ssrvette

Happy New Year! I just saw a commercial for mobile 1, says they drove 100,000 miles as the oil was a good as new, what's with changing the oil every 5000 miles? Is it necessary? I usually do, but they commercial was pretty convincing! any opinions, I'm sure there will be a few!

C6NRED

How do you take your coffee.....as black as your oil?......I like to be able to see through my oil as it drains......I know what a new 'Vette engine costs compared to timely oil changes.....Then again, I put so few miles on our weekend warrior, that once a year does it for me!

talon90

In Corvettes since the C5 oil changes every 5,000 miles have been a waste of money. With the standard fill Mobil 1 synthetic the manual states change the oil when the oil life monitor tells you to. It is actually a very time proven system that monitors engine rpm and temperature over ignition cycles (grossly simplified). Using the oil life monitor and driving conservatively you will get around 10,000 miles on the clock before it comes up to change. Then manual in these cases reverts to once per year at a minimum.

My opinion is that if you are changing your oil any more than when the DIC tells you to you are wasting your time, your money and perfectly good oil.

I wouldn't however go along with letting it go 100,000 miles.

rws.1

Whe the DIC says 0% remaining oil life or 1x per year is all tha is required....
Many of us choose to do more than is required....

HBJG

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1900112

HawaiiC6

A lot of claims have been made that the synthetic oil will last a long time, but are you willing to take that gamble on your engine? I for one surely wouldn't. Remember the oil is not only coating engine parts but it is also moving metal shaving and debri which is trapped in the oil filter, now the oil can last but the filter unless you have an oil filter about the size of a rubbish can will not be able to keep filtering the dirty oil which is why the oil turns black. The filter is at it's limit and needs to be changed.

Gibson_L5

Page 5-29 in my manual also states " However, the oil and filter should be changed at least once a year"

rnpjstewart

Don't change your oil as recommended then post the results.

GlenM

Just make sure you buy the right Mobil 1. Not all Mobil 1 meets GM spec for the corvette.

torch2000vert

The oil itself after 100k miles might still have "same as new" lubrication properties, but what about all the carbon and deposits in it? 5k works for me.

timd38

I never realized that. I do use the dealer, so I hope they use the right formula.

vettesmith02

carnut2912

I'm sure you'll get the entire gambit of opinions on this one. I have been putting 10,000 miles a year on my car and the DIC always has around 40% left when I change it. The owners manual says change once a year if the oil change warning doesn't come on, so that's what I do. My miles are mostly highway, so I feel once a year is fine for me. Changing it more often doesn't hurt anything either, so do whatever your comfortable with.

GlenM

Look in the owners manual for the SPECIFIC GM spec, then go to an auto parts store and read the back of the bottles on all the different versions. Some of the newer versions of Mobil 1 (Mobil 1 EP) do not meet the required spec. The original, plain old Mobil 1 with the silver cap meets the spec.

VETTAMOUS

changing oil is like washing your car , it might be clean but you do it anyway, it cleans the inside of the engine.

PowerLabs

What's with people not being able to spell "MOBIL"? Its written on their ads, on your oil cap, and on every single bottle. Its not that hard, is it?
If you do a search for "MOBILE" here you get about as many hits as "MOBIL", yet I don't think they are all referring to cell phones...

VETTAMOUS

man,dont read my posts i "misspell" half of what i type.

PowerLabs

We all make mistakes, nothing wrong with that.
But a lot of people here can't spell MOBIL. It is not a mistake; they really think "MOBILE" is the correct spelling.

timd38

Exxon isn't the right spelling?

shopdog

As long as it isn't overheated (above 300F), synthetic oil doesn't "wear out". Under the right conditions, synthetic oil can indeed last 100,000 miles. Of course you'll want to change the filter every 10k miles or so, and you'll probably need to add a quart now and then, so in a sense you'll be changing oil semi-continuously over that 100,000 miles.

However, Mobil (note spelling) probably did the tests on which the 100,000 mile claim is based by continuously driving the car until the required number of miles were achieved. In other words, over about 60 days of driving at highway speed. That's not the usage pattern of the typical Corvette owner. Such "fleet" driving keeps moisture and combustion acids boiled off and lets the oil do its job for many more miles than if the car primarily serves as lawn art.