20000 between oil changes? mobil

Not for me, typically try to keep a check on things at oil change time which typically is around 5 to 6 thousand miles or 35 percent on our olm. Also usually a good idea to lube the door hinges and hood latch at oil changes.

12 lt said:

Also usually a good idea to lube the door hinges and hood latch at oil changes.

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Yes ! Another item I always check is the tires - INCLUDING the spare - when I change the oil. Nothing like putting the donut spare on only to find it has 10 pounds of air in it leaving it just as flat as the tire it's replacing

I also get any grease fittings under the car. The only ones on an Impala will be aftermarket, such as replacement tie rod ends and ball joints.
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As for 20k between oil changes, to me, it's not how good the oil is, it's how good of shape is the motor in? How much crud is getting past rings and down in the sump? Or seeping from the coolant passages into the engine? Or is any rough idling resulting in other stuff accumulating in the sump?

Premium oil may readily go 10k+ miles between changes in a fresh engine that's in tip-top shape, but how long does it last in a motor with 140k miles that's seen better days?

Doug

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Just to be clear the OLM does not measure oil quality or cleanliness.

If you want to try stretching intervals you could do Used Oil Analysis and have samples tested to learn what your conditions can handle.

since i use the synthetic and its black when OLM is under 5%, i guess in theory a lame test would be put the 40 dollar a bottle stuff in and see when OLM is 5% if its the same black?

i dont know where to/how much analysis would be. nor would i know if its ok to keep running on old oil

How many miles do you have @ 5% oil life?

luckydriver said:

got an email for mobil annual protection. it appears to be 40 vs 22 for the synthetic bottle. i hate changing my oil and as i drive 33K a year i change it a lot.



also my valvomax isnt working right and thats frustrating too but thats for another thread. it only drips the oil out of the hose..sigh



so who would trust the car for 20K on this oil. it would literally save me tons of time and a bit of money and i do hate changing it in the cold months.

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As stated, I wouldn't go over 5k - 6k between oil changes, unless I would know for a hard fact that you could go that long between oil changes. I've read the fine print on some brands of synthetic motor oils and it stated to refer to your car manufacturer's recommendations for oil change intervals. I check the tire pressures once a month and lubricate it every six months. Better safe than sorry. Yep, doing car stuff in the cold is a pain, but I'd rather be in the cold for a little bit than have to spend a couple thousand for engine repair or replacement!

I would still recommend UOA but another stopgap might be changing the filter and a topup at 30%, doesn't save any hassle but saves a few quarts. If you want to get serious look into "bypass filtration" where a tiny percentage of the oil is filtered at a much much finer level, again though UOA is the only way to verify what you are doing is appropriate.

luckydriver said:

since i use the synthetic and its black when OLM is under 5%, i guess in theory a lame test would be put the 40 dollar a bottle stuff in and see when OLM is 5% if its the same black?

i dont know where to/how much analysis would be. nor would i know if its ok to keep running on old oil

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I would not go to 5 percent under any circumstances. I don't like it when I have gone under 30 percent olm remaining.

Another point on going with such long intervals is the discipline to check your oil, there is a common complaint that these 3.6's in the impala's consume or burn up an excessive amount of oil between 6000 mile changes. I personally have not had this issue with the 2012 I own, but if you are going 20,000 and not checking your oil level, there is a good chance you will be running low on oil by the time you get to your change interval.

I think this is one of the oil analysis websites that some members here have used https://www.blackstone-labs.com/?se...abs.net/Bstone/(S(m3404w55hvembg45o2eoqa55))/.