When to change oil

[motoring guy]

Change oil only when they are dirty and sticky, there is no hard rule in changing oil. Remember that oil only prevent the friction of engine metals and so they gather dust and some engine residue that is why you change them. I myself have been using cars of different brands for almost 20 years and sometimes I change oil a year or a year and a half only when it is dirty & sticky. Your engine has a filter to keep it clean and the dirt that accumulates that cannot be filtered are the ones that mix with the oil. Changing oil every 5000 km was the marketing strategy of oil companies to keep them selling and they just heat or scrub the oil to purify it and then sell it to us again.....

[dr. d]

if i can heat and scrub the oil to purify it at reasonable cost and effort so i can re-use it, i'd do it, too.

[Jiggs]

I tend to agree....but the irony of it even the oil company doesn't really adhere to that frequent oil change...my Take on this is these we're all overly blown out by this marketing people..siemfpre Sales comes first. They even came up with some high falluting terminologies just to sell their oils. I have worked to diff. Oil company na and all of them follow the oil test results and not the 6 months/yearly change of lubricants. Their internal combustion engines sometimes reach 3 years before an oil change...siemfpre Merton sila ng routine oil sampling and from there they based their maintenance strategy. And that's using mineral oil.

[bmacavanza]

baka car manufacturer not the oil compnay.

[jaymd]

daily drivers every 3- 6 mos. pag garage queen once a year

[Retz]

meron din mga cheap alternative na FS oil. since na mura lang, change oil sila every 5k even with FS oil.

[vinj]

IMO, changing once a year/every 5,000kms is fine. In that case i'd probably use synthetic oil.

[oj88]

Motor oil does four fundamental things:

1. Lubrication - This is self-explanatory.

2. Soot Detergent - Soot will always be produced by the engine as a by-product of internal combustion so it is important that the oil continually be able to do its job of removing it. By design, engine oil is blended with additives and detergents to help remove soot build-up that would otherwise cling to parts and oil passageways.

3. Soot Suspension - Removing dirt and soot is one thing. The motor oil must also carry the displaced dirt to the oil filter to trap them.

4. Coolant - Yes, motor oil complements the primary cooling system of your engine. The primary cooling system typically just cools the cylinder walls and head. The engine oil cools the other important parts where coolant water wouldn't and shouldn't be. For example, most cars nowadays would have oil jets underneath the pistons to help cool them. This is besides the fact that the lubrication properties itself prevents friction and heat build-up or at least, the oil flow helps dissipate heat build-up.

All four properties are interconnected and a failure in one property can cause a domino effect. For instance, the detergent properties of motor oil will eventually deteriorate and get used up in time. When that happens, soot can start to accumulate, and if it becomes very bad, it can start blocking off passageways and tiny orifices. Afterwhich, the suspension capabilities of the oil is compromised and lubrication and cooling to certain parts of the engine can get affected.

So, waiting for the oil to get sticky before replacing them is already probably too late. Manufacturers are building ever more sophisticated engines that have very tight tolerances between moving parts. Not to mention that motor oil is also used in variable-valve technology like VVT-i, VTEC, etc. to control the cam positions and such. Consider that oil passages in these systems are measured in millimeters.

To put things into perspective, here's an example of how small an oil passageway can be... the oil control orifice on a Honda engine.


So as you can see, using old, overdue, and sticky oil will not be ideal and may in fact cause serious engine problems in the long run.

[nashimoto]

ako once a year lang.. every december karga semi synthetic.. kpg may 13th month lang

[ali_diego]

ako once a year lang.. every december karga semi synthetic.. kpg may 13th month lang

hahahaha...like na like brad...:D

[viraccat]

Pareho tayo. about 2,500km lang per year ang natatkbo car ko.

[Retz]

^

mabilis mo mebebnta car mo in the future sir with that super low mileage.

[johnjoseph]

[QUOTE=viraccat;2246759]Pareho tayo. about 2,500km lang per year ang natatkbo car ko.[/QUOTE

Make it a point to fully warm up your engine to optimum temperature in the morning, and or before operation to evaporate whatever moisture that mixed with oil. It will minimize formation of sludge and varnish deposits sa engine, 3 - 5 minutes is just enough for me.

[cardict]

[quote=johnjoseph;2247579]

Pareho tayo. about 2,500km lang per year ang natatkbo car ko.[/QUOTE

Make it a point to fully warm up your engine to optimum temperature in the morning, and or before operation to evaporate whatever moisture that mixed with oil. It will minimize formation of sludge and varnish deposits sa engine, 3 - 5 minutes is just enough for me.

When not in use ,start up my engine to warm up 10 to 20 minutes every other day,is this good enough to reach optimum temperature?ride ,advie 2012

[RC-V]

ako once a year lang.. every december karga semi synthetic.. kpg may 13th month lang

ako once a year din, fully synthetic naman.

[StockEngine]

I get an oilchange every 5k. or 20times a year.

[Retz]

^

long distance travel sir?

[kajjo1]

appreciate the inputs.....thanks!!!!!!

[Retz]

^

no worries sir. and remember that frequent short trips a day less than 10km considered as harsh driving condition din un..... kaya mas early ang OCI.

[rukawa11]

Change oil only when they are dirty and sticky, there is no hard rule in changing oil. Remember that oil only prevent the friction of engine metals and so they gather dust and some engine residue that is why you change them. I myself have been using cars of different brands for almost 20 years and sometimes I change oil a year or a year and a half only when it is dirty & sticky. Your engine has a filter to keep it clean and the dirt that accumulates that cannot be filtered are the ones that mix with the oil. Changing oil every 5000 km was the marketing strategy of oil companies to keep them selling and they just heat or scrub the oil to purify it and then sell it to us again.....

right ...