On Tue, 6 Jul 1999, Jay Mitchell wrote:
> Loren Williams wrote:
>
> Not because 6k oil drain intervals are in any way unreasonable for
> normal passenger car use on paved roads.
8< snip...
> If you don't subject your car to extreme duty, then the manufacturer's
> normal-use recommended drain interval is more than adequate.
Amen, brother. Finally, another voice of reason. I have never used a 3K
mile oil change interval. If I lived in NYC or LA, Death Valley or
Anchorage, sure. But nearly all of my driving is on paved roads, trips
long anough to get the engine up to temperature, and if it's going to idle
more than a few minutes I shut the bugger off. Much as I'd love to say I
log most of my time driving on road courses, I drive like 90% of the rest
of us. The owner's manual for my car has two oil change intervals --
"normal" use and "severe duty". My driving pattern is "normal", other
than an hour or so once every couple of months when I actually make it to
an event. I feel that draining perfectly good oil from my engine every 3K
miles would be environmentally irresponsible, and no, I'm not a Greenpeace
tree-hugger. Call it penance for those oil changes on gravel back in the
'70s. I change the filter at 2500 miles and the oil at 5000, just like
the book says. I think the minivan says 7500, in fact... I'm pretty sure
the Lincoln does. That's a little too much even for me.
I did steer away from Fram oil filters, though -- even though I used them
for 20 years with no oil-related problems in any vehicle I owned. And I'm
now running Mobil 1 in both vehicles that I care about... and the
O'Reilly store stuff in the Toyota. It all far exceeds the manufacturer's
requirements anyway. I wouldn't even put Pennzoil in my neighbor's lawn
mower, though.
Dale
---
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..."
-- Isaac Asimov
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