seschenburg

My 2 cents...

If I had a high-dollar show truck I might change my oil like you do, assuming I might want to sell it someday.

If I had a part-time fun truck that I took to local car shows, I'd probably not change it so often. I'd probably just change the filter annually, and the oil every few or several years after pouring in a can of SeaFoam to give it a good cleaning. I'd also run it up to normal temperature whenever I took it for a spin to burn out any moisture in the crankcase. Storing the vehicle in a temperature-controlled space would lessen the amount of moisture that developed, I believe.

It's not the oil that goes bad, it's the additives. If you could find a way to filter the oil sufficiently and then refresh the additives you'd never need to change it.

justintendo

mobil 1 hm is about $25 for 5 quarts..plus the filter..
i cant bring myself to pay the individual quart price...good choice on the hm, good stuff for these. the hm 10w-30 is already very thick for a 30 weight oil, but my truck really doesnt see winter use.

David Young

I buy the 5 quart jug too. Its the single quart that cost something like $7 and the filter for almost $7. With tax added, the oil change cost a little over $40

raski

I believe you are wasting a natural resource, your time and money. If you have doubt, get an oil analysis. I have two older, infrequently used vehicles. I change them at two to three years or when I get three thousand miles. The oil and engines are clean. After getting the two engine's oil sampled, I was told I could have gone longer. In your case, I wouldn't even consider doing it with less than two years. A good run once in a while would burn off any small amounts of moisture which may have accrued.

justintendo

yeah the mobil 1 is like that..sometimes it pays to just get 2 5-qt jugs and then have extra. mowers and such benefit too.
spring and fall mobil has 12 dollar rebates on each jug. usually good for 2 jugs..so, i just buy 2 jugs every spring and fall..it gets used

David Young

That's a great idea. I'm going to do the same thing for my Mustang because it holds 6 quarts of oil too. It's always that 6th quart that messes up the 'cheap' oil change when you buy the 5 quart jugs

fltdriver

I view oil as a stock up item, I'm not brand loyal anymore. Back in the old days "cheap" oil was a gamble, now there are so many reg's that anything available now is good quality, some may be better but everything will protect as it should for the usable life of the oil.

I see a decent sale and buy as much as they allow, sometimes making return trips to max out again. We have 5 vehicles and all my equipment for the lawncare company so it gets used within a year or two. By stocking up I can average 10-15 for synthetic and 5-10 for dino per change.

Edit:

Another thing I do to reduce oil change cost is buy one or two years worth of filters from rockauto instead of paying local prices, can get WIX or motorcraft/acdelco for around $3 average per vehicle when buying together and playing with quantities to get the lowest shipping cost.