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
Changed at 2,500 hard miles forever. Sometimes went as far as 4,000 if life was easy and oil was clean.
Now it’s a matter of time as don’t cover a lot of miles these days. Longest time was about 18 months, and 3,000 miles. Oil always looked clean and no sludge or burn.
But trying to do it once a year unless the mileage factor kicks in.
It does depend on the vehicle. The toys and trucks are about once a year whether it needs it or not. For the trucks that often works out somewhere between 2500 – 4000 mi depending on the rig and what I’ve had going on that year. The toys are usually under 2000 mi per year, though this year I deferred the oil change on one that had seen just over 500 mi.
The daily driver gets it changed based on miles. The default setting of the reminder is 10,000 mi but when I reset it I go with 70%. That means it usually gets its oil changed every 7500 mi which has historically been every 6-7 months.
On all of them I write the date and miles on the end of the filter. Since they mostly get it once a year it is more of a way of knowing how many miles I drove it per year.
I usually tell my customers every 5-6k miles for normal daily drivers or annually if you’re not doing that many miles. Usually the “annual plan” is for Porsches, M cars, and some of the spicier Mercs. My personal cars go by the same rules. I am strongly against the “10,000 mile” changes, even if manufacturers say so, ESPECIALLY on smaller engines. As for the oils I use, I’m a Motul girl.
1967 Nova gets changed every 3,000 by me with Castrol GTX classic high zinc. 2023 Mirage goes to the dealer every 6 months, the time interval. We don’t drive it enought to ever hit the mileage interval.
About every 100k miles.
(Mach-E has a recommended gear oil change then for the planetary reduction gearboxes in each motor unit.)
Well, the Bugeye, I decided, would get a change between 3 & 5k: when it starts looking sus or 18 months if I didn’t run it much. Planning on doing sampling on the Roadster. I swapped in a lower-mileage engine before I put 5k on it, so that reset the counter/timer.
I work my way down the fluids list when I acquire a car. Still need to do brake fluid in the Roadster, then on to gear oils.
Generally I change every 5000 miles. I live in a mountainous area, so they get pulled fairly hard at times going up and down.
I use synthetic and find that leaves me with good looking oil between intervals.
I just ignore the time warnings, like every three months. With modern oils, even no synthetic, the additives they have now keep them from degrading when not I use.
We both drive Mazdas. Every 5k, full synthetic, for both the 3 and the CX-9. Oddly, the CX-9 owner’s manual doesn’t say synthetic, but I am not comfortable with just dino oil in any turbo engine, so it gets the good stuff too.
I try to stick to 3-4k on all of mine, as they are all old. In the 77 Cutlass, that’s about once a year, as it’s in storage for about 5 months.
My old Ford Expedition (aka Exxon Valdez) changed its own oil about every 1,500 miles, so I would just occasionally throw a new filter in it.
The family hauler and wife’s car go off the oil life monitor. My truck, which I drive less than 3,000 miles/year, I just change every year or so. Being the European-engineered Cologne V6, it demands full synthetic.
Used to be once a year, when I was only driving approximately 3000 miles a year. The Civic’s oil would still look reasonably clean, but I was’t going to go two or three years to hit the interval. Now I drive enough it’s every 5k or a little before because that’s required on my Mazda 3. The turbo is more maintenance-intensive than the NA cars.
I do about 30,000 miles a year between my 82-mile round trip commute and road trips to various places, so I stick to 6k-7k oil changes on full synthetic oil, running Mobil 1 15W50. I beat on my cars and it’s 100F+ for like 6 months of the year here, so the oil always comes out looking dreadful from being baked in the heat.
I follow the recommended service intervals.
This piece and all the comments show why this is such a great place to be – for any car site, oil threads are perhaps the litmus test of the community’s overall character.
(for ICE cars anyway; not sure what they talk about on EV sites, I assume Elon Musk)
Not a single commenter here has belittled anyone else’s views, questioned their intelligence or sanity, or provided unsolicited advice about the best and/or only choice.
Now maybe I’m out of touch and the internet is getting better all around and none of this happens anymore, but…I dunno. So Viva Autopia!
I sometimes question my own sanity and intelligence, does that count toward bringing the Autopian down?
That’s what builds it up! No matter what questionable automotive thing that I’ve even contemplated, I know I can come here and hear from someone not afraid to tell their tale of accidentally setting theirs on fire or trying to produce their own oil to save money or whathaveyou.
Musk oil is stinky.
The other interesting thing is there are a lot of the same responses, of it depends on the car. Of those there are a lot of once a year whether it needs it or not for the lightly used cars and when it tells me or a bit before it is going to tell you for the daily drivers.
Generally, once a year. I don’t put enough miles on any one car to require any more than that. The Fiat got an oil change when it came back from body/paint in spring 23 and will get another one once it’s put on a few thousand miles.
Every 5,000 to 6,000 miles, but i use liqui moly and a German filter for the newer Volvo, and mobil 1 extended with wix or a German filter for the older Volvo and the kia van. Transmission fluid changes every 60k miles too.
Daily Drivers: 2016 Mazda6 (me) and 2018 Kia Sedona (my wife). The 2.5 “SkyActiv” four-cylinder in the 6 asks for 0W-30 full synthetic, and the 3.3 “Lambda” V6 in the Sedona requires 5W-30 full synthetic. As such, I have them both changed at 5,000 miles.
I’m not comfortable with the longer intervals that can technically be done with full synthetic oil, because both cars tend to do a lot of short, around-town trips.
My 1990 Pontiac Sunbird, however, is a 66,000 mile survivor garage queen and its 2.0 OHC four-cylinder that GM sourced from Opel in Brazil likes regular (non-synthetic) 5W-30. I change it once a year (regardless of the mileage) since the car only averages 1,000 – 2,000 miles per year driven.
About 3500-4000 miles on our SI6 Volvos, but it’s more on time (~6-9 months) since they don’t see huge mileages on the reg and I’m more worried about good cold-start and stop-and-go protection.