Oil change - how often

M

misenthrop

Torque Junkie
Points
57
Location
Claythorpe
Car
Rover Vitesse
How often should you do oil changes? Does changing it too often cause any problems?

I bet you can't recommend a suitable oil for my Rover Vitesse 3500 SD1 (1983) and Im sure oils have probably moved on a bit since the car was first launched.
 
The more often you change the oil the better, but we don't like to see people wasting their money, so we don't recommend changing the oil more than necessary. A lot of people will throw oil that's good for 10k away at 3k, but if they want to pay us for that and don't listen, fine.

In the SD1 V8s I would use the Fuchs Pro R 15w-50 if it's used hard or the Millers Classic Sport or Classic 20w-50 as cheaper options.

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-68899-fuchs-titan-race-pro-r-15w-50-ester-synthetic-engine-oil.aspx
http://www.opieoils.co.uk/c-661-20w-50.aspx

Cheers

Tim
 
I'm not sure this is quite as beneficial as it might have been twenty years ago. Modern synthetics do stay in grade much longer than any oil will have do back then (20yrs back) and they are also very good at holding soot particles in suspension.

A good thing to do is get a lab oil analysis done at 4-5k and see what is reported.

BUT - there's a specific caveat here. And that is the PD engines which are savage on oils with the loads that the unit injectors place upon the camshafts which operate the injectors. Therefore it's possibly a good plan in your case.

I do think some of these 30,000 miles intervals advertised now though are best ignored. Fine if it's a new car and you're losing it in 3-4 years time but surely cannot be ideal fro real long term reliability.

Also, I'd rather use the correct oil for a 15,000 mile change interval than use crap oil and change it every 5000.
 
I think use has a lot to do with frequency. Long motorway miles with stable oil temps are not that harsh on the oil wheras a track day with the extreme temperatures and even lots of short journeys on cold engines all "kill oils" and require more frequent oil changes.
 
Regular short journeys and all cold start stop is going to take it's toll on any engine. The only way to combat the possible accelerated wear is, as you say, frequent oil changes.
 
SO what you are saying now that I only do short journeys my oil needs changing more often,

I'm using Castrol Edge TD 5w-40 at the moment and when I was doing long journeys I was changing it every 6k miles, (that's what pug recommend) but that's using a semi-syth oil though,

what intervals would you say is good now? My car is quite smoky so I dare say it will turn the oil black quite quick.
 
jarrus said:
SO what you are saying now that I only do short journeys my oil needs changing more often,

I'm using Castrol Edge TD 5w-40 at the moment and when I was doing long journeys I was changing it every 6k miles, (that's what pug recommend) but that's using a semi-syth oil though,

what intervals would you say is good now? My car is quite smoky so I dare say it will turn the oil black quite quick.
Click to expand...

All diesel engines turn their oil black very very quickly (50 miles is enough). Nothing to worry about. What it tells you is that the oil is doing its job well and keeping all the soot etc held in suspension.
 
I knew it was nothing to worry about but obviously I didn't know if it would be a problem near the end of the oils life,

so i guess if I stick to 6k miles/6 months with that oil everything is ok....
 
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