What’s everyone’s take on OCI mileage? I ask because the place I get my oil changed at puts 3,000 mile due stickers on my window when I get it changed. The 3k oil change has not been around sense the 80’s. Todays synthetic oils and tighter tolerances in manufacturing process allow 5k-7500 or even seen 10k OCI. Amsoil and Blackstone say your oil is still good if your TBN is above 2.0. Check out Bob TheOilGuy.com so much info.
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I have MobilOne full synthetic put in all my older vehicles and the recommended Dexos or whatever GM wants in it for my newer truck. All the intervals on the sticker are 5k for each of them. I change it at 5k. WHether that is necessary or not I am not sure. You are right 3k isnt relevant anymore that was for conventional oil.
My wife’s Denali’s last oil change was last February because she didnt drive it much last summer and it never really leaves town. I have too many vehicles around they dont all get driven much. I have one sitting under the deck that my youngest will drive when he is old enough this summer.
5K for me. Hope people dont go off the monitor. When I change mine at 5k it usually says about 60 percent life left.
Our new VW Cross Sport calls for a 10,000 mile interval. I’m really a die hard old-school guy that changed at 2,000 or less religiously so this ne recommendation has been a tough one to swallow. If I change it on my dime before the 10,000 call for it to be changed, I still need to have that 10,0000 service done to prevent cancellation of the warranty. I’ll do as I’m required until the warranty lapses and then will likely do a 5,000 mile oil change thereafter.
For truck I do 5k, instead of the 10k schedule, just because I don’t drive it daily and 10k takes quite awhile. I like the mechanic looking over everything a little more frequently. Don’t use any special oil, for last truck it called for semi-synth so that’s what they put in. New one will get whatever it says, I haven’t even looked yet.
For daily driver cars one of ours say 7500 miles and the other is 3750 and call for synthetic so we just do that.
Hope people dont go off the monitor. When I change mine at 5k it usually says about 60 percent life left.
That is usually what causes oil consumption issues. I dont even look at that anymore.
5k
Just went to a 3.5 Ecoboost and I’m doing 5K max. In my Ram 5.7s I was going up to 8K but a lot of talk about twin turbos and high OCIs being the main reason for issues, I’m sticking to the 5K.
I have been using Mobile 1 synthetic since 1988 when I went to 5000 mile change intervals. Never had an oil related problem and wear/oil consumption on these engines is absolutely minimal compared to what you used to see with conventional oils.
IMO, the new change intervals are too long. I could not see going to anything beyond 6k on any vehicle and I’m sticking to 5k.
IMO the bigger discussion is whether or not to ignore manufacturer recommendations for these weird super thin motor oils. 0W-17, 5W-20, 8675309W-W18.5, whatever…
In my GMC recommended is 5w-30 and I used that it’s whole life in at 150k it started using oil in high heat conditions. I upped to 10w-40 for the summer. Mich lower oil consumption.
My wife’s Lincoln was more of an issue. 5w-20 recommended. I couldn’t do it. It got 5w30 it’s whole life. No issues.
And yes, yes, yes I made these changes AFTER warranty was up. I just do not like these super thin oils.
Every 5000 miles with full synthetic. 3 vehicles, 2 brands and they all call for 0W-20.
The 2 vehicles I use conventional in I do 3k and he other 2 get motorcraft syn blend at 5k. One of my trucks doesn’t get driven much so only change about once a year. Been using mobile 5000 in it for the last 18yrs of owing it. My 16 f-150 is getting a new engine in it right now and I just asked the mechanic on his recommendation for oil. He said the motorcraft I have been using is fine and what he would recommend. He also said no more than 5k OCI especially with it being a turbo motor. I think checking oil levels and keeping that proper is just as important as using quality oil and changing it when recommended or sooner.
My son’s truck has over 200k on it and me and the two previous owners have exclusively used mobilone. Not sure how it was maintained prior to that. I am wondering if its necessary. I guess it runs excellent, but it was low on oil and due an oil change so I got that done. I made the mistake of saying I thought I had an oil leak (even though I never see oil on the ground and it doesnt smoke blue and never smell anything) and wouldnt you know it the dealer said they found an oil leak. Now, I havent confirmed for myself there is a leak and its just not hitting the ground and burning off on something hot, but should I keep using it or switch to a blend with an older vehicle?
Its cheaper, but I certainly dont want to save a few pennies if its not going to make a hill of beans difference. Aside from having to add oil there are no other issues. Truck runs great.
3,000 mile oil changes are still here, definitely haven’t been gone since the 80’s…… 
Every 3k for conventional oil
Every 5k for synthetic oil.
Now, I havent confirmed for myself there is a leak and its just not hitting the ground and burning off on something hot, but should I keep using it or switch to a blend with an older vehicle?
I have had a vehicle with a leak and it did seem to leak less when I switched back to blend vs full syn. However it is not good to switch back and forth.
As far as intervals any auto tech worth a darn would say these intervals they are setting now is too long. We set our stickers to 3k on blend and 5k on full syn. Can you go longer, sure it’s up to you.
5000 on synthetic and 3000-3500 on semi-synthetic.I never heard anyone say they ruined a motor because they changed oil to often.
They leak less and burn less oil with conventional vs synthetic. Switching doesn’t hurt anything. The only issue I’ve seen is switching from conventional to synthetic on high mileage engines. I had a customer insist on it a while back. 2,000 miles later it was leaking from about every orifice, switched it back to conventional and after another 2,000 miles the leaks stopped.
Not surprised they still put 3k on the stickers. Usually people are late at getting oil changes and if they think they need one at 3k, they’ll probably roll in the shop at 5k and the timing works out perfect.
I asked both both a service clerk at the dealer and an engineer at Ford about this.
The service clerk leaned more towards the sticker for mileage. The engineer at Ford said I could follow the oil life tracker. I have a suspicion that the service dept wants me to come in more often so they can generate more business.
The engineer at Ford took some time to get a hold of but when I finally got him on the phone he said that the oil life tracker under factory settings is absolutely accurate, otherwise they wouldn’t have put in in there.
Probably very dependent on the vehicle, but based on what the communication I personally received, I’m following the oil life tracker. I schedule a service visit when it gets to 10% remaining.
You can change the oil life settings on your vehicle too if you want to go in more or less frequently. I did not change mine.
The engineer at Ford took some time to get a hold of but when I finally got him on the phone he said that the oil life tracker under factory settings is absolutely accurate, otherwise we wouldn’t have put in in there.
Probably very dependent on the vehicle, but based on what the communication I personally received, I’m following the oil life tracker. I schedule a service visit when it gets to 10% remaining.
That’s a lot of trust in that sensor, imo. On my truck that would have me well over 10k miles for every oil change…I used to do 7500 until a longer discussion with my cousin, a mechanical engineer, and my current shop guy who both recommended 5k for synthetic.
That’s a lot of trust in that sensor, imo. On my truck that would have me well over 10k miles for every oil change…I used to do 7500 until a longer discussion with my cousin, a mechanical engineer, and my current shop guy who both recommended 5k for synthetic.
I agree. I don’t know enough about oil life or consumption in vehicles to make the decision on my own, so I sought out multiple opinions.
It’s either listen to an engineer that works on designing the vehicle or listen to the shop who does the oil change.
It’s either listen to an engineer that works on designing the vehicle or listen to the shop who does the oil change.
Understood, so how many miles is it roughly between oil changes for you then?
I have used Mobil 1 for about 35 years or so in all my vehicles. Wix Gold filters.
I run them up to about 5k, maybe a little less, then change the oil filter and add a quart then run it about 3K more before starting over with all new.
Works for me.
Understood, so how many miles is it roughly between oil changes for you then?
Mine are 7500 miles. The shop puts a sticker every 5000 miles.
The monitor isnt just a sensor. It goes off of key cycles and length of trips, driving habits, operating temps and a bunch of other weird stuff. Almost all the crappy engines we see that people complain about are caused by lack of maintenance (oil changes). I think changing a little more often is pretty cheap insurance. When you have trouble after your warranty expires and the cause is oil related that engineer aint gonna do poop for you.
I have to manually reset my oil monitor whenever it goes off so the vehicle wouldn’t know if I just changed the oil or not. Is that the way it is with all modern vehicles?
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