Oil Changes: Is Every 3,000 overkill?

[MadMax]

Yes, it is an outdated philosophy and a huge waste of precious resources!

I honestly wish such beliefs that frequent oil changes are a necessity, which is a leftover from the 1970s, would simply go away. You are not doing anyone a favor by throwing away perfectly good oil, and even if you recycle it you are still not getting the maximum use out of it!

If you are that concerned, send off a sample of your used oil for analysis. I am betting you will find that it is in a lot better shape than you imagine.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by MadMax

Yes, it is an outdated philosophy and a huge waste of precious resources!

I honestly wish such beliefs that frequent oil changes are a necessity, which is a leftover from the 1970s, would simply go away. You are not doing anyone a favor by throwing away perfectly good oil, and even if you recycle it you are still not getting the maximum use out of it!

If you are that concerned, send off a sample of your used oil for analysis. I am betting you will find that it is in a lot better shape than you imagine.

I pretty much agree, and am pretty loose with my regimen. I sort of view my car as an experiment...sort of playing it like an instrument to wring out the lowest cost per mile while still keeping it safe mechanically. I bought the recommended spark plugs for my car from my local Toyota dealer (basically only pennies more that at an auto parts store. Soon after that, I had the spark plugs put in at another Toyota dealer (which charges less than the first one and less than anywhere else I found). I had the spark plugs put in (first change) at 208,828 miles. At that point (per records) I had done 15 oil changes with the longest gap miles wise being 34k and the shortest a bit over 2k. They looked for things to recommend to me -- only found air filter (which I was already planning to change later that day). They said everything appears fine re my engine -- not burning oil, and no other issues. I've changed my oil once since then, and I don't plan to step up my intervals much. My goal is to reevaluate at 375k miles. I've been averaging 75k miles per set of tires, so that would mean a set at 300k and those would last until 375k. I'll get at least 1 more battery along the way and am willing to go for wheel bearings, a clutch, and a water pump if the car needs those. So far I've only needed wheel bearings at 110k and an alternator at 159k. We'll see how my 'more lax than others' oil regimen works out.

I knew I did an oil change and the spark plugs with one at 207k+ and the other at 208k+, but I couldn't remember which was which for including above ^^^^^. I thought I might have posted that on Kal-El's long standing mileage thread. I started searching pages. En route, so to speak, I found an "Is 5,000 miles too long to wait for an oil change?'' thread from 2010 that Bronsin resurrected last month. I don't know how far back Bronsin looked on that 4 page thread, but I came across a pretty humorous post (#54) from NinjaPirate about checking the oil in his wife's 2005 (Aussie) ECHO after DOING ONLY ONE OIL CHANGE SINCE NEW OVER A 5 YEAR PERIOD !!!!!