How often should cars need an oil change?

RaymondLin

That is a black sludge! Mine has gone 8k since March (service) and it's much clearer than that.

paul_c2

RaymondLin said:

That is a black sludge! Mine has gone 8k since March (service) and it's much clearer than that.

The colour is meaningless.

Chalky

My Volvo has done 170,000, the oil gets black within a few hundred miles after a service, and it doesn't lose oil. I'd agree colour is meaningless and I guess its more likely you have a slow leak onto the stone guard under the engine?

hotpot

I change my own oil/filter every two years, I do maybe 4000 miles a year tops. I stock up on oil deals when I see them, I recently got 10 litres of semi synthetic oil & two filters £23.55

paul_c2

hotpot said:

I change my own oil/filter every two years, I do maybe 4000 miles a year tops. I stock up on oil deals when I see them, I recently got 10 litres of semi synthetic oil & two filters £23.55

For oil change frequency, (at a simple level) there is a time-based and mileage-based consideration. For example, an older car will have 1 year/12,000 miles oil change interval, whichever is the sooner. Also worth bearing in mind, new oil has a shelf life.

For newer cars, they use a service interval indicator which also takes into account things like number of engine starts, type of driving (it will shorten the interval if there's lots of high-speed, full throttle use etc) etc in addition to simply the time and mileage. So, for my car it has an indicator, so I'll follow that.

Some cars also have a choice to go "longlife" on service stuff - VW/Audi around 2000-->, for example. The owner has a choice of regular or longlife servicing. The longlife uses a higher specification oil and other components (eg filter), and can work out for higher mileage/useage owners. Personally for me (lower miles) it would have never worked out because I think it triggers after 15 months anyway, and I'd have not done the longlife's miles in that time - thus not saving anything. Also if you do your own servicing on VW/Audi, to switch/use longlife intervals you need a proper service interval reset tool, not just resetting it with the pressing the buttons on the dash (which will reset but put it into regular mode).