I have worked many years in the automotive field and this is one of the dirty little myths to increase profits. "Change your oil every 3000 miles."

This is crap and can cost you way more than you need to spend. You should change your oil between 5,000 to 7,500 miles. If you drive in very hot climates and a lot of stop and go city traffic, be sure to change it every 5,000 miles. If you drive highway miles, change it every 7,500 miles. This will save you money and the only winner at 3,000 is the oil companies and the repair shops.

God bless you I've been telling people this for years to deaf ears. I like now that they have these new oil formulas that are now rated to go more than 3k miles... I would bet the last remaining hair on top of my head that its "formula" is no different than their normal oil.

You are 100% right. When I managed a Good Year auto center, we often had training by major oil companies and one of the major oil suppliers told us that the cheapest store brand oil is no different than the highest price brand. In fact the only difference you will see is if you run your oil over 8,000 miles than you can see a little more break down in the cheaper brands.

We were instructed to tell all customers to change the oil every 3,000 but when I always told mine that they could change it every 5,000-7,500 miles. I guess my honesty payed off because I had one of the largest return customer base in our region.

I agree with you 100%! I usually change the oil on my mustang once every 2 years (Only because I only drive it about a thousand miles per year. On my other cars I change once a year.

I hope none of my customers hear of this, 76% of our productivity is 3,000 mile oil changes. Just Saturday I did an oil change on a brand new Rav 4 with almost 4,000 miles on it...

There is absolutely no reason to change oil at 3k. The oils have become so much better than what they were 20 years ago. The major compnents that break down are the additives, and most last much longer than 3k. It won't hurt if you drive more than 3k. Read your owners manual in most new cars, they say 4500-8000 miles for a service.

I've also been trying to just get the word out about this, never understood why people don't believe me...

My cars all get very low mileage, and unfortunately, a fair bit of city driving. I change my oil in time intervals, not mileage... maybe I do it more often than needed, but I'd go crazy if I went any longer than I already do...

My Grandpa Just got a 09 Lincoln MKS. When should his first oil change be? I am thinking 500 due to trying to break in the engine....

For a new car... I'd go by whatever the user manual calls for.

Word. My odometer doesn't work so I just change it every 2 months. I don't buy the unnecessary expensive synthetic either. In my last mustang I used to get 5 quarts of Mobil 1 and a cheap Fram filter and it was costing me about $35. I realized that the expensive stuff isn't always the best, especially if all you do is daily drive your car. Now I'm spending $20 on motorcraft oil with a motorcraft filter

lol it sucks your odometer doesn't work... my mom ALWAYS brings her car in at exactly 3000 miles.. not .5 miles more or less... lol looks like she don't need to do that anymore...

The Dealerhip said 7500 on a brand new engine before your fist oil change. Sounds way off to me.

500 on any new motor IMO

in my junk i run amsoil, every 7 pulls on pulling truck due to fuel in oil
cars every 5000

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700hp Diesel Pulling Truck
87 Buick GN
99 Z28 a4

Everybody is correct, you do not need to change oil every 3K miles and 7500 miles is no problem. I usually run the Valvoline synthetic BLEND (not full syn) and change it around 5 - 7K depending on how the car has been used. If it is raced a lot in the time period I will go 5K if not then 7K. I also agree there is 0 reason to run synthetic in a daily driver where you are not going to be taking advantage of the properties of the synthetic. If the car gets raced where it will be at high RPM's for extended periods of time the synthetic will not break down under the extreme heat produced from racing. Other than that a good normal oil off the shelf will do just fine and go 7500 miles with no problem or damage to the motor.

When I use to work in the Engineering motor pool at Delphi Electronics (GM) we changed the pool cars every 7500. The manufacture is doing this on the cars they own if that tells you anything.