I have a question about how time or the age of oil affects its quality and its properties. Here is my scenario. My Supra is not a daily driver. I changed the oil back in January of 2009 and as of July 2009 I have only driven about 2,500 miles. I have read the articles in the forum about using oil for 5,000 miles or more allowing the additives to do their job. In my situation I have time working against me not mileage. The sticker under the hood advises you to change the oil every 5000 miles or 6 months. Why?
Change your oil every six months..WHY?..Time vs. mileage
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because you could possibly be driving LESS miles. but idling the engine the same time you would normally be driving it for those 5000 miles.... so lets say one guy drives 50-60 miles to work every day, and its a straight shot no traffic... over 6 months, he has 5000 miles accumulated.
another guy drives to work and its only a 15 mile ride, but hes stuck in traffic the whole way and it takes him 20 minutes longer to get to work than the first guy. yet at 6 months he has only accumulated 2000 miles..... yet his engine has been run for more time than the first guy... stop and go is gonna eat up certain parts of an engine more than long running periods at the same low rpm.
thats why they say 6 months.. so people like guy b dont end up putting 5k miles on their car and inactuality the car saw 3 times as much wear as a guy who drives farther but idles less... the odometer is there to show how far youve gone, not how long youve run
if your worried about changes, try amsoil full synthetic 10w-30.... they have special blend of ingredients in the oil that up the wear protection after X amount of miles.. and their oils are good for 25k miles or 1 year ....and its an actually good estimate... lots of people have sent their oils for analyzing after 1 year of use or 25k mile, and it has come back with the suggestion to continue use of the oil for another 10000 miles or so.
another guy drives to work and its only a 15 mile ride, but hes stuck in traffic the whole way and it takes him 20 minutes longer to get to work than the first guy. yet at 6 months he has only accumulated 2000 miles..... yet his engine has been run for more time than the first guy... stop and go is gonna eat up certain parts of an engine more than long running periods at the same low rpm.
thats why they say 6 months.. so people like guy b dont end up putting 5k miles on their car and inactuality the car saw 3 times as much wear as a guy who drives farther but idles less... the odometer is there to show how far youve gone, not how long youve run
if your worried about changes, try amsoil full synthetic 10w-30.... they have special blend of ingredients in the oil that up the wear protection after X amount of miles.. and their oils are good for 25k miles or 1 year ....and its an actually good estimate... lots of people have sent their oils for analyzing after 1 year of use or 25k mile, and it has come back with the suggestion to continue use of the oil for another 10000 miles or so.
Who;1376127 said:
if you change the oil every six months, service stations will make more money on you.
if you really want to know the health of your oil, do an oil analysis. This will tell you if you are in need of a change.
adampecush;1381003 said:
if you read my post... its going to explain to you why you SHOULD change your oil at a prescribed time, as opposed to at a prescribed mileage... its all based on the way your vehicle is used.......
same thing for the oil analysis.. that was covered in my post as well about oil health.....
did not cover the under the hood thing...... don't follow what under the hood instructions say, because it all depends on the brand and what kind of oil you are running.... some oils are only good for 3000 miles, and some are good for 25,000 miles. if you change an oil like amsoil synthetic at around 3k miles every time, your going to hurt your engine more than you would be protecting it. some oils contain special chemicals that become activated more as the oil is used more.
one thing you SHOULD do is use a high quality oil filter (no fram's, or anything that looks like a fram or is sold by the same manufacturer as it.... they are cheap, flimsy carboard filters and could possibly not even filter oil if the cardboard seperates at the back plate).
if you go to any parts store, they will usually carry wix or mobil 1 filters... those are the best you can get at a regular store, and i personally like the mobil 1 filters.... also, OEM filters are great as well.. so go to a service station for oem filters and your car will be good for a longest possible time
Don't have time to answer this right now and it's turning into pissing contest.
Sorry, doesn't happen in my section.
Thread closed for now...I'll get to it this weekend.
Sorry, doesn't happen in my section.
Thread closed for now...I'll get to it this weekend.
kracin - while there is some truth in what you are saying, the reasoning is incorrect and you talk in general terms. It greatly depends on the environment the car is operated in and when it is run, does it get the oil hot for a sufficient amount of time to burn off contaminates (primarily water from combustion). It also depends on the type of oil...conventional dino or a Grp IV or V synthetic.
In this case, Who lives in Palm Beach FL (a marine environment)...the means he will have to deal with humidity ingested into the motor, increasing the level of water contamination. This will shorten the oil's life, especially on short trips....it's not due to the hours the motor is run either. A short trip may or may not get the oil up to it's 100 dec C ops temp and burn off (through the PCV) water, gasoline and other volatile byproducts.
A PAO or ester synthetic will handle this better due to the base oil, not because of "special" additives. FYI - Amsoil is a PAO synthetic, but so is Castrol European Formula (German Castrol)...IMO, German Castrol is a better product at less $$$.
The bottom line is a PAO or ester based synthetic will go a year easy even if you don't get the oil hot on a regular basis. A conventional oil will not last as long...a 6 month change would be conservative.
I do agree on using a Wix filter (I do as well) and Fram is not something you want to use, however Mobil 1 filters are not the "best". It's a good filter made by Champion Labs, but so are WalMart SuperTech filters (same design, different media). Suggest you read the filter thread located in the stickies in this section.
In this case, Who lives in Palm Beach FL (a marine environment)...the means he will have to deal with humidity ingested into the motor, increasing the level of water contamination. This will shorten the oil's life, especially on short trips....it's not due to the hours the motor is run either. A short trip may or may not get the oil up to it's 100 dec C ops temp and burn off (through the PCV) water, gasoline and other volatile byproducts.
A PAO or ester synthetic will handle this better due to the base oil, not because of "special" additives. FYI - Amsoil is a PAO synthetic, but so is Castrol European Formula (German Castrol)...IMO, German Castrol is a better product at less $$$.
The bottom line is a PAO or ester based synthetic will go a year easy even if you don't get the oil hot on a regular basis. A conventional oil will not last as long...a 6 month change would be conservative.
I do agree on using a Wix filter (I do as well) and Fram is not something you want to use, however Mobil 1 filters are not the "best". It's a good filter made by Champion Labs, but so are WalMart SuperTech filters (same design, different media). Suggest you read the filter thread located in the stickies in this section.
thanks for the extra info. sorry about before too, but its an annoyance of mine if somebody spouts off something with no real grounds for what they are talking about.
like you said , the things i posted are only part of why you should change a certain amount of times based on running conditions. but i didnt put anything else since i didnt have all the info for other areas.
and about the filters, i was talking in terms of the best you can get in a generic parts store, you can definately run to other places and get better filters, but some people really dont have anything except for one of the big chain stores that only carry 3 different types.. bosch, fram, and mobil 1.. and mobil 1 is definately an OK filter to run compared to the others.. wix is better by far in terms of construction and design, but wix isnt available at the chain stores that i know of
like you said , the things i posted are only part of why you should change a certain amount of times based on running conditions. but i didnt put anything else since i didnt have all the info for other areas.
and about the filters, i was talking in terms of the best you can get in a generic parts store, you can definately run to other places and get better filters, but some people really dont have anything except for one of the big chain stores that only carry 3 different types.. bosch, fram, and mobil 1.. and mobil 1 is definately an OK filter to run compared to the others.. wix is better by far in terms of construction and design, but wix isnt available at the chain stores that i know of
NAPA Gold is a Wix filter 
Not a chain store, but readily available.
Just keep in mind it's not hours per say that limits an oil life over a time period...oil needs to get to ops temp per my post above above. Daily driving is a different story.
Not a chain store, but readily available.
Just keep in mind it's not hours per say that limits an oil life over a time period...oil needs to get to ops temp per my post above above. Daily driving is a different story.
jdub;1382793 said:NAPA Gold is a Wix filter
Not a chain store, but readily available.
Just keep in mind it's not hours per say that limits an oil life over a time period...oil needs to get to ops temp per my post above above. Daily driving is a different story.
i see what you did there. but its good to know about the need to burn off certain chemicals that make their way to the oil, IE gas and fumes from blowby, water from sitting, humidity creeping its way in, etc.
i do know quite a few mkiv owners here that will let their car sit for more than 3-4 weeks before driving again, and i only know of 1 that uses amsoil synthetic. the others, im not sure if they use anything else thats on par with it. know of any other good synthetic oils that are basically equal or better than amsoil besides german castrol?
Most common:
Red Line (ester - Grp V)
Royal Purple (PAO - Grp IV)
Pennzoil Platinum is a Grp III hydrocracked oil, but it is so highly refined and has such a good additive pack that there is little difference between it and a Grp IV.
My son runs this oil in his Civic (5W-20)...his mileage jumped from 30 to 36 MPG.
Red Line (ester - Grp V)
Royal Purple (PAO - Grp IV)
Pennzoil Platinum is a Grp III hydrocracked oil, but it is so highly refined and has such a good additive pack that there is little difference between it and a Grp IV.
My son runs this oil in his Civic (5W-20)...his mileage jumped from 30 to 36 MPG.
jdub;1382806 said:
I was getting a very bad millage with Pennzoil Platinum in a gs300 I used 5w-30 and for the first 1000 miles i was getting 17-19 miles and after than the milage would drop to 13-14. I never figured out whats the deal with that. RedLine seemed to do better as well as GC.
jdub;1382806 said:
would you even recommend using something like pennzoil platnum in an older car that was on regular for 120k miles, then switching to to the synthetic PAO oil without changing any seals? id love to be able to switch to a synthetic to help the mileage a little on my jimmy, but ive always been under the impression from some things i read that switching could cause some issues because of buildup caused by regular oil over the years, and could possibly mess with the seals that have been soaked in a certain kind of oil already.
Thanks for you helpful info jdub. I use purolator one filters and synthetic oil. I will admit that I use the walmart brand synthetic oil. Since my oil changes are so infrequent I will go ahead and shell out the extra money for Pennzoil synthetic in the Supra for some added insurance. Thanks again.
Who - you're welcome.
I've switched over 2 cars with mileage in that range to GC from conventional and did not have an issue.
kracin;1382877 said:
I've switched over 2 cars with mileage in that range to GC from conventional and did not have an issue.
kracin;1381059 said:
Before spouting off how great OEM filters are, you may want to read this thread about oil filters.
Toyota filters are just slightly better than a Fram filter, and are inferior to filters like PureOne and Wix.
deabionni;1382913 said:Before spouting off how great OEM filters are, you may want to read this thread about oil filters.
Toyota filters are just slightly better than a Fram filter, and are inferior to filters like PureOne and Wix.
there was also a note in there about the updated toyota filter that is made in japan, not the thailand one.
kracin;1383307 said:
You left out that the Denso Japan filter are very difficult to come by in the US (that was in the same paragraph in the filter thread). Pretty much invalidates this comment.
I'm not sure what the dealer network is like the in USA, but there are literally thousands of the Denso Made in Japan 90915-20003 filters sitting in the USA, they're the only filters I run in my Toyotas.
Jeff
Jeff
Jeff Lange;1383340 said:
Jeff did you mean Canada as in Calgary or the USA. I woundn't mind picking up a couple. I have HKS in mine now would the Denso Japan be a step up, step down or step sideways ... oh wise one.
jdub;1383321 said:
ill see if i can swing by servco toyota here to take a pic when they are open, the different quality between the two different toyota filters was discussed by a few guys down here and they had only run ones that were japan produced. but each service station chooses to keep in stock certain types of filters, and if the higher quality one were more expensive but looked the same, im sure they would go for the cheaper one to try to keep customers happy.
but yeah for diabionni, i shoulda stated about the regular toyota filter vs the oem high quality ones like the trd.
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