No need to change motoroil

i drive a Chrysler LaBaron with over 300,000 miles on it.
i change my oil ever 4000 miles.

and yes it will go to the junk yard when it gives out like the last 5 cars and trucks i have owned.
none have had less then 250,000 miles on them when they died.
two trucks had over 500,000 mile.
they both trucks had after market Frantz Oil Filters that used a roll of Toilet Paper as a filter with these i changed my oil every 6000 miles.
www.frantzoil.com...
www.cumminsforum.com...

With other people i never have understood how they could buy a car every three years and never change oil then trade in the car with the same oil that was in it when they bought it.
I have taken apart engines that never had the oil changed.

On one the oil had turned into jello and filled the rocker arm covers till the oil was coming out of the top of the engine it no longer could flow back to the crank case.
That caused the engine to seize

reply to post by Emipie


You should change your oil every so often. My mom's van just threw a rod due to her NOT having the oil changed! Now she has no car because the repair would cost over $2,000 (and that's at our mechanic friend's DISCOUNT), and the van is worth less than that.

Telling people to not change their oil is stupid and dangerous. It could cost people their lives if the car suddenly stopped in the middle of a street or freeway, as well as costing them a whole lot of money to get the car repaired for damage done by not changing the oil.

Basically, this guy is probably working for the car companies, or repair companies. He's trying to make a buck on the fact that people will be stupid enough to follow his advice and need a car repair or a new car.

Personally I have never paid more than £400 for a car, mostly due to lack of money, but also because I feel anything new seems to be a con.

These £400 cars generally run for two years before being unrepaiarable without silly money. Just driving a car off the forecourt would cost more than that to the cars value, especially at the moment with the current fiscal crisis.

Anyway, I use an additive called molyslip. There was an advert years ago where they took two land rovers iirc. they filled both up with oil and added molyslip to one but not the other. Drained both engines of oil and sent tem to work. The one without molyslip ceased after a relatively short time. The one with molyslip just kept running. Molyslip is the worlds best naturally occuring lubricant (so far, no doubt they'll find another one, one day).

Even in the leakiest of old bangers I have never had any ceasing problems or things associated with oil.

Cheap cars come with character too, if you like that sort of thing. Just be prepared to be 14 years behind the current vehicles. In times of poor economy I fully recommend the cheapest car you can find. I should also point out that I am no mechanic, but have changed a head gasket once on an old mazda 323 by using a guide printed from autzone.com (its surprisingly easy btw, just keep things in bags, take lots of digital photos, and label everything.

If you want to save money on a car, forget not putting oil in, just learn how to do the labour yourself, its the biggest cost at a garage usually.

Take the headgasket change for instance. In a garage you are looking at around £450 to have done, very much depending on make of vehicle etc. About £40 of that is teh cost of the gasket, the rest is labour.

Choosing the best motor oil is a topic that comes up frequently in discussions between motorheads, whether they are talking about motorcycles or cars/trucks. I am happy to see all of the people in here that work on their own cars. I too have been a mechanic for many years now. I have torn down for inspection and rebuild over 1000 engines in my time. Those who run cheap motor oil are nasty dirty. Carbon build-up, mixed with sulphur and graphite leaves a mess to clean up. The better grades leave a clean engine, and regular changes leave little deposits. I have seen valve rockers completely covered with this stuff, and have taken handfuls of it from oil pans. Oil in an engine in like blood in a human, it makes it live, and without it, it dies.

Oil grades can be confusing. Multi viscosity oils work like this: Polymers are added to a light base (5W, 10W, 20W), which prevent the oil from thinning as much as it warms up. High Performance and truck/industrial engines run better and longer with a straight weight of oil, such as 40 weight, or 50 weight. I run 40 weight Rotella in my truck in summer, and 30 weight in winter. I also run a Fram Ultra filter with a dual stage filtration system, and I change oil every 3 months. I like my truck, and want it to run a long time.

I change the oil in my wifes vehicle every 3000 miles or every 4 months or so, which ever comes first. I will continue to do so until we are so old we cannot drive any longer. It costs 40 dollars at Wal Mart to get a complete service and tire rotation. I can spend 10 dollars a month to be sure that my wife won't be stranded on the side of the road.


My HD gets a service every 2000 miles if it is hot outside and 3000 if it is cold. It gets a complete fluid change every other service. I have had it for 5 years and have put 30,000 miles on it and it runs wonderfully.


You don't change your oil atleast every 5,000 miles then you are living on borrowed time. It may run well for a while, but eventually you will be stuck on the side of the road calling a wrecker.

Originally posted by jd140


My HD gets a service every 2000 miles if it is hot outside and 3000 if it is cold. It gets a complete fluid change every other service. I have had it for 5 years and have put 30,000 miles on it and it runs wonderfully.

Interesting, but i think you will find that it is better to change the oil more offer in the winter instead of the summer.

Modern oils don't break down that fast because of heat.
But water in the oil does affect it. In the winter the humidity is higher and the engine temps fall lower when the engine is not running.
this will cause condensation inside the engine and this water will get in the oil.

This can be seen as dew on plants in the morning. You don't see it as much in the summer as you see it in the winter.

In the summer cars run hotter people drive more and the humidity is lower and this evaporates most of the water that might get into the oil on a daily bases.

Water in oil will break down the additives.
And replacing the additives by changing you oil is more important then because your oil breaking down for a reason to do a oil change.

The oil will in most cases protect your engine 3 to 4 times longer then the standard oil change period.
But after the standard oil change period the additives are used up and the dirt and wear metals have built up to a level that may start damaging the engine.

One group of additives are detergents these keep metal particles and dirt floating instead of settling out and building up in the engine. This is so that as the oil filter will catch these particles.

This is why you never used detergent oil in the old pancake VW engines that had no oil filter. Its also why these VW engines did not last as long as other engines.

With detergents in oil most of the particles were ether trapped in the filter or removed by oil changes.

Without detergents these particles are not removed by the filter and sink to the bottom and buildup in the engine sludge over the life of the engine.
if you go 10,000+ between oil changes you will have a lot of this dirty sludge.

If something breaks up this sludge like a oil change all that dirt will be released and over load the filter.

If ya'll want to risk thousands of dollars worth of damage to get out of paying a few extra tens of dollars every couple years, that's your decision.

While I'm sure every 3000-3600 miles is more frequent than necessary, it's a good guideline that helps keep engines running well. After all, oil is dirt cheap compared to engines. That's like 50 dollars a year if you do it yourself with off-brand oil. And since you generally just buy a new car when the engine brakes, that means the oil is dirt cheap compared to the price of the vehicle.

Consider if your improper maintainence takes a year off of the service lifetime of the vehicle. Divide the price of the vehicle by the number of years you use it for. Chances are it's more expensive than 50-75 dollars.

I changed the oil on a girls car who never changed it; she said she didn't know cars had to have oil changes(blond)

When I was draining the oil, nothing came out. Then several minutes later it started to seep out and had the consistency of tree sap/chewing gum.

I change mine every 2k-5k miles.