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Old Jun 29, 2009 | 12:40 PM
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Default Quick oil change question

I know the rule is to change your oil every 3000 or 3 months. If I only put 1000 miles on my car in 3 months should I change it or wait till 3000 miles? Any info is appreciated. Car is a DD - mostly in city and quite on the weekend.
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Old Jun 29, 2009 | 12:49 PM
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Honestly, if you have not been romping on the car in the last 1000 miles I would say you are perfectly fine. I would let the oil go all the way to 3000 miles atleast.
If this is a good indicator of your normal year round driving style, change it now and send a sample out to one of the oil labs around here. They will tell you how much oil life you have left and let you know a little bit about whats going on inside your engine.
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Old Jun 29, 2009 | 12:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Jwright41
I know the rule is to change your oil every 3000 or 3 months. If I only put 1000 miles on my car in 3 months should I change it or wait till 3000 miles? Any info is appreciated. Car is a DD - mostly in city and quite on the weekend.
Thats not true....3 months 3000 miles is like from 30 years ago oil technology. Today 5k 6 months is fine and longer if you know what to look for.
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Old Jun 29, 2009 | 12:56 PM
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Guess Im just going off of what I was used to hearing so I decided to post and see what my oil changes needed to be.
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Old Jun 29, 2009 | 02:21 PM
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It also depends on whether you run synthetic or dino oil. If you're concerned and don't want to change more often than you need I also recomend oil analysis.

I put about 1000-1500 miles on my ss per year and change my synthetic oil annually. I may be a recreational oil changer, but I like getting under my car once in a while.
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Old Jun 29, 2009 | 10:36 PM
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If you have the oil monitor system, just wait till it says "oil change".
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Old Jun 29, 2009 | 11:17 PM
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Originally Posted by 99RTA
Thats not true....3 months 3000 miles is like from 30 years ago oil technology. Today 5k 6 months is fine and longer if you know what to look for.
This. The 3k thing is an old methodology, but still used today by companies to generate more sales. (At least thats what I follow)

Originally Posted by planemech2
If you have the oil monitor system, just wait till it says "oil change".
Ehhhh. I wont rely on my car's computer system to tell me when to do an oil change, seeing as how you are supposed to reset the computer when you do do an oil change, and how often do people do that?
My oil change light came on the other day for awhile, after just doing it not even 500 miles ago..
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