Help prove my father wrong with oil changing 5000m or 3000m?

  • Thread starter Thread starter briankeys
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briankeys

Okay. Here's my situation.

I have a 1993 Volvo 240 Wagon, and I love it to pieces.
We changed the oil about 3000 miles ago, all nice and nice.
Now, its time for me to get the oil changed. I said okay, and
went to go get a new oil filter and some oil. I'm at the parking
lot, and im flipping through the owners manual to find out what
kind of oil filter I need. Got that, and then I see that Volvo
reccomends that I change it every 5000miles for mountainous
driving and short distances, and 10,000miles for flat highway
driving. I'd say then judging by my driving habits (to and from
school, occasional joyride) that every 6000 miles would be
good, but I'd do it at 5000 to please my father. I did not get
the filter or oil, and went home.

I get home, and I get flak, because he says he knows best,
and that he's driven all the cars, tractors, trucks, volvos, etc etc.

I quoth: "I dont care if volvo says it, volkswagen says it, the
highest paid mechanic in the world says it, im telling you that
it needs to be done every 3000 miles"

Now, I personally would trust Volvo, the maker of my car,
who gave birth to my car, to be honest. That wouldnt stand.

How often do you change your oil?

Do you have any credentials, that would possibly sway him
to let it go for 5000 miles?

Thanks, BK
 
briankeys wrote:

I have a 1993 Volvo 240 Wagon, and I love it to pieces.
We changed the oil about 3000 miles ago, all nice and nice.
Now, its time for me to get the oil changed. I said okay, [..]
I did not get
the filter or oil, and went home.

I get home, and I get flak, because he says he knows best, [..]
Do you have any credentials, that would possibly sway him
to let it go for 5000 miles?
Click to expand...


Here are the reasons to change it at 5-6k miles:

It's cheaper
It's saves finite resources
It reduces any disposal issues
It saves wear on the drain plug
It stops fat-cat parts merchants getting even more money
It's a small but significant nail in the coffin of globalisation
Volvo, and nearly everyone else will tell you it is perfectly OK


Here are the reasons to change it sooner:

New oil is uncontaminated
New oil's molecular structure will be intact
New oil will not have oxidised any
New filters are freer flowing
It encourages the habit of caring for your car
Oil is THE MOST important part of any engine


Now go and buy your dad a beer and do what you're told. Kids today,
eh?


--

Stewart Hargrave


For email, replace 'SpamOnlyToHere' with my name
 
Hi, BK - - -

It's all a matter of habit and war stories. For many years, the
long-chain molecules in oil were beginning to get tired at about 1K
miles. This hasn't been true for any "quality" lubricant for *years!*
It's particularly true of the synthetics, and is one of the better
reasons for using same.

I don't know about your dad, but being older than dirt, myself, I
remember one of my early cars, a Jaguar 120M. The "performance" engine
in this car was designed to run on 85 octane fuel (good), but wanted you
to change filter and oil every 1.5K miles - all 14 quarts of it (bad!).

Also, consider this - no engine suffers from having the oil changed too
often. Yes, I also remember the days of "break-in" oil, usually changed
at 1K miles or less, with a more rational cycle on the regular oil
thereafter.

Whose car is it, anyway? Of course, I do some pretty silly things (I
think) to avoid spousal wrath . . . As we say, "pick your battles."

bob noble
Reno, NV, USA
 
Every 3 months or 3,000 miles with dino oil.

Every 6 months or 6,000 miles with synthetic.

The above are for regular driving conditions. Highway + city.

It's cheaper to change oil than to change engine.

My 2 cents.
 
Listen to your father, he's right. You can extend the period between changes
safely to 5000 miles if you use synthetic oils.....

Remember the simple mantra: "Oil is cheaper than bearings"......

PC

| Okay. Here's my situation.
|
| I have a 1993 Volvo 240 Wagon, and I love it to pieces.
| We changed the oil about 3000 miles ago, all nice and nice.
| Now, its time for me to get the oil changed. I said okay, and
| went to go get a new oil filter and some oil. I'm at the parking
| lot, and im flipping through the owners manual to find out what
| kind of oil filter I need. Got that, and then I see that Volvo
| reccomends that I change it every 5000miles for mountainous
| driving and short distances, and 10,000miles for flat highway
| driving. I'd say then judging by my driving habits (to and from
| school, occasional joyride) that every 6000 miles would be
| good, but I'd do it at 5000 to please my father. I did not get
| the filter or oil, and went home.
|
| I get home, and I get flak, because he says he knows best,
| and that he's driven all the cars, tractors, trucks, volvos, etc etc.
|
| I quoth: "I dont care if volvo says it, volkswagen says it, the
| highest paid mechanic in the world says it, im telling you that
| it needs to be done every 3000 miles"
|
| Now, I personally would trust Volvo, the maker of my car,
| who gave birth to my car, to be honest. That wouldnt stand.
|
| How often do you change your oil?
|
| Do you have any credentials, that would possibly sway him
| to let it go for 5000 miles?
|
| Thanks, BK
|
|
 
10000 MILES on standard oil??? Are you sure? My TDI Golf needs oil changes
at 16000Km intervals (10000miles) and that uses a synthetic... I'm worried
to go above 10K Kms with one change.

It's 8000Kms (5000miles) for our 960 I believe.
 
briankeys said:
I'm at the parking lot, and im flipping through the owners manual to
find out what kind of oil filter I need. Got that, and then I see
that Volvo reccomends that I change it every 5000miles for
mountainous driving and short distances, and 10,000miles for flat
highway driving.
Click to expand...

I saw that too when reading the manual after buying my new-to-me Volvo
a couple years ago. I was astonished, and then wondered if that was a
typo in converting from kilometers to miles. I change the oil in mine
every 3,000 miles or so out of habit and wanting to get another
130,000 miles out of my 1990 240 with 136,000 on the clock now. It's
cheap insurance.
 
It encourages the habit of caring for your car
Click to expand...

How true. (I like this way of thinking.)
Oil is THE MOST important part of any engine
Click to expand...

Very similar to my old man's mantra:

'Changing the oil is the single most important thing you can do for your
car.'

cheers,

Henry

'95 850T

new synthetic every 5000 km.

(Like the man said, 'Oil is cheaper than bearings.' That's a nice
turn-of-phrase, too.)
 
I saw that too when reading the manual after buying my new-to-me Volvo
a couple years ago. I was astonished, and then wondered if that was a
typo in converting from kilometers to miles. I change the oil in mine
every 3,000 miles or so out of habit and wanting to get another
130,000 miles out of my 1990 240 with 136,000 on the clock now. It's
cheap insurance.
Click to expand...

True re: the cheap insurance bit but here's another angle and rather
than me requote, here's the link

http://www.saab9000.com/servicing/servicing.html

Don't forget also that there's a whole business around oil in the US and
it's in certain industries interest to ensure that the "customers" are
brainwashed to wish to have their oil changed regularly.

If oil changes at 3000 miles were recommended in the UK for a certain
car (can't speak of the rest of Europe), I'd doubt that the car would
sell because it would be perceived to be requiring too regular
maintenance and therefore costly to run.

David.
 
I try to change my oil every 3750 Miles which is more that 3000 miles but it
is twice the 7500 miles that Volvo recommends. It seems the 7500 miles must
be at the dealer since they have to reset the service reminder etc.

Another 2 cents.

G
 
Just a couple of Ideas/thoughts,

Are you using Synthetic or traditional oil, My current Volvo850 recommends
every 10K miles, but the one I pick up next week (V70) goes 12KMiles. I
would only trust Synthetic for this, and having had two identical cars in
days gone by, one "looked after by normal oil", 140K miles later dead, the
second only ever having Synthetic, which was still going fine when written
off at 220K (Not a Volvo may I add), I take no persuasion now as to where my
loyalties lay.

The Audi A3 (I think) has variable servicing, and looks at how you drive, my
Bosses is reckoning his second service will be at 39K by his current
standards, so this is even greater than we dare go.

Last comment, I was told that if in doubt, change it, even if you only
change the oil (Not Filter), it can not do any harm, other than wear the
drain plug, and of course the world resources:-)

Listen to your dad, You don't want an expensive "I told you so", and while
arguing over this, he may decide not to pass on other valuable pieces of
learnt information, as he will not always wont to get into a "You know best"
argument. Bear in mind his advice wont always be there, and god knows I wish
mine was still around with all his knowledge and quirks.

Clive.
 
briankeys said:
Okay. Here's my situation.

I have a 1993 Volvo 240 Wagon, and I love it to pieces.
We changed the oil about 3000 miles ago, all nice and nice.
Now, its time for me to get the oil changed. I said okay, and
went to go get a new oil filter and some oil. I'm at the parking
lot, and im flipping through the owners manual to find out what
kind of oil filter I need. Got that, and then I see that Volvo
reccomends that I change it every 5000miles for mountainous
driving and short distances, and 10,000miles for flat highway
driving. I'd say then judging by my driving habits (to and from
school, occasional joyride) that every 6000 miles would be
good, but I'd do it at 5000 to please my father. I did not get
the filter or oil, and went home.

I get home, and I get flak, because he says he knows best,
and that he's driven all the cars, tractors, trucks, volvos, etc etc.

I quoth: "I dont care if volvo says it, volkswagen says it, the
highest paid mechanic in the world says it, im telling you that
it needs to be done every 3000 miles"

Now, I personally would trust Volvo, the maker of my car,
who gave birth to my car, to be honest. That wouldnt stand.

How often do you change your oil?

Do you have any credentials, that would possibly sway him
to let it go for 5000 miles?

Thanks, BK
Click to expand...

I started driving in 1946, when oil was changed every 1000 miles. Since
then, engines and lubricants have improved. I figure that the engineers who
designed the engine know better than I do, so I follow their advice. Does
your father know more than the engineers?
 
|
<snip>

|| > I get home, and I get flak, because he says he knows best,
| > and that he's driven all the cars, tractors, trucks, volvos, etc etc.
| >
| > I quoth: "I dont care if volvo says it, volkswagen says it, the
| > highest paid mechanic in the world says it, im telling you that
| > it needs to be done every 3000 miles"
| >
| > Now, I personally would trust Volvo, the maker of my car,
| > who gave birth to my car, to be honest. That wouldnt stand.
| >
| > How often do you change your oil?
| >
| > Do you have any credentials, that would possibly sway him
| > to let it go for 5000 miles?
| >
| > Thanks, BK
|
| I started driving in 1946, when oil was changed every 1000 miles. Since
| then, engines and lubricants have improved. I figure that the engineers
who
| designed the engine know better than I do, so I follow their advice. Does
| your father know more than the engineers?

His father probably knows more than those who developed the owner's manual.
These days engineers - especially engineers who designed the engines - have
little or nothing to do with such things, manuals, etc., are produced by
marketeers who publish what they think makes their car "look" like a better
buy than the competition.....! Paint colors and fabrics, etc., along with
how many cupholders the car has, determines who buys what.....almost nobody
cares a whit about oil change intervals or any other "semi" technical stuff
is included in manuals......

Every engineer *I* know changes oil more frequently than the manufacturers
"recommend".....!

PC
 
every 10k miles for me...easy to remember changing on every 10miles
rolled
on the odo....never any major motor problems on my volvos...i have
done this w/about 5 volvos....
 
Every engineer *I* know changes oil more frequently than the manufacturers
"recommend".....!
Click to expand...

They probably check tyres too and washer fluid and wipers and lights,
not forgetting brake fluid and all the other fluids too.

I think it's fair to say that new cars are considered disposable by many
who will buy the car new, expect it to last 3 years, which from an
engine point of view is not exactly difficult. Bodywork doesn't
typically rust and a 10 year old car with no rust is not much of a
challenge compared to a even just a decade or so.

So on that basis if you bought a car and considered the bonnet a sealed
unit, why bother changing your oil if the recommended service intervals
will take this engine to 100k miles and beyond?

For the second hand buyer @ 60 or 100k miles onwards, damage might
already have been done if the car just did short journeys (see "school
run") and so beginning an oil change period of 3000 miles might be nice
but not going to remove all the previous wear and on a car that only
costs a couple of thousand to buy, if it last a short while and goes
pop, then just buy another so even the pre-used car is disposable too.

David.
 
It depends on how you drive!!

For the past 25+ years I've used Mobil 1 synthetic in all of my vehicles. I
change the oil every 50,000 miles and the filter every 3,000 to 5,000 miles.
I've never had any problem that could be related to oil choice or frequency
of change.

I just got a used 960 and last week changed the oil for the first time,
using Mobil 1. It will get the same treatment.

RCB
 
50000 miles? It lasts that long?.... That would take the average person
around 2 years or so... Maybe more.

Do you put super high mileage on your car?
 
Rob Guenther said:
50000 miles? It lasts that long?.... That would take the average person
around 2 years or so... Maybe more.
Click to expand...

Depends, I wouldn't do that to my cars, but the important part is changing
the filter. Still, I figure if I'm gonna change the filter I may as well
change the oil too, but then even if I only do it every 4-5k miles we're
talking 6 months between changes.
 
Yah I change my oil at the same time as the filter.... The manual says
16000kms for both... I'm too afraid to go beyond 10000kms since there is a
turbo - this equates to 3 oil changes per year. - This is for my diesel VW.

The Volvo gets its oil every four months as well - for winter, for spring,
and mid summer (before a trip towing the trailer) - it isn't a high KM car.
 
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