Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Oil change frequency?

I'm calling BS on that... Champion!

Enough for several break in's

I run full synthetic Mobil 1 that says it's good for 15,000 miles and a premium Wix XP filter. Change both at 7500 mile intervals.

'After discussing it with my mechanic of 27 years, I settled on 7,500 mile intervals"

After being my own mechanic for 60 years I want my vehicles to last a long time and be as trouble free as possible. So far so good. I drove my '78 Chevy pickup 21 years and plan on driving my 2005 Dodge diesel until I can't drive. I've always done all my oil/filter changes and all the maintenance I can do with the tools I have. I can't rebuild an automatic trans. I've been using Amsoil synthetic since the rings seated at around 30k. I also installed an Amsoil bypass filter and put a FILTERMAG on the oil filter. I wish I known about FILTERMAGS when my truck was new because it traps the ferrous metal in the oil from the piston ring/cylinder break-in. From now on I'll install a FILTERMAG any new engine I get. The bypass filter traps almost 98% of the particle as small as 2 microns (there are 23 microns in .001" so that's REAL small). You're supposed to the change the bypass filter by 70k or 800 hours. I've been changing motor oil, both oil filters, fuel filter and air filter @ 10,000 miles since 30k just because it's easy to remember.

for example.....my '05 Taco..bought in '05 w/7K miles..4.0L V 6.....

so easy to change oil/filter on this motor....Wix XP or Toyota OEM filter

Walmart Super Tech 5w30 full synthetic....my most recent change last week....183Kish miles

this was the 31st oil change since I've bought it...doesn't use a drop of oil between changes...

Changes on this these trucks are between 5-6K miles..

Newer '14 Tacoma & older '02 Chevy 6.0L 2500 HD are annual changes at 6K miles

I typically change oil every 5 to 6K miles but did forget for a while and went 30K once. Frontier is 10 years old with 195K mostly highway miles on it and runs smooth and strong.

10k oil changes for me with Mobil 1. It’s in that manual for my 2019 tundra. On my 2007 tacoma I did 10k oil changes as well, I knew Toyota would catch on eventually.

My 2007 was murdered with only 211k on the odo. At 210k miles, at the end of my 10k oil change interval, the oil level was still in the middle, didn’t burn any perceptible measure of oil in 10k.

I think Seafire must have a million miles with 10k plus oil changes on his 22r by now.

As a bonus it’s real easy to remember every time the odo passes an even 10k mark to change the oil.

I always use Toyota filters and do my first change at 1k. Internet opinions are worth what they cost you....

You should do like my Papaw used to do, buy a new truck every 5 or 6 years and NEVER change the oil, just add when needed. He said oil changes were a waste of money. Tightest sumbitch that ever lived, he made Jews nervous.

.....................Thanks! I did not know that.....IIRC and without going out to my truck to get my owners manual, a plug swap for a 5.7 Hemi is done every 100K miles.....16 of 'em.....

Seems silly to me to pay the premium for syn oil, only to drain it after 5000 miles.

Mobil One.. 20K...analysis still says its good and has usable TBN of 2.5 to 3...


Filters changed every 5K until last 2 year when converted to Mobil One filters... which I run for the 20K they are claimed to be good for... analysis shows they are doing their job for that period of time according to Blackstone Labs...

current vehicles.. 283 K on Pilot, 570K on 4 Runner,

Camry I gave away 1994 model..., 350K on it, ran to 375K when it was stolen and totaled by some methheads..

Valve cover gaskets changed every 50K and the heads are always clean and free of sludge...and varnish...

air filters changed every 50K, yet blown out with compressed air every 10K...

Camry replaced with 08 Camry 4 cylinder, but so far have only put 7K on that car...currently running 0W30 Mobil One with Mobil One filter...

Trusting Blackstone's analysis....and what I am not seeing having to do with sludge and varnish, when replacing valve cover gaskets or oil pan gaskets...

When I lived in MN, the engines always outlasted the car bodies...but several engines were ran to 350K plus....when car had to be junked due to body being shot...

The Maint Manual on my 4Runner says 10,000 miles. Been doing that since new and no problems.

I do 5,000 on both cars.... "But sir, your vehicles are high mileage, and you need to use the oil that costs 3X as much"
'Uh, no son, I know what I need and a $75 oil change is not it.'

At least once a year. Usually between 5-10k miles.

Long ago the Air Force did a study between synthetic and crude based motor oil. The idea, of course, would the AF save money if the fleet ran synthetic. One finding was that synthetic acted as a super detergent oil and there was a significant risk that sludge developed over many miles of non-synthetic would break loose, clog a passage, and fry a motor. What's the current thinking?

As part of that study or maybe separately, they found no difference in performance of oil based on virgin feedstock vs. from reclaimed feedstock.

I started a motor off a little early on Mobil 1 and that sucker always used oil.Given the AF super deterfent theory I think I should've left more miles for break-in.

(At the time synthetic was expensive and I think it came down to a coin flip between that and reclaimed motor oil on the more frequent change schedule.)

6 to 7 thousand miles on full synthetic. '14 Silverado 5.3L. Do notice some loss of fuel mileage after about 6K, perks up again with an oil change.

Did my own oil changes until maybe 8 years ago. Havoline 10w30 mostly and then 5w30 with newer trucks. Seldom pushed a truck over 4 thousand miles between oil/filter changes back then, before synthetic oil. Had several friends here in town, that operated auto repair garages. Each had their own opinion on oil life and only one was into synthetics when they came on the scene and he was the least opinionated/bull headed one in the bunch.

Customer brought a full sized MOPAR in for engine replacement back in the mid 90s, think it had a 318 in it? Had already put one new Jasper replacement engine in it and was going for a warranty replacement. We pulled the oil pan. Sludge was so thick, garage buddy stuck an 18" screwdriver in the gook. JASPER dealer showed up, looked at the still vertical screwdriver and laughed.

Car owner claimed he'd had the oil changed every 3K. Um, nope. Warranty test failure.

Oh, but what is the cost of that compared to the cost of new engine?

My last Toyota truck I didn't Mobil 1 every 10-12,000 miles. Traded it with 196,000 miles, nor problems.

Had the same experience with a 92 Chevy I had for 9 years before that.


These days, since I drive so little, I've be using standard oil and changing once a year. It's all I can do to put 5,000 miles a year on a vehicle.

I change the oil in my ‘95 Taco and the wife’s ‘01 Sienna @ 5000 miles, but use Dino oil.

Powerstroke gets syn blend and changed by the IOL monitor, about 7000 miles.

...............................Agreed................Premium synthetics are designed to go 10K miles and more between changes. But! If anyone wants to use 100% premium synthetic oil and drain it every 5K then that's ok too. They are just not utilizing the full potential of synthetic oil.

Still going to get the same amount of engine life whether premium 100% synthetic oils are drained every 5K or at every 10K and in some cases longer.......

I spend about the same amount of money using Amsoil Signature Series draining @ every 15K miles vs one who uses conventional oil and draining every 5K miles...

Amsoil Signature Series is $12.30 per quart x 7 (Ram Hemi) = $86.10,,,,,,plus Amsoil extended life oil filter @ $19.95,,,,,plus $20.00 labor to do the change. A total of $126.05 + tax on the oil and filter every 15K miles...........Well worth it even if a little more money is spent than using conventional oils with changes at every 5 or 6K. Also more convenient with less visits to the Oil Stop Shop to do the oil changes.