John Murray

Back in the UK, I used to change my oil once a year - when I got it serviced and MOT'ed. I think almost everyone I knew did the same.

Now I'm in Texas, Jiffy Lube etc. recommends changing the oil every 3000 miles or 3 months.

I am doing about 1500 miles a month (I guess average for Texas!) - which means my car would never be out of the darn place.

Is this just a big rip off - or is there a good reason to change your oil every 3k miles/3 months?

sibsie

Change it yourself. I'm a girl and a very blonde one at that, but changing my oil is the one car thing I did learn to do.

tony126

4000 miles seems to be the standard here. I have a service between 4000/5000
miles cost $30. Not worth getting your hands dirty for.

fatbrit

The UK doesn't have such extreme high and low temperatures as many parts of the US or so many freakin' traffic lights everywhere.

Also, think the longer-lasting synthetic lubricants are much more common over in Europe. They're unusual here and, when available, an expensive option.

Dan725

I used to be an oil change fanatic but now I just do what it says in the book, which is 5000 miles.

fatbrit

After thought: Anybody understand that "rotating the tyres" garbage? Tyres are just nicely wearing in to their accustomed side and then they go move them! Why?

psb182

every 5000 mile.......don't go over that or you will do harm to your engine

BritishInOhio

Always use synthetic and change the oil every 10K, let the car warm up for 2-3 minutes every time I start it up in summer, let it run for about 5 minutes in winter.

Big D

I am at 3000 miles as recommended by Dodge - they do use crap oil here (my Audi back would go 20k!! That said it is dead cheap here - they say its cos of extremes in temperature etc - I am keeping it up for the warranty (and the company pay the bills) I think if you went longer you would be OK - especially this time of year in Texas!!! My mate has just got a european car and the interval is 10k - so who knows - the cars aren't as good probably.

Now rotating tyres is daft - I used to do this in the UK - if you rotate then you just need to replace 4 at once instead of 2! Different with rear wheel drive - but on a front drive you should never really wear out the rears and the fronts should last 20-30K

Tami2

I am a female and would normally just follow the recommendations in my vehicle's owners manual (Dodge here too, every 3000 miles). However, I have to say that my husband is a Petrochemical Engineer (worked 12 yrs for Amoco and another 4 for SABIC/ARAMCO) and he makes me swear to change it every 3,000 miles. He says it is very important in order to maintain the vehicle. So, I do what I'm told!

KarnalEcho

It is recommended to change it every 3,ooo miles. Not sure why. I have always stuck to those rules because my dad was a mechanic in the Air Force and he always did it for me. It's what he recommended, also and I figured he knew what he was talking about. We just got a Mini Cooper 2 weeks ago and it states that we don't have to take it in for the 1st oil change untill 10,000 miles. I questioned this and the guy stated that these were simply made better than the US ones.

scrubbedexpat099

Warranty, is the big one. The Consumer law is pretty crap so best to make sure you comply to the letter.

Cheap, well compared to the UK.

Logic, none that I can think of. Identical cars in the Ford range will do 3 or 4 times as far between changes in EU than they do in US. So is US oil just crap, sounds unlikely, are driving conditions worse?. Certainly not in my case, my average speed here must be 3 times as fast as crawling through central London. Much better for the car. And most temperature changes are no greater than in EU.

I think its just a historical quirk that has not caught up with modern manufacturing tolerances. Perhaps the warranty writers have shares in Jiffy Lube.

Tires I do change, but most performance tires are unidirectional so its just one side. I think its done partly because it comes with replacement tires as a freebie.

But that is because I have a spare set with snow tires so am always switching them anyway. We have had about 10" of snow over the weekend, most now melted. But then that was on the back of a week in the 70's.

dunroving

Tom and Ray say every 5,000 miles: http://www.cartalk.com/content/colum...vember/12.html and http://www.cartalk.com/content/colum.../April/08.html - and they're MIT graduates!

They also say fill the new oil filter before putting it on too: http://www.cartalk.com/content/colum.../March/12.html

BritishInOhio

They also say fill the new oil filter before putting it on too: [/QUOTE]

You'd have to be a mechanical retard not to know that.

dunroving

Or work at Jiffy Lube. Oh sorry, same thing.