# How often do you change oil?



## #1DEER 1-I (Sep 10, 2007)

How often would you change fully synthetic oil in your truck?


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## Mr Muleskinner (Feb 14, 2012)

the key is buying a high quality oil filter. You should be able to get about 10,000 miles out of it. We have actually gone further in our company trucks at times and just changed the filter early. If the oil still has a good color to it and is not black it is still fine. Oil on Naval ships will go hundreds of thousands of miles when it is filtered properly. Fact is oil does not loose it's viscosity it simply becomes contaminated with impurities. Remove the impurities and it is as good as new.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

I go about 6 months and /or 7,500 miles according to my owner's manual, about twice as long as what JiffyLube advertises.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

If you really want to know what your oil is doing you need to send a sample off to a lab and have them check it out. I have been using Blackstone labs for about 10 years now with oil out of my diesel truck and on their recommendations I have stretched my oil change interval for regular dino oil out to 7500 miles with no ill effects.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/free-test-kits.php


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

Huge29 said:


> I go about 6 months and /or 7,500 miles according to my owner's manual, about twice as long as what JiffyLube advertises.


This is pretty much the same rule I follow as well.


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## stimmie78 (Dec 8, 2007)

I change the oil according to the oil life monitor on my GM cars. The way the oil life monitor system (olms) works is it's a count down type system. When it's reset it says your engine can turn over x amount of times. The computer looks at the coolant temp, and all other temp sensors and what not to judge the oil temp. Colder oil creates x amount of wear so the computer counts each revolution as something like 2-3. Hot oil is more wear so it counts each as 5-7. I usually wait until I'm at about 15% on the olms before changing it in my Buick and once the light flashes on my Oldsmobile. National oil and lube news says that the GM system is one of the best out there... I trust it.. GM must.. they've been putting a 100k mile powertrain warranty on their cars since 2007. They recommend using the olms and only changing every 3k if the system didn't get reset or accidentally.


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

Stimmie, on my GM truck I change it when the truck tells me to. I agree with what you posted. My Chrysler vehicles get changed about every 7,500 miles.


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## stimmie78 (Dec 8, 2007)

I work at a GMC dealership and I'm seeing most vehicles going 6-8k per change before they hit 0%. Some of the diesel guys are getting near 10k and still have 2-3% left. But the oil field guys that let their truck idle all the time are getting around 3500 miles before hitting 0%. The biggest plus to the olms is it works when you're idling. a 2 hr delay stuck in traffic on I-15 in July is pretty hard on the oil even if you only went 5 miles.


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

Great info. I absolutely love my 8.1/Allison and have trusted the computer for my oil changes. The only problem with this truck is they don't offer that motor anymore.  My daily driver is a Chrysler 300, and my wife drives a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I wish they offered the same system in my Chrysler vehicles.


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## Briar Patch (Feb 1, 2010)

~The OLMS that the GM's have is great. 
~If you don't have a vechile with that on it the safest/best thing to do is change when the manufacturere recomends lest you have warrenty trouble.

If you drive a vehicles where warranty issues do not apply ... well, oils are good enough nowdays that, with a good filter, I wouldn't have any problem going 10k on a synthetic. I usually go 5-6k on mineral based (regular).

If you installed a bypass filtration system and replenished the addatives, you could probably go 50-60k between changes.



Mr Muleskinner said:


> the key is buying a high quality oil filter.


+1

Definitely the biggest factor is the filter. 
The best filters will have synthetic, or part synthetic media. Paper media = nooo bueno!
The good filters cost more - but the difference they make is beyond huge.
K&N, Amsoil Ea, Mobil 1, PureOne, Royal Purple are examples of good ones. They'll be the ones in the $15 range at the auto parts store.
My preference is the PureOne's. Online I can usually pick them up for my vehicles for around $6-$7. I usually buy half a dozen at a time.


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## UtahJax (Feb 18, 2012)

I dive a Volvo, but I use full synthetic and I change my oil every 4 k, owners manual says every 5. But my experience working on cars that is not in the bet intrest of your vechicle


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## #1DEER 1-I (Sep 10, 2007)

Alright guys thanks, I've been changing my mobile one fully synthetic oil, putting a new $10 filter on every 3,500 miles and spending $40 that often with as much as I drive has been getting old.


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## 90redryder (Oct 10, 2011)

I dont go past 5k in my ranger because thats what ford recommends. But seriously who goes to jiffy lube? They charge way too much. I go to wal mart only because its cheaper to let them do it than it is to do it myself.


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## Mr Muleskinner (Feb 14, 2012)

I just checked my mileage yesterday since my last oil change (diesel truck)........8,490 miles and I still have 17% remaining. The oil is clean. You guys can stick to your 3k and 5k plans and continue to waste money and feed the oil industry. If you are running synthetics and only going 3-5 you are throwing money down the drain. The vehicles that we have that do not have OLM have gone well over 10k and high as 16k before we have changed the oil. The vehicles that do have OLM rarely have us changing the oil before 7.5k.

I hear a lot of people saying that they want to get the most out of their car but the fact is statistics say that you will sell it before it reaches 100k anyhow. We have yet to have a truck not last close to 300k. The trucks themselves break down long before the motors due to our line of work.


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## 90redryder (Oct 10, 2011)

Mr Muleskinner said:


> I just checked my mileage yesterday since my last oil change (diesel truck)........8,490 miles and I still have 17% remaining. The oil is clean. You guys can stick to your 3k and 5k plans and continue to waste money and feed the oil industry. If you are running synthetics and only going 3-5 you are throwing money down the drain. The vehicles that we have that do not have OLM have gone well over 10k and high as 16k before we have changed the oil. The vehicles that do have OLM rarely have us changing the oil before 7.5k.
> 
> I hear a lot of people saying that they want to get the most out of their car but the fact is statistics say that you will sell it before it reaches 100k anyhow. We have yet to have a truck not last close to 300k. The trucks themselves break down long before the motors due to our line of work.


I must say im jealous that I dont have a diesel yet, buy you are the one wasting money and feeding the oil industry. You pay 4.25 for a gallon of fuel, and Id be willing to bet your truck has at least double the oil capacity of what mine has plus if you use synthetic it probably costs you 3 or 4 times per oil change than what it costs me, but you still only get double the miles that i get between oil changes. Just pointing out that my little gasser is cheaper to operate, although the only reason I dont own a duramax yet is because I dont have the cash to buy one.


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## Mr Muleskinner (Feb 14, 2012)

We run a synthetic blend. I understand your point with the cost of fuel. We need the diesel trucks to haul and pull the loads that we do. When we bought them, gas was more than diesel and we still get far better mileage than we ever did with the gas engines pulling trailers and the motors will last far longer doing it. My point is more about making the best use of what you have while still getting the most out of it. If I could pull a load and do the job we need done with a 3/4 ton, solar powered moped I would.


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

The biggest misconception is that Full synthetic oil will last longer than standard oil. It just does a better job at what its designed to do not last longer.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

If you take your oil weather it is synthetic or regular dino and send a sample out to a lab such as was mentioned you will find out just what your oil is doing along with if you can run it longer. Synthetic is nice where if you just change out the filter at the correct interval will last longer but you need to change the filter and top off with more synthetic oil but without a qualified oil analysis you are playing around in the dark.


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## Mr Muleskinner (Feb 14, 2012)

Agreed crittter. 

Stuckduck, synthetics can take more abuse than standard oil because they are cleaner to begin with and retain the viscosity longer because they have fewer impurities. Synthetics have been proven to have a lower volatility. It is far superior in high temperatures and does not break down as quickly. Therefore it soes last longer and it does the job better. These are proven facts. Since they are more efficient at lubrication they also allow for more horsepower with less effort which in turn also leads to better fuel economy.

Try this...........Have your vehicle (if it runs on standard oil and does not have an rpm gauge) put on a machine and make note of the rpms at an idle. Change the oil to synthetic brand and do the same thing. I would bet money that your rpms will increase by 150-200 at a standing idle. Same amount of fuel being used but more power generated. For the average car the fuel savings is 10-20% at idle.

I was VERY reluctant to go with synthetic oil but since I have it has made a big difference. That said I am not the type that plans on getting a new car every couple of years. While you do save some money in fuel economy, the true savings comes over the long term, with less engine wear and less frequent oil changes, but the fuel economy can not be discounted. If you are the type that doesn't keep your car for very long, and lets face it most people don't, you should stick with standard oil.


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## kochanut (Jan 10, 2010)

so no one uses Amsoil? 

i likely spelled that wrong


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

kochanut said:


> so no one uses Amsoil?


There are ALOT of different oils out there and a ton of snake oils to... AMS oil is good so is redline and BG oil, no matter what brand you choose to go with I dont think you could go wrong. I have seen a few Dodge diesel guys stretch there oil intervals and end up with ring problems. I have been into many motors that they have overdriven their oil and ended up with issues. My best advise is get a good oil and change it regularly. I have a boat motor that runs very High RPM'S under full load all the time. I change the oil after 25 hours of run time. the cost of oil is very cheap compared to a overhaul bill.


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