No, I'm not insane, are You?
I change oil per Mazdas recomendations, which in my region is every 20k km.
Which sort of negates Your last statement, as I already change the oil on time.
Your first oil change!
- Thread starter onlyricko
- Start date
I change oil per Mazdas recomendations, which in my region is every 20k km.
Which sort of negates Your last statement, as I already change the oil on time.
GJ-Molestor
Banned
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- 2011 BMW 528i, 2015 Mazda 6, 1995 Nissan Maxima Manual
Once every 20k is not a good recommendation at all unless youre using some sort of massive german OEM oil filter. Have you seen how small a Mazda filter is? That thing is completely done at 5k and should ideally be replaced soon. Youre going 4x that amount which is a horrible idea if you plan to keep the car for a while.
I'm sorry but I trust the Mazda engineers more than a self-proclaimed expert.
Unless You have some actual evidence to support Your claim, I'll stick with the recommended service intervals.
And I can tell You that one of my previous cars (A Fiat Punto 1.9 turbo diesel) should have died before I sold it (according to You), but it didn't, it ran for 210k km with oil changes every 20k km. and it didn't use any oil (or at least so little that I didn't need to top off between service) it actually gave better mpg than stated. But then I guess Fiat was way off to (along with every other car maker selling cars in Europe).
Back to one of my first questions: Why is there this big difference between service intervals in Europe and pretty much the rest of the world?
Is it down to oil quality or something else?
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- Denver, CO
I always figured it's because we're used to changing it every 3k miles. Maybe full synthetic and not having to change it that often is still a bit of a foreign concept?
Truthfully I have no idea why.
UOAs indicate it can go plenty longer than 5k and 7.5k.
Truthfully I have no idea why.
UOAs indicate it can go plenty longer than 5k and 7.5k.
That was my inital thought as well.
The oil should of equal quality.
We've been doing 20k km on most cars for the past 25 years. Some are still 15k and some are 30k or even 35k km between services (incl. oil changes).
Even the Ferrari 488 has 12.5k miles (or every 12 months) between services, as far as I can find out.
SEOR MAZDA
Member
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- CX 5
I would like to share my first encounter with synthetic oil.
In 1986, my father bought from a family member a Renault 18 2.0 (1980). This family member owned a garage that build racing engines and rebuild regular ones.
The factory oil in that Renault 18, was used for only 3 miles, the distance from the dealership to his garage. Once there, he drained, cleaned and started using synthetic oil. The brand was Agip, the italian brand, a novelty back home those days and available only in 1 auto parts store in my city.
He changed the oil once a year or every 12,000 km (around 7,500 miles) and that was what my father did after he bought it.
It was weird at the beginning when you were used to do the changes every 5,000 km (3,100 miles) with regular oil, but knowing the origin of the car it was not questionable at all. It was expensive oil, but at the end you break it even considering the cost of the regular oil changes in between.
Here is my point, trying not to be a philosopher. Newer engines and newer oils are bonding together playing against the car dealerships and independent garages. A synthetic oil change done every 7.5k miles, means that the dealer-garage will not see that vehicle twice as often as if it was done at 3.5k miles for a regular oil change, with the other little things that once the car is in, you will do, loosing a lot of revenue.
Synthetic has been around for a long time, but sometimes is hard to break the habit of doing an oil change with that many miles in between.
I saw many post from europeans and americans members in which the oil changes intervals differs from one to another.
Do owners manual specify different? Or is just a preference?
Thanks.
In 1986, my father bought from a family member a Renault 18 2.0 (1980). This family member owned a garage that build racing engines and rebuild regular ones.
The factory oil in that Renault 18, was used for only 3 miles, the distance from the dealership to his garage. Once there, he drained, cleaned and started using synthetic oil. The brand was Agip, the italian brand, a novelty back home those days and available only in 1 auto parts store in my city.
He changed the oil once a year or every 12,000 km (around 7,500 miles) and that was what my father did after he bought it.
It was weird at the beginning when you were used to do the changes every 5,000 km (3,100 miles) with regular oil, but knowing the origin of the car it was not questionable at all. It was expensive oil, but at the end you break it even considering the cost of the regular oil changes in between.
Here is my point, trying not to be a philosopher. Newer engines and newer oils are bonding together playing against the car dealerships and independent garages. A synthetic oil change done every 7.5k miles, means that the dealer-garage will not see that vehicle twice as often as if it was done at 3.5k miles for a regular oil change, with the other little things that once the car is in, you will do, loosing a lot of revenue.
Synthetic has been around for a long time, but sometimes is hard to break the habit of doing an oil change with that many miles in between.
I saw many post from europeans and americans members in which the oil changes intervals differs from one to another.
Do owners manual specify different? Or is just a preference?
Thanks.
Well, I have to chime in a bit here. Seems we are all taking sides.
Some of you proclaim to not doing oil changes until 20K miles, or beyond. Wow, just wow.
Then there's the other side of the argument where oil changes are being done too soon.
I'm old school (in my 60's), and would never run an engine past 10K miles without an oil change.
Yes, oil has gotten better, and I have jumped on the Mobil 1 synthetic bandwagon with my Nissans.
However, being anal and everything, I still change my oil between 6,000-7,000 KMS (not miles). That's about 4,000 miles at the most.
My pathfinder is 15 years old with 312,000 kms on it. Still purrs like a kitten. No oil leaks or burning.
For the extra money I've spent, I get a clean engine and peace of mind.
I'm also a big advocate for replacing factory oil on a new car as early as 3,000 kms, if not sooner.
I'm waiting to take delivery of my new 2107 Mazda 6 (I'm out of the country at the moment. More on that in another post).
I will not be waiting very long to do my first oil change when the time comes. Don't care what the user manual says.
I guess in summary, I tend to be on Molester's side more than some of you other folks.
If you feel confident about running 20K or more on the same oil, then great. Personally, no way.
Some of you proclaim to not doing oil changes until 20K miles, or beyond. Wow, just wow.
Then there's the other side of the argument where oil changes are being done too soon.
I'm old school (in my 60's), and would never run an engine past 10K miles without an oil change.
Yes, oil has gotten better, and I have jumped on the Mobil 1 synthetic bandwagon with my Nissans.
However, being anal and everything, I still change my oil between 6,000-7,000 KMS (not miles). That's about 4,000 miles at the most.
My pathfinder is 15 years old with 312,000 kms on it. Still purrs like a kitten. No oil leaks or burning.
For the extra money I've spent, I get a clean engine and peace of mind.
I'm also a big advocate for replacing factory oil on a new car as early as 3,000 kms, if not sooner.
I'm waiting to take delivery of my new 2107 Mazda 6 (I'm out of the country at the moment. More on that in another post).
I will not be waiting very long to do my first oil change when the time comes. Don't care what the user manual says.
I guess in summary, I tend to be on Molester's side more than some of you other folks.
If you feel confident about running 20K or more on the same oil, then great. Personally, no way.
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- Denver, CO
20k kilometers....not miles. That's equivalent to 12.5k miles and is the maintenance schedule in some European countries.
Plenty of UOAs supporting it to.
Past that, and I agree, too long.
Personally I change mine every 5k miles.
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NelsonLewis
Banned
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- 16.5 CX-5 GT AWD w/Tech BRMica
Ditto.
I'm a former European. In my previous life I used to own auto repair/service businesses both there and here in Canada. For the most part, European synthetic oils are quite a bit more expensive and many are rated ACEA A3/B3 or such, making them quite robust stuff. The intervals are historically longer then those in N/A. The service is usually quite a bit more expensive though. N/A service vendors have trained the population to very short OCIs so they can "take a look at the car" more often. This normally translates to higher sales...
The flip of the medal is VW/BMW/Toyota, etc sludge monster debacle. That's when the average Joe used plain Jane Jiffy Lube oil service for the interval specified in the owner's manual. That hit hard.
So follow your manual with OCIs and oil choices, unless you've learned what is best for your particular engine through a series of used oil analysis and frequenting bobistheoilguy.com. Or taking a Batchelor in Tribology...
The flip of the medal is VW/BMW/Toyota, etc sludge monster debacle. That's when the average Joe used plain Jane Jiffy Lube oil service for the interval specified in the owner's manual. That hit hard.
So follow your manual with OCIs and oil choices, unless you've learned what is best for your particular engine through a series of used oil analysis and frequenting bobistheoilguy.com. Or taking a Batchelor in Tribology...
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- Fmr CX5 Touring
As recently as a few years ago I had Jiffy Lube change my oil, full synthetic per manual, and they wanted to put 3,000 miles on the reminder sticker. You know, so I'd know to come in and get my oil topped off....
Krist!
Krist!
Pretty much yes. German chemicals specifically are the best imho. Car wax/sealants, engine oils, hey I even switched to Persil laundry detergent!!
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- 2014 QX70 AWD
Here is some reading for the super nerds out there! (band2)
https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/motor-oil-wear-test-ranking/
https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/motor-oil-wear-test-ranking/
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- Plano, Texas, USA
Thiss VW OEM oil filter I use for my 2001.5 VW Passat 2.8 V6. It has 30,000 km (18,641 miles) / 2 years of service life stated on the filter itself!
And for those tiny little Japanese oil filters such as Hondas the recommended oil change (without oil filter change) interval in Normal condition is 7,500 miles / 12 months. You change oil filter at 15,000 miles / 12 months. In fact, many older oil change schedule has been specified like this way skipping oil filter replacement for one oil change. For our Mazda CX-5, the OEM oil filter should be able to handle 5,000 ～ 7,500-mile OCI easily!
First oil change at 3K miles? Its not necessary as all the metal shavings you worried about if any should be filtered out by oil filter. If youre really concerned, do it a little early at 5,000 miles. Mazda doesnt say but from members UOA the factory fill most likely is Mazda moly oil with very high level of molybdenum. Keep factory-fill in our SkyActiv engine longer is beneficial to the engine in the long run. Honda uses special break-in high-moly oil for its engines from factory and says specifically:
in Break-in Period section.Honda Odyssey 2002 Owners Manual said:
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- 2022 2.5GT
GJ, you never cease to entertain. With filters, size really doesnt matter and the mileage has nothing to do with how dirty the oil is. Santa is absolutely correct about the service interval and there is no difference between the oil and the filter on a European and a US vehicle. Read the attached;
GJ-Molestor
Banned
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- 2011 BMW 528i, 2015 Mazda 6, 1995 Nissan Maxima Manual
Still not sure why why we change oil every 5-7k, but other parts of the world have like 15k intervals using the same oil and filter.
Am I just missing something there? Do the skyactiv engines elsewhere just magically produce less contaminants during the combustion process or something?
I can tell you on my 2015 Cadillac ATS 3.6 .....GM increased the oil change interval to around 4000 km - 4500km , due to the timing chain stretching and failing, very common in the GM 3.6. Not sure if it helped as I got rid of it after 1 year lol Here is a link about oil changes on BMW vehicles https://blog.modbargains.com/15000-mile-oil-change-myth/. I have a couple mechanic friends that always change their own oil at 5000k.
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- 2022 2.5GT
To some extent I think it’s US tradition and the after sales division is happy to exploit that. Modern engines are made to very fine tolerances and generate very little wear debris. Newer design pistons and rings prevent so much contamination from combustion and of course, oils have come a long way. I’m not sure how the chemistry of your fuel compares to ours.
