Oil change intervals
10-02-2017, 07:33 PM
#31
I have a 2013 G37x sedan that I bought with 37k on it last year. I don't really know what oil or other fluid changes were done before, not much shows in the Infiniti service record or Carfax service record. It's a CPO car. I got one free oil change at 3 months - they used dinosaur oil- and the car just hit 40,000 miles so I had trans fluid change, "driveline service" which is transfer case and differential lube changes, a brake fluid change, a coolant change, and my second oil change this one with synthetic.
So here's my question: I don't really drive that much, maybe 3,000 miles a year. 80% is short distance city driving- 10 to 20 minute trips. Infiniti says this is "severe service" and the manual says an oil change every 3 months- which would be under 1,000 miles for me. Seems **CRAZY**
I think in my case it's more a question of corrosion from moisture in the oil, from acids that form from combustion by-products etc than the oil breaking down and losing lubrication effectiveness... surely the additives in the oil will protect against corrosion etc longer than 3 months. SO: I am pretty sure I can go longer.
But HOW long? 6 months? 9? A year? Even at a year I will be below the 3750 MILE oil change interval.... but way beyond the 3 month TIME oil change interval.
I would be glad to hear any advice regarding how long of a time to go between oil changes.
ALSO: does synthetic oil typically have more / other / better additives to deal with the corrosion issues than dinosaur oil?
-AND- just as a point of information, the dealer here in Chicago (Berman) charges $60 for a synthetic oil + filter change, plus they do a hand car wash, vacuum the interior and clean the windows inside, dust off the dash.... and give you coffee and muffins - hahahaha. Anyway, I figure this is not terribly high cost and for sure using the dealer helps if there is ever any warranty work needed under the CPO program. I was quite surprised that the service costs at the dealer were not as outrageously high as I expected they'd be.
So here's my question: I don't really drive that much, maybe 3,000 miles a year. 80% is short distance city driving- 10 to 20 minute trips. Infiniti says this is "severe service" and the manual says an oil change every 3 months- which would be under 1,000 miles for me. Seems **CRAZY**
I think in my case it's more a question of corrosion from moisture in the oil, from acids that form from combustion by-products etc than the oil breaking down and losing lubrication effectiveness... surely the additives in the oil will protect against corrosion etc longer than 3 months. SO: I am pretty sure I can go longer.
But HOW long? 6 months? 9? A year? Even at a year I will be below the 3750 MILE oil change interval.... but way beyond the 3 month TIME oil change interval.
I would be glad to hear any advice regarding how long of a time to go between oil changes.
ALSO: does synthetic oil typically have more / other / better additives to deal with the corrosion issues than dinosaur oil?
-AND- just as a point of information, the dealer here in Chicago (Berman) charges $60 for a synthetic oil + filter change, plus they do a hand car wash, vacuum the interior and clean the windows inside, dust off the dash.... and give you coffee and muffins - hahahaha. Anyway, I figure this is not terribly high cost and for sure using the dealer helps if there is ever any warranty work needed under the CPO program. I was quite surprised that the service costs at the dealer were not as outrageously high as I expected they'd be.
10-02-2017, 09:30 PM
#32
Would depend on how the car is stored most of the time, if it's garaged should be ok w/ yearly oil changes on synthetic and 9 months on dino. Might post this question here, those guys eat & drink oil to live, lol.
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forum...s.php?ubb=cfrm
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forum...s.php?ubb=cfrm
10-02-2017, 11:29 PM
#33
Registered Member
Yeah, good idea
Yeah good idea to try https://www.bobistheoilguy.com thanks
~1 year on synthetic if mileage is low i.e., ~3,000 mi that makes sense to me.
My car is in a garage when it is not in use.
Speaking of garages, someone told me that in places where there's snow and therefore salt, one of the problems is that in a typical private garage there's not much air circulation, so that in the winter the underside of the car stays wet for long periods of time - wet and somewhat salty, and even if you are changing fluids and doing all the other preventive maintenance, and getting the car washed, this near-constant wet condition will mean that eventually all your suspension bolts will rust solid and when it comes time to do something simple like change a bushing, nothing will come apart. Might be a good idea to have a fan of some type on a timer on the garage floor to circulate the air to dry things out more readily. Since I keep cars for 10 years plus, this sounds like a good idea to me.
~1 year on synthetic if mileage is low i.e., ~3,000 mi that makes sense to me.
My car is in a garage when it is not in use.
Speaking of garages, someone told me that in places where there's snow and therefore salt, one of the problems is that in a typical private garage there's not much air circulation, so that in the winter the underside of the car stays wet for long periods of time - wet and somewhat salty, and even if you are changing fluids and doing all the other preventive maintenance, and getting the car washed, this near-constant wet condition will mean that eventually all your suspension bolts will rust solid and when it comes time to do something simple like change a bushing, nothing will come apart. Might be a good idea to have a fan of some type on a timer on the garage floor to circulate the air to dry things out more readily. Since I keep cars for 10 years plus, this sounds like a good idea to me.
10-04-2017, 10:15 AM
#36
This car has a couple things going against it when it comes to extended oil change intervals. For one, the 5qt oil capacity is pretty small for an engine this size, and the filter is sized for a lawnmower. That means its capacity to hold contaminants is limited. That being said, the main issue is probably the heat and shearing forces from the VVEL system. While a good synthetic might maintain its additive package for 7500 or 10,000 miles, it will almost certainly shear down to a 20wt in that time
10-04-2017, 10:20 AM
#37
Yeah good idea to try https://www.bobistheoilguy.com thanks
~1 year on synthetic if mileage is low i.e., ~3,000 mi that makes sense to me.
My car is in a garage when it is not in use.
Speaking of garages, someone told me that in places where there's snow and therefore salt, one of the problems is that in a typical private garage there's not much air circulation, so that in the winter the underside of the car stays wet for long periods of time - wet and somewhat salty, and even if you are changing fluids and doing all the other preventive maintenance, and getting the car washed, this near-constant wet condition will mean that eventually all your suspension bolts will rust solid and when it comes time to do something simple like change a bushing, nothing will come apart. Might be a good idea to have a fan of some type on a timer on the garage floor to circulate the air to dry things out more readily. Since I keep cars for 10 years plus, this sounds like a good idea to me.
~1 year on synthetic if mileage is low i.e., ~3,000 mi that makes sense to me.
My car is in a garage when it is not in use.
Speaking of garages, someone told me that in places where there's snow and therefore salt, one of the problems is that in a typical private garage there's not much air circulation, so that in the winter the underside of the car stays wet for long periods of time - wet and somewhat salty, and even if you are changing fluids and doing all the other preventive maintenance, and getting the car washed, this near-constant wet condition will mean that eventually all your suspension bolts will rust solid and when it comes time to do something simple like change a bushing, nothing will come apart. Might be a good idea to have a fan of some type on a timer on the garage floor to circulate the air to dry things out more readily. Since I keep cars for 10 years plus, this sounds like a good idea to me.
10-04-2017, 07:47 PM
#38
Registered Member
This car has a couple things going against it when it comes to extended oil change intervals. For one, the 5qt oil capacity is pretty small for an engine this size, and the filter is sized for a lawnmower. That means its capacity to hold contaminants is limited. That being said, the main issue is probably the heat and shearing forces from the VVEL system. While a good synthetic might maintain its additive package for 7500 or 10,000 miles, it will almost certainly shear down to a 20wt in that time
No! Look at the UOA results. 10K is fine.
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milosz (10-05-2017)
10-05-2017, 01:17 PM
#39
Many of your samples show shearing to 20wt. I don't think it will hurt anything, but people with aggressive driving styles might want to do their own analysis before pushing past the factory extended drain interval
10-05-2017, 04:40 PM
#40
Registered Member
01-01-2019, 11:08 PM
#41
Registered Member
http://www.pqiamerica.com/March2013P...sallfinal.html Just used Castrol Edge 5W-30 for the first time cause I heard it was the best. It just might be. My car is now super quite and i can feel the extra power. Not to mention it's dexos1 Gen 2 approved. The owners manual says change the oil every 7500 miles under normal conditions and 3750 under severe ones.
01-01-2019, 11:58 PM
#42
Registered Member
This car has a couple things going against it when it comes to extended oil change intervals. For one, the 5qt oil capacity is pretty small for an engine this size, and the filter is sized for a lawnmower. That means its capacity to hold contaminants is limited. That being said, the main issue is probably the heat and shearing forces from the VVEL system. While a good synthetic might maintain its additive package for 7500 or 10,000 miles, it will almost certainly shear down to a 20wt in that time
For me the issue isn't mileage but TIME and USE PATTERN. My trips are 90% short local-road trips; but I do under 3,000 miles a year. Infiniti says "every 6 months or 7,500 miles" - I think the 6 months is overkill. Have a look at my Blackstone analyses - 7 months / 2500 miles on the oil changed at 11/25/18. This is synthetic oil which the local Infiniti dealer put in on 4/25/18. Water, fuel, etc are all basically zero. TBN is just fine. These are things which I would expect would start to show problems given my driving pattern. I'd like to go 12 months on an oil change - given my low mileage this may be OK. I'll go longer next oil change - like 9 months - and see what analysis shows. I don't mind paying for an oil change and it's much cheaper than a new engine certainly but the inconvenience of driving down to the dealership and waiting for the work is a pain. And, yeah, I could take it elsewhere - but the dealer charges only $49 for synthetic oil & a filter, and they check a bunch of other stuff and wash the car inside and out - geez it's hard to beat that for $49.
01-02-2019, 12:32 PM
#43
The short duration listed by dealers is to be sure water is removed from the oil and crankcase. If the oil doesn't stay at operating temperature for fifteen minutes or so, dissolved water doesn't "boil" out of it. Many short trips lead to high water load. Your Blackstone water test result indicates you do obtain operating temperature and travel long enough to drive out the dissolved water.
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Baadnewsburr (01-03-2019)
01-05-2020, 07:17 PM
#45
Registered Member
10,000 miles is possible
It's a sturdy engine - some review I saw called it "reliable as a hammer" - but is a pretty high performance engine, so it has areas of pretty great stress. In particular I think there is a lot of shearing action in the valve train, that VVEL has a load of moving bits. That sort of thing can actually "chop up" the long chain oil molecules over time and this makes the oil less effective. But if you start with good oil - and any synthetic oil these days is pretty darn good- in 10,000 miles the oil shouldn't shear up to the point of trouble.
The additives in oil these days that absorb acids that form in the oil from combustion products and water that is absorbed from the atmosphere are pretty good and they put a lot of them in the premium oil products like the synthetics, so, again 10,000 miles should be OK. But tis kind of depends on how you drive- 10,000 miles of short 1 mile trips to the store is going to let a lot more water and other combustion byproducts build up 'cause the oil isn't getting hot enough during that short drive to boil them off- and so a ,ot of short trips calls for more frequent oil changes.
If you are taking your car to the track, this is very hard on the oil; also, if you have a supercharger or other charge boosting mods, this will also be harder on the oil. Lots of shearing goes on in a supercharger, and the extra demands on the engine to make power can stress everything, including the oil, so don't expect 10,000 miles under those conditions.
But if you do a lot of highway driving, seems to me that with good synthetic oil 10,000 miles should be do-able.
HOWEVER
An engine is quite expensive either to replace or repair. So maybe doing an oil change every 5,000 to 7.000 miles instead of 10,000 might give you a little insurance against a high cost repair, and seems certainly worth the slight additional operating cost.
The additives in oil these days that absorb acids that form in the oil from combustion products and water that is absorbed from the atmosphere are pretty good and they put a lot of them in the premium oil products like the synthetics, so, again 10,000 miles should be OK. But tis kind of depends on how you drive- 10,000 miles of short 1 mile trips to the store is going to let a lot more water and other combustion byproducts build up 'cause the oil isn't getting hot enough during that short drive to boil them off- and so a ,ot of short trips calls for more frequent oil changes.
If you are taking your car to the track, this is very hard on the oil; also, if you have a supercharger or other charge boosting mods, this will also be harder on the oil. Lots of shearing goes on in a supercharger, and the extra demands on the engine to make power can stress everything, including the oil, so don't expect 10,000 miles under those conditions.
But if you do a lot of highway driving, seems to me that with good synthetic oil 10,000 miles should be do-able.
HOWEVER
An engine is quite expensive either to replace or repair. So maybe doing an oil change every 5,000 to 7.000 miles instead of 10,000 might give you a little insurance against a high cost repair, and seems certainly worth the slight additional operating cost.
Last edited by milosz; 01-05-2020 at 07:30 PM.