This is becomming circular thinking... my original point is that going to extreme oci's with syn is a bad idea. If you want to change you oil once a year than i guess you should use the best you can find. The only reason i brought this up in the first place is because i thought it was very interresting that no one at Blackstone runs syn. Does anyone else find that insightful or is it just me?

 

I'm not surprised no one at blackstone runs syn... They know that you can run normal oil for 15k miles just fine... Time doesn't really matter either... I run regular oil for 12+ months at a time and all is fine... I ran normal oil in my last car for 3 years (yes, 36 months) without an oil change and blackstone analysis came back fine... I see no problems with regular oil... Syn is good if you have extra money, special needs, or plan on keeping your prized vehicle for 10+ years or 300k+ miles or something...

 

Wow, a 36 month oci, thats crazy. Wernt you worried about what the oil condition was like or did you do that on accident(kept putting it off)? I definitely think that is the record oci!

I'm not saying that you cant go that long on dino i just worry if something were to get past the filter i wouldnt catch it soon enough with an oci like that....

 

They're not extremes. Buy a BMW and you'll be changing oil somewhere between 12k and 17k miles depending on your driving habits. That's how long both they believe they can run Mobil 1 without ill effect. Since they're picking up the tab for all normal maintenance, they've got quite a different view on what is cost effective.

Also to put catastrophic failure into perspective - 2JZ engines under boost are well known for blowing out the oil pump seal and dumping their oil on the ground especially at WOT and full boost. If this happens with synthetic, you replace the seal and keep on driving. If it happens with conventional oil, you're depending on its film lasting long enough to prevent spinning a rod or main bearing or scuffing a piston. In my experience, this is asking a lot more than is reasonable from a conventional oil.

 

Interesting thread.... You guys are the hypermilers of oil changes. As a "by-the-book" kind of guy, I read this with some skepticism, which is not to say that in some cases less frequent oil changes cannot be done without ill side effects as shown here. I find it interesting that Blackstone sounded a little amazed in one of their reports; stating how surprised they are at how well the engine is wearing after the longer oil change duration and that not all engines can take longer oil changes.

Keep the analysis coming, but for the time being I will keep changing my oil in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations.

 

Well, you guys have convined me to try a syn. i think i will go to 6k on the oci. Blackstone said that their averages are based on that oci. That is 1k over the rec so we will see how it goes. I dont think i will use mobil 1 though. over at "bob is the oil guy" they all seem to think it is a little higher wearing than stuff like RP...

Any thoughts?

 

My thoughts are that using any decent synthetic and changing at less than 10-15k is literally pouring money down the drain.

5k is a great interval for the guy charging you to change it though.

Amsoil is my own preference BTW- and they guarantee their OCIs at 25-35k for their fully synthetic oils (if you can show the engine failed due to the longer OCI they replace your engine) and in 30+ years nobody has had to claim it.

 

Well, i kind of think using syn at all may be pouring money down the drain. I think i need to go slowly and increase the oci one step at a time to make me feel ok with it and do a uoa at every step....We will see, i may be going 36 months at some point in my life.....

 

From a resale perspective, have any of you had trouble selling your cars after adhering to this strategy during your ownership? Since this thinking is probably in the minority I would venture to guess that any buyer that cares about how a car was maintained will want to see service receipts and as such might be turned off by once a year oil changes.

 

Personally I generally only own performance oriented vehicles, so I'm generally selling them to people smart enough to know a once-a-year Amsoil change is better for the car than whatever crap the dealer uses every 6 months, so if anything it's been an advantage for me to have those sorts of records versus more frequent cheap oil changes.


Now, selling a Kia to a grandma, she'd probably be happier seeing a pile of receipts from Jiffy Lube

 

I didn't drive the car that often, so in 3 years I drove it maybe 10k miles... I knew it would be fine... Cars are not delicate flowers, they are machines... And my blackstone results came back great, there was even active additive left! I posted the results in this thread I believe... It was for a 2005 Jaguar S-type V-8

EDIT: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...-delivery.html

There is the URL for the posting I made back when I changed the oil after 3 years... It was the factory fill regular oil... Just goes to show that you don't need to change your oil just because 6 months or 12 months have gone by... Myth BUSTED...

 

Believe it or not, having service records is basically worthless... Nobody ever asks to see them, and if they do and you say "I don't have any", it usually will not make a bit of difference... Of course, I'm generalizing, but 95% of the time, this is the way it is... I've sold several dozen cars in my life and I've never had it make any difference...

 

I definitely think having service records puts you in a better negotiating position when selling a car. I’m not sure how many people buying IS would be hard core sports car drivers though… This car is kind of a mix to where I bet the majority of resale buyers wouldn’t know what Amsoil or RP is….

 

Service records won't make or break a deal on a Lexus. Ferrari? Sure. Not on an IS for sure. If it's clean inside and out, drives nicely, and has relatively low mileage the buyer won't care about maintenance records. That said, Carfax can kill a deal in a second.

 

I agree it wont kill the deal on these cars but i feel it has a chance of helping in the negotiating process. if i bought a car from someone who kept good records and was having uoa's done i know i would feel much better about the purchase...