5 ms·

>Either we're damaging our cars or you're wasting money and oil. The latter. Most manufacturers recommend 10,000 miles now, some as high as 15,000 (Jaguar, kn

>Either we're damaging our cars or you're wasting money and oil. The latter. Most manufacturers recommend 10,000 miles now, some as high as 15,000 (Jaguar, known for being unreliable): https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/tips-advice/stop-changing-your-oil.html https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/tips-advice/stop-changing-y... Being as how manufacturers have to cover the warranty issues that could be related to lack of oil changes, I go with what they recommend.

chrisseaton 9y ago
I think the UK we don't even have the same 'lube shops' that you do. The dealerships change your oil at the yearly service. It's a whole industry that you have that seems to be entirely redundant!
- fps 9y ago
  dealerships in the US are nicknamed "stealerships." People typically don't go to the dealership for service once the warranty is up, if at all. The dealerships in my area charge as much as 4x the cost of independent shops for maintenance: $120 for an oil change at the local toyota dealership vs. $30 at the garage 1/4 mile down the road. The dealership is also more likely to find non-existent problems with wear parts like brakes, belts, filters, suspension, etc to upsell you or push you to the sales department.
exprA 9y ago
I guess I'm at the other end of spectrum by simply following what the manufacturer proposes: I change my oil along with the filter every 18,000 miles, and so far, after 100,000 miles (and then some) have not had any issues. (My car is rather cheap, or in EV sense practically free, so I'm not all too concerned, either.) The engine does not consume too much oil, either, so a single 4L bottle – about a gallon I think – is easily all that the oil I need between changes. With European prices, that is the equivalent of a single refill (even with my modest tank size), which makes you simply laugh and wonder at all the people that (always) bring up oil changes in the discussion of ICE vs EV. I can't but wonder how many of those actually own and maintain a not-imaginary vehicle.
- darksim905 9y ago
  What vehicle do you drive that you can get away with 18k mile oil changes? And are we discussing actual gas or that diesel crap?
  - wayn3 9y ago
    thats a pretty standard recommendation from practically all german car manufacturers - to change oil roughly every 30-35k kilometers - which is about 18k miles.
    - darksim905 9y ago
      I've never seen that anywhere in the United States. 10k miles is the highest I've seen for BMWs & if it isn't that, people say the typical advice is "once a season" depending on how you drive.
  - exprA 9y ago
    It's a VW Polo from the early noughties. Petrol, albeit a rather small engine to match the car :) To clarify my earlier post, I meant of course that a single bottle of oil is enough for the refill (between 3 and 4 litres) and more than enough for any top-ups for the about 30000 km before the car starts to remind of the end of the “Long Life” maintenance cycle. Oil is certainly not up there when it comes to costs of owning a small car, ICE or not. A cursory look at used oil: it's still rather like the stuff that goes in, albeit black, of course. Without specific tools, I think it's impossible to tell it apart from oil that's used for, say, 10000 km.

chrisseaton 9y ago

I think the UK we don't even have the same 'lube shops' that you do. The dealerships change your oil at the yearly service. It's a whole industry that you have that seems to be entirely redundant!

fps 9y ago
dealerships in the US are nicknamed "stealerships." People typically don't go to the dealership for service once the warranty is up, if at all. The dealerships in my area charge as much as 4x the cost of independent shops for maintenance: $120 for an oil change at the local toyota dealership vs. $30 at the garage 1/4 mile down the road. The dealership is also more likely to find non-existent problems with wear parts like brakes, belts, filters, suspension, etc to upsell you or push you to the sales department.

exprA 9y ago

I guess I'm at the other end of spectrum by simply following what the manufacturer proposes: I change my oil along with the filter every 18,000 miles, and so far, after 100,000 miles (and then some) have not had any issues. (My car is rather cheap, or in EV sense practically free, so I'm not all too concerned, either.) The engine does not consume too much oil, either, so a single 4L bottle – about a gallon I think – is easily all that the oil I need between changes. With European prices, that is the equivalent of a single refill (even with my modest tank size), which makes you simply laugh and wonder at all the people that (always) bring up oil changes in the discussion of ICE vs EV. I can't but wonder how many of those actually own and maintain a not-imaginary vehicle.

darksim905 9y ago
What vehicle do you drive that you can get away with 18k mile oil changes? And are we discussing actual gas or that diesel crap?
- wayn3 9y ago
  thats a pretty standard recommendation from practically all german car manufacturers - to change oil roughly every 30-35k kilometers - which is about 18k miles.
  - darksim905 9y ago
    I've never seen that anywhere in the United States. 10k miles is the highest I've seen for BMWs & if it isn't that, people say the typical advice is "once a season" depending on how you drive.
- exprA 9y ago
  It's a VW Polo from the early noughties. Petrol, albeit a rather small engine to match the car :) To clarify my earlier post, I meant of course that a single bottle of oil is enough for the refill (between 3 and 4 litres) and more than enough for any top-ups for the about 30000 km before the car starts to remind of the end of the “Long Life” maintenance cycle. Oil is certainly not up there when it comes to costs of owning a small car, ICE or not. A cursory look at used oil: it's still rather like the stuff that goes in, albeit black, of course. Without specific tools, I think it's impossible to tell it apart from oil that's used for, say, 10000 km.