Years ago I took a class in college on automotive technology. The professor had a PhD in automotive engineering. I learned a lot in that class. The one thing that really stood out is the professor repeatedly making the point that oil is not just a lubricant. It is a coolant. The oil helps limit heat buildup in critical parts of the engine. Not just by lubrication, but by moving heat away from critical parts of the engine.
This! This is why my engine got fried and stuck, with no oil! Mechanic said, "I was responsible" to check the oil level every two weeks. It was gaslighting. I had the scheduled regular maintenance with the mech, just 3 weeks prior to getting fried. $3000 price tag for engine swap. Plus tow, plus stranded in hwy etc. The car was regularly and meticulously maintained. But oil got lower in... 3 weeks??? Bummer.
@@JR-zw2vb Yes person should check their oil but eating so much oil it starved the engine in 3 weeks. Something seriously was wrong. I do check my car almost daily i probably lose more oil from wiping the dipstick clean but thats just me being OCD.
@@DeusKDuoThat's not OCD. In 2020, I used to be a delivery driver averaging 150+mi./day, and I used my own car('02 camry), and I checked the oil level every morning before starting the car. B/c the camry had to endure so much city driving, I ran a full synthetic, which I changed every 3k mi. And running a flush through the the engine every 5 oil changes. It's been my daily for the last 3yrs, and I left that job 2yrs ago, but It still runs very well, and I still run the High Mileage platinum full synthetic from pennzoil but change the oil every 4k mi. now. And I still check the oil at least once/wk. I love that old camry, and I know it was worth doing all the oil changes myself. Besides, the oil change service was super easy.
@@lobsterbisque7567that’s a testament to your Camry’s robustness!! About 8 months ago, I bought a 2015 Venza, which is based off the Camry platform, and will serve as my retirement car in a few years. It currently has 105K miles, and runs like a top! I’ve done a couple of oil changes on it, and it doesn’t burn any oil. I plan on babying it and who knows? It may last another 200K-300K miles, that’s how tough the Toyotas are. Kudos to you and your Camry!! 😃👍🏼
Can you do work for me on 20 Micron filter media? My decades of experience are all the way back to a heavy steel cannister with cartridge's in it; My experience shows "just replace it often enough"
Bluecamaroz28: Agree. Retired engineer here and it was more like 50 years ago! But since I have my share of Biden Moments now his videos make it seem like I am seeing it all for the first time................
When I was extremely poor (80$ dollars left for food per mouth) my ford escape went 30,000 miles between oil changes. I've since sold it to my cousin, they put 250,000 miles on and the engine still runs great.
It depends on how much your cars engine is worth to you on how often you change oil. Problem is that the result of neglect will only show up after years of neglect. You can't hurt your engine by changing the oil too often. Well done as always, Jason.
Thats how i deal with for me my car engine is like my heart and im always in serach to increse its life and have fun with it whereas i also have a scooter which i dont care about much skipped many service but that thing doesnt break
Here's a true story no one is going to read: My ex girlfriend ran her 97 honda civic mb2 almost everyday for over 4 months without oil in the gearbox and waay below the minimum in the engine. One day the second and third gear started making the same noise as the reverse gear does, and first gear wouldn't always click in place. She complained about it and I'm a handy guy so I decided to do the maintenance of her car like a real man. NOTHING had prepared me for the moment I took the drain plugs out just to see *literally* a couple drops of oil from the gearbox, and the equivalent of two cups of water from the engine. Since that day i've got MAD respect for old Honda drivetrains. The car still runs great at the date of this comment with the best quality oils I could find for it .. To this day I have no clue where that oil went .....
maybe they forgot to put the new oil in the last time when they were changing it before to do the maintenance that time so it was never there to begin with hehe
@@MasParaQue motor oil thieves you got gotta watch out for them they will strip your car bare in a couple of days if you not careful hehehe that's why you should always have a shotgun ready on standby incase they come for your car
I had a 97 Civic, for over 2 years I would hit rev limiter numerous times daily, even on a cold engine. Drove it 750 miles a week and abused it every mile I could. Also ran it out of manual trans oil, but it killed the input shaft bearing, so I sold it. Engine still ran perfectly, great cars.
Here's one for you I'll never forget- i was a lube tec for 2 years. One late 90s civic came in, running fine. Guy is crowing about how the car is his baby. Pull the drain plug and NOT ONE DROP OF OIL COMES OUT OF THE CRANCASE! Changed the filter, fill up new oil, and he's back on his way.
@@billyboy4797 I do 7500 mile synthetic oil changes in my 2000 Toyota Tacoma 3.4. The engine oil level literally doesn't change by 7500 and there is no sludge/varnishing. Today's oils are insane. My engine only has 140,000 miles though.
@@Dcc357 you should get many more years out of your 3.4. Regular oil changes make a big difference. My old truck has had oil changes regularly, even though most is highway miles.
Most people don’t realize how much oil is lost through the PCV route. Installing a catch can will actually let people see the amount lost while keeping the combustion side cleaner. I was amazed when I installed a catch can.
Which is why operator manuals just tell you when by a generally straightforward set of conditions. The average Joe and Josephine just want an easy answer so they can go about their lives. People watching "Engineering Explained" aren't those people.
Thank you for the information and excellent explanation. Note: as a fleet & logistics manager for Pepsi cola, we send the used oil's to a lab for testing to determine the proper oil change intervals for various truck types that we own. As a rule of thumb you can go twice the recommended mileage. Since we run hundreds of trucks and vehicles, the sample is adequate to arrive to a conclusion that is valid within our application, vehicle types, and the type of oils we use (none synthetic).
@@LibertyWlk yes, we are low mileage family , our car does 3 to 5 thousand miles per year at most, so we often dont change it every year and never had any problems , we buy 3 year old cars and run them for however long we feel like which is usually 10 years or so.
@@FlyingFun. It also depends on what type of "low mileage" one has. If all are short trips, these are actually bad for the oil. Cold engine = fuel vapor condense onto cylinder wall & doesn't burn, wipes right into crankcase, dilutes oil, etc... If each trip is reasonably long, just few trips each week, that's probably the best combination for the vehicle...
@@reallifeengineer7214 I knew short trips were bad but thanks for exact reason why. Commute is about 20 miles and weekly shop just a few miles away. I'll defo keep an eye on the oil. In my previous work I was doing loads of 5 minute journeys with 30 minute between them and oil got pretty black quite quickly.
@@FlyingFun. best way to go about it is to check your oil every weekend. I've found all other advice too general and now I just check oil every Sunday and going good🤙🏻
I got a 2002 hyundai minivan. Goes great. Because it was A COMPANY CAR and NEVER MISSED an oil change. That's the secret. My family has had a number of company cars (including my latest ford) and they've all been good JUST BECAUSE they never missed any services.
We only buy NEW & keep em 10yrs+. Ford trucks F150/250 mostly.. a few Ford SUVs.. Explorer & Escape last few purchases. Both served us very well & tech / features best in class as are powertrains. Fiance loves Escape's 1.5L EcoBoost /AWD. My give my sone current F150 4wd crew & order another new Ranger XLT FX4 crew. We very happy & impressed w/our '19 Ranger XLT FX4 used for business & pleasure.
My dad's secretary came in one day and said her car was making a rattling sound under the hood. My dad went out to take a look. He pulled the dipstick, clean. He asked when she had her oil changed last. "Do what now?!" 49k miles never been touched. LOL.
Another note... foam inhibitors. Usually in the form of polymethylsiloxane or methyl acrylates, these additives are the most susceptible to additive clash. Different anti-foaming chemistry can be equally effective on their own but cancel each other out if blended. This is usually a problem with aftermarket oil supplements. It's a common problem in racing engines where people are adding ZDDP supplements to a finished API oil to try to boost the wear protection and end up sacrificing the foaming and aeration control in the process. Then when oil temps start to shoot up, pressure drops, and bearings start overheating, cavitating, and spalling, they usually blame everything except their oil regiment.
I thought the answer to “how do you know your suburu is low on oil” is “Yes. “ Between the leaking and the burning. A friends brand new forrester has burned a qt/1k since it was new off the lot. That’s “normal” according to suburu. 🤷♂️
My 93 Legacy hasn't started leaking oil yet at 237,000 miles. The 84 started leaking oil from both head gaskets at a little over 250,000 miles. Paid 200 dollars for an 80 model Subaru unseen. Went to pick it up. The floor was full of empty oil cans. Oil was all over the engine and the fill cap was missing. I got lucky replaced the cap and changed the PCV valve and hose. It wasn't very old then. Took a kid thru college.
@@ralphwood5114 Hello Ralph. I believe the engineers simply forgot to design in the oil leaks on the earlier models. Something about 80s and 90s Japanese build quality. Speaking of which, what ever happened to that?
I mostly buy old cars. The 84 I bought new. Bought a 2008 Smart car. What a piece of crap. I liked driving it. It was sweating oil when I bought it. It started leaking bad about the time I started having electrical problems and parked it. It was burning out head light bulbs. Voltage seemed OK. Not a do it yourself car. Its a take it to to your Mercedes dealer car. Don't want any more cars that I can't take to any locksmith and have a key made. Its a 5 speed manual. The computer works the clutch and shifting. 150 k miles on it. Not worth much.
I own a hotshot trucking company and regularly exceed the recommended oil change reminders on my 3500 ram Cummins. Had several go over 500,000 miles through the years and these trucks work hard pulling loads exceeding 20,000 lbs!
If you send your oil off for testing at Blackstone they will run the viscosity and check the additive package, contaminants, and TBN (total base number). This allows you to see how much life you have left in your oil. TLDR you can often run your oil for a lot longer than the specification (the spec is somewhat arbitrary and factors like driving style -- a straight shot across the country on highway alone will often times leave the oil looking and testing like new). That being said, the cost of an oil test can be quite similar to the cost of an oil change.
Black stone made me about $1000. Long story short, car got totaled. Appraiser said it’s worth next to nothing because of the mileage, saying the motor is shot. We sent the Blackstone report showing it was in great condition. Appraisal came back $1000 higher. Best $45 I ever spent.
@@dobber43 Blackstone analysis will tell you a few things. The contents of the oil (more wear metals is bad, more detergents/dispersants is generally a good thing, etc), and the physical qualities of the oil (is the viscosity still good? Could you have gone with a longer oil change interval, etc).
@NicholasAndre1...good reply. Blackstone suggested we continue just replacing the filter, suby, and running it to 12K....highway miles mostly. That is double what is supposedly the change interval.
@@darrellborland119 yeah especially if you burn a bit of oil and have to top it off half way through synthetic highway mileage should be fine. Although if you have to rotate the tires might be convenient to just do the oil change and have them inspect brakes etc.
You are correct. The hydraulic lifters that adjust the valves have tiny holes that need to be filled with oil to function properly. Sludge plugs those holes preventing oil from getting inside. Then you have tapping noise.
@@djmjay2 You'll notice it's typically the manufacturers that have free maintenance for x number of years that spec these absurd oil change intervals. Take bmw for example, interval used to be around 10k and the year they started doing 3 year free maintenance they upped it to 15k
When I was flying, the adage was “gasoline and oil are the cheapest things you put into an engine”. Bear in mind that a typical Aircraft Engine rebuild is north of $25,000.
Remember about 50 years ago saw some AeroFrantz filters on crop dusters. They were FAA approved and used 2 ply facial quality bathroom tissue. Don't know anything about aircraft engines but know clean oil is better than dirty oil.
Thats the low end. I went to an engine overhaul shop near lunken in Cincinnati and 25k was easily spent on the little 4-cyl lycoming and continental engines.
I work in an aviation engine shop and can confirm the prices are excessive. To just get a replacement camshaft for a 8 cyl Lycoming 720 costs about $8,000 our price (some markup for customer).
Understanding this video has inspired my question which is: Why don't car engine makers include a ''pre-lubing"/"lube-priming" kind of process where a person turns the ignition key from position-zero through to position-two (battery online) and is prompted by a "lube-protection-system" to "please wait, pre-lubing or lube-priming" in progress, and depending on car make, the person would see a graphic progress bar or clock countdown insicating when it's ok to turn the key to position-three to crank the engine to a start? This process would use electric power from the battery of the car (it may be as much power as used by the starter motor to crank the enginento a start) to power an electric oil pump to pre-spray/pre-circulate just eniugh oil around the engine to coat those sensitive moving parts that are exposed to dryness that welcomes wear during start-ups...before the starter motor is cleared to crank the engine to a start. This idea of mine is inspired by the pre-heating glow wire in diesel engines which must be allowed to get hot enough to warm the air entering the ready-to-fire cylinder...like we all know, this is a must-do process on cars with diesel engines and I thought it would be great for petrol/gasoline engines to have the pre-lubing/pre-oiling/pre-spraying feature. I'm aware that something like this would unfortunately increase complexity, parts-counts, weight and costs to the car featuring the system, but I'm tempted to think that in the long run, start-up wear could be reduced super-significantly. What do you think?
If you had have driven a kia you could have gone 7000 miles over the oil change, killed the engine, gone around telling everyone "it's because kias are crap", and they all would have believed you. But just don't tell anyone that the Kia Sedona used as wheelchair taxis here in Australia got about 660 thousand kilometers because they were maintained.....
I did not forget to change oil. I wanted to test these oil change claims, and so I did not change oil for 10 years on a lightly driven car. Nothing happened. I like the testing so much, I am testing on more cars.
Growing up in the 70's 80's money being tight my dad pounded the message" budget for your car and never be late with your oil changes..."or else!".... I did not want to get to "or else!"....😲
Gonna debate a small point w/ you. A ‘Great’ teacher makes the un-understandable - understandable. I opened this video simply wanting to know IF it’s the miles driven? Or the length of time in the engine? We have a low-mileage F150 that hasn’t had the oil changed in 2 years because it sits a lot in the garage. There’s only 950 miles on last oil change. But it’s been sitting in there over 2 years.... OK, so I got a LOT OF INFO from a Master’s level auto genius. In fact, TMI ! And I guess I generally get that it’s bad to run old, dirty oil - and that it hurts an engine. But I didn’t get my simple question answered in a simple understandable way.
@@boomer1954ful 67 years old and your just now trying to figure this out?? . I'm 62, and have known since my early 20s, if you don't drive it much, change it once a year.
@@Lumens1 and then you remember you have to remember something that you couldn't forget and you can't remember what it is *Engine seized up* Oh yeah, it was the oil change, silly me
As a note, many additives are also dual purpose. ZDDP (commonly referred to as just "zinc") is an excellent anti-oxidant, especially ZDDP that employs primary alkyl groups. MoDTC, a common friction reducer, also aids in oxidation inhibition as well as helps with wear protection in high concentrations. Unfortunately, both of these are severely limited in modern API oils because of "emissions." CaCO3 and MgCO3, the core of calcium and magnesium based detergents, can also have anti-wear capabilities.
I usually change now when recommended, however when I was younger and had little money, I had a 1985 Nissan minitruck. I used synthetic oil, (Mobil 1) and only changed the oil when it went down a quart (liter). That was about every 40,000kms. At around 350,000kms, I had to change a valve cover gasket, and when I took the cover off, I expected to to see a bunch of sludge, but it was clean as a new engine. The compression was also still very high, around 180 psi. I ended up giving it to my ex, and she drove it to 460,000 kms, and then got a newer vehicle, but the engine was still running like a top at even with all that mileage.. The point I am making, is that if you are using a quality oil, especially synthetic, I really don't think that running a couple thousand kms or miles over the recommended interval will make all that much of a difference in the long term.
Same experience here, I kept postponing the oil change on a Corolla because the oil remained clear. At 40,000 km it was darker than new but not all that much. Synthetic oil doesn't break down and deteriorate like conventional oil.
Michael Walsh : I was commuting to Toronto, so it was a mix of highway and.a lot of jammed up stop and go. The worst kind to an engine. 1 hour 40 minutes each way.
@Dangerous One haha.. yeah probably right, if it doesn't build up some sh*t somewhere then you only have to replace oil filter now n then. I always check oil quality by rubbing a small amount between my fingers. You can feel difference from good vs bad lubrication. The color also shows quite clearly when the fluid is bad (=dark brown/black). No need to send to any lab.
Most current oils have removed or significantly reduced zinc content, as it raises problems with modern catalytic converters. It is a really important additive for small engines. Some small engine manufacturers like Kohler sell motor oil for their engines with zinc additives.
Glenna Barry I never had issue with my vehicles by sticking to manufacturer’s recommendation of oil change and I am not polluting environment by doing unnecessary oil changes.
@@olasek7972 if I am reading the comment correctly doubled means two times i.e. if the manufacturer says 5,000 miles he goes 10,000 miles. But I agree, my motorcycle has oil change intervals of 7,500 miles and some folks change every 3,000 and it is so unnecessary.
In the 1990's Motor Trend magazine did a oil study involving New York City taxi's, vehicles that put a lot of miles on quick, so the results came in quick. They change oil on one set of cabs at 3,000 mile, another set of cabs at 6,000 miles, and then 9,000 miles, and lastly, 12,000 miles. At 100,000 miles they tore these engines down, and found less that 5% wear difference across all examples. Results were clear, oil changes at 3-6,000 miles was a big waste of money. 9-12,000 miles seemed to work just as well.
Yea i was gonna say. The high oil changes was made because they wanted to sell more oil. But I've ran cars without oil change for a year and half. I dont let the oil run low of course but I have realized changing oil very early your wasting your oil
This was a great study they did. Yes there May be a benefit of changing more often theoretically, but what is the real world effect? If a significant real world affect isn’t seen until 3 million miles, then it doesn’t matter much cause the car has other parts that won’t last that long. Or if the effect is 1mpg then you can see if the cost outweighs the benefit by doing some simple math.
Here in the EU vehicles are on 10,000+, some as high as 18,000-20,000 and we're getting 150,000-200,000 miles without issue and usually it is the bodywork that fails before the engine.
@@anonymousinc6330 they ment 10 000 miles. Otherwise here it starts from 15 000km to 30 000km. From 12 to 24 months whatever goes first. This depends on manufacturers, models, model year, etc.
The key to engine longevity is frequent oil and filter changes, ...even more frequently if used for city driving and start/stop operation. Low mileage engines used for short city driving will have more internal wear than a high miles engine only used on highways/long distance journeys.
You can have your oil analyzed and decide if your oil change intervals are adequate. I use synthetic oil and change the oil every 10k or so. My car has 227k, and the engine is running just fine.
Diesel Techie And they keep jacking the price up higher and higher. Cost to fix is higher too. There’s just not much left going for the customer anymore. 😪
my neighbor asked if i could check her oil in her bmw before she left out of state vacation ..popped the hood looked for 5 minutes scratched my head couldnt even find the dipstick. after she left (she was in a hurry) i looked up her car and it doesnt even have a dipstick ...REALLY BMW!!!
Very good video as usual! I manage the oil analysis for a company that sells lubricants (hydraulic, gear, engine, etc), and I have to say that especially for customers who have many trucks or tractors is extremely useful to perform analisys (it is also valid for other kind of equipment), cause you can avoid to change the lubricant too early or too late, saving money and time, and it happened also to find contaminants that indicate an incombent failure of a specific component, and reporting it, customer can prevent major damages to the equipment.
I made a deal with Jiffy Lube to park my car there every night and take the bus home. Then I get a fresh change every morning waiting for me when I arrive on my morning bus. I'm a good citizen.
Or just write the date, & millage on ur oil filter or on the old oil filter tab. Or just set ur oil change intervals lower so if u forget ur ok. At work we have customers goin way over the oil change interval, & for some we just set the sticker to 3k instead of the 6k that I usually set it too cuz it’s abt right. Over 6k regardless for an oil change is wrong. Idk if you drive a dsl truck that holds 2-5gallons of oil. U still need to change it every 5-6k or more often if u are working ur truck hard at max all the time.
I used synthetic the last time I got oil changed, but now I am nearly 800 kms over the mileage the mechanic recommended another oil change. Does this put the engine in a hard place?
Interestingly, my previous understanding, and experience with diesel engine oil (specifically Rotella), was that the breakdown of viscosity modifiers was a much more important factor in oil degradation than oxidation, at least on time scales relevant to automotive oil changes. I used to do engine testing and have oil samples analyzed every 20 hours of operation or so. We would see substantial decreases in viscosity over the first couple hundred hours, IIRC. At which point it would level out rather a bit lower than the oil's spec'd viscosity. Sure if you put 30k miles on the oil you would expect to see oxidation thickening, but I don't know that that's all that important if you skipped one oil change. And that's the issue, low viscosity is generally a more immediate concern than high viscosity, as this reduces film thicknesses, causing heat, causing lower viscosity, causing reduced film thickness... causing metal-metal contact.
I don't forget to change oil, I just don't want to do it. After 15 years I thought I'd change the oil in my old Buick, didn't notice any difference. But interesting video any way, I like how thorough you explain every subject.
Especially, a video on the new auto transmissions which have "lifetime" fluid and no dipstick (Toyota Tacoma, looking at U). He could do a great job on how to change and check the fluid levels in these "sealed" boxes.
@@nickfizzle1234 oh super smart guy! Cuz I've never owned a Subaru... I was merely making a statement in regards to somebody doing mechanics in physics explanations and he drives a boxer motor. Sorry I know alot of people that watch this channel are smart... Why people watch the videos in the first place. To learn. So that may have went way over some people heads.
Davey Bernard its no different than a manual trans really. Drop the pan to drain. And then there will be a fill bolt somewhere on top or the side along with a level check bolt. Bam job done. “Lifetime” fluid is a weird term. If the trans lasts 30k or 300k ok itself fluid it still was lifetime. That was the tran’s life.
I change oil every 3,000 mi - Walmart SuperTech non-synthetic plain jane motor oil - Bosch filters - got 482,000 mi service out of last vehicle before valve guide seals leak - got 524,000 mi out of Chevy pickup before rebuilding it - using same Walmart oil. Just changing oil on schedule is key to good vehicle service life. My costs per oil change is $18 - 20....😁👍🇺🇸
A mechanic in Houston, TX posted a video of what an engine looks like when the oil hasn't been changed. Back in the late '90s and early 2000s, Toyota did have a problem of oil sludge. This is another important reason to change your oil regularly. If you have low mileage - driving your car less then 5000 miles a year, then changing your oil once a year will suffice.
I have a 1998 Explorer that I drive about 1,000-2,000mi per year and only change my oil once in each year. Seems to be ok but considering how my timing chain cassettes were already going out I couldn't tell if I was hurting the motor or not....
Oil schedules are set for people who load their engines when they drive. Low load long runs are some of the best driving you can do for your engine. Short runs and stopping in between are quite a bit harder on the engine and performance driving even more again. I worry less about my wife’s Yaris service wise than I have any previous vehicle she has owned. Working out the length to which you can run your oil without changing requires an understanding of the load that the car is under most frequently and the general wear factors. If you can then you won’t panic at passing the set change time/distance between ….
I stipped draining il in 1963 using oil filters that clean oil and adding new makeup oil at filter changes. I use the Jackmaster Classic the Motor Guard and the Gulf Coast filters. I am using Super Tech 20.000 mile oil. Never cared much what the oil changers recommend.
You should do a video on aftermarket air filters like K&N and AFE. A lot of people are convinced that even with lower surface area and bigger pores to make up for it, they still filter just as well as OEM paper filters.
"Lifelong" is the term car manufacturer uses until warranty period is over, around 100k km, or 5 years, what comes first. After "lifelong" it's up to you what u want to do... I know for sure that DSG trans need oil change every 60k km, and old "wandler" torque converter is around 100k km.
@@ToyotaNutjob It's just being topped up by unburned fuel. If you run a car on LPG your oil level goes down because it's gas. Another curiosity, why do Americans call it gas when it's a liquid? In Australia we call it petrol.
As a general rule, every 20 deg. F. drop in oil temp, that doubles engine oil life. IOW chemical reactions are doubled with each increase of about 20 deg F. The Arrhenius rate rule for temperature, every 18 degrees F (10 degrees C) of increase, the chemical reaction doubles. In other words, for every increase of 18 degrees F for your oil, the life of the oil is cut in half. Keeping the oil as cool as possible when in use will extend its life and reduce the reaction of thermal breakdown. Engine oil coolers can help extend oil life.
@@MrMotorNerd He told me change it every so many miles, when I asked him why, he would say because I said so. Engineering Explained goes into more detail, which I like.
I just drive my car extremely hard once a week, usually on a Friday to get rid of carbon buildup. It’s a awesome way to keep that engine healthy. Just make sure you check your oil levels once a month to make sure they’re not low.
My 2010 Kia 2.0 has been on fully syn Shell 5w40 helix ultra from Day 1, now at 240000km still clean running with zero leaks.. Zero topup needed, i change the oil every 9 months or 15000km and the used oil comes out clean. Manufacturer recommendation Is every 10000km 6 months. I'm in tropical Malaysia
Unless you are 'abusing' the oil (high temps for example) it's more important to change filters and keep the oil level up. Yes oxidized oil should be changed, but today's high quality synthetic oils hold up really well to typical driving. More often than not, oil still capable of protecting an engine is drained out and replaced. Would be interested in seeing actual oil analysis at recommended oil change intervals
Went about 2000km over my scheduled oil change interval (15000km) due to mechanics being booked out leading up to xmas and then closed for 2 weeks, just as I had overseas visitors and had to do a lot of driving. The engine was noticeably louder during idle as well as under load, and when the oil was changed, the quietness then uncovered diff noise (diff oil not changed in 93000km). Significant noise reduction now that the diff oil has been changed, however I wouldn't have said the car was noisy before. The change in sound just creeps up on you.
I used amsoil oil & filter & changed it once a year in a '06 ram starting at 22k miles. 13yrs & 130k miles later, it only "used" oil through a front timing cover leak & previously through a valve cover leak that was repaired at 65k miles. Never had any mechanical problems.
Girlfriend didn’t change her oil for 30,000 miles, it took $400.00 to fix due to sludge and a couple of other repairs which was about what the oil changes would’ve cost. 🤪
Thank you for the details. It would have been nice to also cover : 1 the influence of short trips vs long trip on oil wear . 2 an example of lab results for both scenarios. 3 the chemical differences BTW mineral and synthetic. Thanks for the thorough videos !
an example of lab results for both scenarios... Theres a few videos on this. On a microscopic level, its not as doom and gloom as the video claims, the oils tested were fine upto 15,000 miles. Only then were trace metals found.
the top reason why dealers wants customer to change oil is 90 percent of people never check dipsticks oil height, i keep all my cars dipstick at full level all the time.
I use used oil to light my BBQ grill. Gives my burgers an unique flavor that I like (adds carbon and iron). I live for the day (probably not many left). ;-)
Engineering aside. I once worked at a body shop, bought a totaled Dodge with a 318 V8 @ 18K miles on it. Used it as the shop car. When it needed oil I drained some from the next car going to the crusher. I never changed the filter and NEVER changed the oil. I sold that car years later with 136k miles. Still ran perfectly 👌
I know a girl who had 90,000 miles on her Honda CRX that she bought new. Still had the break in oil in it when she asked me to sell it for her. I said no.
@BT DT I met a dude who owned a 1985 CRX. The man has been driving it ever since it came out and it's basically the only one left where I live. It's stock, but he kept it in beautiful condition.
That's how my friend used to check his oil on his Dodge Stealth. Needles to say, he had to replace the engine. He had better luck with a Nissan Maxima. But he still used his method. Car went 300k.
i was changing my engine in my 03 civic, i had a blown connecting rod, so right before doing the job, i redlined it to have fun and eventually the oil light came on, when it did i stoped and checked the oil, their was none left, then i made research, on civics, it only turns on when theirs only but a few drops left
Here’s one for y’all; I work as a lube tech. We had a 2019 Subaru Crosstrek come in that was 24,000 overdue!!! Lower bay pulled the bolt and just said “yeah that ain’t good.” I peeked my head down to see the jet black (imagine used up diesel oil then up the viscosity by x2) oil flowing incredibly slowly and that’s with cap, filter, and dipstick removed
This concentrates exclusively on time not mileage , a bit dissapointed that real mileage examples with data was not used , so if you have an occaisonal car that does low milage do you change when the milage is up or at a regular interval when its had little work to do ..?
R Warner, "This concentrates exclusively on time not mileage, ..." Did you mean that the other way around? Seems to me that all of the detrimental effects on oil he describes here are a function of the car being driven (like oil being burned) rather than what makes it go bad over time when not driven much. The owner's manual for my car says (for "normal" driving) to change the oil after 7,500 mile or 12 months, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.
Yes I probably didnt state it clearly enough , I think he was describing excess milage but kept saying late changing the oil . I believe that the oil degradation is almost exclusively a function of mileage not the duration its been in the sump 1, but would havr been good to cover both . He usually has data to back it up but not this time ..how far beyond recommended mileage before those effects become significant and what about long life oils ?
Just consider how some trucking companies and me do oil service; use the best synthetic and change the filter at 8k and top off when necessary. You do a good job for those who do not know.
I got a 2001 Toyota Camry with 300k miles, does not burn a drop of oil. I use cheapest oil, but religiously change it every 3k miles or 3 months. Parked and changes on the same spot on my driveway by myself for the past 10 years. All fluid changes according to the owners manual. I think most issues are either lack of maintenance or neglect. The other 10% is bad luck lol
No matter of the many comments simply ignorant, but engine oil is complex matter and VERY important - not only the interval, but the actual oil. And no - not all are equal. Will be very helpful if we see a dedicated lecture on that topic. Thanks.
I just went on a vacation and rent a car the fully synthetic 0w20 have became like 90w140 oil and it's so black the last services was 11000km and now it's 41000km supposed to change every 10000km and I ain't complaining as it isn't my car. Thanks for the information Jason. Love your videos.
Just a heads up, the winter SAE number on the oil is not the cold viscosity, but rather the flow characteristics in cold weather. A 5w-30 oil flows like a 5w oil when cold, but may have a higher viscosity than 30
I ran a test on my 5.3 gm, mobile 1 5w30 full synthetic lasted 3,000 miles before I began to notice excessive fuel and oil consumption. I am saving money by changing it every 3,000 miles vs. 4 & 5,000 miles. As between 3 & 4,000 my fuel economy dropped from 19 to 17 mpg, and between 4 & 5,000 it dropped down to 14-15. Thats around 10% or 100 miles of 1,000 miles and then 25% or 250 miles ... Totaling 350 miles or 18 gallons (I rounded down)of waisted fuel x 2.29.. so roughly $40 Not to mention the 3 quarts of oil I added to it to keep it topped off at $8 a piece. 40 +24 =$64 The oil change costed me about $50 when I do it myself. I save $14 and prolonged the life of my engine. KEEP IT CLEAN AND KEEP IT FULL.
While many people are advised to change their oil every 5-6k, even if you went to 7.5k you're probably OK as long as the oil is topped off and you're using a synthetic blend. In fact, many newer cars (made in the last 10 years) supposedly claim you can go 10,000 miles between changes, although I personally still stick with every 5,000 miles or 6 months, whichever occurs first. But it's not the end of the world if you go over by about 2-3k in most cases. The only time it might is if your engine is worn and leaking/burning a lot of oil and it runs low or gets excessively dirty.
I had a 2001 VW TDI that had 10k mile drain intervals. That made me nervous at first but it was running perfectly at 310k when the timing belt broke. I had the oil analyzed several times at change time and it always came back with plenty of life left. My new Tiguan also has a 10k mile drain interval and I don't feel concerned at all about following their recommendations as long as I'm using the properly spec'd oil.
Bought a 5 year old car once as a beater. Never changed the oil once in 4 years and then sold it. The car ran perfectly the entire time. I now do oil changes every couple of years with synth. Intervals are overstated.
While true, I often give it a pass when the acronym + redundancy is still less syllables and easy to understand eg: ICE engine is faster than saying internal combustion engine, VIN number is faster than Vehicle Identification Number etc And many people won't immediately know that ICE is referring to an engine type unless they've been watching for a while or are very familiar with the language so saying engine afterward helps with that.
The single most important factor with any oil is its film strength, that which protects against metal to metal contact or shear, anti wear additived. Synthetic base stocks alone only give you a higher resistance to temperature breakdown, which of course is good in itself.
Well, this is a big discussion topic, but keep in mind transmissions are not internal combustion engines (ICE) and the oil inside the transmission does not "work" anywhere near as hard as ICE oil under daily-driven conditions. Also, changing ATF of a high--mileage auto trans can actually lead to undrivable car due to the clutches being worn out to a point where the old ATF has more clutch material in it to keep sufficient "grip" than the clutches themselves and so by changing/flushing ATF you are now removing this clutch material suspended in the old ATF also, thus rendering the transmission to slip.
Austin That is completely BS. No oil lasts forever (unless manufacturers consider "lifetime" as 100,000mi, and then you must replace your transmission). My father had a C280/C300 2008 (W204) Mercedes-Benz with the 7G-Tronic transmission. When these were first introduced, MB said ATF lasted forever, hence they didn't include any drain plug nor oil dipstick. Later on they begin to notice some transmission wear due to lack of lubrication (oil breaking down), and SUGGESTED the ATF to be replaced every 60,000mi or 5 years if I'm not mistaken. When we took the car to an independent MB shop (the vehicle was dealer services for its entire 10 years of life until then) for a regular service + ATF and filter replacement, the mechanic said that when he removed the oil pan it already smelled funky, and there was no guarantee the transmission would function properly (because, with old oil, the pump works at a lower pressure due to clogging and possibly causing shifting delays although ATF was changed). Transmission flush is NOT recommended in these cases, as the previous comment stated. Car appeared to run perfectly fine then, but was finally sold some while ago.
I have 2019 kia forte, in the manual it says the ATF is lifelong. But there was an asterisk at the end of that sentence, in the footer of that page it says "assuming ideal conditions" or something like that. In case of "severe driving conditions" (I don't know exactly what that means) the ATF should be replaced every *60,000 km!* otherwise the warranty won't cover the damage. The lifelong ATF is basically B.S.
My sister's 16 Chrysler Town and Country once went 10,000 Miles on Conventional Oil before I changed it. Wasn't as horrible as I thought it was gonna be, There was a lot of blowby as it reeked of Gas and it was brown but there weren't any head gasket leak symptoms. It's up for changing in a few weeks I'm definitely gonna send a sample to Blackstone labs to make sure nothing bad happened.
Great video, thank you. Wish you would have touched on time between oil change rather than just mileage. I've heard between 6-12month, regardless if the car sat the whole time.
This is the comment I was looking for. I also expected him to touch on that. I don't hit the 5000 miles quickly and I read that one should change the oil twice a year. So I do that instead of going by the mileage.
There's a certain amount of chemical changes that happen as the oil ages. Oxidation is a big one, but with that mix of various additives there's going to be some base level of rare random reactions that cause chemicals to break down over time. So just letting the oil sit in an engine and get old will reduce its utility. Even when not in an engine, a sealed bottle of oil has an expiry date of up to about 5 years, and opened oil should be used within a year.
@@RobertDeCaire what if I use the vehicle every day; my commute times are just short? the engine is kept running quite often but I never even get past 2k miles per year.
I change my oil and filter when I can’t see my oil dip stick level lines through the oil. When the oil gets that dark I consider it dirty. Over fifty years of owning cars and trucks and I’ve used this method and never an engine problem. My vehicles have gone high miles and always ran great. When people have bought my used cars or trucks they would say my vehicles were running the best out of all they have looked at.
U.S. military did a study in the 1990’s, across several thousand vehicles. Half received oil changes every 3000 miles, while the other half never received an oil change. Through the useful life of the vehicles (100,000 miles) there was no discernable performance or longevity advantage for the vehicles having received the oil changes. In fact, the “un maintained “ vehicles outperformed the maintained vehicles, though the difference was not considered significant either way.
Those oils have been out for many years. There's nothing trick to it. Calcium and sodium based additives increase low speed pre-ignition (LSPI) in DI engines so oils formulated with DI engines in mind (API SN Plus rating and/or Dexos 1 Gen 2 rating) have no sodium detergents, less calcium detergents, and (typically) more magnesium detergents since magnesium is found to be LSPI neutral. Other than that, the formulas aren't much different.
This video highlights one of the biggest problems in buying used cars. About 50% of drivers don't change their motor oil at the correct intervals. When you buy a vehicle like that it had s lot of hidden damage to the engine. In the private market don't buy a car owned by a woman.
I once accidentally went ~12,000 miles on a conventional oil change in my Kia with ~105,000 miles on it at the time. I was definitely sweating it, but it doesn't seem like it caused any damage that I can tell, no more ticking or noises than it had before...I do need to get it tested at Blackstone though.
Have you looked at the oil dipstick recently? Going to far without an oil change can increase engine oil consumption. Older cars normally burn a little oil but if you see a big change in oil level that's not good, alot of oil consumption will wear out the engine faster.
once I went 2 years with conventional oil, some shitty ass synthetic blend from honda, the engine never made any noise, was driving very smooth before oil change and almost the same after the oil change, just a tiny bit smoother.
The oil's hot, operating viscosity will decrease/thin out of its rated range, the shearing that Jason mentions. A decreasing oil capacity will also decrease ability to cool pistons and resist heat thus retard ignition timing by ECU -- reduced power.
I notice with my car and a lot of trucks I have driven that when the oil is getting due, it usually needs a top up which adds a bit of fresh additives and of course adds to the volume circulating. Not a metric I would rely on but a handy rule of thumb. The type of driving is also important too. I drive a 70 kilometre round trip for work on expressway driving which is much kinder than stop go driving. Probably could go over the distance but better safe than sorry if you don't get your oil tested to know how much life you really have left.
I went 50 miles over, so I just drove backwards before I changed it.
Thank you for the tip
Outstanding move
This is the kind of thinking that has made this nation so great!
Does this actually work? asking for a friend
The old Ferris Bueller method.
Years ago I took a class in college on automotive technology. The professor had a PhD in automotive engineering. I learned a lot in that class. The one thing that really stood out is the professor repeatedly making the point that oil is not just a lubricant. It is a coolant. The oil helps limit heat buildup in critical parts of the engine. Not just by lubrication, but by moving heat away from critical parts of the engine.
This! This is why my engine got fried and stuck, with no oil! Mechanic said, "I was responsible" to check the oil level every two weeks. It was gaslighting. I had the scheduled regular maintenance with the mech, just 3 weeks prior to getting fried. $3000 price tag for engine swap. Plus tow, plus stranded in hwy etc. The car was regularly and meticulously maintained. But oil got lower in... 3 weeks??? Bummer.
@@JR-zw2vb Yes person should check their oil but eating so much oil it starved the engine in 3 weeks. Something seriously was wrong. I do check my car almost daily i probably lose more oil from wiping the dipstick clean but thats just me being OCD.
@@DeusKDuoThat's not OCD. In 2020, I used to be a delivery driver averaging 150+mi./day, and I used my own car('02 camry), and I checked the oil level every morning before starting the car. B/c the camry had to endure so much city driving, I ran a full synthetic, which I changed every 3k mi. And running a flush through the the engine every 5 oil changes. It's been my daily for the last 3yrs, and I left that job 2yrs ago, but It still runs very well, and I still run the High Mileage platinum full synthetic from pennzoil but change the oil every 4k mi. now. And I still check the oil at least once/wk. I love that old camry, and I know it was worth doing all the oil changes myself. Besides, the oil change service was super easy.
@@lobsterbisque7567that’s a testament to your Camry’s robustness!! About 8 months ago, I bought a 2015 Venza, which is based off the Camry platform, and will serve as my retirement car in a few years. It currently has 105K miles, and runs like a top! I’ve done a couple of oil changes on it, and it doesn’t burn any oil. I plan on babying it and who knows? It may last another 200K-300K miles, that’s how tough the Toyotas are. Kudos to you and your Camry!! 😃👍🏼
@@carlovanrijk4039 Same to You and Your Venza!
I’m an engineer by profession and love those engineering videos. Reminds me of college days, 30 years ago❤️
Can you do work for me on 20 Micron filter media?
My decades of experience are all the way back to a heavy steel cannister with cartridge's in it;
My experience shows "just replace it often enough"
Bluecamaroz28: Agree. Retired engineer here and it was more like 50 years ago!
But since I have my share of Biden Moments now his videos make it seem like I am
seeing it all for the first time................
@@dd_ranchtexas4501 I filter biden out most days.
Daymn u old
When I was extremely poor (80$ dollars left for food per mouth) my ford escape went 30,000 miles between oil changes. I've since sold it to my cousin, they put 250,000 miles on and the engine still runs great.
@@DashCamSerbia yep. 40 miles per day too. Just so I could keep my job. That allowed me to survive.
@@DashCamSerbia
he would still have to go to work or he would have no money for anything :-)
@@DashCamSerbia public transportation doesn't even exist for many people's routes to their jobs
Ауто камере Србија / Dash cams Serbia I guess there isn’t much public transportation in the us.
The mythology of engine oil is strong on the internet, especially with all these experts, but engine failure due to oil issues is extremely rare.
It depends on how much your cars engine is worth to you on how often you change oil. Problem is that the result of neglect will only show up after years of neglect.
You can't hurt your engine by changing the oil too often.
Well done as always, Jason.
Thats how i deal with for me my car engine is like my heart and im always in serach to increse its life and have fun with it
whereas i also have a scooter which i dont care about much skipped many service but that thing doesnt break
You have no idea how mad I was at my dad once for driving my Corolla nearly 20k miles without an oil change, and doing that for a whole year.
@@Electronica27 we bought a car that had the same oil for 60 000km (37k miles)
@@Tupsuu RIP
@@Tupsuu😮
Here's a true story no one is going to read:
My ex girlfriend ran her 97 honda civic mb2 almost everyday for over 4 months without oil in the gearbox and waay below the minimum in the engine. One day the second and third gear started making the same noise as the reverse gear does, and first gear wouldn't always click in place. She complained about it and I'm a handy guy so I decided to do the maintenance of her car like a real man. NOTHING had prepared me for the moment I took the drain plugs out just to see *literally* a couple drops of oil from the gearbox, and the equivalent of two cups of water from the engine.
Since that day i've got MAD respect for old Honda drivetrains.
The car still runs great at the date of this comment with the best quality oils I could find for it ..
To this day I have no clue where that oil went .....
maybe they forgot to put the new oil in the last time when they were changing it before to do the maintenance that time so it was never there to begin with hehe
@@raven4k998 yes. Either that or it was stolen. And I know which theory sounds best 🤣👍
@@MasParaQue motor oil thieves you got gotta watch out for them they will strip your car bare in a couple of days if you not careful hehehe that's why you should always have a shotgun ready on standby incase they come for your car
I had a 97 Civic, for over 2 years I would hit rev limiter numerous times daily, even on a cold engine. Drove it 750 miles a week and abused it every mile I could. Also ran it out of manual trans oil, but it killed the input shaft bearing, so I sold it. Engine still ran perfectly, great cars.
Here's one for you I'll never forget- i was a lube tec for 2 years. One late 90s civic came in, running fine. Guy is crowing about how the car is his baby. Pull the drain plug and NOT ONE DROP OF OIL COMES OUT OF THE CRANCASE! Changed the filter, fill up new oil, and he's back on his way.
I always change my engine every four miles instead of adding oil to it like a real man
You might give 5 miles a try and see how it works out for you. Could save you some time!
I run my engine a quarter mile at a time
@@dingeskraal6237 😭😭😭
Some epic dedication there 😁
@@_Steven_S Cuts down on actual miles driven, car should last forever.,
"All engines will burn oil."
Toyota 3.4 V6 with 300,000 miles: "This man has a sense of humor!"
Ford F150 4.9L Inline 6 with 745, 781 km: (burns oil, but still runs)
@@billyboy4797 I do 7500 mile synthetic oil changes in my 2000 Toyota Tacoma 3.4. The engine oil level literally doesn't change by 7500 and there is no sludge/varnishing. Today's oils are insane. My engine only has 140,000 miles though.
@@Dcc357 you should get many more years out of your 3.4. Regular oil changes make a big difference. My old truck has had oil changes regularly, even though most is highway miles.
A Nissan 1.6l qg16de 270000km, changing oil every 5000km, not a drop of oil burnt.
civic.... not saying anything else XD
Most people don’t realize how much oil is lost through the PCV route. Installing a catch can will actually let people see the amount lost while keeping the combustion side cleaner. I was amazed when I installed a catch can.
Excellent Stuff, there is a reason this channel has been around so long.
Imagine you go into Jiffy Lube and this is how it’s explained to you.
Imagine going to Iffy Lube and ever finding anyone there that actually understood any of this
Imagine going to Jiffy Lube
Which is why operator manuals just tell you when by a generally straightforward set of conditions. The average Joe and Josephine just want an easy answer so they can go about their lives. People watching "Engineering Explained" aren't those people.
Hahaha best comment. I actually work as a manager at one. Watching this video to actually expand my knowledge in this.
I was that guy. just didn't have a white board.
Thank you for the information and excellent explanation. Note: as a fleet & logistics manager for Pepsi cola, we send the used oil's to a lab for testing to determine the proper oil change intervals for various truck types that we own. As a rule of thumb you can go twice the recommended mileage. Since we run hundreds of trucks and vehicles, the sample is adequate to arrive to a conclusion that is valid within our application, vehicle types, and the type of oils we use (none synthetic).
All persons talks of mileage but what about time?
@@LibertyWlk yes, we are low mileage family , our car does 3 to 5 thousand miles per year at most, so we often dont change it every year and never had any problems , we buy 3 year old cars and run them for however long we feel like which is usually 10 years or so.
@@FlyingFun. It also depends on what type of "low mileage" one has.
If all are short trips, these are actually bad for the oil. Cold engine = fuel vapor condense onto cylinder wall & doesn't burn, wipes right into crankcase, dilutes oil, etc...
If each trip is reasonably long, just few trips each week, that's probably the best combination for the vehicle...
@@reallifeengineer7214 I knew short trips were bad but thanks for exact reason why.
Commute is about 20 miles and weekly shop just a few miles away.
I'll defo keep an eye on the oil.
In my previous work I was doing loads of 5 minute journeys with 30 minute between them and oil got pretty black quite quickly.
@@FlyingFun. best way to go about it is to check your oil every weekend. I've found all other advice too general and now I just check oil every Sunday and going good🤙🏻
Reading these comments makes me never want to buy a used car again.
If you use social media to much, you never want to leave your house....
@Cliff Warren, Lol
I got a 2002 hyundai minivan. Goes great. Because it was A COMPANY CAR and NEVER MISSED an oil change. That's the secret. My family has had a number of company cars (including my latest ford) and they've all been good JUST BECAUSE they never missed any services.
my brother scored a vw passat 2000 mint condition all hope is not lost you just have to be very careful when buying used cars
We only buy NEW & keep em 10yrs+. Ford trucks F150/250 mostly.. a few Ford SUVs.. Explorer & Escape last few purchases. Both served us very well & tech / features best in class as are powertrains. Fiance loves Escape's 1.5L EcoBoost /AWD. My give my sone current F150 4wd crew & order another new Ranger XLT FX4 crew. We very happy & impressed w/our '19 Ranger XLT FX4 used for business & pleasure.
My dad's secretary came in one day and said her car was making a rattling sound under the hood. My dad went out to take a look. He pulled the dipstick, clean. He asked when she had her oil changed last. "Do what now?!" 49k miles never been touched. LOL.
@Grizzly “smash her”?? Don’t know what the car was. This was over 30 years ago.
@Grizzly oil wasn't as good then but then engines weren't so sensitive back then either.
Another note... foam inhibitors. Usually in the form of polymethylsiloxane or methyl acrylates, these additives are the most susceptible to additive clash. Different anti-foaming chemistry can be equally effective on their own but cancel each other out if blended. This is usually a problem with aftermarket oil supplements. It's a common problem in racing engines where people are adding ZDDP supplements to a finished API oil to try to boost the wear protection and end up sacrificing the foaming and aeration control in the process. Then when oil temps start to shoot up, pressure drops, and bearings start overheating, cavitating, and spalling, they usually blame everything except their oil regiment.
interesting
How can you tell when your subaru is low on oil?
When in stops leaking all over your driveway.
Lol...😂
I thought the answer to “how do you know your suburu is low on oil” is
“Yes. “
Between the leaking and the burning. A friends brand new forrester has burned a qt/1k since it was new off the lot. That’s “normal” according to suburu. 🤷♂️
My 93 Legacy hasn't started leaking oil yet at 237,000 miles. The 84 started leaking oil from both head gaskets at a little over 250,000 miles. Paid 200 dollars for an 80 model Subaru unseen. Went to pick it up. The floor was full of empty oil cans. Oil was all over the engine and the fill cap was missing. I got lucky replaced the cap and changed the PCV valve and hose. It wasn't very old then. Took a kid thru college.
@@ralphwood5114 Hello Ralph. I believe the engineers simply forgot to design in the oil leaks on the earlier models. Something about 80s and 90s Japanese build quality. Speaking of which, what ever happened to that?
I mostly buy old cars. The 84 I bought new. Bought a 2008 Smart car. What a piece of crap. I liked driving it. It was sweating oil when I bought it. It started leaking bad about the time I started having electrical problems and parked it. It was burning out head light bulbs. Voltage seemed OK. Not a do it yourself car. Its a take it to to your Mercedes dealer car. Don't want any more cars that I can't take to any locksmith and have a key made. Its a 5 speed manual. The computer works the clutch and shifting. 150 k miles on it. Not worth much.
I own a hotshot trucking company and regularly exceed the recommended oil change reminders on my 3500 ram Cummins. Had several go over 500,000 miles through the years and these trucks work hard pulling loads exceeding 20,000 lbs!
If you send your oil off for testing at Blackstone they will run the viscosity and check the additive package, contaminants, and TBN (total base number). This allows you to see how much life you have left in your oil. TLDR you can often run your oil for a lot longer than the specification (the spec is somewhat arbitrary and factors like driving style -- a straight shot across the country on highway alone will often times leave the oil looking and testing like new). That being said, the cost of an oil test can be quite similar to the cost of an oil change.
Black stone made me about $1000. Long story short, car got totaled. Appraiser said it’s worth next to nothing because of the mileage, saying the motor is shot. We sent the Blackstone report showing it was in great condition. Appraisal came back $1000 higher. Best $45 I ever spent.
@@nasonguy So itll tell you how healthy thew engine in general still is? thats a very good thing to know.
@@dobber43 Blackstone analysis will tell you a few things. The contents of the oil (more wear metals is bad, more detergents/dispersants is generally a good thing, etc), and the physical qualities of the oil (is the viscosity still good? Could you have gone with a longer oil change interval, etc).
@NicholasAndre1...good reply. Blackstone suggested we continue just replacing the filter, suby, and running it to 12K....highway miles mostly. That is double what is supposedly the change interval.
@@darrellborland119 yeah especially if you burn a bit of oil and have to top it off half way through synthetic highway mileage should be fine. Although if you have to rotate the tires might be convenient to just do the oil change and have them inspect brakes etc.
Also worth mentioning some of the newer systems on engines like variable valve timing have smaller passages and are more sensitive to oil condition.
They are a lot more particular about the oil weight and condition. Wrong oil or long change intervals will not be good for it.
You are correct. The hydraulic lifters that adjust the valves have tiny holes that need to be filled with oil to function properly. Sludge plugs those holes preventing oil from getting inside. Then you have tapping noise.
And yet manufactures are extending or claiming changes of up too 15k miles. Sounds like a cash cow for the manufactures for repairs.
@@djmjay2 that’s actually exactly what it is
@@djmjay2 You'll notice it's typically the manufacturers that have free maintenance for x number of years that spec these absurd oil change intervals. Take bmw for example, interval used to be around 10k and the year they started doing 3 year free maintenance they upped it to 15k
When I was flying, the adage was “gasoline and oil are the cheapest things you put into an engine”.
Bear in mind that a typical Aircraft Engine rebuild is north of $25,000.
Bram Moerman - Yes, true, but that is just a small 4 cylinder motor. Bigger = way bigger bucks...
Yes, inflation is everywhere.
still cheaper than porsche ;
Remember about 50 years ago saw some AeroFrantz filters on crop dusters. They were FAA approved and used 2 ply facial quality bathroom tissue. Don't know anything about aircraft engines but know clean oil is better than dirty oil.
Thats the low end. I went to an engine overhaul shop near lunken in Cincinnati and 25k was easily spent on the little 4-cyl lycoming and continental engines.
I work in an aviation engine shop and can confirm the prices are excessive. To just get a replacement camshaft for a 8 cyl Lycoming 720 costs about $8,000 our price (some markup for customer).
Understanding this video has inspired my question which is:
Why don't car engine makers include a ''pre-lubing"/"lube-priming" kind of process where a person turns the ignition key from position-zero through to position-two (battery online) and is prompted by a "lube-protection-system" to "please wait, pre-lubing or lube-priming" in progress, and depending on car make, the person would see a graphic progress bar or clock countdown insicating when it's ok to turn the key to position-three to crank the engine to a start?
This process would use electric power from the battery of the car (it may be as much power as used by the starter motor to crank the enginento a start) to power an electric oil pump to pre-spray/pre-circulate just eniugh oil around the engine to coat those sensitive moving parts that are exposed to dryness that welcomes wear during start-ups...before the starter motor is cleared to crank the engine to a start.
This idea of mine is inspired by the pre-heating glow wire in diesel engines which must be allowed to get hot enough to warm the air entering the ready-to-fire cylinder...like we all know, this is a must-do process on cars with diesel engines and I thought it would be great for petrol/gasoline engines to have the pre-lubing/pre-oiling/pre-spraying feature. I'm aware that something like this would unfortunately increase complexity, parts-counts, weight and costs to the car featuring the system, but I'm tempted to think that in the long run, start-up wear could be reduced super-significantly. What do you think?
Hell, I think you really have something there! Get the blueprints going. Makes perfect sense.
Or they just could do engines like Toyota does.
I had a Mondeo and went 1000 miles over the oil change and my girlfriend left me and then half my house fell down a sink hole
It was because you drive a Mondeo
If you had have driven a kia you could have gone 7000 miles over the oil change, killed the engine, gone around telling everyone "it's because kias are crap", and they all would have believed you. But just don't tell anyone that the Kia Sedona used as wheelchair taxis here in Australia got about 660 thousand kilometers because they were maintained.....
Maybe she just fell into that sink hole. Feeling better now?
There's yur problem!
You forgot to mention that for got fired from your not with no compo
I did not forget to change oil. I wanted to test these oil change claims, and so I did not change oil for 10 years on a lightly driven car. Nothing happened. I like the testing so much, I am testing on more cars.
Growing up in the 70's 80's money being tight my dad pounded the message" budget for your car and never be late with your oil changes..."or else!".... I did not want to get to "or else!"....😲
Jason is a great teacher. Never boring. I never yohn when I listen to him. Great videos nice clear voice and no crappy music in the background.
Gonna debate a small point w/ you.
A ‘Great’ teacher makes the un-understandable - understandable.
I opened this video simply wanting to know IF it’s the miles driven? Or the length of time in the engine? We have a low-mileage F150 that hasn’t had the oil changed in 2 years because it sits a lot in the garage. There’s only 950 miles on last oil change. But it’s been sitting in there over 2 years....
OK, so I got a LOT OF INFO from a Master’s level auto genius. In fact, TMI ! And I guess I generally get that it’s bad to run old, dirty oil - and that it hurts an engine. But I didn’t get my simple question answered in a simple understandable way.
@@boomer1954ful 67 years old and your just now trying to figure this out?? . I'm 62, and have known since my early 20s, if you don't drive it much, change it once a year.
If you forgot to change your oil, just remember it.
But you remembered that you forgot to remember
@@Lumens1 and then you remember you have to remember something that you couldn't forget and you can't remember what it is
*Engine seized up*
Oh yeah, it was the oil change, silly me
World hunger has been solved and poverty has been eradicated.
This is genius.
Suddenly engine problems from old oil are 100% gone. Good work
Loved you as Cameron in Ferris Bueller!
oof
😂😂
That's pretty funny
😂😂😂
He is in his 50s
I’m going to have oil for breakfast from now on. Gotta get those antioxidants!
Pomegranate oil
Olive oil has antioxidants. Much safer than car engine oil too.
It also makes great lawn fertilizer!
Carcinogens*
anti-oxidant in plastic as well otherwise it root the instant it sees sunlight.
As a note, many additives are also dual purpose. ZDDP (commonly referred to as just "zinc") is an excellent anti-oxidant, especially ZDDP that employs primary alkyl groups. MoDTC, a common friction reducer, also aids in oxidation inhibition as well as helps with wear protection in high concentrations. Unfortunately, both of these are severely limited in modern API oils because of "emissions." CaCO3 and MgCO3, the core of calcium and magnesium based detergents, can also have anti-wear capabilities.
I usually change now when recommended, however when I was younger and had little money, I had a 1985 Nissan minitruck. I used synthetic oil, (Mobil 1) and only changed the oil when it went down a quart (liter). That was about every 40,000kms. At around 350,000kms, I had to change a valve cover gasket, and when I took the cover off, I expected to to see a bunch of sludge, but it was clean as a new engine. The compression was also still very high, around 180 psi. I ended up giving it to my ex, and she drove it to 460,000 kms, and then got a newer vehicle, but the engine was still running like a top at even with all that mileage.. The point I am making, is that if you are using a quality oil, especially synthetic, I really don't think that running a couple thousand kms or miles over the recommended interval will make all that much of a difference in the long term.
It most likely won't as long as the extra distance is within reasonable limits. Also how it's been run matters.
Interesting. I wonder what kind of driving did you do. Motorway or urban? Probably mostly long drives from the high mileage
Same experience here, I kept postponing the oil change on a Corolla because the oil remained clear. At 40,000 km it was darker than new but not all that much. Synthetic oil doesn't break down and deteriorate like conventional oil.
Michael Walsh : I was commuting to Toronto, so it was a mix of highway and.a lot of jammed up stop and go. The worst kind to an engine. 1 hour 40 minutes each way.
Even much more. Reinforced filter is important.
You don’t really need to change oil if your car leaks so much that you’re adding a quart every week amirite?
Need to change your seals at every oil change in that case
Agreed
@Dangerous One
haha.. yeah probably right, if it doesn't build up some sh*t somewhere then you only have to replace oil filter now n then. I always check oil quality by rubbing a small amount between my fingers. You can feel difference from good vs bad lubrication. The color also shows quite clearly when the fluid is bad (=dark brown/black). No need to send to any lab.
As long as it's synthetic
still need to in order to change out the contaminants that formed. they don't just disappear with the oil.
Most current oils have removed or significantly reduced zinc content, as it raises problems with modern catalytic converters. It is a really important additive for small engines. Some small engine manufacturers like Kohler sell motor oil for their engines with zinc additives.
What's the replacement?
I have always doubled the oil change recommendations and never had an issue on any vehicle I have had .
Glenna Barry I never had issue with my vehicles by sticking to manufacturer’s recommendation of oil change and I am not polluting environment by doing unnecessary oil changes.
@@olasek7972 if I am reading the comment correctly doubled means two times i.e. if the manufacturer says 5,000 miles he goes 10,000 miles. But I agree, my motorcycle has oil change intervals of 7,500 miles and some folks change every 3,000 and it is so unnecessary.
Stephen Smith you could be right, “double” could have two different meanings here, now I am not even sure what he meant.
In the 1990's Motor Trend magazine did a oil study involving New York City taxi's, vehicles that put a lot of miles on quick, so the results came in quick. They change oil on one set of cabs at 3,000 mile, another set of cabs at 6,000 miles, and then 9,000 miles, and lastly, 12,000 miles. At 100,000 miles they tore these engines down, and found less that 5% wear difference across all examples. Results were clear, oil changes at 3-6,000 miles was a big waste of money. 9-12,000 miles seemed to work just as well.
Yea i was gonna say. The high oil changes was made because they wanted to sell more oil. But I've ran cars without oil change for a year and half. I dont let the oil run low of course but I have realized changing oil very early your wasting your oil
This was a great study they did. Yes there May be a benefit of changing more often theoretically, but what is the real world effect? If a significant real world affect isn’t seen until 3 million miles, then it doesn’t matter much cause the car has other parts that won’t last that long. Or if the effect is 1mpg then you can see if the cost outweighs the benefit by doing some simple math.
Here in the EU vehicles are on 10,000+, some as high as 18,000-20,000 and we're getting 150,000-200,000 miles without issue and usually it is the bodywork that fails before the engine.
@@conorturton 10,000 km is roughly 6,250 mi, so more or less the same.
@@anonymousinc6330 they ment 10 000 miles. Otherwise here it starts from 15 000km to 30 000km. From 12 to 24 months whatever goes first. This depends on manufacturers, models, model year, etc.
The key to engine longevity is frequent oil and filter changes, ...even more frequently if used for city driving and start/stop operation.
Low mileage engines used for short city driving will have more internal wear than a high miles engine only used on highways/long distance journeys.
You can have your oil analyzed and decide if your oil change intervals are adequate. I use synthetic oil and change the oil every 10k or so. My car has 227k, and the engine is running just fine.
BMW has a plan to have less metal wear contaminates ...... Making more and more of the engine out of plastic 😐😔
Diesel Techie And they keep jacking the price up higher and higher. Cost to fix is higher too. There’s just not much left going for the customer anymore. 😪
in one movie they said 'Bavarian Money Waster (BMW). HaHa
@@billnopoles1934 it should be Big Money Waster.
my neighbor asked if i could check her oil in her bmw before she left out of state vacation ..popped the hood looked for 5 minutes scratched my head couldnt even find the dipstick. after she left (she was in a hurry) i looked up her car and it doesnt even have a dipstick ...REALLY BMW!!!
@@dustinwalker9932 mercedes have that too. Only digital indicator.
Very good video as usual!
I manage the oil analysis for a company that sells lubricants (hydraulic, gear, engine, etc), and I have to say that especially for customers who have many trucks or tractors is extremely useful to perform analisys (it is also valid for other kind of equipment), cause you can avoid to change the lubricant too early or too late, saving money and time, and it happened also to find contaminants that indicate an incombent failure of a specific component, and reporting it, customer can prevent major damages to the equipment.
I made a deal with Jiffy Lube to park my car there every night and take the bus home. Then I get a fresh change every morning waiting for me when I arrive on my morning bus.
I'm a good citizen.
Here's another tip, if u are prone to forget then use synthetic, it will last twice as long and gives u a buffer if u forget.
Or just write the date, & millage on ur oil filter or on the old oil filter tab. Or just set ur oil change intervals lower so if u forget ur ok.
At work we have customers goin way over the oil change interval, & for some we just set the sticker to 3k instead of the 6k that I usually set it too cuz it’s abt right. Over 6k regardless for an oil change is wrong.
Idk if you drive a dsl truck that holds 2-5gallons of oil. U still need to change it every 5-6k or more often if u are working ur truck hard at max all the time.
I used synthetic and Bruce buffer never showed
I used synthetic the last time I got oil changed, but now I am nearly 800 kms over the mileage the mechanic recommended another oil change. Does this put the engine in a hard place?
@@rushiljain9423 when the oil looks/smells dirty you should change it, whether it is synthetic or not
Interestingly, my previous understanding, and experience with diesel engine oil (specifically Rotella), was that the breakdown of viscosity modifiers was a much more important factor in oil degradation than oxidation, at least on time scales relevant to automotive oil changes. I used to do engine testing and have oil samples analyzed every 20 hours of operation or so. We would see substantial decreases in viscosity over the first couple hundred hours, IIRC. At which point it would level out rather a bit lower than the oil's spec'd viscosity. Sure if you put 30k miles on the oil you would expect to see oxidation thickening, but I don't know that that's all that important if you skipped one oil change. And that's the issue, low viscosity is generally a more immediate concern than high viscosity, as this reduces film thicknesses, causing heat, causing lower viscosity, causing reduced film thickness... causing metal-metal contact.
yeah jason is full of it.
I don't forget to change oil, I just don't want to do it. After 15 years I thought I'd change the oil in my old Buick, didn't notice any difference.
But interesting video any way, I like how thorough you explain every subject.
You look like the perfect combination of a mature man and a 20 year old intern
dude how old is he hes another one he looks young and old
Fresh Avocado A younger looking Beto O’Rourke
You sound creepy
The mind of a 35 year old man with the arm muscles of a 15 year old girl.
Been watching him since the early days of RUclips. We were saying the same thing back then.
Very cool! You should so do a video like this on automatic transmission fluid. I rather enjoy ur videos! And I like that u drive a subi!
Especially, a video on the new auto transmissions which have "lifetime" fluid and no dipstick (Toyota Tacoma, looking at U). He could do a great job on how to change and check the fluid levels in these "sealed" boxes.
What a tool liking someone because they drive the same car as you
@@nickfizzle1234 Liberal?
@@nickfizzle1234 oh super smart guy! Cuz I've never owned a Subaru... I was merely making a statement in regards to somebody doing mechanics in physics explanations and he drives a boxer motor. Sorry I know alot of people that watch this channel are smart... Why people watch the videos in the first place. To learn. So that may have went way over some people heads.
Davey Bernard its no different than a manual trans really. Drop the pan to drain. And then there will be a fill bolt somewhere on top or the side along with a level check bolt. Bam job done. “Lifetime” fluid is a weird term. If the trans lasts 30k or 300k ok itself fluid it still was lifetime. That was the tran’s life.
I change oil every 3,000 mi - Walmart SuperTech non-synthetic plain jane motor oil - Bosch filters - got 482,000 mi service out of last vehicle before valve guide seals leak - got 524,000 mi out of Chevy pickup before rebuilding it - using same Walmart oil. Just changing oil on schedule is key to good vehicle service life. My costs per oil change is $18 - 20....😁👍🇺🇸
A mechanic in Houston, TX posted a video of what an engine looks like when the oil hasn't been changed. Back in the late '90s and early 2000s, Toyota did have a problem of oil sludge. This is another important reason to change your oil regularly. If you have low mileage - driving your car less then 5000 miles a year, then changing your oil once a year will suffice.
I have a 1998 Explorer that I drive about 1,000-2,000mi per year and only change my oil once in each year. Seems to be ok but considering how my timing chain cassettes were already going out I couldn't tell if I was hurting the motor or not....
I changed mine every 12 months. I typically drive my car about 4000 miles during that time. Preventative maintenance.
What oil do you use? 5w30, 15w40?
Oil schedules are set for people who load their engines when they drive. Low load long runs are some of the best driving you can do for your engine. Short runs and stopping in between are quite a bit harder on the engine and performance driving even more again. I worry less about my wife’s Yaris service wise than I have any previous vehicle she has owned. Working out the length to which you can run your oil without changing requires an understanding of the load that the car is under most frequently and the general wear factors. If you can then you won’t panic at passing the set change time/distance between ….
I went over the recommended limit by ~500 km on my last 2 oil changes and I was fully expecting Jason to say that my car is basically broken now lol.
Far from it you can go quite a ways beyond recommended ~ just do not let it get low → this is an ideal product; I use it with above excellent result;
I stipped draining il in 1963 using oil filters that clean oil and adding new makeup oil at filter changes. I use the Jackmaster Classic the Motor Guard and the Gulf Coast filters. I am using Super Tech 20.000 mile oil. Never cared much what the oil changers recommend.
Thanks man, started adding Vitaminwater XXX to my oil. My car runs great with all the extra antioxidants!
You should do a video on aftermarket air filters like K&N and AFE. A lot of people are convinced that even with lower surface area and bigger pores to make up for it, they still filter just as well as OEM paper filters.
Why does Jason have to do all the work making videos? Are you not already convinced which are the best oil filters?
Please can you do a similar video on ATF? especially the "lifelong ATF" issues with new transmissions.
"Lifelong" is the term car manufacturer uses until warranty period is over, around 100k km, or 5 years, what comes first. After "lifelong" it's up to you what u want to do...
I know for sure that DSG trans need oil change every 60k km, and old "wandler" torque converter is around 100k km.
My Australian Ford has a sealed for life Auto. Currently got 500,000 kms and runs smoothly never touched.
@@Blanchy10 highway miles.
Finally someone agrees with me that every engine burns oil.
Thank you .
@pyropulse lol ya bet.
Not true at all. My toyota burns zero oil at all.
Yes, and there is uranium in seawater.
All engines burn oil but on my toyota, it's so little that I dont see any visible difference on the dipstick between oil changes.
@@ToyotaNutjob It's just being topped up by unburned fuel. If you run a car on LPG your oil level goes down because it's gas. Another curiosity, why do Americans call it gas when it's a liquid? In Australia we call it petrol.
As a general rule, every 20 deg. F. drop in oil temp, that doubles engine oil life. IOW chemical reactions are doubled with each increase of about 20 deg F. The Arrhenius rate rule for temperature, every 18 degrees F (10 degrees C) of increase, the chemical reaction doubles. In other words, for every increase of 18 degrees F for your oil, the life of the oil is cut in half. Keeping the oil as cool as possible when in use will extend its life and reduce the reaction of thermal breakdown. Engine oil coolers can help extend oil life.
You have taught me more than my dad has in the past 22 years. I found out about your channel two weeks ago. I love these types of videos.
Sadly I'm in the same position. I only know some of the basics about a car, but I feel like I know way more than my father lol
Maybe just hangout , shutup and listen and your Dad may feel like telling you !
@@MrMotorNerd He told me change it every so many miles, when I asked him why, he would say because I said so. Engineering Explained goes into more detail, which I like.
I just drive my car extremely hard once a week, usually on a Friday to get rid of carbon buildup. It’s a awesome way to keep that engine healthy. Just make sure you check your oil levels once a month to make sure they’re not low.
it doesnt need to be driven extremely hard. as long as u drive on the highway sometimes... good enough
Officer: “you know why I pulled you over?”
Me: “Sorry sir, just tryna keep my engine healthy”
Josh S Granny shifting not double clutching like you should
@@willmalliotis9341 please tell me you're not double clutching in a gearbox with synchros...
Wojtek K it’s a reference from the Fast and Furious movie
My 2010 Kia 2.0 has been on fully syn Shell 5w40 helix ultra from Day 1, now at 240000km still clean running with zero leaks.. Zero topup needed, i change the oil every 9 months or 15000km and the used oil comes out clean. Manufacturer recommendation Is every 10000km 6 months. I'm in tropical Malaysia
Unless you are 'abusing' the oil (high temps for example) it's more important to change filters and keep the oil level up. Yes oxidized oil should be changed, but today's high quality synthetic oils hold up really well to typical driving. More often than not, oil still capable of protecting an engine is drained out and replaced.
Would be interested in seeing actual oil analysis at recommended oil change intervals
Went about 2000km over my scheduled oil change interval (15000km) due to mechanics being booked out leading up to xmas and then closed for 2 weeks, just as I had overseas visitors and had to do a lot of driving. The engine was noticeably louder during idle as well as under load, and when the oil was changed, the quietness then uncovered diff noise (diff oil not changed in 93000km). Significant noise reduction now that the diff oil has been changed, however I wouldn't have said the car was noisy before. The change in sound just creeps up on you.
I used amsoil oil & filter & changed it once a year in a '06 ram starting at 22k miles. 13yrs & 130k miles later, it only "used" oil through a front timing cover leak & previously through a valve cover leak that was repaired at 65k miles. Never had any mechanical problems.
Amsoil is legit the best
Girlfriend didn’t change her oil for 30,000 miles, it took $400.00 to fix due to sludge and a couple of other repairs which was about what the oil changes would’ve cost. 🤪
No way sludge can be removed with some Trans fluid in the engine oil for 9 dollars. They ripped your ass off
Thank you for the details. It would have been nice to also cover :
1 the influence of short trips vs long trip on oil wear .
2 an example of lab results for both scenarios.
3 the chemical differences BTW mineral and synthetic.
Thanks for the thorough videos !
You can find these in field studies from various companies. Motor oil studies have been performed for decades.
an example of lab results for both scenarios... Theres a few videos on this. On a microscopic level, its not as doom and gloom as the video claims, the oils tested were fine upto 15,000 miles. Only then were trace metals found.
@@Ddog72trace metals means engine is already on its way out.
🤣
the top reason why dealers wants customer to change oil is 90 percent of people never check dipsticks oil height, i keep all my cars dipstick at full level all the time.
Thanks, this helped. I suggest a subtitle: "Why you're thinking about getting an EV"
people who think EVs dont need maintenance should take the bus or stay away from the road
@@anon9019 They need considerably LESS maintenance, but yes, not none.
I use used oil to light my BBQ grill. Gives my burgers an unique flavor that I like (adds carbon and iron). I live for the day (probably not many left). ;-)
This made me feel uncomfortable in a new way.
Engineering aside. I once worked at a body shop, bought a totaled Dodge with a 318 V8 @ 18K miles on it. Used it as the shop car. When it needed oil I drained some from the next car going to the crusher. I never changed the filter and NEVER changed the oil.
I sold that car years later with 136k miles. Still ran perfectly 👌
I know a girl who had 90,000 miles on her Honda CRX that she bought new. Still had the break in oil in it when she asked me to sell it for her. I said no.
HOLD UP WHAT?? How did that CRX Survive??
Dodged a bullet there King.
My god the way people treat cars and complain about problems 🤬🤬🤬
@BT DT I met a dude who owned a 1985 CRX. The man has been driving it ever since it came out and it's basically the only one left where I live. It's stock, but he kept it in beautiful condition.
well to be fair, that crappy CRX d-series motor should be swapped out anyway. It's not worth an oil change.
Customer: I need an oil change, my oil change light is coming on again when I go around corners and hit the brakes hard. Me 🙄
Is that low oil? Or am i taking this wrong?
Potatoe Salech yes potato that’s low oil
@@jeffclark5024 or it the oil presser sensor didn't read
That's how my friend used to check his oil on his Dodge Stealth. Needles to say, he had to replace the engine. He had better luck with a Nissan Maxima.
But he still used his method. Car went 300k.
i was changing my engine in my 03 civic, i had a blown connecting rod, so right before doing the job, i redlined it to have fun and eventually the oil light came on, when it did i stoped and checked the oil, their was none left, then i made research, on civics, it only turns on when theirs only but a few drops left
Here’s one for y’all; I work as a lube tech. We had a 2019 Subaru Crosstrek come in that was 24,000 overdue!!!
Lower bay pulled the bolt and just said “yeah that ain’t good.” I peeked my head down to see the jet black (imagine used up diesel oil then up the viscosity by x2) oil flowing incredibly slowly and that’s with cap, filter, and dipstick removed
Most people are on the WIGATI (when I get around to it) maintenance program!
I always leave knowing more than when I came, thank you
This concentrates exclusively on time not mileage , a bit dissapointed that real mileage examples with data was not used , so if you have an occaisonal car that does low milage do you change when the milage is up or at a regular interval when its had little work to do ..?
R Warner,
"This concentrates exclusively on time not mileage, ..." Did you mean that the other way around? Seems to me that all of the detrimental effects on oil he describes here are a function of the car being driven (like oil being burned) rather than what makes it go bad over time when not driven much.
The owner's manual for my car says (for "normal" driving) to change the oil after 7,500 mile or 12 months, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.
Yes I probably didnt state it clearly enough , I think he was describing excess milage but kept saying late changing the oil . I believe that the oil degradation is almost exclusively a function of mileage not the duration its been in the sump 1, but would havr been good to cover both .
He usually has data to back it up but not this time ..how far beyond recommended mileage before those effects become significant and what about long life oils ?
Just consider how some trucking companies and me do oil service; use the best synthetic and change the filter at 8k and top off when necessary. You do a good job for those who do not know.
Antioxidants? So you're telling me there's blueberries in the oil? AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha, another great video -- thanks Jason!
That's how they make royal purple
And red oil has tomatoes.
I got a 2001 Toyota Camry with 300k miles, does not burn a drop of oil.
I use cheapest oil, but religiously change it every 3k miles or 3 months.
Parked and changes on the same spot on my driveway by myself for the past 10 years. All fluid changes according to the owners manual.
I think most issues are either lack of maintenance or neglect. The other 10% is bad luck lol
Smart owner
No matter of the many comments simply ignorant, but engine oil is complex matter and VERY important - not only the interval, but the actual oil. And no - not all are equal. Will be very helpful if we see a dedicated lecture on that topic. Thanks.
I just went on a vacation and rent a car the fully synthetic 0w20 have became like 90w140 oil and it's so black the last services was 11000km and now it's 41000km supposed to change every 10000km and I ain't complaining as it isn't my car. Thanks for the information Jason. Love your videos.
Just a heads up, the winter SAE number on the oil is not the cold viscosity, but rather the flow characteristics in cold weather. A 5w-30 oil flows like a 5w oil when cold, but may have a higher viscosity than 30
I ran a test on my 5.3 gm, mobile 1 5w30 full synthetic lasted 3,000 miles before I began to notice excessive fuel and oil consumption.
I am saving money by changing it every 3,000 miles vs. 4 & 5,000 miles.
As between 3 & 4,000 my fuel economy dropped from 19 to 17 mpg, and between 4 & 5,000 it dropped down to 14-15. Thats around 10% or 100 miles of 1,000 miles and then 25% or 250 miles
...
Totaling 350 miles or 18 gallons (I rounded down)of waisted fuel x 2.29.. so roughly $40
Not to mention the 3 quarts of oil I added to it to keep it topped off at $8 a piece.
40
+24
=$64
The oil change costed me about $50 when I do it myself.
I save $14 and prolonged the life of my engine.
KEEP IT CLEAN AND KEEP IT FULL.
sounds like a manufacture problem as well if that is happening.
Haven't changed my oil in 2+ years, left it parked for a year, now I've been driving it for about a year.
W H Y
While many people are advised to change their oil every 5-6k, even if you went to 7.5k you're probably OK as long as the oil is topped off and you're using a synthetic blend. In fact, many newer cars (made in the last 10 years) supposedly claim you can go 10,000 miles between changes, although I personally still stick with every 5,000 miles or 6 months, whichever occurs first. But it's not the end of the world if you go over by about 2-3k in most cases. The only time it might is if your engine is worn and leaking/burning a lot of oil and it runs low or gets excessively dirty.
I had a 2001 VW TDI that had 10k mile drain intervals. That made me nervous at first but it was running perfectly at 310k when the timing belt broke. I had the oil analyzed several times at change time and it always came back with plenty of life left. My new Tiguan also has a 10k mile drain interval and I don't feel concerned at all about following their recommendations as long as I'm using the properly spec'd oil.
Bought a 5 year old car once as a beater. Never changed the oil once in 4 years and then sold it. The car ran perfectly the entire time. I now do oil changes every couple of years with synth. Intervals are overstated.
"ICE engines" is like saying "VIN number"
Paul D or ATM machines.
While true, I often give it a pass when the acronym + redundancy is still less syllables and easy to understand
eg: ICE engine is faster than saying internal combustion engine,
VIN number is faster than Vehicle Identification Number etc
And many people won't immediately know that ICE is referring to an engine type unless they've been watching for a while or are very familiar with the language so saying engine afterward helps with that.
I say VI-Number lol.
or LCD display
Technically correct. However, the redundancy flows better with the redundancy in many cases.
People that forget their engine oil service are not the target market for places like Blackstone Labs, just sayin...
The single most important factor with any oil is its film strength, that which protects against metal to metal contact or shear, anti wear additived. Synthetic base stocks alone only give you a higher resistance to temperature breakdown, which of course is good in itself.
"Metal on Metal Interaction" sounds like an awesome band name.
Agreed
talk about how ridiculous manufacturers recommendation to keep the ZF 6 speed pan sealed and never change the atf is
Well, this is a big discussion topic, but keep in mind transmissions are not internal combustion engines (ICE) and the oil inside the transmission does not "work" anywhere near as hard as ICE oil under daily-driven conditions. Also, changing ATF of a high--mileage auto trans can actually lead to undrivable car due to the clutches being worn out to a point where the old ATF has more clutch material in it to keep sufficient "grip" than the clutches themselves and so by changing/flushing ATF you are now removing this clutch material suspended in the old ATF also, thus rendering the transmission to slip.
Austin That is completely BS. No oil lasts forever (unless manufacturers consider "lifetime" as 100,000mi, and then you must replace your transmission).
My father had a C280/C300 2008 (W204) Mercedes-Benz with the 7G-Tronic transmission. When these were first introduced, MB said ATF lasted forever, hence they didn't include any drain plug nor oil dipstick. Later on they begin to notice some transmission wear due to lack of lubrication (oil breaking down), and SUGGESTED the ATF to be replaced every 60,000mi or 5 years if I'm not mistaken.
When we took the car to an independent MB shop (the vehicle was dealer services for its entire 10 years of life until then) for a regular service + ATF and filter replacement, the mechanic said that when he removed the oil pan it already smelled funky, and there was no guarantee the transmission would function properly (because, with old oil, the pump works at a lower pressure due to clogging and possibly causing shifting delays although ATF was changed). Transmission flush is NOT recommended in these cases, as the previous comment stated.
Car appeared to run perfectly fine then, but was finally sold some while ago.
@@apexseal2811 Never trust a dealer.
@@DzastinasLTL wow!
I have 2019 kia forte, in the manual it says the ATF is lifelong. But there was an asterisk at the end of that sentence, in the footer of that page it says "assuming ideal conditions" or something like that. In case of "severe driving conditions" (I don't know exactly what that means) the ATF should be replaced every *60,000 km!* otherwise the warranty won't cover the damage. The lifelong ATF is basically B.S.
My sister's 16 Chrysler Town and Country once went 10,000 Miles on Conventional Oil before I changed it. Wasn't as horrible as I thought it was gonna be, There was a lot of blowby as it reeked of Gas and it was brown but there weren't any head gasket leak symptoms. It's up for changing in a few weeks I'm definitely gonna send a sample to Blackstone labs to make sure nothing bad happened.
Me, at 1:01 AM: "Ahhh, finally! I've been waiting for so long another video of EE with a whiteboard and a lot of math involved"
Great video, thank you. Wish you would have touched on time between oil change rather than just mileage. I've heard between 6-12month, regardless if the car sat the whole time.
This is the comment I was looking for. I also expected him to touch on that. I don't hit the 5000 miles quickly and I read that one should change the oil twice a year. So I do that instead of going by the mileage.
There's a certain amount of chemical changes that happen as the oil ages. Oxidation is a big one, but with that mix of various additives there's going to be some base level of rare random reactions that cause chemicals to break down over time. So just letting the oil sit in an engine and get old will reduce its utility. Even when not in an engine, a sealed bottle of oil has an expiry date of up to about 5 years, and opened oil should be used within a year.
@@RobertDeCaire what if I use the vehicle every day; my commute times are just short? the engine is kept running quite often but I never even get past 2k miles per year.
I change my oil and filter when I can’t see my oil dip stick level lines through the oil. When the oil gets that dark I consider it dirty. Over fifty years of owning cars and trucks and I’ve used this method and never an engine problem. My vehicles have gone high miles and always ran great. When people have bought my used cars or trucks they would say my vehicles were running the best out of all they have looked at.
Thank you for the comprehensive talk about oil. Much appreciated.
This happened to my first car when I knew absolutely nothing about cars
U.S. military did a study in the 1990’s, across several thousand vehicles. Half received oil changes every 3000 miles, while the other half never received an oil change. Through the useful life of the vehicles (100,000 miles) there was no discernable performance or longevity advantage for the vehicles having received the oil changes. In fact, the “un maintained “ vehicles outperformed the maintained vehicles, though the difference was not considered significant either way.
I love this video, it's like Blue's Clues for automotive technology. 😂
You know what we need! Our handy dandy notebook!
Jason I would like to have you talk about the new line of. Engine oil coming out for Di engines that the SAE is testing
Those oils have been out for many years. There's nothing trick to it. Calcium and sodium based additives increase low speed pre-ignition (LSPI) in DI engines so oils formulated with DI engines in mind (API SN Plus rating and/or Dexos 1 Gen 2 rating) have no sodium detergents, less calcium detergents, and (typically) more magnesium detergents since magnesium is found to be LSPI neutral. Other than that, the formulas aren't much different.
This video highlights one of the biggest problems in buying used cars. About 50% of drivers don't change their motor oil at the correct intervals. When you buy a vehicle like that it had s lot of hidden damage to the engine. In the private market don't buy a car owned by a woman.
Manufacturers like BMW advertise 10000 mile oil change. That is nonsense. It damages the engine.
I once accidentally went ~12,000 miles on a conventional oil change in my Kia with ~105,000 miles on it at the time. I was definitely sweating it, but it doesn't seem like it caused any damage that I can tell, no more ticking or noises than it had before...I do need to get it tested at Blackstone though.
Have you looked at the oil dipstick recently? Going to far without an oil change can increase engine oil consumption. Older cars normally burn a little oil but if you see a big change in oil level that's not good, alot of oil consumption will wear out the engine faster.
once I went 2 years with conventional oil, some shitty ass synthetic blend from honda, the engine never made any noise, was driving very smooth before oil change and almost the same after the oil change, just a tiny bit smoother.
The oil's hot, operating viscosity will decrease/thin out of its rated range, the shearing that Jason mentions. A decreasing oil capacity will also decrease ability to cool pistons and resist heat thus retard ignition timing by ECU -- reduced power.
I notice with my car and a lot of trucks I have driven that when the oil is getting due, it usually needs a top up which adds a bit of fresh additives and of course adds to the volume circulating. Not a metric I would rely on but a handy rule of thumb. The type of driving is also important too. I drive a 70 kilometre round trip for work on expressway driving which is much kinder than stop go driving. Probably could go over the distance but better safe than sorry if you don't get your oil tested to know how much life you really have left.
Change the oil in my Toyota about every 5 years.