Oil change intervals?

[mixmasterlove]

Oil change intervals? When are you guys doing yours? I plan on doing mine either every 2,500 OR 3,000 miles, just wanted some opinions. Just to let you know I plan on doing them with the dealership only AND sticking with theoil that they use. Also I live in NY, and drive like 50-80 miles a day 1/2 highway AND 1/2 street, and I have a AWD if that makes a difference.

 

[xavier]

I'll prolly go with 3000 with Mobile.

 

[wolfie81]

okay, confusion...why are you chagnign your oil at 3000 miles when the owners manual clearly states 7500??

do you drive yours harder than the avg.?

personally , I will do 7500 unles I notice an change in performance.

 

[TheMAN]

if you live in a city, do short distance driving, drive in harsh climates, etc, change your oil every 3000 miles or follow the "unique driving conditions" schedule... you DO NOT DRIVE "NORMAL", "normal" is a totally subjective word to begin with and "normal" is a huge self-misinterpretation of one's self activities/behaviors... I can go on all day

 

[sephiroth]

okay, confusion...why are you chagnign your oil at 3000 miles when the owners manual clearly states 7500??

do you drive yours harder than the avg.?

personally , I will do 7500 unles I notice an change in performance.

that's never a good way of telling when to change things... if you wait that long for a ATX fluid change you might as well get a new tranny. oil changes are more specific to how you drive than being car specific... if you drive hard, do every 3K, if you drive like a grandma, then yes.. you can do it every 7.5K..

 

[CXseven]

I always oil change my cars at 3,000 miles regardless of the conditions. Mobil 1 or Castrol Syntec. Mobil 1 is the best oil out there. My CX is nearing 3000 miles, and i will have the dealer do the first oil change since its free, but plan on draining the oil out @ 3500 for that good flushing from factory, and then refill it with Mobil 1 or Castrol Syntec.

 

[koala]

I'll go 5,000 miles on Mobil 1...

I've done oil analysis on many of my previous vehicles and have found that drain intervals as long as 12,000 to 15,000 miles are perfectly fine.

The only thing about going that long is that the *filter* needs to be changed.... so basically I'm to the point where I want to change the filter after 5,000 to 6,000 miles, so might as well just do the oil as well.

Anything less than that is kind of a waste of money and harder on the environment. Not to mention the fact that brand new oil generally doesn't protect as well as oil that has been used for a while (at least according to an oil engineer I know).

 

[hevysrf]

oil change

First change @ 1000 to mobil 1 and I will try to make every 5000 here after , 4700 now. Maple Shade Mazda in NJ made me sign a paper that I would change every 3000 on delivery.
I don't trust 5-30 mineral oil, a previous Chrysler product (3.0 v-6) calling for 5-30, needed its second valve job at 72000. MartyD

 

[azcat]

I had the dealer change the oil at 600 miles, and went with Mobile 1, which I've used for several vehicles, and the OEM filter; will change the oil and filter every 5k. I agree with koala that 3k, especially with a synthetic, is a bit too often, and that it's the filter that really needs changing.

My last three vehicles, all of which used Mobile 1 and 5k oil change intervals, all purchased new:

'97 Miata: 118k miles, still going strong; driven in Phoenix's heat and the various KY climates
'99 Dodge Dakota, 5.2 V-8 4x4: 90k miles (traded because the differential failed) PHX and KY
'04 Santa Fe: traded at 47k miles because it was too ugly to sit next to the Miata; KY only

 

[mwr577]

First change @ 1000 to mobil 1 and I will try to make every 5000 here after , 4700 now. Maple Shade Mazda in NJ made me sign a paper that I would change every 3000 on delivery.
I don't trust 5-30 mineral oil, a previous Chrysler product (3.0 v-6) calling for 5-30, needed its second valve job at 72000. MartyD

The 3.0 was famous for that, it was design flaw thanks to mitsubishi not anything to do with oil change interval or anything else just a poor design that Chrysler purchased.