how often do you change your engine oil?

[dreamym5]

i am sure this might be covered before.. but..

how often do you change your oil?.. well, i know from manual,, nornal driving condition every 7500 Miles.. but sales guy told me to bring it in at 3500 miles..

i am thinking to do every 5000 miles or so...

(i also own Honda which has Oil Life Idicator which tells the life of oil depends on the condition/driving habit,,i change oil every 7000 miles )

 

[pick41]

The manual says 7,500. I was thinking around 5,000 for her first one. That will at least get me 2-3 months between changes, or I hope it does. I really doubt I do any oil sampling on it. Because 3,000 only gets her about 5-6 weeks.

 

[SuperStretch18]

The dealer is always going to "request" that you come back every 3,000 miles. It is about their bottom line more than proper maintenance. Go by what it says in the manual.

 

[Evan_in_CA]

I used to go 3000 when I ran dino pressings, but since I've switched to synthetics I tend to go longer. On my commute sled (VW TDI) I go 10k between changes and have verified through analysis that the oil is still fine at that point. That only gets me about 2-3 months so I don't really want to go any shorter than that anyways. I will probably cut that to 5000 for the 5 though; it's the wife's car and is used for mainly around town driving, 5000 miles will likely get her 6+ months anyways. I still have to figure out which flavor of Mobil 1 is right for the 5, haven't yet had the opportunity to look into it. Someone on here said something like 0w-30 or something? I change the filter every time I change the oil, and on the 5 I will be rotating tires at every oil change as well, apparantly.(shrug)

 

[Rocket]

I change it every 5,000. I change the filter every other time. I rotate the tires every other time. i.e. filter on the 5, tires on the zero. So, I changed the filter at 15,000 and rotated the tires at 20,000, filter at 25,000, tires at 30,000 and so on.

 

[jandree22]

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123658830

 

[jeebusm3]

Will probably go around 5k. In my non-turbo cars running full-synthetic, I went 7k. In my turbo cars running full-syn, 4-5k. In my non-turbo cars running dino, 4-5k.

Lots of cars I've had request "break-in" oil stay longer. I rarely keep them in there as long as they want, but generally go longer than normal.

If you change your oil every 3k or sooner, you are just throwing money out the window.

 

[daan]

Most of the time if you look in the manual, "normal" driving is long freeway drives with little speed changes in cool, dry weather. Throw any city-type stop&go, dust, cold/heat, etc. and that puts you in "severe" category. I used to own a Dodge Omni that had close to 300K on the original motor that had it's oil changed every 2.5-3k and it ran just fine up until that bus hit it... Synthetic oil can go longer but if you do anything like what we all call normal I'd still change it every 3K. Don't forget to change the trans fluid and flush out the radiator regularly, too!

 

[B16RacerN2NR]

Let's clear up a myth about synthetic oil real quick... I used to work at AutoZone and they used to send us to all these stupid, yet infomative, classes.

Anyway, Synthetic oil DOES NOT mean you can squeeze more mileage out between oil change intervals. Synthetic coats internal parts and leaves a film on these parts to help reduce friction and to help with dry starts.

Weather you use Synthetic or Dino Oil, go by the manafacturer's suggestion on the changing intervals. Did you know that your oil filter can go through two oil changes before it needs to be changed? Lol sounds weird and completely wrong but it's true. That's another topic in itself though. By the way, I change my filter every time I change my oil...

That being said... I change the oil in my 5, every 5000 miles with Castrol Syntec 5-20. Before I sold both my Turbo'd B16 Civic and my B16 CRX that was on the bottle, each would get the oil changed every 2000 miles with Mobile 1. God I miss those cars...

 

[jandree22]

Anyway, Synthetic oil DOES NOT mean you can squeeze more mileage out between oil change intervals. Synthetic coats internal parts and leaves a film on these parts to help reduce friction and to help with dry starts.

I've read several testimonies of people that have sent synthetics out to the lab for used oil analysis (UOA) after 10k miles and the results came back showing plenty life left. The being said, every make/model/individual motor is different, so certainly realize YMMV.

Edit: Another perspective... No doubt you could find a few that squeezed a bunch of miles out of dino oil with positive UOA as well, but because there's so much interest in synthetics for longer OCI, they're gonna be the ones bragging about it.

 

[B16RacerN2NR]

I've read several testimonies of people that have sent synthetics out to the lab for used oil analysis (UOA) after 10k miles and the results came back showing plenty life left. The being said, every make/model/individual motor is different, so certainly realize YMMV.

I wouldn't doubt that for one second. However, that's more contributed to the oil filter. Companies are so far advanced with the technology that the 'top of the line' companies and the 'bottom of the barrel' companies use pretty much the same technology and equipment to test and design their oil filters. Go take a look at a Wal-Mart brand (i forget the exact name) oil filter, you'll see that even those cheap $1.95 filters meet or exceed OEM specifications. The difference between them and the higher end filters is that they probably are right there on the border of meeting those specs, as to where the higher end filters exceed those specs a great deal. I know Mobile 1 screw on filters have a 'helping valve' (not sure what to call it lol) that helps circulate and pump the oil out. This especially helps when the oil is cold/thick in the mornings and hard to circulate.

I'm not saying you can't squeeze more life out of the oil itself, i'm just saying that 'more mileage' isn't the main thing that Synthetic is for.

They had an article about oil and oil filters last year, I just can't remember what magazine had it...

 

[eszoom]

back in the 70's, the oil and filter change was 3000 mi. now in the 2000's it's 7500. oil and filter technology has gotta be way better now, 30 yrs later to last that long. just to keep it simple i do it every 5000 mi, easier to keep track.

 

[5phreak]

4500-5000 mile intervals, oil and filter, non-synthetic oil.

 

[eilros25]

Every 2000-2500 miles.

 

[coolmazda5]

Every 2000-2500 miles.

(boom06), you don't like the environment huh?

I do the 5000mi as they also do the car checks (levels, brakes, and eventual inspection, blah blah blah) and rotate tires. Somewhere I read that a) car engines are more durable nowadays (it is rare to see an engine blown due to poor oil) and b) oil manufacturers have been forced to build better quality oils. In summary, dealers/car manufacturers who indicate 3500miles just do so to make more money out of the consumers...

 

[olddaddy]

(boom06), you don't like the environment huh?

I do the 5000mi as they also do the car checks (levels, brakes, and eventual inspection, blah blah blah) and rotate tires. Somewhere I read that a) car engines are more durable nowadays (it is rare to see an engine blown due to poor oil) and b) oil manufacturers have been forced to build better quality oils. In summary, dealers/car manufacturers who indicate 3500miles just do so to make more money out of the consumers...

Maybe he doesn't drive much and puts on only 2,500 miles in 4 months.

 

[rweatherford]

I wouldn't doubt that for one second. However, that's more contributed to the oil filter. Companies are so far advanced with the technology that the 'top of the line' companies and the 'bottom of the barrel' companies use pretty much the same technology and equipment to test and design their oil filters. Go take a look at a Wal-Mart brand (i forget the exact name) oil filter, you'll see that even those cheap $1.95 filters meet or exceed OEM specifications. The difference between them and the higher end filters is that they probably are right there on the border of meeting those specs, as to where the higher end filters exceed those specs a great deal. I know Mobile 1 screw on filters have a 'helping valve' (not sure what to call it lol) that helps circulate and pump the oil out. This especially helps when the oil is cold/thick in the mornings and hard to circulate.
...

You haven't cut open very many oil filters have you...... You get what you pay for just like most things in life.

My favorite is the Fram with cardboard end caps, a bent piece of metal for a spring and a string around the middle to hold it all together. (boom07)
What a joke. I'll admit I haven't cut up any $2 oil filters because I haven't purchased one. Perhaps I'll do that just for fun some day.

 

[B16RacerN2NR]

You haven't cut open very many oil filters have you...... You get what you pay for just like most things in life.

My favorite is the Fram with cardboard end caps, a bent piece of metal for a spring and a string around the middle to hold it all together. (boom07)
What a joke. I'll admit I haven't cut up any $2 oil filters because I haven't purchased one. Perhaps I'll do that just for fun some day.

I never suggested using those cheap filters... Plus, were talking filteration quality... not build quality. As you will notice, I said the cheap wal-mart filter meets OEM specs but right on the border. I NEVER said it was as good as something like a Mobile 1 or a K&N Oil Filter...

 

[eilros25]

Maybe he doesn't drive much and puts on only 2,500 miles in 4 months.

My wife and I don't drive much at all. We've put 1451 miles on our Camry since 12/2/07 and 1185 miles on our Grand Prix since 11/4/07. Most all of it is just my wife going to work and 90% of the miles are from in-town driving.

I also grew up on a farm in North Dakota and my dad always changed the oil at 2,000 miles so I just continued to do the same. I know I could change it less frequently but it's worked for me.

We'll start driving a lot more when my wife finishes residency and we move back to ND. We have family throughout the state so we'll be on the road a lot more. Plus, the nearest Mazda dealer is 100 miles from where we'll be living! I'll probably keep changing the oil at 2000-2500 miles though. The extra $50/yr isn't that big of deal.

 

[coolmazda5]

^^ yup, then that makes sense, just add the winter of Indiana and ND and you gotta do what you gotta do (boom06)