Playhard

Anyone going 10,000 miles between changes with Amsoil? Lexus seems firm on the 5k change no matter what oil you use, my guess is it's CYA and $$$.

New to the forum today; hello to all, just got a used 2011, nicest car I have ever owned...

ISFSteve

I use Amsoil exclusively but still hit the changes at 5k or once per year

boostftw

iTrader: (3)

congrats on your new purchase and welcome to the club! I daily drive mine and I personally shoot for 7K or 6 months since its sorta in the middle but if your dipstick/oil is clean I don't think you'll have any issues running 10k intervals.

vbb

iTrader: (3)

Hello and welcome. I actually just put 9.8qts of Amsoil 5W30 in my car on Friday. I set my maintenance computer reminder for 7500mi or 6 mos, whichever comes first (it will be 6m for sure). There are a few guys on here that have done Blackstone oil analysis and seen perfectly good results running Mobil 1 syn for 10K miles between changes. I am comfortable changing my oil every 6 months (assuming no track days).

Juanca

iTrader: (5)

I wouldn't risk my car for $100, all my oil changes are done every 5000 miles.

2ndGF

iTrader: (1)

Im doing mine every 5k with Mobil1 but going to switch to 7k. Lol I wish I had the luxury of every 6 months! I do between 12k-15k every 6 months.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Mobil 1 5w-30, 12k changes, Blackstone analyzes every one of them. All results indicate 12k works just fine. There are lots of decent quality oils out there. I use Mobil 1 because it's proven and very easy to find. There are lots of others which I would say are just as good, but may not be as easy to find should you need to find some oil to top off.

And yes, those 12k intervals include track weekends.

Playhard

Lobuxracer confirmed my suspicians that most folks change oil to often. We have been conditioned to do so from our parents who drove carborated cars with much lower quality oils than we have today. Carb cars used to dump fuel into the oil and older cars were not as efficient. Older cars took longer to warm up and ran cooler which promoted water in the oil. All these factors led us to chng oil @ 3k miles. Not to mention the lube shop adds on tv. I can't argue the cheap ins quotes but if your car is running right, you should be able to get 10k miles from full syn. At 12k I would begin to worry more about the filter beginning to clog restricting flow, especially with the fine filtration types like Fram tough gaurd, my favorite. If you raced every weekend, maybe 7500 would make sense. Thanks again guys, enjoy the ride, we are very lucky to be able to drive these fantastic machines! !

Just F Me

I change my oil at 5000 miles and the oil is BLACK. I've always thought if the oil is dirty, it's time to go.

Juanca

iTrader: (5)

^^^ That is my case as well, Mobil 1 is BLACK after 5,000 miles. The difference might be the weather, where I live it's hot all year long!

vbb

iTrader: (3)

It is time to go when the oil has been contaminated and loses its lubricating qualities. Less lubrication makes the engine work harder, which can affect fuel efficiency and over time can cause damage to the moving components. Your oil is probably much darker after less than 1,000mi of running through your system, maybe even less than 500mi, but just the color alone doesn't mean you have to change the oil. The best thing to do is to have the oil analyzed after it has been removed from your car. You want to get oil from the middle of the draining procedure, and you want to get the collection after your car has been running a little bit so it is at least warm.

Obviously you can replace your oil as much as you want. If every 3K or 5K miles makes you feel more secure, then go for it! The point is that a quality synthetic oil will last you longer than 5K miles, and in most cases, over twice that.

gsrthomas

iTrader: (1)

Same here.

I rather change the oil well below the its breaking down point than find the limit of the oil and change it. Its not worth the risk and me saving $100. Plus the biggest thing is I love working on my cars so changing the oil is a fun thing for me to do.

ISFSteve

I only change mine that often due to having an extended warranty. I know Amsoil can easily go twice that. You can change the filter without changing the oil.

To those who said their oil is black at 5,000 miles, that seems excessive to me as it should not be that bad at 5k using mine as a comparison. Comparing apples to apples, same engine in the Texas heat mine is still a golden color although a darker than new. 95% of my driving is runs less than five miles and was thinking that would be worse than the alternative.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

The color of the oil has nothing to do with it doing its job. So what if its black after 5k? I bet it was black at 1k too. The only way to know how much life is left in the oil is to have it analyzed. Is there anyone changing their oil at 5k or 3k and getting it analyzed to see what condition it is in?

Here's the full history on my engine from Blackstone.

Here's inside the valve cover when I did the valve lash inspection:



And finally, here's the valvetrain when I did the valve lash inspection:



I'm not seeing the slightest indication of oil failure in this engine despite the extended OCI.

If you think you're doing yourself a good deed by replacing your oil frequently, remember, every time you dump a fresh load of oil in the engine you also add a fresh load of contaminants from the new filter and from opening the engine and you increase the odds some idiot will cross thread your drain bolt, scratch up your filter housing, etc, etc...

In my world (coming from military aircraft I fixed and also crewed in-flight) less is more. Do what you need to do when you need to do it. Don't do it to make yourself feel good. Feeling good never saved a single engine.