how often do you change your oil?

[zeezz]

looking at the other post made me think... how often do you guys change your motor oil?

[91camryDX]

every 3000 or less with whatever oil is the cheapest (it's all the same anyways)

[cap111381]

yeah every 3,000 miles or less even though they say every 5,000 in the driver's manual in some cars. You should use 10w30 if your car has 100,000 miles or more, or if the car is pre 1996. 15w30 if your car is diesel or leaking beyond repair. 5w30 or 5w20 whichever is stated in your manual for cars post 1996. there is no need to change oil types for winter and summer driving.

I used to change oil at an express lube, now i work for NJ transit doing it on big diesel buses, where i also do light mechanical work on them.

hope this helps

[FRITO]

Do you guys change your own oil? Or do you go to a place like Super Lube and pay? How hard is it to change your oil? what would I need to do it?

[alex]

i change mine about every 1000 miles or so
i know....its wrong, but then again i only put 300 miles on the car last summer :P

this winter its had 0 miles on the oil, but its gettin changed this spring......

its the time period that kills it

[Nick]

5000km or if the oil grade is just really wrong for the temp (-40, +40)

[RiCebuRneR206]

You should do it yourself. It is REALLY REALLY easy to do on a Camry. The oil pan is right by the front passanger tire, the oil filter can be seen when you look into the engine, the oil cap is easily spotted. Its kinda self explainitory.

[cap111381]

yeah definitely do it yourself. i know by working for one of those places and they take every shortcut in the book and give u the crappiest oil. you can ask for 10w30 but they will throw in 5w30 cause its cheaper buying in bulk or give u regular oil instead of synthetic that u ask for. They also strip your oil pan plugs and throw a washer or a cross threaded oversized plug in to hide the leak. you are supposed to tap the hole and put a larger plug for that hole to correct it.

it is easy to do it yourself in 13 easy steps

1 warm up the engine a lil if it is cold out
2 take off the oil cap
3 unscrew the oil pan plug on passenger side in plain view and let drian
4 take off oil filter in front of engine on top
5 put oil filter on with oil wipped around its gasket
6 put oil plug back in after wiping all dirt that may be on it and make sure washer is in good shape ( if the plug isn't self sealing)
7 put correct amount of oil in the engine as stated in the manual normally around 4qts
8 put back on oil cap after checking cap for sludge or condensation both which mean u have a problem of gelling of the engine or water in the oil.
9 check dipstick and make sure oil is in the engine (plug or filter may be off, or u may have forgot to put oil in it)
10 start engine and hold it at 2000 rpms for 30 secs to get the oil moving through the block and the turn off. this is a pressure test oil light should turn off in about 2-3 secs after starting.
11 check for leaks
12 check oil level on dipstick and adjust oil level as needed
13 relax and give yourself a pat on your back. you are now as capable as a service tech at jiffy lube

[Phi]

I change every 6000km (convert to miles yourself) as per recommended by the dealer using synthetic.
I used to change my own oil. Not any more though. The dealer actually charges a reasonable fee that it's not worth my time and trouble to change myself. In addition to that, if I ever decide to sell the car, the maintanace history is on the dealers database which gives some ppl reassurance.

[smokey8890]

i change my oil like alot of ppls at 3000 miles. i rather do it myself because i know all the old oil has been fully drain out and everything is tighten down properly. alot of places use cheap oil and filter when they change it.

[2000CamryLEV6]

7500

[VZV21]

Old car: 3000 miles with Syntec 5w50.

Current car: 10,000 miles with Mobil Delvac 1 5w40

[CamrySpeaksJL]

2000-3000

[REN69]

this is something I don't get.. In Canada we're adviced by dealerships to change our oil every 5000 km (roughly about 3000miles). In the US sometimes they advice 5000miles. I've seen british websites where the people say the manual says to change their oil every 9000mi.. isn't that pushing it a bit?? LOL

I get mine changed every 6000km... I drive 750km a week, so if I skip a week I always end up going over about 1000km from the 5000km adviced interval.

[2002Camry]

I change my oil every 4,000 km to 5,000 km using regular oil. At 20,000 km I switched to Mobil 1 5W30 and now change the oil at about 6,000 to 8,000 km depending on the type of driving and weather conditions.

I bring my Mobil 1 jug to the dealer and they do the work