mbroadway

I've read that this synthetic oil will last a specific number of miles. I'm wondering if there is any info regarding a specific amount of time. My oil was changed when I bought the car in February 2008. I drove it a total of 400 miles before it was time to winterize and cover it.

In April of 2009 I started driving it again, and this past November, my oil had a total "miles" on it of 700, but it will have over 24 months "time" on it when I start driving it this spring.

Should I change it with only 700 miles on it, or does the "time" factor not degrade it?

Thanks for any info.

STL94LT1

After two years I would definately change the oil, regardless of mileage. I change the oil in my cars at least once a year.

jrose7004

I change my oil at 10,000 miles or 1 year whichever is first. I never get anywhere close to 10,000 miles but I change it every year!

cdnguyred88

An Oil change is way cheaper than a new motor or a rebuild....

vettenuts

If you look in the owners manual, I believe there is a "or every 12 months" statement in there as well. Mine usually gets changed because the 12 months has elapsed as opposed to the mileage.

rws.1

700 miles hmmmm

The shelf life of synthetic oil is 5 years....
With only 700 miles, you could go another year...
BUT why would you?

It is best to chagne the oil every year before putting the car away so that there is no water nor acid in the oil
Those combustion by-products can lead to internal corrosion in the engine.

hotstang_46

I agree.....change, it's very cheap, good insurance from problems. I do mine every 3k or 3 months. At $50 and 30 minutes of time why not. Then again, I can tend to be a little ****.

hotwheels57

I'll respectfully disagree. It's your car to do with as you please, but why change oil/filter with only 700 miles on it? To me that's wasteful. It's not dino based oil. The oil life monitor still says what...98% +/- even with 24 months? Conceivably, you could probably take that oil/filter out and use it in another car for thousands of miles of service.

I can't grasp the logic of synthetic oil being good at 364 days, but not good at 366 days regardless of the mileage.

Two years ago, I drove my car only 800 miles for the entire year because of summer monsoon and winter weather in AZ. Checking the oil at that time, it was still amber colored. The DIC read 97% if I remember correctly. That was all highway/weekend driving. If it was a daily driver, I'd have a different perspective.

Now, I'm not suggesting to go for 3+ years on the same oil/filter regardless of low mileage. Chances are if an owner went that long, they'd forget about it altogether.

The manual suggests one year because that's a way to enforce upon owners the need to do routine maintenance. Many owners don't read the manual, we see that here everyday. Many owners don't even know how to retrieve information from the DIC. And many don't believe what the manufacturer says anyway.

If in doubt, take a small oil sample and have it analyzed by a lab. Now, someone will probably say the cost to have it analyzed is as much as an oil/filter change. Maybe, but it'll support my contention that synthetic oil with a good synthetic oil filter will last for thousands of miles regardless of the time since last serviced. You don't need to change synthetic oil/filter every 3,000 miles like so many still believe in doing. The oil life monitor can be trusted.

Armed with that oil analysis report you can then make an informed decision in the future about how often you should change your oil/filter using the oil life monitor more than days since last service.

capevettes

If I only drove my Corvette 700 miles in two years I would think seriously about selling it rather than warehousing it and watching it depreciate without enjoying it. But that's not what you want to hear. I just couldn't help myself

You could get away with the 2 year old oil with only 700 miles but I think changing it once a year, regardless of miles is a small price to pay for piece of mind.

bobby777

WHATS THE DIFF. IF THE OIL SITS IN THE OIL PAN OR ON A SHELF IN A ONE QUART BOTTLE? none

olefam

This is an interesting question and caused me to think a bit. Normally I run Amsoil for 1 year, or 10,000 miles, whichever comes first. Due to its formulation I am not so confident in Mobil 1 or some of the other "synthetic" oils on the market. Still, it seems wasteful to toss 6 quarts of oil and a filter at just 700 miles. I'm going to have to agree with Hotwheels57 and suggest an oil analysis. It's not what you'll learn about this particular year that may benefit you, but what you can apply to future years.
Glen

BLKOHZ06

I dont think 2 year old oil is going to hurt anything. Its just a matter of opinion here. What does it look like when you pull the dip stick out and wipe it on a clean white paper towel ? Probably looks like you just changed it. If not then I would change for sure. Again just my opinion.

dgrant3830

Back when Mobil1 first came out and I'm talking back in the early 70's, I think I remember them touting that it was good for like 25,000 miles. Now whether I would ever trust it that far is doubtful but its pretty good stuff and as mentioned above, oil is the cheapest thing you can do for an engine with the greatest benefit. My '07 is going about 12k miles between changes based upon the DIC computing the oil life. I believe GM changed the formula for oil life on the C-6's from the C-5's.

Wolfmanjohn

I've driven my 'Vette 4000 miles since the last change in October 2008, and that oil looks almost as good as it did the day it went in there, so I will run it up to my customary 5k before changing it.

My driving is such that I take an occasional long trip; otherwise I run into town once every week or two to do my errands. I do make sure the oil temp gets above 190, though, so as to boil off any condensation. If you can do that I think you are OK for a while longer.

JMO, of course.

pcbunn

Regardless of when you decide to change your oil and filter, you should make sure to have the oil recycled / reclaimed. Many auto parts stores and landfills have facilities to take used oil and filters. At least that way its not a total waste of resources. As for me I change my oil and filter, using Mobil 1 at the end of each driving year when I store it for the winter. I save all my oil in a plastic 55gal drum and have it pumped out when it gets full. The local landfill separates the filters out so they can be disposed of properly.

Evil-Twin

we did almost two years of studies on the oil system and the oil life monitor system... we nailed it down to very spacific advice... we know for a fact that mileage has very little to do with oil life... you can take two cars and drive each 5,000 miles, one car drives in 6th gear or in high and the motors sees 1500 rpms for 90 % of the time.. the other car is driven around town rarely getting out of first or second gear... this car sees an average of 3000 rpm for 90 % of the time... the lubrication system sees twice the load in the car that averages 3000 rpm. but the OLM system take many other factors, let say the car that does an average of 3000 rpms aso sees many short trips, and cold starts this also effect the oil integrity...anyone who things using mileage as a means to change oil is living in the 60's. when people didnt know any better... we designed this OLM system to make oil changes idiot proof and to benifit the eco system.. also we know for a fact that once oil is run through an interal combustion engine it sets in motion a catalist that cause the oil, be it perto based or synthetic , to turn acidic.. this is why we say to change the oil when the oil life monitor says too or once a year.. the algorithims take away from the base line , like demerits...when we originally built the algorithims we made the base line 10,000 miles, things like cold starts engine rmps times etc all take a % off this 10,000 miles... after three years of field debugging we found that changing the base line to 15,000 was still within a ten & safety factor.. so you can take your oil life monitor down to 0% and still be within oil life. I advise people who pm me about this to get to 10% and start to think about changing their oil dont go past 0 % for more than a day or so..you want to do it within the week your car gets to zero.. and you do not want to leave the same oil in your car for more than a year.. we checked PH values and found that PH was high enough in 13 months to srt acid etching, and gasket degregation..WE did thousand of hours of testing and yet some guys says her thinks its ok to go two years with the same oil... I can guarantee you that an engine with oil like this in it will never see 300,000 mile like all of our test mules.... and we are not talking lab mules we are talking car that are actually driven under all types of loads... Do yourself a big favor , take advantage of the hundreds of thousands of dollars used to develop this system.. its one of the best in the world...
I must make this speach one a year, every years when all these people think this is their grandfathers 55 Buick and say thats what my grandfather did BTW a 55 Buick was at the end of its days around 60,000 miles.. Believe me the technology is light years aways from a 55 Buick
Bill aka ET

Evil-Twin

You THINK, you are OK>>>> ?
OMG your using oil that has turned acidic a year ago and your going to drive that acidic through your engine for another thousand miles...
Why arn't you using the OLM system.. you "thinK" you know better than what the car is telling the computer? you thing we pulled those checks out of our ***? you "think " its ok... where is the science in that.. we had tons of data to prove your thinking is way wrong, but its your car... you want to prove this , take an oil sample and send it to Blackstone oil analysis.

dgrant3830

Hey, the first car I ever drove was a '55 Buick Special! I agree with you totally about today's oils.

waddisme

Spend the $25 bucks and send to Blackstone for analysis. Either way at least you will know.

wca_tim

It's not a matter of whether the oil will adequately protect the engine or not, it's that matter of the slow, ongoing reactions with combustion-derived compounds present in the oil in your engine (that are not present in the bottle of oil on the shelf). You should change the oil at least one a year. period. This is probably more important in humid climates, higher altitudes, and where there is ethanol in the fuel or if you burn certain fuel additives.

can you get away with longer? sure. will it make any difference on the dyno? probably not a bit. but how much difference might it make on how long you can go before a rebuild????

I know it's not the best for the ecosystem, etc... but when in doubt, I change the oil. an hour or so and a few quarts of oil is an awful cheap insurance policy relative to buying a new bottom end.