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Oil Change?


aunut

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Since at least 2001 I have used Mobil 1 synthetic engine oil and Amsoil synthetic ATF for the tranny in my Dodge Ram 2500 V10 and two rams V8 1500s and absolutely no serious issue with engines or transmissions and often towing 4500 lb trailer in the mountains plus often rough off road use in western BLM lands and national FS.

I normally use walmart and oil/filter changes are cheap to me.  Change the oil every 3000 miles (normally) or sooner if dirty looking (dark).   Almost always use Mobil 1 oil filters.  trucks have 138,000 miles on V10, 94,000 miles on a 1500 and 100,000 + miles on other 1500.  Only need to add tiny amount of ATF every 6 months or so. Still going strong.  The V10 is a towing monster and I can afford the gas.  

Works for me.  MMHBA TYFYC

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Edited by NamMedevac 70
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Years ago I had a friend who believed in the 3000 mile interval while I was following the recommendation for 7500 miles.  He claimed he could tell a difference after changing the oil and his car would drive smoother with more pep.  He was highly educated and had a Ph.D. in one of the sciences.

I can tell you for sure that the black color of used oil in no way reflects the condition of the oil.  The oil in my Cummins diesel turns a deep black within a few hundred miles of driving.

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On 4/18/2021 at 8:44 PM, Ray,IN said:

For low-use engines many folks change oil N filter annually or by oil analysis results instead of by the factory maintenance schedule.

But is an annual change even needed for very low miles when our RVs are off the road?  Ram calls for changing the oil, oil filter and fuel filters every 6 month.  For me that would have mean 3 complete changes in less than 1500 miles.  The filter and oil alone would have cost me about $450.  The dealer would have charged me $2100!  That is way over a $1 a mile for oil and filters.

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"The oil in my Cummins diesel turns a deep black within a few hundred miles of driving."

As I am driving gasers and not a diesel my oil only turns black early when I have driven extensively on BLM desert dusty roads.  I then also change to new air filter. Normally never turns black when driven 3000 or more miles. Works for me for 3 Dodge Rams including HD 2500 V10.

All three of my trucks receive hard use at times and all have close to or over 100,000 miles so I must be doing something right. Sorry to disappoint a few here.

I can easily afford 3000 mile oil/filter and air filter changes as insurance  so don't worry yourselves about my finances as I receive free and/or 50% discount camping at all Fed public campgrounds and many state parks since 1998.  EYHO.

Please note I have no desire, need or requirement for diesel or def.  I could also afford the gas for V10 so Cheers to some.

Retired Acct & SEC CFP.  Former legislative aide and pilot to two Texas Governors with 4 Honorable Discharges from Active Army, Guard/Reserves.

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Edited by NamMedevac 70
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52 minutes ago, JimK said:

Years ago I had a friend who believed in the 3000 mile interval while I was following the recommendation for 7500 miles.

While I knew that some truck fleets used oil analysis, I didn't really become aware of their use until I started to hang out with a bunch of pilots. They convinced me to give Blackstone a try. Once they began to track the engine they also made recommendations about running my oil longer, since my samples were at oil changes. I began at the manufacturer recommended 3500, then extended to 4000 and eventually to 4500, or 1 year, whichever came first. That was for a gasoline class A, F-53 chassis. I did use the USPS to send the test samples in, just as the Blackstone directions say and never had any problems from that. 

While I probably should be using analysis today, since my mileage is way less I have not tested our current car.

Edited by Kirk W

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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For me, the issue is not the mileage interval.  For my Ram diesel that has moved up to 15000 miles.  I am not trying to push that.  The issue is the time change interval where Ram is emphatic about 6 month changes.  

With Covid I even had an issue with my cars.  For both my car and my wifes, the mileage last year was in the range of 2000-3000 miles, well less than half the recommended change mileage.  After well over a year, I had the shop do the annual inspections and also change the oil.  Those changes were under $100 each, but again probably just wasted money.

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I have a friend who is an over the road trucker who does 3000 miles a week and has NOT changed his oil in about 8...that is eight years!!!  His "secret" is a system that he has added to his Kenworth that draws about one quart per hour and sends it through a micron filter that cleans the oil 10 times better than the OEM filter system.  He still sends a sample for analisis every couple months and it always comes back within specs. He will add oil as the engine uses it and says that the added oil will replenish the needed additaves as they are used up. He will however change the OEM filters on schedule and the micron filter about once a year!

I know this is a Ripleys Believe It Or Not story but is true!

2004 Freightliner m2 106  2015 DRV lx450 Fullhouse  2019 Indian Springfield 2014 Yamaha 950 V-Star

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12 hours ago, WILDEBILL308 said:

Without doing a oil sample you can't tell anything. You can't feel the where metals in the oil as they are in parts per million.

Bill

totally 100%; without a sample it is an opinion and everyone has a different one

2000 volvo 610
2013 cyclone 3950

 

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So once again we have those who wanted facts are now in a river in Egypt. You know De Nile. If 3000 mile makes you feel so good you should do  1500 mile changes. think how good the oil would feel then.

For those interested in facts I do a annual oil sample on the engine and transmission. If I see something that I want to watch closer I will do more frequent samples. 

Bill

 

2008 Newmar Mountain Aire model 4521
450 hp Cummins ISM
Allison 4000MH tran.
Towing a 2014 Honda CRV with a blue Ox tow bar

Home base Fort Worth Texas

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

-Mark Twain-

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6 minutes ago, steiny93 said:

totally 100%; without a sample it is an opinion and everyone has a different one

 

1 minute ago, WILDEBILL308 said:

So once again we have those who wanted facts are now in a river in Egypt. You know De Nile. If 3000 mile makes you feel so good you should do  1500 mile changes. think how good the oil would feel then.

For those interested in facts I do a annual oil sample on the engine and transmission. If I see something that I want to watch closer I will do more frequent samples. 

Bill

 

Life is way too short . 

 

Goes around , comes around .

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13 hours ago, JimK said:

For me, the issue is not the mileage interval.  For my Ram diesel that has moved up to 15000 miles.  I am not trying to push that.  The issue is the time change interval where Ram is emphatic about 6 month changes.  

With Covid I even had an issue with my cars.  For both my car and my wifes, the mileage last year was in the range of 2000-3000 miles, well less than half the recommended change mileage.  After well over a year, I had the shop do the annual inspections and also change the oil.  Those changes were under $100 each, but again probably just wasted money.

Jim for my pickup and DW's Jeep we go by the onboard diagnostic oil change interval. It determines driving conditions, style, and different types of use. That normally equates to once a year oil N filter change. Except for 2020; my pickup's onboard DIC says I still have 38% oil life remaining since 2019 oil N filter change. As soon as I'm all healed I plan to service both my pickup the MH, DW had her Jeep serviced at the dealership.

 

 

2000 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom USQ40JD, ISC 8.3 Cummins 350, Spartan MM Chassis. USA IN 1SG retired;Good Sam Life member,FMCA ." And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.  John F. Kennedy 20 Jan 1961

 

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9 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

Jim for my pickup and DW's Jeep we go by the onboard diagnostic oil change interval. It determines driving conditions, style, and different types of use. That normally equates to once a year oil N filter change. Except for 2020; my pickup's onboard DIC says I still have 38% oil life remaining since 2019 oil N filter change. As soon as I'm all healed I plan to service both my pickup the MH, DW had her Jeep serviced at the dealership.

 

Is it really a "diagnostic" oil change interval that your vehicle displays?  I suspect the interval is just based on mileage.  That seems to be the case for my Honda Accord and also the Ram CTD 3500.    

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14 minutes ago, JimK said:

Is it really a "diagnostic" oil change interval that your vehicle displays?  I suspect the interval is just based on mileage.  That seems to be the case for my Honda Accord and also the Ram CTD 3500.    

Not necessarily. I do know there are some systems that analyze the conductivity of the oil, presumably to detect the level of metal particles contained in the oil. When the conductivity of the metal particles reach the predetermined threshold, the car tells you it's time to change the oil. Jay

 

 
 
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20 minutes ago, JimK said:

Is it really a "diagnostic" oil change interval that your vehicle displays?  I suspect the interval is just based on mileage.  That seems to be the case for my Honda Accord and also the Ram CTD 3500.    

I know that my Ford Superduty diesel has an oil life monitor that utilizes several variables.  I have found that it does vary oil change intervals significantly depending on idle time, trip length, etc. 

From the Amsoil website:  Oil life monitors track climate, driving habits and other conditions. The algorithm calculates mileage, idle time, engine temperatures, trip times, engine loads, and ignition starts and stops. It then establishes an oil change interval as low as 3,000 miles (4,800 km) and all the way up to 10,000 miles (16,000 km) and more depending on severity of conditions.

Mark & Teri

2021 Grand Designs Imagine 2500RL, 2019 Ford F-350

Mark & Teri's Travels

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I checked the manual for my truck.  Again, the oil change interval is 6 months, 15000 miles or 500 hours whichever comes first.  The oil change monitor is based on the "duty cycle".  I doubt any driving conditions are monitored.  Certainly time is not monitored.  I think the system monitors mileage and hours.  Unless you do lots of idling the monitor will be based solely on mileage.  I can calculate the percentage of miles driven based on the 15000 mile interval and that is what is displayed by the diagnostics system.  

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It varies by vehicle.  The gasoline engine cars and trucks that I've owned base it solely on miles. However, from the manual of my 2019 Superduty:

Diesel Engine Intelligent Oil-Life Monitor - Your vehicle has an Intelligent Oil-Life Monitor that determines when you should change the engine oil based on how you use your vehicle. By using several important factors in its calculations, the monitor helps reduce the cost of owning your vehicle and reduces environmental waste at the same time. This means you do not have to remember to change the oil on a mileage-based schedule. Your vehicle lets you know when an oil change is due by displaying a message in the information display. The following table provides examples of vehicle use and its impact on oil change intervals. It is a guideline only. Actual oil change intervals depend on several factors and generally decrease with severity of use.

I have seen my mileage between "Change Oil Soon" messages vary considerably based on how the truck is being used. As little as 6k when towing extensively and as much as 9.5k when not. 

Mark & Teri

2021 Grand Designs Imagine 2500RL, 2019 Ford F-350

Mark & Teri's Travels

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6 hours ago, mptjelgin said:

It varies by vehicle.  The gasoline engine cars and trucks that I've owned base it solely on miles. However, from the manual of my 2019 Superduty:

Diesel Engine Intelligent Oil-Life Monitor - Your vehicle has an Intelligent Oil-Life Monitor that determines when you should change the engine oil based on how you use your vehicle. By using several important factors in its calculations, the monitor helps reduce the cost of owning your vehicle and reduces environmental waste at the same time. This means you do not have to remember to change the oil on a mileage-based schedule. Your vehicle lets you know when an oil change is due by displaying a message in the information display. The following table provides examples of vehicle use and its impact on oil change intervals. It is a guideline only. Actual oil change intervals depend on several factors and generally decrease with severity of use.

I have seen my mileage between "Change Oil Soon" messages vary considerably based on how the truck is being used. As little as 6k when towing extensively and as much as 9.5k when not. 

That's how mine worked for my Duramax. I changed oil N filter just prior to a caravan trip to Alaska towing our 15,000# 5er. Left Indiana and had not yet returned to the US border when the change oil message was displayed. My present Silverado 5.3 powered pickup reads the same oil monitoring parameters the way it acts.

To learn the exact parameters one must call the mfgr.

 

2000 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom USQ40JD, ISC 8.3 Cummins 350, Spartan MM Chassis. USA IN 1SG retired;Good Sam Life member,FMCA ." And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.  John F. Kennedy 20 Jan 1961

 

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In classroom sessions Caterpillar and Cummins learned us that it is the amount of fuel burned that determines oil change interval in a high duty cycle diesel (like a class 8 truck engine).

Our Cat rep who came up through the service tanks said no one ever ruined an engine putting clean oil of the correct specification in it.

Paccar MX13 diesels have a spinner unit on them in addition to a cartridge filter - their interval was 600 hours.

Customers running small micron bypass filters on Cats and Cummins ran extended intervals using oil analysis every 10-12000 miles.

Anyway nothing like a good oil argument. 
 

Carry on.

"Are we there yet?" asked no motorcycle rider, ever. 

 

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I think I am convinced.  I am going to go by the change monitor for both the oil/filter and fuel filters.  I may just do an extra reset on the monitors to avoid any possible warranty issue.  I assume that Dodge can track that through the computer system.  If not, they don't have any way of tracking the changes anyway.

I am going to continue to be careful about how I use the truck when it is in limited use.  I run the truck about once a month to keep everything charged and working.  I am careful to bring it up to operating temps.  Of course, I also keep an eye on the tire pressure. 

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8 minutes ago, noteven said:

In classroom sessions Caterpillar and Cummins learned us that it is the amount of fuel burned that determines oil change interval in a high duty cycle diesel (like a class 8 truck engine).......

Customers running small micron bypass filters on Cats and Cummins ran extended intervals using oil analysis every 10-12000 miles.


 

 

I was curious so I checked on the Cummins recommendations for engines used in semi tractors.  Cummins approved 60000 mile changes using Valvoline Blue Premium oil.  As mentioned they also have a program for even longer change intervals using oil test analysis every 10000 miles.

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35 minutes ago, JimK said:

I assume that Dodge can track that through the computer system.  If not, they don't have any way of tracking the changes anyway.

The problem is you have to prove you did the required maintence.

Bill

2008 Newmar Mountain Aire model 4521
450 hp Cummins ISM
Allison 4000MH tran.
Towing a 2014 Honda CRV with a blue Ox tow bar

Home base Fort Worth Texas

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

-Mark Twain-

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