How Often Should You Change Your Oil?

You know that at some point you need to change your car’s oil, but how often? Since it varies depending on driving conditions and your driving habits, the response can be confusing. For you, let us simplify it.

Until major changes in fuel-delivery systems, engine materials, processing processes, and oil chemistry, optimistic figures for oil-change periods used to be as low as 3000 miles. Modern engines today usually drive stretch cycles of 7500 or even more than 10,000 miles. So what answer is right?

When Your Vehicle Is in Warranty

When a car is new, the solution is simple: if you don’t want to cancel the warranty on your powertrain, follow the oil type, mileage and timing instructions in the owner’s manual. (Lost the manual of your owner? It’s possibly available online.) In most situations, for necessary inspections and repairs, you can take your car to the dealer, and oil adjustments will be included in that regime.

Some newer vehicles are fitted with an integrated oil-life display. This gadget uses an algorithm, sensors, and software that keeps track of driving temperatures, cold start, driving hours, idling hours, and engine speeds. This data is used to measure the oil condition and the warranty-preserving shift intervals. Bear in mind that the oil monitor is adjusted for the type of oil recommended in the owner’s manual. Service warnings are shown in the tool cluster. In certain devices, one of the instrument cluster information screens will read the remaining oil life as a percentage. This is a lot different from the red oil-pressure alarm light that glows when you start the engine. If that’s on when you’re driving or idling, it means you’re out of oil or have a really serious engine problem. Time to park and get the key off.

When Your Vehicle Is out of Warranty

Once you’re out of the manufacturer’s warranty, setting change intervals needs some common sense and an informed guess—unless your vehicle has the oil-life monitor described above. There are also different recommendations for regular and serious driving. Intervals vary greatly depending on who you are asking, if you are towing (and how often), the time of year, and even where you are driving.

Severe conditions include:

• If you make many short trips of five miles or less (in normal temperatures)
• If you make many short trips of 10 miles or less (in freezing temperatures)
• Extreme hot-weather stop-and-go driving
• Driving at low speeds for long distances
• Lots of miles on dusty, muddy, salty, sandy, or gravel roads
• Long-distance trailer towing

Intervals of Oil Change – Older Vehicles

Older cars usually have oil change intervals dependent on the mileage and have two maintenance schedules, one for “standard” vehicles and the other for “extreme service” vehicles. The latter category includes running your car under one or more of the following conditions:

• Mainly short trips (5 miles or less)
• Very hot, cold, or dusty weather.
• Sustained stop-go driving
• Wearing heavy loads or towing a trailer

If the use of your vehicle falls within the strict service definition set out in your owner’s manual, keep your car on a more rigorous schedule. However, if you drive your car under normal conditions, be wary of spending hard-earned money on oil change services and other maintenance work that your car may not need or benefit from.