How long do you guys let ur cars sit before changing the oil?
12-10-2011, 06:30 PM
#21
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I've read the same thing also in 2 different magazines, I don't remember which magazines they where in but one was a motorcycle mag and the other was a car mag both were in story's on preparing your car/bike for winter storage.
12-12-2011, 12:40 PM
#22
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The car sits every winter for 5-6 months without moving, and during the spring/summer/fall I only drive it about every 6-8 weeks. This has been going on for a long time, and the car always runs perfect. I keep Stabil in the gas at all times, and the engine always fires up perfectly. The main thing is that when you DO drive/run it, make sure you bring everything up to temp and not just a quick trip around the block or a few minutes of run time. To start the engine for 10-15 minutes once a week during storage, like some people do, is far more harmful than to leave it sit for 6 months without being started at all.As for oil, I use synthetic and was changing it once a year (in spring) for a long time. Recently, I've pushed this out to once every two years, because the car is only seeing about 200-300 miles of driving per year lately. And those miles are never short trips, it's always a long drive in warm weather that gets the oil fully up to temp. That is simply not enough mileage to degrade a synthetic oil to a point were it is unable to neutralize the small amount of contaminates that have been gathered.
I'm all for taking the best care possibile of my cars, but overkill just isn't necessary. Seems like dumping oil every year, with only a few hundred miles on it, was overkill; the oil would come out looking as clean as it went in. And I never have any moisture build up on the bottom of the oil fill cap either (that white creamy stuff that you get with lots of short trips, especially in cold weather), so excess water in the crank case doesn't seem to be a concern at all.
With my Nova I'm still on the once-a-year, in the spring, oil change program, because that one gets driven a little more (about 1,000 miles per year), plus I don't use synthetic in it.
12-14-2011, 07:34 AM
#23
My '98 has sat for months at a time over the last 13+ years, and it has not killed anything. The car sits every winter for 5-6 months without moving, and during the spring/summer/fall I only drive it about every 6-8 weeks. This has been going on for a long time, and the car always runs perfect. I keep Stabil in the gas at all times, and the engine always fires up perfectly. The main thing is that when you DO drive/run it, make sure you bring everything up to temp and not just a quick trip around the block or a few minutes of run time. To start the engine for 10-15 minutes once a week during storage, like some people do, is far more harmful than to leave it sit for 6 months without being started at all.
As for oil, I use synthetic and was changing it once a year (in spring) for a long time. Recently, I've pushed this out to once every two years, because the car is only seeing about 200-300 miles of driving per year lately. And those miles are never short trips, it's always a long drive in warm weather that gets the oil fully up to temp. That is simply not enough mileage to degrade a synthetic oil to a point were it is unable to neutralize the small amount of contaminates that have been gathered.
I'm all for taking the best care possibile of my cars, but overkill just isn't necessary. Seems like dumping oil every year, with only a few hundred miles on it, was overkill; the oil would come out looking as clean as it went in. And I never have any moisture build up on the bottom of the oil fill cap either (that white creamy stuff that you get with lots of short trips, especially in cold weather), so excess water in the crank case doesn't seem to be a concern at all.
With my Nova I'm still on the once-a-year, in the spring, oil change program, because that one gets driven a little more (about 1,000 miles per year), plus I don't use synthetic in it.
The car sits every winter for 5-6 months without moving, and during the spring/summer/fall I only drive it about every 6-8 weeks. This has been going on for a long time, and the car always runs perfect. I keep Stabil in the gas at all times, and the engine always fires up perfectly. The main thing is that when you DO drive/run it, make sure you bring everything up to temp and not just a quick trip around the block or a few minutes of run time. To start the engine for 10-15 minutes once a week during storage, like some people do, is far more harmful than to leave it sit for 6 months without being started at all.As for oil, I use synthetic and was changing it once a year (in spring) for a long time. Recently, I've pushed this out to once every two years, because the car is only seeing about 200-300 miles of driving per year lately. And those miles are never short trips, it's always a long drive in warm weather that gets the oil fully up to temp. That is simply not enough mileage to degrade a synthetic oil to a point were it is unable to neutralize the small amount of contaminates that have been gathered.
I'm all for taking the best care possibile of my cars, but overkill just isn't necessary. Seems like dumping oil every year, with only a few hundred miles on it, was overkill; the oil would come out looking as clean as it went in. And I never have any moisture build up on the bottom of the oil fill cap either (that white creamy stuff that you get with lots of short trips, especially in cold weather), so excess water in the crank case doesn't seem to be a concern at all.
With my Nova I'm still on the once-a-year, in the spring, oil change program, because that one gets driven a little more (about 1,000 miles per year), plus I don't use synthetic in it.
I just switched to the 1 oil change every 2 years since I only drive the car around a 300-400 miles a year. My last oil sample sent into Blackstone labs at the 1 year interval came back as good as new oil. So this spring will be 2 years since my last change and I plan in sending a new sample in. This summer I did have more shorter drives than usual due to trouble shooting tire, wheel, suspension troubles. So it should be a good test to see how the oil has held up.
12-14-2011, 11:06 AM
#24
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I was going to do this with mine this spring when I changed it, but totally forgot until after the old oil was gone. My guess is, your results will still show that the oil is within a useable range.
