Change Engine Oil and Filter
An oil and filter change involves draining out the old motor oil and replacing it with fresh, new motor oil. The oil filter also gets replaced at the same time. Changing your vehicle’s oil is one of the most important things you can do to keep your vehicle in great shape.
However, there’s a lot of controversy about exactly when engine oil get old and how often it should be replaced with new oil. Because there are many factors at work – how you drive, the condition and age of the engine, the external environment you drive in, and stop and go versus highway driving – it’s an exact science. Owner’s manual recommendations for oil and filter changes very from 3,000 to 10,000 miles. We recommend that you change your oil and filter every 5,000 miles. That is our best estimate. It may be to soon for many people and too late for a few, but for the vast majority, 5,000 mile oil changes will help your engine last to a ripe old age.
You may want to consider changing your oil more frequently if:
- You drive fast and furious.
- You live where the climate is extremely hot or cold
- You often drive on dirt roads
- Your engine is old and burns oil
- You frequently carry heavy loads
Oil undergoes thermal breakdown due to high operating temperature. When this occurs the oil becomes less effective as a lubricant. And without a good lubricant, parts of the engine rub together and wear each other out. Oil also contains additives that have the ability to neutralize acids. Over time, these additives get used up and stop being effective.
Finally, oil can absorb water, dust and combustion by products and also hold them in suspension. Eventually, the oil gets saturated with this stuff and can’t absorb any more. Then that stuff reMains in the engine and can cause corrosion.
If you don’t change your oil regularly your oil will thicken and sludge up the engine and so your engine won’t last as long as it could. Oil serves many crucial functions, and clean oil performs those functions better than dirty oil. Oil is relatively cheap, and changing your oil every 5,000 miles is a very cheap insurance policy against major repairs down the road.
You need to check the oil level every few hundred miles. With your car parked on a level surface, remove and clean the oil dipstick and then reinsert it. Remove it again, and check the oil level. Ideally, it should be right at the full mark. If it is at or below the add mark, that means you’re a quart low and that you should add a quart of oil to the crankcase. If it is between the two marks, you can add part of the quart to bring it up to the full mark. (The distance between add and full represents a quart, so use that to estimate how much of a quart you need.) Be aware, however, that since oil flows slowly when it is cool, the dipstick may not immediately reflect any oil you just added. So estimate the amount of oil you need based on your first dipstick reading, and then check it again later that day or the next day to be sure you’re near the full mark.
A word of caution: Be careful no to overfill your car’s crankcase with oil. If you put to much oil in, the engine’s crankshaft can actually come in contact with the oil. And because the crankshaft is turning at several thousand revolutions per minute, it can quickly whip your oil into a froth – like the steamed milk that sits on top of a cappuccino. Why is that bad? Well, the oil pump cant pump froth very well, and as a result, it cant get oil to the parts of the engine that need lubrication.
If you regularly run low on oil, be sure to report it to your mechanic. You may have a leak or may be burning oil. At some point every engine starts to burn oil. Get in the habit of checking the oil from time to time to avoid overheating.
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