When Should I get an oil Change?

Thats what the manual says

 

Actually the book has like 3 different maint. levels you can follow depending on climate and driving atmosphere (traffic, stop/go, ect).

If you drive your car hard, change it every 3000 miles.

 

I would say from 3k-5k depending on how you drive. For myself, I tend to travel a lot from here and San Diego so I always change it around every 3k or 3.5k miles.

 

yup... i drive kinda hard too.. my baby is almost up for its first oil change it has around 2.5k miles right now

 

Sounds like another question to ask the Petroleum Engineer in the family...here is his response:

There are 2 primary things that affect timing of the oil change.

1) As others have said, the drivers habits and the driving conditions for which the car is put in daily is a key factor (meaning to and from work and school not the one Saturday you race up the mountain). For Stop/Go, heavy urban area traffic, and those who have lead foots, generally 3,000 miles is the best bet. For those more in the country side who are gentle with their lancer babies, 5,000 miles is ok.

2) The other key factor is going to be which type of oil running in the car. Generally, most vehicles will come standard with mineral based oils (from fossil fuel crude oil). This oil is generally rated for a max life of 5,000 miles with a recommended oil change interval of 3,000 miles for most drivers on average conditions (meaning a mix of daily driving stresses). Full Synthetic motor oils, however, are rated for a 10,000 mile (and in some cases 15,000 miles) life span with a recommended exchange every 5,000 miles. The benefit of the Synthetic is the extra additives such as detergents and lubricants over traditional mineral based oils.

Futhermore, the Synthetic is designed to provide equal or better (most cases better) lubrication than traditional oil as well. This is primarily because of the fact that, comparably, if you were to take a synthetic motor oil and a mineral motor oil of the same viscosity grade, although the density of the oil itself would be equal, the actual distribution of the polymers and their cohesive bonds between them is very different. By this I mean that a Synthetic motor oil will have a smaller polymer molecular base with bonds that more easily bend/break and then reform than those polymers fond in fossil fuel based oils. Because of this increase in the molecular flexibility, the synthetic has a longer life span under stress conditions because it can more easily adapt to the environment and conditions it is put through in the engine before breaking down like all engine products do as they begin to accumulate composites and polymer enzymes. This explains why most people sense and get a slightly better response and overall performance per quart of motor oil dollar spent than those who use the traditional oils.

All that being said, if you want to compare apples to apples the best you can when comparing, overall, the different oil standards, my vote and recommendation is to goo synthetic. Yes, the most striking downside is the fact that your standard oil change price will double at most competitive automotive lube stations, but if you really think about it, you can safely run synthetic to 6,000 miles per change and negate this argument. Add to that the fact that you will receive a better quality oil that provides better fight against deposit build up in the engine over its life span as well as a slightly better performance output, and I say synthetic is the clear winner here folks.

Hope this helps.

Wild Bill