Synthetic Oil Cahnge Frequency

[Bob Corning]

I just switched my '07 ST over to synthetic. The dealer recommended waiting a little while before making the change (I have just over 10K on it now). Dealer said that now I can "extend the time between oil changes to 5K miles." That seems a little too frequent to me. What are the recommendations from those who have made the change to synthetic? I would appreciate your insights.

 

[TomT]

Isn't 5k recommended for plain dino oils? I use synthetic and go between 8k-10k between changes. Any less then you might as well stay with a good dino.

 

[Bill Barber]

I go 6K on the syn, filter and top off at 3K.

 

[Scott Tanner]

I run my '02 15,000 miles on synthetic. Using synthetic and changing it out at 3 or 5,000 miles is just a plain waste of money, It doesn't get you very much.... I changed my Aerostar (aka 'Van O' Doom') oil at 6-8,000 mile intervals, With Dino oil,, and went 205,000 miles before the body rotted off of it. I donated it to a boy scout camp, and they used it for 2 years after that, and it still ran like new... In EXTREME usage cases the synthetic may need to be changed more often, like very short trips, 100+ degrees desert heat or constant towing. JMHO...

 

[Tom Schindler]

I change my synthetic oil once a year. I do not pay attention to the mileage.





Tom

 

[Gavin Allan]

I use Mobil 1 Extended Performance and Mobil 1 filters and change it twice per year, which works out to be around 7,000 miles on the Sport Trac (5W20) and about 16,000 miles on my wife's Subaru Outback LL Bean (5w30).

 

[Jeff C]

I used to go 3k on my Royal Purple. Now that my warranty is officially over completely. I'll let it go to 4 or 5 thousand miles.

 

[Oldtimer]

I've been useing synthetic since 2002, I change the filter every 5 to 6 thousand topping off to replace syn lost with filter change and change the oil around 20,000 miles. never had a problem and oil stays clean the whole time. This is not a recommendation, just letting you know what I do.



God bless,



Jim Jinks

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

Royal Purple recommends you change every 12k w/ a filter & top off every 3k.

 

[Kevin G]

I have been told to go 5,000 - 8,000 miles between synthetic changes (and to change filter each change). My old man on the other hand is a patron of frequent oil changes, tells me 3,000 miles on synthetic! He credits his old bronco two's 298,000 miles on changing oil every 2,000 - 2,500 miles. I'll tell ya what, that bad boy was running good too, if only the floor hadn't rotted out Im positive it would have been around for a few more years.

 

[Richard L]

I switched all my vehicles over to Mobil-1 synthetic oil. My 2001 Sport Trac was switched to Mobil-1 with 10K miles and never had a problem with it.



My 2003 Sport Trac and my wife's 2003 Saturn were changed over at the first oil change which was about 3000K miles. Again, no engine problems an gas mileage improved as soon as I went to synthetic oil.



My new 2008 Mercedes Benz uses Mobil-1 from the factory and they claim oil changes should be done at 1 year or 10K mile intervals. They charge $129 for the oil/filter change, but they do top off all yur fluids and even change the batteries in your remotes as part of the annual service.



...Rich

 

[Alan Peters]

I got about 5K miles before I say its time to change. The most I've gone is 8K. This old dude that lived about the corner used to change his oil every week. It was a religion to him. His garage was filled with floor to ceiling with Mobil 5w30. He died in Jan. The family was giving cases of oil away. I snabbed a few for the mrs. car. Now thats over kill!

 

[Doug Feck]

I've used Mobil 1 since my first oil change and go 10-12K between changes. The ST has 140K miles on it with no engine issues to date (knock on wood ). I also use only K&N Gold filters when changing the oil.

 

[Travis Munday]

Hmmm...one of my engines will go maybe 10 miles between oil changes of full syn...but that's a different story.



TomT is right here. Change it as often or as infrequent as you want.



Don't really be fooled into thinking that because a motor has had no problem due to frequent oil changes, or infrequent, as an indicator of how often to change the oil or how good a motor is. I'd be willing to bet that very, very few engines fail due to old or poor quality oil. Oil that is full of contaminants, sure, but that's a filter problem or other motor problem, not an oil problem. In those cases, it doesn't matter how often you change the oil, as you've got another problem that a 15 min fluid change won't fix. Lack of oil or oil pressure is a much more common reason for an engine to fail.



Unless you are racing or do nothing but extreme driving, just go with what the oil manufacturer recommends.

 

[Ray McIntireJr]

I only change mine once a year too, but I am using AMSOIL. About every 5-7k I change the filter and top it off.

 

[Bob Corning]

Wow! Lots of differing opinions out there on this one! I don't put on a lot of miles, so I tend to go on time vs. mileage. When I was using Dino oil I changed it every 3-4 months, and the miles were usually around 3K. Trying to summarize all of the reccomendations, it seems I could easily go to changing every 6-8 months (or double what I was doing with "normal" oil). I do appreciate all the insights and recommendations. I trust the folks on this site much, much more than the "professionals" at the dealership. Thanks again.

 

[Johnny O]

I have an '08 which recommends a 7500 mile OCI (for dino or Motorcraft Blend) and I seriously doubt that anything is different in the '07. I would run the synthetic for 7500 the first time, get a UOA from Blackstone Labs (link below) just to be safe, then stretch it longer if you want if the UOA is okay.

For what it's worth, I got better UOA's with Pennzoil Platinum than I did Mobil 1. My UOA of Mobil 1 Truck & SUV was utterly awful for wear metals, if you get M1 just buy the plain 5w-30.

 

[ray moyer]

dang... i use mobil 1 synthetic and still change every 3k-3500



:huh:

hmm... maybe i should lay off oil changes a lil bit haha

 

[Dingo]

I run Royal Purple XPR 5W20. After my second oil change with it, I sent a sample to RP directly, and they said I could easily make it to 20k on an oil change if I change the filter every 10k.



I still change it every 5k, though.

 

[Johnny O]

dang... i use mobil 1 synthetic and still change every 3k-3500

That's really too often. Not that it's bad, but you're simply draining out good oil that still has a lot of life left in it.

Synthetic is "better" but how much do you want to spend for "better"?

If you look at the UOA postings at BobIsTheOilGuy.com, you will see that for a 5000 mile OCI there is virtually no difference in viscosity, wear metals, etc. between Mobil 1 and the top conventional oils such as Motorcraft, Havoline, and Pennzoil.

I have seen this in my wife's Taurus. The UOA's for 5000 miles were nearly identical between Mobil 1 and Motorcraft 5w-20's, so now I use Motorcraft for half the price.

In my new '08 Trac I'm going to do a couple early oil changes until I hit 7500 miles, then I'll run Pennzoil Platinum or Valvoline Synpower for 7500 and get a UOA.