The Professional Expert

How often should I change my oil?

Changing the oil in your car every 3,000 is pretty important…or is it? There have been studies that have shown that you can go as far as 20,000 miles before the oil breaks down. However, there is something that does need to be changed much sooner than 20,000 miles.

Let’s take a look at what really needs to be changed and an easy method for remembering when it is time to change it…

The thing that actually needs to be changed on a regular basis is the oil filter. The oil filter starts to get clogged up after a few thousand miles and can affect the longevity of your car.

While you’re there, you might as well change the oil, since you will lose some oil while changing the filter. But they still call it an oil change instead of an oil filter change.

How often should you change your oil?

You can look in your owner’s manual and find how often an oil change is recommended in the Maintenance Schedule. They usually have a schedule for heavy use and one for regular use. Unless you are doing heavy duty hauling on dirt roads or have lots of stops and starts, like a taxi cab, you can follow the regular use schedule.

These intervals are still pretty conservative. I change the oil on a 5,000 mile schedule and change the filter every time I change the oil. And that makes oil change time really easy to remember.

I can look down at the odometer and know that every 5,000 miles it is time for an oil change. That way I am not guessing or writing down mileage. Easy.

I know some people like the oil to look new when it comes out and want to change it every 2500 miles. They aren’t doing anything bad for their car. They are just spending more money than they have to. The same goes for those who are spending money on synthetic oils.

But we’ll cover that when we talk about the different types of oil.

Tomorrow…Where should I get my oil changed?