Milspec

....How often do you change the oil? By mileage or time?

We have a 3 year old 2010 with 18,000 miles and only clocked 6,000 miles for all of 2012. Running Motorcraft full synthetic, wondering if I should just change the oil since its almost been a year since last change, or go strictly by mileage?

Thoughts?

Nuke

I prefer not to go more than 1 year on full synthetic and 6-8 months on synthetic blend, regardless of the mileage. My Stang (not and never was a DD) went from being driven 25,000 miles/year to under 5,000 miles/year. During the former, I changed the oil (Amsoil) every 10,000-11,000 miles.

petrock

Engine oil doesn’t break down like coolant or brake fluid does over time. I’d go by milage. Every 5k is my interval for easy math. Any more often then that is being paranoid in my opinion.

Milspec

Thanks. I may just wait until it hits the one year mark from last change, it may still be under 5,000 since last change but I'm feeling it shouldn't go over a year.

moosestang

I do it once or twice a year. There are nasty things in the oil that will eat away at bearings

Nuke

That is correct but as Moosestang pointed out, the acids and other nasties continue to increase in volume over time and, as good a job that a synthetic does, it's packages for combating those eventually will deplete.

For those forum members that do oil analysis (and there are a few that perform their oil changes based on the analysis and not time or mileage), I'd be interested to see data on this over time.

sbradle4

I change by mileage, or every 6-8 months whichever occurs first. I bought my car in January 2012, have 8500 miles. Gotta change the oil after new years actually. I changed it after the first 1,500, then at 5,000.

Ditty

I change it when the "Change Oil" comes on the info screen. It's usually about every 6k miles. We drive it A LOT!!! About 800 miles a week average.

Diabolical!

I change it once a year, which is only a few hundred miles for me. Full syn.

Lifter583

I might put 4k on my cars a year...I change my oil yearly...