how often to do an oil change??

Anonymous · January 13, 2004, 11:33

How often should i be changing my oil??

at the moment i'm doing it every service (about 9k) which is about 6 months for me??

Is this correct or should i be doing it earlier??

my car has just come out of warrenty so i'm trying to make sure its looked after as much as possible.

Thanks

Alan

Slacey · January 13, 2004, 11:41

That sounds fine. Some change every 5000 or so, but I'll stick to every 10000 until it's out of warranty, then maybe more frequently.

mph · January 13, 2004, 13:06

The cleaner and fresher your oil the better - or put another way, change it as frequently as budget allows. Those doing short journeys, or those tracking their cars (or both) put the oil under more extreme conditions and I'd recommend in those cases a shorter period be adopted. Pre-turbo days I had an intermediate oil change at 5,000miles, ie. half way between officially scheduled ones. Now, I've dropped to two changes between services, ie at 3,333mile intervals - note my car has the turbo, short journeys and track days to contend with though.

Anonymous · January 13, 2004, 13:12

For my 2p's worth...

I think it depends on a number of factors, not least how cautious you are and how willing you are to fork out for extra oil changes. Your engine will suffer less wear in the very long term, so perform better for longer if you change the oil more often, but is it worth it? At what mileage will you see a benefit? I suspect 150k+.

How long are you planning to keep the car? If not until very high mileage then do you think the extra oil changes will help resale? Possibly.

How do you drive the car. Gently and lots of long journeys? Then the oil will last longer than hard use on short journeys where it will become contaminated with uburnt fuel, water and combustion products.

Me? I change my oil every 6 months or 5000 miles and my Mondeo with 75k sounds and runs as sweet as it did 55k miles ago; the diesel Polo I sold with 115k miles was as good as it was at 40k. The MR2 has had its first change at 1200 when I started to use its performance more "fully"!

Up to you really!

Anonymous · January 13, 2004, 22:43

mph put it clear. I would say that if you change your oil filter each time you change the oil, and use a good syntetic oil, you can do 10 000km, providing you don't race or make a big part of those kms in very frequent and short trips.

Anonymous · January 14, 2004, 08:11

after reading the replys to my post, haveing my oil changed after every 9k seems acceptable as most of my cars miles consist of travelling to work which is down the motorway and the distance is 25 miles.
I also hardly ever drive my car hard and also never take it on track days.

Thanks for peoples replys

Alan

Anonymous · January 19, 2004, 16:04

just checked my oil and it is about a querter of the way up from the low. I am thinking that I might top it up .. anyone have any oil too recommend?

Anonymous · January 19, 2004, 18:03

floater

If you now what is currently in, use the same stuff.

I would surprised that your oil had dropped so low. Is it a high mileage car? Any obvious oil leaks?

Anonymous · January 20, 2004, 09:20

no it is not a high mileage car .. I have done 12.5k in 12 months ... erm I do not know what oils in ... whatever they put in at the first yr Toyota Service I suspect.I will check th eoil level again coz thinking about it the car wasn't cold as I had driven home.

Slacey · January 20, 2004, 09:26

One thing I've found with this car is that it needs to be stone-cold to get an accurate reading... try first thing in the morning.

markiii · January 20, 2004, 15:32

interestingly not according to the manual. Which advises you to get the engine up to operating temperature. switch off, wait 5 minutes and then take a reading.

Anonymous · January 26, 2004, 09:38

I'm rapidly approaching 6k and looking at the previous posts am thinking that an oil change may be in order s:?: :?: s:?:

before I speak to Mr T can you give me an idea of what I should be paying for this? (I'd want filter changing too) - would hate to think that they'd take advantage of a girlie by over-quoting s:wink: :wink: s:wink: any recommendations on oil ? I do about 15 miles per day to and from work which is pretty much stop / start for much of the journey, plus loads of tearing around on longer, faster (more enjoyable) journeys.

TIA

markiii · January 26, 2004, 09:54

There an awful ot of opinions on this, so for what it's worth

MrT recomend semi synthetic, so I'd stick with that. I know a lot of people use it but I'd steer clear of magnatec.

I'd also steer clear of anything to thin so 0w something oil.

In short any good brand 15w40 semisynth.
and no that not what I'm running, but I have specific reasons for what I'm trying at the moment. the above would be the all round safest option.

Anonymous · January 26, 2004, 19:19

Thanks Markiii - very helpful. Better to be safe than sorry with these things so am gona try and get it done this week.

cheers!

Anonymous · January 26, 2004, 21:02

When I picked up my new MR2 last week, I was presented with a complimentary litre of oil. It's BP Visco 3000 10W-40, synthetic based oil.
Presumably if I'd bought 2 MR2's, I would have been given 2 litres. What a deal s:lol: :lol: s:lol: