lexusam

How many miles are we able to go until the next oil change is due with this mobil 1 5w-20?

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

You can go up to the moment until the engine chokes and burns...

Some people say 15k miles, but change your oil and filter every 5k miles. Pamper your baby; don't compromise a simple oil change...

fantom

If you are using Mobil 1 fully Synthetic oil, one year or 15,000 miles is more than OK. Changing it more often is like burning money, and contributing to the oil shortage....

sjgIS350

Oil shortage from using a synthetic oil?

gsrthomas

iTrader: (1)

Well my car hasnt even hit 2800 miles yet and I've changed my oil TWICE already.

I'll probably switch to synthetic at 10k miles.

SpookJr

haha he said oil shortage

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

technique is expermenting his with 10K miles.....

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

twice? @what mileage?

mine is about 3K miles now.....gonna take the advantage of the free one @5K......

fantom

Well, yes....

Mineral oils are based on oil that comes from the ground, which has been refined. Synthetic oils are concocted by chemists wearing white lab coats in oil company laboratories, but they take mineral oil based products to manufacture. The only other type is semi-synthetic, sometimes called premium, which is a blend of the two, and is very popular.

Despite their name, most synthetic derived motor oils (Mobil 1) are actually derived from mineral oils - coming from the purest part of the mineral oil refraction process, the gas. PAO oils will mix with normal mineral oils which means you can add synthetic to your mineral, or mineral to your synthetic without your engine seizing up.

Time between changes, the optimum time for changing oil, is related to a number of factors, of which distance travelled is one of the least important in most cases. Here are most, in an approximate order of importance:

1. Number of cold starts
2. Ambient temperature
3. Effectiveness of crank case scavenging
4. State of wear of the engine (piston blow-by multiplies the problem)
5. Injector effectiveness during warm-up
6. Distance travelled (just to get that one out of the way)

Whatever you feel comfortable with, and can afford. But any simple number of miles rule, is an OWT, and usually based on old oil formulations before additives came along.

fantom

Unless you enjoy contributing to the people trying to kill us, and you don't mind paying exhorbitant prices for a product we can't (for a number of political reasons) produce enough of, and you don't mind having supplies manipulated from OPEC to price gouge......it's a shortage.

neil0311

So what kind of oil do you put in your Prius? You do drive a Prius, right?

JerryRig

Lawlz! Yes, and now he's contributing to a NICKEL shortage due to the 300# BATTERY tucked under that thing!


15,000 mi. oil change intervals? I don't care what you pour in it--that definitely isn't healthy!

I use Mobil 1 5W-30 exclusively for my daily driver, and although my engine is completely different from yours (OMG rusty American pushrods vs. JDM DOHC sweetness!), I still drive it daily and enjoy extracting every bit of performance out of it.

According to the onboard oil life monitor, I can usually drive up to 7,600 mis. between drain cycles. The oil analysis speaks for itself: Additional mileage will further deplete the amount of protective additives in the oil, subjecting the engine to higher levels of friction and heat.

http://www.doubledeez.net/CTS-V/Blackstone-2-22-07.jpg

fantom

Actually, when I can, I bike.

Everything in moderation, grasshopper. I make my little contribution by going 10 to 15 thousand miles, depending on the factors below, before changing my Mobil 1 oil and filter.

fantom

Very interesting, and Blackstone is an excellent lab.

When is the last time anyone heard of an engine blowing up because Mobil 1 oil was changed at 10 or 15,000 miles (or one year), rather than at 3 or 5,000. The correct answer is never.

I believe your onboard oil life monitor is driven by either time or miles. It sure isn't determining the condition of the oil, which is a bit of a "black art" (pun intended) anyway. Well done using a lab. I assume you plan to get well over 100,000 out of your motor.

JerryRig

Of course not, but it is safe to assume the oil drained at 10-15K intervals has very little additive left, if at all. With complex engines like ours, it's also safe to say it's sheared back to viscosity levels much lower than it was when new, or even with 4,000 mis. of use.

It can't monitor the exact composition of the oil, but it's a bit more complex than a simple timer. I believe the PCM calculates this value from several parameters, including avg. oil temperature, pressure (a GREAT indicator of viscosity/shear), engine RPM, load and miles. It was developed for use with Mobil 1, since that is the factory-fill. It's just nice to know the lab results confirm the results of using the oil life monitor. Note the different drain intervals between the first two changes--these were both conducted as the OLM approached 3% remaining.

What works best for your car depends on these factors among others, including driving habits and environment. I suppose the only way to properly judge this is to have it analyzed and adjust your change intervals accordingly.