nothing will be ruined/damaged by taking it to an idiot dealership... I take it to a small shop, stand right there while my buddy changes the oil, and then I leave, with my car done right, and no scratches, swirl marks, rock chips, excess milage, or other horror stories you read about on a near daily basis on this forum...

Third, since I only change the oil about every 15k miles, it's only 4-5 oil changes in the life of the vehicle since I buy new cars every few years...

Bottom line is I will never do maintenance at a dealership, and I will always get full 100% warranty service for my car at a dealership if the need arises. No way I would I ever be denied warranty work simply because I didn't service my car at a dealership... That's garbage...

rys

No one is debating that you can get warranty service if you get your car serviced anywhere but the dealership.

Change the oil yourself, take it to Jiffy Lube for all I care, All I'm trying to say is that your change INTERVAL is risky. (garbage as you eloquently put it).

-Brian

Technique

Well, if my engine dies due to lack of changing oil, you can laugh at me all you want... But if I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath

ES3

So you're really gonna go 15k before the first oil change on your '07 IS350?

Technique

Ya, probably around 10-20k between oil changes. Honestly, I basically change my oil once every year. So, if I drive my car with tons of miles (e.g. - Lots of road trips) it'll probably be like 15k to 20k between oil changes. If the car sits around a lot, then probably every 10k miles.

More proof that I really don't care about cost and just hate dealerships and don't believe in this changing your oil all the time is my 2005 S-type Jag. The car has FREE scheduled maintenance for the first 40k miles and I have NEVER brought the car to the dealership. I paid to have the oil changed this year at my local shop instead of taking it to the dealership for free service. I've had the car for 1.5 years (Got it in May 2005) and only changed the oil once so far.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

so youre going to attempt to go 15k on conventional oil, at least try to use synthetic if you want to go that high, mobil 1 has a new synthetic they claim lasts 15k miles

Technique

Well, knowing me, if I ran synthetic I'd probably go 25k-30k miles between changes... And honestly, I doubt mobil1 has a "new" synthetic... It's probably just the same thing, or a trivial change, but as with most products on the market, they want to drum up more sales so they are marketing it as 15k+... In a few years, they will just change that to 20k+... Just like with contact saline solution, it's always been "no-rub", they just didn't get approval to market it as such until a few years ago... Same with tide detergent, they always have a new, "more powerful" detergent... Same with batteries, "now, 10% longer lasting"... It's the same technology since before I was born... Only trivial differences...

A side story, my buddy ran his 98 or 99 (can't remember) Honda Accord 4-cyl for over 45k miles before changing the oil... LOL! He didn't do it on purpose, he's just lazy/stupid... Anyway, the car was just fine, and his mom is still driving it with 200k+ miles on it...

Bottom line is, IMHO, cars are tougher than most people give them credit for...

ES3

So do you think the maker's don't put any research into their recommended intervals? Think they're only trying to make money? Or do you think there COULD be some benefit to an oil change at every 5k or 3months or so?

Technique

I think it's somewhere in between. I also think the manufacturers interval is a "very safe" interval. I think they have many strong reasons to make the interval far shorter than it needs to be. Forgetting influence from the oil companies, just in their own interests, if there is even a 1% less chance of an engine blowing with oil being changed every 5k as opposed to every 10k, then what does the manufacturer have to lose by telling you to change oil every 5k? It's your money being spent on the oil being changed, and it saves them 1% of warranty work. They pick a sweet spot I bet. So if there is a benefit to oil every 5k/3 months, it's VERY low, less than 1%, trivial IMHO...

Want more proof? Compare oil intervals of manufacturers that pay for scheduled maintenance (BMW, Jaguar, etc.) vs. others, such as lexus and acura, and you'll notice that the ones that actually pay for maintenance have oil change intervals of 10k+ between oil changes. My Jaguar calls for oil changes every 10k in the service manual. BMW has a system which tells you when it's time to change the oil... But the book calls for oil every 15k miles, with intermediate oil changes in between if you want to pay for it. But BMW only pays for the necessary oil changes, which are between 13k-19k miles based on what I've seen in the 3 and 5 series...