While I totally agree with most of the article, it made me grind my teeth at the frequency the author changes the oil in their car... That poor valvetrain will be full of gummy carbon deposits. RIP whoever buys the car second-hand.
I always changed the oil according to the (European or Japanese) manufacturer's schedule (once a year / every 10-15000km) and had no issues with the cars (even >10 years old cars).
Having pulled the tops off more engines than I could count, you can immediately tell an engine that gets regular oil flushes compared to one thats run on longer intervals. Sure, the engine might last your whole ownership without having a serious issue... But inside it'll probably tell a different story.
Parts stores still push the 3k miles/3 months (or did until very recently). Dealers and manufacturers don't, and haven't for at least 10 years.
My 'free oil changes under warranty' deal when I bought my truck required me to come in every 5,000 miles. Their computer system was setup for cars, and they had no way to change it..
Is it a difference between european and US made cars?
"For years the accepted oil change interval (as per carmakers) had been every 3 months or 3000 miles, whichever comes first. And why was that? It was because oils of yesterday broke down when left in the crankcase environment for longer than the prescribed interval. The combination of heat, friction, and the oil oxidizing over time resulted in an unholy clothing of the engine's internal parts called sludge."
That's an absolutely insane number, and I have never heard of that (I have had cars for 20 years that always were 10k to 15k km intervals, and simply done on a yearly or 18 months service).
The standards for oil are tightly regulated in the EU.
But many brands meet that spec. It's really only white label conventional bottles that don't.
In my case, it's cheaper to use non-synthetic oil and change it quarterly, which generally aligns with other maintenance activity. (Tire rotation, filters, lights, etc)
This is why manufacturers have different recommendations for Europe. The formula of the oil is completely different to the US, so it can stay in the engine a lot longer.
This is true in theory, but for most people the rest of the car will fall apart before the engine dies. All the rubber and plastic is degraded by air and sunlight which has little to do with any use patterns. (there are of course uses that put more wear on them as well)
A good portion of the cars are junked with so little use that they would have made it that far without any oil changes at all. Of course the oil would be like syrup, and the engine would show other signs of the abuse, but it would still be running well enough to make that last trip before the car is destroyed for other reasons.
If he changed every 6 months, he'd be changing every 1000km. That's insane! I don't even refuel every 1000km!
Example oil change schedule for a modern car (Taken from Audi Q7 '09 service manual): 8.000km, 25.000km, 40.000km, 55.000km...
So ~15.000km between changes - or 7.5 years if you drive 2.000km per year. Now - obviously you wouldn't go 7 years without an oil and filter change but you should be completely fine changing every 1-2 years on a car that is driven so little (It's the aging of the oil that's the problem, not the distance driven)
> I envy you.
Still envy me when I say a full tank is $100? :)
My last car was a bit of a beater, and we did the oil change more frequently. Reason was that it had a problem with the transmission (manual, as most cars here), and from time to time there would be little metal shavings in the oil! But apparantly this is less horrible than it sounds, and somewhat normal for old cars. There is even a little magnet in the oil vessel to collect the shavings. After a combination of learning this, and having lived in the states for a couple of years, I insisted on changing the oil more regularly.
But the oil of a manual transmission (and as well that of an automatic one) is normally separated from the engine oil, do I read it correctly that you had a car with those in common?
All cars have one or more magnets (for ferrous shavings)it is perfectly normal, but of course they are pretty much ineffective for other metals, and more generally other possible contaminants.
The author's vehicle is a prime sludge candidate, although not as bad as people who go years w/o changes.
Loss of viscosity is a wholly separate form of degradation which along with accumulated Ph changes is responsible for the "every N miles" recommendation.
Cars usually get scrapped for some problem that is uneconomical to fix due to the age of the car, long before the engine is worn out.
Or actually, the car will be perfectly fine. Nobody changes their cars every 3-4 months in this here parts, and the sky hasn't fallen.