Just as cars have changed over the years the oil we put in them has changed. However, there are two myths about changing oil that have persisted, fueled in large part by the oil industry itself.
Myth Number One
The first myth is that you should change your vehicle’s oil every 3,000 miles.
Myth Number Two
The second myth is that you should change your oil when it gets dark-colored. Modern oil does get dark over time because the detergents it contains are designed to suspend soot particles and keep them from becoming sludge. (Sludge build-up used to be a common problem in cars that used nondetergent oil.) If you look at your oil at 3,000 miles, you’ll see that it has become darker, but that oil will still work perfectly fine for lubricating and cleaning your engine for another 4,500 miles under normal driving conditions.
Changing Your Oil
Before we examine those myths, let us look at how vehicles and oil have changed over the years. In some ways, the changes have been hard on folks who like to work on their own cars. For better or worse, changing oil is one of the few things that “shade tree mechanics” can still do, since the average car contains more sophisticated computer equipment than the spaceships that carried astronauts to the moon in the 60s and 70s.
Auto Manufacturers and Oil Changes
Now let us examine the two big myths, beginning with the need to change your car’s oil every 3,000 miles. To be fair, the roots of this myth go back to a time when there was a need to change oil at 3,000 mile intervals, but that was when the only oil available was non-detergent and there was no such thing as multi-weight oil. However, those types of oil have been available for decades and all oils now contain detergent to keep your car’s engine running cleaner and more efficiently.
The fact is that most auto manufacturers now recommend oil changes every 7,500 for gasoline-powered vehicles, more than TWICE as long as the 3,000 mile myth would have you believe. (Although diesel engines still require oil changes after 3,000 miles or six months.)
Regardless of what you may have heard, if you drive a gasoline-powered vehicle, you can now go 7,500 miles between oil changes, and just because your oil has turned darker, that doesn’t mean it’s not still doing its job… no matter what the oil companies may try to tell you.
Please do your own research and determine the best schedule for your car. Just think about how you can do your part in dumping less dirty oil into the environment while you save money.
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Copyright 2010 Jeanette Fisher