Lately, I have been driving ALOT. I'm thinking about 500-700 miles per week, usually in light to no traffic (cue in spirited driving music)

How often should I change my oil? Currently using Mobil 1 Synthetic.

Thanks!
and please, no fighting about dino vs synthetic.

 

But you are presumably happy to ressurect the fight about oil change frequency?

The debate is endless but the Jaguar recommendation is simple. It's on a time or mileage basis - 10k miles or 12 month intervals, whichever comes sooner.

On your present weekly 500-700 miles, you will cover the recommended distance interval in 14 to 20 weeks.

Graham

 

Most of us do not go the full 10,000-mile interval as suggested by Jaguar. I run Castrol GTX 5W30 conventional oil at 6,000-mile intervals in both of our Jaguars. Works for me....

 

you have an ideal situation for yourself and the car. change interval is determined by mileage.

as all oils, including the mineral based ones, improved, the normal use service interval extended to one year with 7500 or 10000 miles depending upon the car.

up until the late 80's and some cars the early 90's it was six months and 7500 for normal service and three months and 3000 for severe service. the time factor was doubled later.

you select whatever limiting factor you arrive at, time or mileage. severe service includes short trips, stop and go, idling, among other things. most people are under severe service and do not realize it. you are not.

most manufacturers deleted the severe service category or replaced it with algorithms to determine oil life with a warning indicator. honestly i have not checked the manual for this car recently for a severe service recommendation, however i would recommend a synthetic for full year service under this condition or just change the conventional oil at six months if mileage limit is never reached. oil, including synthetic oil gets old and builds up contaminants and they must be mitigated or removed.

your car would be a good case study to see what really wears out with high, almost ideal use pattern. i could see a high mileage engine only needing rings or valve seals at some noteworthy point. please keep us posted. do not change anything that you are doing and follow poster GGG's advice.

 

I use the same oil but go the full 10K miles. Works for me.

The 10K/annual interval is already quite conservative, halving it again makes little sense.

 

I was surprised to find that BMW has a 15000 interval using synthetic for my Z4.

 

While probably acceptable in most driving conditions for most modern-day engines, I would not label a 10,000-mile oil change interval as "conservative". By that distance, most conventional oils will probably be rather contaminated....

 

Could you point us to some evidence that this is a fact, vs. an opinion.

No OEM I know of puts forward mtce. intervals that are anything but conservative. Why would they?

 

Just changed back to 5w30 plus a quart of Lucas stop leak and startup sounds great, previously running 10w40 because of a vvt issue but replaced damaged unit .Engine always gave a little tick for a minute or so, not now, additive or oil? Have to run her for awhile and see if performance is better.
Oh change oil and filter every 5k seems to always be dirty at this point and with 160k on car can't hurt. ��

 

My Ferrari and XKR do not get a ton of miles. I replace every 6 months.

 

My practice is to change annually, but I only do about 3000 mi. It's much more important to consider how you use the car.

If you almost always drive until the oil gets hot it will not become contaminated by moisture and small molecule breakdown products or fuel contamination. But this usually requires a half hour or more depending on ambient temp. and speed. Both my XK8( Realgauge) and Maser had functional oil pressure gauges and the oil pressure drop at idle would indicate when operating temp. was reached.

 

I tend to go more frequent for resale purposes. People like seeing that. Run what works; if you think that you want to change it every 7-10k, send a sample to Blackstone labs and see the wear. Adjust up or down on frequency accordingly.

An oil change with Mobil 1 and a Wix filter runs me about $60 if nothing is on sale; and given the quarterly Mobil 1 Mail In Rebates (which I have always received so they are legit), about $35 a change. Changing 2 times a year ain't bad.

 

I always change between 3-6k on Castrol synthetic 5w-30. I used to run the bs recommended extended intervals until I developed a nasty VVT issue which, interestingly enough, is caused by infrequent oil changes, even though I was still well within the recommended limits. Maybe if I had gone with my gut and changed more frequently, I wouldn't have to deal with VVT racket on every cold start. Oil is cheap, engines are not.

 

Yes, Blackstone Labs and other oil analysis labs are fine, especially if you are running a fleet of diesels, but at $28 a pop it's almost as cheap to go ahead and change your oil at a cost of around $35 as 80srule has suggested. Error on the side of caution and change every 3-5K miles and you'll do fine.

 

when you add something like Lucas Stop Leak your oil is no longer what it is labeled on the bottle. most of these additives are pure garbage from a different time where they might have once been useful. try just the straight 5W-30 and see what happens. you might be creating deposits with the stop leak stuff.

if you are seeing oil disappear prior to change, check things like the secondary breather.

 

as mentioned, I currently run Mobil 1 synthetic. for those who have switched to Castrol synthetic, do you prefer that?

i wondered since I put so many miles per week if that would affect the frequency...

thank you for all the replies

 

You're aware that your car doesn't require synthetic oil? Factory fill and subsequent 'free' dealer service was non-synthetic Castrol GTX.

 

Yo PBF, long time, no text! Anyways, I run Mobil 1 synthetic in my Jag, BMW, and Porsche, and no argument will change me. So my rule of thumb is, drive light quick journeys all the time (everyplace in LA is only 20 mins away): change at 6k-7.5k. Drive like hell and heat soak that thing alot:10k.
So for us, in winter do the lower mileage change, more condensation happens and we drive slower and less. And in summer, the higher. Its the oil sitting, or not heating up that contaminates it more, even turns it acidic. Learned that from knowing about Porsche's old IMS issues. The track guys never had probs, the granny drivers blew engines.

 

For ages I have used Mobile 1, going 5-8k on changes based on how much stop and go traffic I run in, dirty area you may live in.

 

I had NO idea there was anything other than synthetic oil!!!!!