Most of you probably have a little sticker on the upper left-hand corner of your windshield reminding you of your next oil change in 3,000 miles. That reminder, my friend, is a complete myth.
According to Phillip Reed, senior consumer advice editor of Edmunds.com, "there was a time when 3,000 miles was a good guideline, but it's no longer true for any car bought in the last 7 or 8 years; the oil chemistry and engine technology have improved so much over the years".
Although the average car's oil change interval is around 7,800 miles and as high as 20,000 miles (for Porsches), the 3,000 mile recommendation is an obvious tactic to keep the automotive service people busy. It's also a marketing ploy to get you into the dealership on a regular basis, whether in the service bay or on the showroom floor.
According to Steve Mazor, manager of AAA's research center, "more frequent-than-necessary oil changes won't gain any additional life for your engine or improved fuel economy; it will make little or no difference to the performance of the vehicle".
So what should you do? Your best bet is to check the maintenance chapter of your owner's manual. Don't tell me. Lemme guess. You've never opened it before. Now is a good time to start. If you misplaced it, many manuals can be found online. Also, if you have an oil life monitoring system, rely on that, don't second guess it.
Meanwhile, here are a few helpful tidbits about changing your oil:
1) If you don't put many miles on your car, your maintenance schedule will have to be altered. A car that sits around for long periods of time without use means contaminated oil sits around longer in the engine. The longer contaminated oil sits around, the more it degrades.
2) If you drive a turbo charged or high-performance car, use synthetic oil. Synthetics have excellent temperature resistance, durability and all around performance. Although it costs more, you can go longer between oil changes. Most other cars do fine with conventional oil.
3) Every time you change the oil, change the filter too.
4) Don't know what the numbers mean on the bottle? See the chart below.
5) Make sure the engine oil bottle has the API (American Petroleum Institute) certification seal.
So stop wasting money and unnecessarily harming the environment and rip that sticker off your windshield.
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