<VV> FW: How often do you change your oil?

[Tony Underwood]

At 07:30 AM 12/17/2011, Harry Yarnell wrote:
>
>
>State hopes to break car owners' habit of changing oil too often.
>
>
>California launches a campaign against the widespread notion that oil
>changes are needed every 3,000 miles. Officials say the practice wastes
>millions of gallons of oil a year.


Or, it's a conspiracy to rid the roads of cars which are gonna be 
wearing out faster.  ;)


>By Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times
>
>December 15, 2011
>
>Many automobile owners are spending more than they need on motor oil,
>believing that it should be changed every 3,000 miles even though almost no
>manufacturer requires such an aggressive oil-change schedule.


Maybe not if the oil is synthetic...


>The long-held notion that the oil should be changed every 3,000 miles is so
>prevalent that California officials have launched a campaign to stop drivers
>from wasting millions of gallons of oil annually because they have their
>vehicles serviced too often.


"Wasting" oil?   Isn't it reclaimed and recycled by the vast majority 
of places?  I don't pour MY used motor oil down any drain nor does it 
get poured onto the ground.  We have a well here... I watch what ends 
up on the ground because it's gonna end up in the water we drink.



>"Our survey data found that nearly half of California drivers are still
>changing their oil at 3,000 miles or even sooner," said Mark Oldfield, a
>spokesman for the California Department of Resources, Recycling and
>Recovery, which has launched the Check Your Number campaign to encourage
>drivers to go with the manufacturer's recommendations.
>
>Improvement in oils, friction proofing and car engines have lengthened the
>oil-change interval, typically 7,500 miles to 10,000 miles for most
>vehicles.


...with distilled dinosaur?   Not so sure *I* would run organic oil 
that long in ANYthing, much less a vintage vehicle.  Synthetics maybe...



>"The 3,000-mile oil change just says that the marketing campaign by
>quick-lube companies has been effective," said Steve Mazor, manager of the
>Auto Club of Southern California's Automotive Research Center. It made sense
>years ago, when "we had cast-iron block engines with cast-iron pistons that
>would expand when they got hot and older lubricants," Mazor said.


...wtf?  When was the last time a car made in this country had iron 
pistons?   And iron expanding more than aluminum?


This is BS.  The guy is talking out of his hat, throwing nonsense 
around to support a bureaucratic policy in the making.  Sure, 
overkill does no real good and is wasteful, but 10,000 miles between 
changes??  How's that gonna work out when excessively budget-minded 
people start running cheap oil for 10,000 miles at a time in a 1988 
Olds and the engine eats its own bearings?

I get on a guilt trip if I run oil more than 5000 miles.  I'd as soon 
try to make the engines in the cars I have last as long as I can.  I 
don't really skimp on oil here.  Maybe in CA they'll outlaw early oil 
changes, with some new prop some councilman in some community thinks 
is pretty.  And doesn't CA recycle used engine oil??

Oh well...



tony..