Oil is the lifeblood of a car. Realistically, all the fluids are—coolant and transmission fluid too—but oil tends to take center stage. It needs to be changed far more regularly than the others, and failing to do so can trash your engine in short order. So I ask you—how often do you change your oil?
I’m not sure how I’m going to measure up in this regard. I suspect I’m not diligent enough and I’m going to catch mad flames for this, but I’ll take my chances and be very honest with you. I change my oil, ideally, on an annual basis. Once a year. Too often? Or, as I suspect you’re screaming at the monitor—not enough!
A year is a long time, it’s true. And if I’m honest, life gets in the way, and more often than not, it stretches to 13, 14, or even 15 months at times. That probably is too long. But I beg you to consider a mitigating factor—I don’t drive very much!
I’d estimate that, on average, I do maybe 6,000 miles a year. Probably less now that I live in the city. Meanwhile, modern automakers tend to suggest oil change intervals closer to 7,500 or 10,000 miles. Based on those figures, I’m bang on the money!
Funnily enough, I change my transmission fluid far more often than the recommended intervals. Manufacturers usually state huge figures like 50,000 miles, 100,000 miles, or even claim the transmission has “lifetime fluid.” I normally change this fluid within a few months of buying a car, even if its well under that figure. Sometimes I do it by accident.
Still not convinced? The pros have some insights, too. As covered by The Drive, the oil analysis experts at Blackstone Labs have explored this in detail. They’ve routinely found that it’s mileage that matters, more than time. Apparently, if the oil’s just sitting in your sump while the car is parked, it’s not really degrading very much. It’s when it’s getting pumped around a hot engine that it starts to pick up contaminants and break down.
Fundamentally, that knowledge gives me a lot of confidence that I’m not hurting my cars by only changing the oil every year or so. If I start driving a lot more, or if I get a more delicate older vehicle, I might up that to every six months or so. For now though, I think I’m sitting pretty at the yearly interval.
If your oil looks like a poopy milkshake, you’ve probably waited too long to change it.
Ultimately, though, this is Autopian Asks, so I’ll throw it over to you. How often do you change your oil? Do you do it based on your own gut feel, or do you religiously stick to manufacturer recommendations for time or mileage? Sound off below.
Image credits: Lewin Day
Extended warranty requires every 12 months or 10K. PHEV here so once a year meets those requirements. Most use is battery otherwise it would be 5K or so for the ICE.
For my three Germans (two ’11 BMWs and a ’14 Mercedes), when the computer tells me to, which is typically once a year. That’s 5-8K. The BMWs at least have an oil life algorithm, and oil quality sensor, AND hard limits of 10K or 1 year, which ever calls for a change first. Not sure how Mercedes does it, but it seems to call for services in about the same amount of time. For my two Brits (Triumph and Land Rover) that only get driven summers and not much at that, every few years. Probably 1.5K-2K.
I generally use Mobil 1 or Motul.
Every 5,000 miles for turbo vehicles, and every 10,000 miles for the NA stuff, or yearly-ish, which ever comes first. I use synthetic oil and high quality filters, our driving cycles tend to favor longer over shorter trips, minimal stop and go traffic (ie not severe duty), and I do the occasional oil analysis, so I am more comfortable with the longer intervals.
That being said, I roll my eyes at lifetime fluids, so once a vehicle is over about 60,000 miles I start doing partial drain/refills for automatic transmission fluid, usually coinciding with the 10,000 mile oil change intervals. I am comfortable going 100,000 or more on manual transmission and differential oils, unless there are indications of an issue.
I am rapidly getting out of the oil change business with our EVs though, and I can’t say I miss it. I am undecided on how long to go before starting to mess with the transmission oils on those.
I read that the gearbox oil on EV’s can vary a stupid amount. Typically if well designed you’re set for a very long time. I think the Bolt specs 150k miles and has a good shot of going there but early Hyundai/Kia EV’s (think original Ioniq Electric, Kona Electric, Soul EV) have a garbage design that fouls the oil practically off the factory line but it’s fuzzy on what the interval should be.
Personally, I’d probably do it once early and not think about it for a very long time.
there’s also the weird coolant thing going on in some of those Hyundai EVs
Every 3500 miles. Grew up working in a service station and performing thousands of oil changes and that was the head mechanic’s rule-of-thumb back in the day. Just kind of stuck. Many years later, when I purchased a new ‘86 Saab 900 Turbo, the recommended oil services interval was 3750 miles. I ran synthetic in the Saab from day one, but still adhered to the 3500 miles. The rest of the fluids were replaced in accordance with the factory maintenance schedule (some things were 7500, others 15k and 30k). Put over 500,000 miles on that engine, which never required any major work and was running like a champ 30 years on when the frame cracked in half and sent the Saab to the Kidney Foundation as a donation. So, I still swear by frequent oil changes no matter what is recommended in manuals today.
These days, rolling up only 3,500 miles annually, I change the oil and filter every 5,000 – Pennzoil Platinum and Purolator. In years past, with long commutes and 15,000 per year, I changed it every 7,500. Blackstone results have always been stellar, as expected. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to ensure long engine life.
If only the folks at Jatco applied their genius in transmission engineering to an engine, we could have lifetime engine oil too!
Since my vehicles are now smart’err…have maintenance minders, I change the oil when they hit 20% oil life left. For the turbo ones, I may get antsy if the miles goes over 5000.
In years long past, I’d do changes every 5000 miles for synthetic and 3500 miles for regular dino juice. For cars that only had 3 quarts, it was 3500 miles regardless of oil type.
My father had a Ford Econoline with a 351ci, 3-speed, towing ratio diff. Many summer highway trips with a pontoon boat. It would cook 5 qts Castrol Full Syn in 3000 miles.
Every year or 10000 miles – which is when the service notification comes on.
And it’s generally been a year rather than the mileage
Heavily depends on which car we’re talking about. My old stuff, usually around 3500-4500 miles.I don’t buy the whole “time based intervals”. My K2500 only gets driven 1500 or so miles a year, so I’ll go a few years between oil changes. Plus 7 quarts of high zinc oil gets spendy… My Volt? When it tells me to, because I nearly never run the gasoline engine, so miles are useless to go off of.
I also ALWAYS go off of the “extreme duty” cycles. Our 2011 Escape recommends 10,000 miles on conventional oil for the “regular duty” OCI. No way.
5000 miles if it doesn’t have an oil life measurement (were early 90s GM cars the first to have that?) Air filter every two oil changes.
I do a 5000 mile increment, it’s usually at about 20% life on the oil monitoring system by then. Currently at 135,000 miles. The truck is a 2015 F-150 that has a 5 liter V8.
I don’t drive very much so once a year for the Fiat soon after pulling it from storage and twice a year for the winter car, usually spring & fall. Also woo sign-ins seem to work a little better than this morning
6 months generally. Outside of the first 2 years or so I had my Compass before COVID, I generally drive roughly 1,000 miles a year, so going by mileage would mean an oil change either ever 3 or 5 years…. which doesn’t make an ounce of sense.
Sometimes I push it out a little while if I check the oil and it’s still golden. Furthest I think was like 10 months in-between?
Well, my oil generally gets changed a couple times per day, I try and keep it nice and-
Oh wait, we are talking about my car’s oil? Oops.
Better Call Saul!
I set my reminders for 4k miles so that I am sure to get to it by 5k-ish.
All the cars/truck get changed at 5k miles. The motorcycle once a year at the beginning of the riding season. I rarely make it to 3K on the bike each year so once a year seemed like a nice compromise
Every 5 K km and filter, cvt or transmission, every 30k km and filter, coolant, every year, brake fluid including bleed, every year. Gear oil every 30k km.
About once a year in my Mustang, oil life monitor is generally around 35% at that point. Although with my kids getting large enough to be in booster seats now that’ll probably increase since I can drive them in it more. In my Kia it is about every 6 months (5-6,000km).
5k for both road cars, regardless of time interval. Might be 6 months or might be 18. Used to care about time, but no longer worry about that after several Blackstone samples plus their article.
Don’t forget to check the level every so often though!
This is the way. I did an oil change on our Pacifica before I went to the airport for a trip on Wednesday. When I reset the Oil Life thing it was a 53%. Same with the GTI when I did it this spring. Oil – even synthetic – is cheap compared to an engine.
I wait for a coupon to comes in the mail. I learned from Kia that they don’t trust the info people say about changing their own oil. I was lucking they replaced my engine for free though. However, I stopped doing it myself after that. I even had receipts. I do what the manual says for severe condition 5K miles and usually have a coupon for it.
When the cars tell me to. The PHEV has its engine run so rarely, I don’t go by miles, just when the computer says it is time. Typically once a year or less.
For the Odyssey, it also has an oil life gage, and just been going off that. Last time it also said the transmission fluid needed to be changed, after passing 50k, so we did that. I suspect that’s a mileage-based indicator, rather than whatever it does for the oil.
Like many said, it depends on the car. If it’s a car purchased solely for the purpose of commuting and isn’t intended for high performance or other “extreme” conditions, I’ll run it until the oil change gauge tells me to do so.
If it’s a vehicle I like, I’ll try to do it once a year or every 5k miles, whichever comes first. Since both the wife and I work from home (we were doing it before it was cool!) I find it’s the annual marker at this point more than the mileage.
The real question is if it’s a vehicle that gets put away for the winter, do you change the oil before it goes into storage or after it comes out? I feel after it comes out is best, if it did get any moisture it is flushed out when the oil is changed. It’s when I change my K5’s oil. I’ve heard arguments the other way though, and even arguments to change it when it goes in and out. I have to think that made more sense when oil didn’t have the longevity it does now though.
Yeah I kind of like doing it when it comes out of hibernation, rather than before. Just seems right to have the fresh oil at the start of the season. With today’s oil prices I’m certainly not doing the before and after thing.
I’m targeting 5-6k miles on my Toyota, following the maintenance minder on the Honda’s I handle but those generally come due around 3-5k miles – usually around 5k but one of them is idled and short-tripped a LOT
On the 2.4 (both) Hyundai and Kia I no longer have, that would be 3k miles. “Severe” service for the 2.4 and 3.3 is 3,750 miles, 3,000 for the 2.0T. It won’t stop the Theta defect but it definitely could buy time. Albeit not much if it makes a difference – but Blackstone analyses came back consistently clean at least.
The old Sienna got 3k mile intervals too but that was habit and fear of the 1MZ gel issue.
I definitely acknowledge the 4Runner can hit the 10k miles interval and not die an early death like other Toyota’s before it but I think my driving is a little tougher plus off-pavement duty.
Mostly manufacturer recommendations. I push the Prius interval because I know the recommendation was longer in other parts of the world and I’ve done the UOA to know that the oil is fine after 10k miles so anything up to that is acceptable. In the 65k miles I’ve put on it the oil consumption hasn’t meaningfully increased, so I take that to mean I’m fine. Almost everything else gets annual changes because I don’t put enough miles on them to need it more often. Again, UOA says the oil coming out after a year is in excellent shape so I consider that plenty often.
It depends on the car. I own all German stuff, and those engines tend to take a reasonable quantity of oil. The N52, N51, and M52TU in my arsenal all take close to 7 quarts. I change their oil every 5,000 miles. I drive enough that I never go over a year between oil changes.
However, a lot of domestic and Japanese engines take basically no oil. My brother-in-law’s Toyota Corolla takes just over 4 liters. That just isn’t enough oil! If I had a car like that, I would do every 3,000 miles, max.
I had a 2015 WRX that legitimately could have stood to have more than a 5-litre capacity: boxer engines and oil starvation, my beloathed…
I, too, have gone German, and mine has an 8.2-litre capacity, which makes me feel much calmer.