FoMoJoe

I might have put 300 miles on my 65 in the last year as well as since the last oil change. My thought is, so long as the oil is not being used in the engine due to not driving the car much, I would think the oil would be fine to keep in the car for a pro-long period of time since it's not being broke down.

What is your take on this for those guys out there who don't drive their classic that often? Just base an oil change on use of the vehicle (milleage) or the time the oil is the car? If basing it on time and not on use, what would the time be?

What I am getting at is, obviously it's easy to change every 3K or 5K miles but when you're not driving it, what's the rule of thumb for taking care of the oil?

67t5ponycoupe

I have a car that is the same way for me. I only chage the oil about once a year. I know that the oil can get water in it from condensation but it seems like such a waste to change oil with very little miles. I'm sure other will chime in on this.

setx69fastback

i would think having synthetic or regular would be part of that also

az1966

While I drive mine every day ,, I agree about the water thing,,,best I can recomend and i'm no expert is either drive it more often or fire it up and let it run for 30 minutes or so to heat everything up,,, also understand that the cooling system needs to flow from time to time,, along with tranny and rear end,, gaskets being gaskets need a tiny amount of fluid to keep things straight,, I look at as a total package thing, water, oil, gas thing sounds kinda crazy but cars wern't built to be hanger queens and as such they gotta be run in some form or fashion from time to time

LynnBob Mustang

I would change it once a year, maybe every spring, if you keep the miles low.
Lynn

hotrod351

agree, synthetic. i have a old ****** jeep that use synthetic because it hardly gets driven.

03BottleFedGT

my dad and i have what we call oil change day every 6 months. we have 5 toy cars that might get driven 400 miles a year. my dad has done this since i was a kid and we have never had a problem. and most companys say to change it ever 3000 or six months.

65rangoon

im in the same boat. i change mine every year. ill drive it a little in the spring before i change it though.

been running valvoline 10/30 VR1 & a WIX filter. prolly throwing away $$ changing it each year but like others have said, theres other variables that play into it other then the oil life itself.



the 3k miles or 6mo thing is a marketing plow anymore.

take regular 10/30 dino oil and run it in a car and send it out to get tested and it would still have life left in it.

the auto company isnt going to recommend X oil and oil changes of 7500 miles when X oil cannot last 7500 miles.

tx65coupe

I don't see how having regular dino or synthetic is going to change how much dirt or moisture gets in it. I put about 3k miles a year on mine. At least I put 3k on it this last year. I would change it twice a year no matter what oil is in it. I would much rather do that than have problems later because I didn't. Its not hard to do anyway. I actually kinda like doing it.

For those that live up north and store their cars for the winter, and don't put very many miles a year on them, I would change the oil when the car is brought out in the spring and change it when its put up in the fall.

conejo172

I have a 1983 Cadillac Fleetwood with only 30600 original miles (my other baby) barely driven but gets oil changed once a year.