Current scenario-my Corolla uses about a quart every 3K miles. I’m running Mobil 1 Extended Performance and am sending it out after 15K to have an analysis done. See this thread for more details http://www.shift518.com/showthread.php?t=27466
My educated guess-yes, you can change the oil less often if the engine uses a reasonable amount of oil, but the filter should still be changed on a regular basis.
i was wondering the same thing myself for sometime now and came to the same conclusion, that yeah you can probably change oil less often depending on how often you have to add oil and how much of it and thinking the only real issue would be the filter.
Then again, i’de assume you would have to add oil every week tor eally be able to get away with it
I would also agree with you and since you’re adding a new quart of oil (which is probably 1/4 of your entire engine’s oil) that it would add back to the viscosity/detergents/etc that was lost. Not to mention it has disposed of a quart of oil that had contaminates (dirt, fuel, etc) already suspended in it.
Adding good fluid to old fluid does not renew anything ,it contaminates the new . That being said its like doing a tranny service and only replacing a 1/4 of the fluid , waste of time …
good point… its like a friend of mine was saying about spark plugs in a two stroke…is it ok to clean them and reuse them? he fired back " do you reuse a condom?!" oh yeah good point
I’m going to respectfully disagree in regards to motor oil, but I do agree with your point about the tranny service.
Regardless, if a fluid level is low, it needs to be topped off. I’m just curious if an added benefit would being able to extend the OCI due to the introduction of new fluids.
In the case of my Corolla, we will find out, because at the rate that it uses oil, it’s going to of had several quarts added before I change it.
I don’t clean plugs either, but there is nothing wrong with it if done properly. I’ve cleaned 100’s of aircraft sparkplugs in my day…if it was an unairworthy maintenance practice, I’m sure the FAA would not allow it to be done.
I agree the fluid needs to be added , but the same soot , contaminants etc are still in the oil and now just taking new oil and putting it in is not gonna remove said contaminants . Oil is just the same therey as a trans service putting new into old is not gonna make it better ,it just contaminants the new fluid .
Oh, I agree that it’s not going to remove contaminants, but it’s going to disperse them thru the total quantity of the fluid. The question is, is the total quantity of contaminants an acceptable amount when you change the fluid. May or may not be, depending on how ‘many’ of those contaminants are being burnt off.
The only answer is ‘will vary, depending on your particular case’.
Shouldn’t changing the oil be more based on the oil filter and not the the fact that you have added more oil due to engine consumption. I mean it shouldn’t matter how much oil you add if the filter is doing its job then the filter is going to be clogged if you keep putting off doing an oil change because you add oil every so often. Thats my $0.02.
hell ya you can! I had a cougar bomber car I got for $500 and it had a slight oil leak, from what i thought was the valve cover, so it “used” oil all the time and I didnt care. I left like a qt ever 1000 miles or less. I just put walmart $1.89 or what ever the cheapest oil I could find in it. At about the 10th qt, say 8-10kmi mark I sold it to a friend who needed a car. My brother did an oil change on it and turns out the oil filter was just dangling there, lol so that was where the leak was coming from. the oil in the pan came out looking like it was brand new!
BUT I know its not right. And my other example, my wifes 2.0T Passat EATS oil, like a qt ever 1200 miles. No smoke, or anything so I have no idea where it goes. Apparently these motors just do that everyone says. Its so bad that if you dont top it off regularly that at the 3-4kmi mark the oil light comes on. What a pain in the ass for a normal stock daily driver. If I keep up on it and top it off, at the 5-8K mark when I do a change it looks ok, doesnt smell funky or anything out of the norm. Thats the full extent of a scientific analysis as I will go with it. another words, no proof either way.
vw says 10k oil change:ahhThe oil looks so bad if they wait to 10k. i change the bug,gti 3k my wifes every 5k. the main topic question was not a serious question right? oil has detergents meant to clean the insides of the motor and with all the emission crap oils have less lubricity and more detergents so the oil not being changed lets all the shit on the bottom of the pan get sucked into the oil pump. I know everyone knows this but if you were serious I just wanted you to save your motor. bg makes a bad ass compression restore and moa. keep the toyota motor running a 400,000 if the body lasts :lol
Bros civic uses a quart every few weeks. Owned car 2 years never changed oil. Motor spun rod bearing due to being too low on oil so really nothing can be said on the lack of changing. That’s my useless post for the day