[NA]120,000 mi engine oil?[NA]

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
20,772
Location
west Texas
Display Name
Display name:
Dave Taylor
an employee says she does not have to change her engine oil on the Toyota pickup any more; she paid the extra for the “120,000mi oil” and thinks Toyota is on board with this (it’s 2 yrs old, still under warranty)
News to me, anyone?
 
She heard wrong. There isn’t any oil that has a lifespan close to that long. Even the extended performance variety (usually 20,000 miles or 1 year).
 
Last edited:
I ask people like that to go back and re-read what they signed. It's amazing what people can completely misunderstand. I suspect she got an extended warranty that covers her for 120K miles if the oil is changed according to the factory schedule, which these days is often every 12 months or 10-12K miles.
 
flyingbrit said:
Some Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engines are the same way:

http://archive.jsonline.com/busines...eds-an-oil-change-b99433283z1-290423731.html/
Click to expand...

I can see it for a lawn mower, it's only probably going to run 600 hours or so before the mower is junked. For a car, nope, oil doesn't wear out but it does get dirty and the additives degrade.

I have a plug in hybrid, and typically go 20 months or 20,000 miles between oil changes because most days the engine never runs, but I think that's the longest oil change interval recommended for any light vehicle.
 
Ryanb said:
She heard wrong. There isn’t any oil that has a lifespan close to that long. Even the extended performance variety (usually 20,000 miles or 1 year).
Click to expand...

Even if there were, there's no filter that would last 120,000 miles without getting clogged. At least not one that I've ever met.

Rich
 
She might've put in Amsoil, which sometimes has ridiculous claims like that.

It's great that oil change intervals are so much higher now, but trying to stretch them and even in some cases just doing what the manufacturer recommends isn't the best long term.

My Ram has a 15,000 mile oil change interval (it'll also do the automatic telling you when to change). I've been doing 10,000 miles instead - I think that'll be better.
 
RJM62 said:
Even if there were, there's no filter that would last 120,000 miles without getting clogged. At least not one that I've ever met.

Rich
Click to expand...
Agreed. The filter is going to cause a problem long before the oil itself will. With modern synthetics, I doubt there's enough of a difference in oil with 20K and oil with 50K on it to harm engine components. However, the artifacts in the oil and the oil filter will cause increased wear. Look at transmission fluid . . . many cars don't see new transmission fluid for 150K miles or more. Some never see new transmission fluid until the tranny fails or the car is scrapped. However, it's not quite apples-to-apples since the operating parameters are different between tranny and engine block.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Agreed. The filter is going to cause a problem long before the oil itself will. With modern synthetics, I doubt there's enough of a difference in oil with 20K and oil with 50K on it to harm engine components. However, the artifacts in the oil and the oil filter will cause increased wear. Look at transmission fluid . . . many cars don't see new transmission fluid for 150K miles or more. Some never see new transmission fluid until the tranny fails or the car is scrapped. However, it's not quite apples-to-apples since the operating parameters are different between tranny and engine block.
Click to expand...

A lot of Saturn automatic transmissions had spin-on filters. I thought that was a nice touch.

Rich
 
SoonerAviator said:
Agreed. The filter is going to cause a problem long before the oil itself will. With modern synthetics, I doubt there's enough of a difference in oil with 20K and oil with 50K on it to harm engine components. However, the artifacts in the oil and the oil filter will cause increased wear. Look at transmission fluid . . . many cars don't see new transmission fluid for 150K miles or more. Some never see new transmission fluid until the tranny fails or the car is scrapped. However, it's not quite apples-to-apples since the operating parameters are different between tranny and engine block.
Click to expand...

The big thing with the engine is that you have combustion going into the oil. So like you said, not necessarily the oil itself, but the stuff in suspension that the filter doesn't catch.

I think it also does depend on how much heat your engine produces. On my Mercedes I change the oil at 10k miles (which is what they recommend). I do notice the synthetic has gotten thicker by the end of that.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
On my Mercedes I change the oil at 10k miles (which is what they recommend). I do notice the synthetic has gotten thicker by the end of that.
Click to expand...

13k intervals on the CDI diesel Benz we had, and I ran those intervals. When we dumped the car at 170kmi, it wasn't the engine that was the issue, the engine still ran like new.
 
We bought a new (to us) vehicle this summer. After reading this thread I figured I would go look to see what the 'official' recommended interval was and found this (this is for a 2015 GMC Acadia):

upload_2019-9-4_11-40-10.png

Seems interesting - sounds like they're expecting to use the onboard diagnostics to determine when the oil is ready to be changed rather than a set mileage/time limit.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
My Ram has a 15,000 mile oil change interval (it'll also do the automatic telling you when to change). I've been doing 10,000 miles instead - I think that'll be better.
Click to expand...

In the RAM book, is that “normal duty” or “heavy duty” service?

I’ve found that many manufacturers play with those numbers but if you look up their definition of heavy duty, it’s pretty much everything besides driving 20 MPH to pick up s limited weight of groceries. LOL.

AFAIK the longest manufacturer’s interval I’ve found that isn’t duty limited like the trucks, is Jaguar. They’re also at 15K.

And I think I’d still not do it. :) Poor Jags need a the help they can get for longevity, even the new ones. LOL.
 
LOL!

https://www.toyotaofoxnard.com/lifetime-oil

LOFplans.jpg


A quick search shows a bunch of toyota dealers selling "lifetime" oil service plans.

Looks like she is paying for oil changes she isn't using. :confused:
 
denverpilot said:
In the RAM book, is that “normal duty” or “heavy duty” service?

I’ve found that many manufacturers play with those numbers but if you look up their definition of heavy duty, it’s pretty much everything besides driving 20 MPH to pick up s limited weight of groceries. LOL.

AFAIK the longest manufacturer’s interval I’ve found that isn’t duty limited like the trucks, is Jaguar. They’re also at 15K.

And I think I’d still not do it. :) Poor Jags need a the help they can get for longevity, even the new ones. LOL.
Click to expand...

Ram says 7,500 for "heavy duty" and 15,000 for "normal duty". You're right that most of the time in the book the "normal duty" is really about 0% of drivers. In my case, the computer is actually supposed to take into account how I drive not just the number of miles I drive.

My driving is mostly about as "normal duty" as it gets since my commute is 20 miles one way and it's pretty much highway. The engine really doesn't work hard and arguably I should've gotten a Hemi. But you know and I've covered why I got CUMMINS TURBO DIESEL in my other thread.

Interestingly on the Jaguars now. One tidbit is that the old V12 Jags actually had 12 quarts of oil in them and a recommended oil change interval (in the manual) of 7,500 miles. We never did that, we always stuck to 3,000.
 
KIA recommends 7,500 miles or one year for engine oil changes. I usually do it at around 6,000 - 6,500 miles to avoid it coming due in the dead of winter. Changing it in late September or early October, and then again in April or May, usually works out pretty well.

I also put a few coats of a decent wax on this time of year. Three or four coats of Meguiar's Gold Class usually makes it through the winter if I put the last one on about the same time as the fall oil change. It also makes for a nice shine.

hood.jpg
Rich
 
CJones said:
Seems interesting - sounds like they're expecting to use the onboard diagnostics to determine when the oil is ready to be changed rather than a set mileage/time limit.
Click to expand...

Yea, my 2016 Colorado is the same, I change the oil when it goes 'ding'. Seems like around 7000 miles. I think it's about to go 'ding' again.
 
On my MK7 GTI, we’ve been running Pentosin High Performance II Full Synthetic for 8k mile intervals. I’ve had it for just over a year now and put 15k miles on it, so it comes out to be about two times annually.

New brakes and a transmission flush are coming up on the docket here soon.
 
dell30rb said:
My old jeep used to burn and leak so much oil that I never had to change it. Amazing feature.
Click to expand...

Yup! I had an old Jetta winter beater for a few years a long while back, it burned a quart every 600-700 miles. I never changed the oil, just spun on a new filter every 3k or so lol.
 
Interestingly, the recommended oil change interval on the Sentra is 5,000 miles. I've been changing it at 5,000 but I may bump it up to 10,000 when it hits 30K, which will be the next change. I use full synthetic.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Interestingly, the recommended oil change interval on the Sentra is 5,000 miles. I've been changing it at 5,000 but I may bump it up to 10,000 when it hits 30K, which will be the next change. I use full synthetic.
Click to expand...

I don't know about the Sentra, but on some cars the filter is the limiting factor.

On the old Saturn S-Series engines, the stock filters were tiny. When synthetic oils became popular and 10,000-mile oil changes possible, many owners switched to larger filters that had the same thread and compatible bypass specs, but more media. One in particular that was actually made for a Ford was very popular.

Rich
 
dell30rb said:
My old jeep used to burn and leak so much oil that I never had to change it. Amazing feature.
Click to expand...

Bill Jennings said:
Yup! I had an old Jetta winter beater for a few years a long while back, it burned a quart every 600-700 miles. I never changed the oil, just spun on a new filter every 3k or so lol.
Click to expand...

That was my Town Car. 400 miles to the quart. New filter every 3,000.
 
dell30rb said:
My old jeep used to burn and leak so much oil that I never had to change it. Amazing feature.
Click to expand...

Jeeps don't leak... they just mark their territory. When you really have to start worrying is when it STOPS leaking.

That reminds me... I need the Braves to score some big runs for a discount soon so I can go ahead and actually do an oil change in the TJ. I figure it's about due after 2 years. :)
 
SoonerAviator said:
. Look at transmission fluid . . . many cars don't see new transmission fluid for 150K miles or more. Some never see new transmission fluid until the tranny fails or the car is scrapped. However, it's not quite apples-to-apples since the operating parameters are different between tranny and engine block.
Click to expand...

Yup. No combustion byproducts getting into the transmission's oil. Those byproducts include carbon, some acids, moisture and so on, and they accumulate. The filter only gets the big pieces. And the engine, especially the undersides of the pistons and the valve stems, get much hotter than the transmission, cooking the lighter elements out of the oil.
 
Quite a few of my company vehicles are on maintenance plans that include oil changes every 50,000 miles whether they need it or not.
 
Old Toyota Tundra 220k mi
Light use.
Synthetic oil from NAPA.
How often?
(the mech in my other thread continues to put “due in 3000 mi” stickers on the window, lol)
 
CJones said:
Jeeps don't leak... they just mark their territory. When you really have to start worrying is when it STOPS leaking.

That reminds me... I need the Braves to score some big runs for a discount soon so I can go ahead and actually do an oil change in the TJ. I figure it's about due after 2 years. :)
Click to expand...

You guys get oil change discounts?

All we get out of the Rockies is tacos for home runs at Taco Bell, which adequately describes what you’ll get when you get home after eating them, too. LOL.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Old Toyota Tundra 220k mi
Light use.
Synthetic oil from NAPA.
How often?
(the mech in my other thread continues to put “due in 3000 mi” stickers on the window, lol)
Click to expand...

What’s the manual say?
 
Toyota tech told me 5K is their new accepted practice, Ted.
Still interested in other opinions.
 
Ryanb said:
On my MK7 GTI, we’ve been running Pentosin High Performance II Full Synthetic for 8k mile intervals. I’ve had it for just over a year now and put 15k miles on it, so it comes out to be about two times annually.
Click to expand...
Doesn't yours have an oil life monitor?
 
Mine is every 6,000 or six months. With work I’ve already put 15,000 on my car in a year! So I’ll hit the 18,000 change before I hit six months.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top