Comments on: Changing Your Oil Every 3,000 Miles And 5 Other Car-Care Myths

By: Mo

Mo — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:18:10 +0000

I thought the same as you regarding oil changes. The manual on my ’05 Toyota quoted 5,000 miles for oil changes. I usually changed about every 5-6,000.

Well, now I need a new motor in my 5-year-old van due to not changing the oil enough. I’ll give you two guesses as to whether or not my PLATINUM extended warranty will cover it…

I’m being quoted over $4000 for the USED motor that will have more miles on it than my current engine, which has less than 60K miles on it….

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:48:18 +0000

That’s only if you use the super cheap oil filters, and even then you can probably get by with 5,000 miles. $10 is a very small price to pay for a decent oil filter that will get you an extra 2000 miles per oil change, though.

By: paul

paul — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:44:18 +0000

okay i work at a oil change place and who ever says change it every 5000 are stupid because the oil filters themselves are only made to go 3000 unless you geta boush or mobil one filter or some type of $10.00 filter. so yeah whoever say go 5000 miles on your oil change is wrong. because after 3000 the oil breaks down and then if you go over its just cycling dirty oil over and over again

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:48:56 +0000

In that case, I might be inclined to go with what’s in the manual. Then again, 5,000 miles might be fine if you use top-quality oil.

By: Jeremy Bettis

Jeremy Bettis — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:39:49 +0000

My Dodge minivan says to change the oil every 3000 in the manual, but I usually wait for 5000 like you say.

By: Curt

Curt — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:27:00 +0000

What is don’t like is how they always find something to fix when I get my oil changed. But I guess I do like to keep everything in working order, so I let them fix it.

@Four Pillars – winter tires? Do people still rotate seasonal tires? I thought about that a few months ago when I got new tires , but the cost to rebalance twice a year was not worth the cost of just leaving the tires on and getting new tires when they are 3/4 of the way gone or not good enough for the winter. Maybe this concept will make a comeback with the deepening recession.

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:29:27 +0000

Interesting article. I just checked my tire pressure since I just put on my winter tires – it wasn’t listed in the manual but rather on the car itself.

I gotta remember about the oil change thing. I usually forget when I’ve had the oil change done.