Do you believe the myths of changing car’s oil?

February 23, 2012 by rickliew
Filed under: Helpful Tips, Interesting Stuff

Some of the common myths related to changing of car’s oil that could be costing you money are as follows:

The first myth related to changing of the car’s oil is that you should change your vehicle’s oil every 3,000 miles. In fact you may also hear from many that if you drive more than 3,000 miles (around 4800 km) without changing the oil, your engine could explode! That’s completely untrue. Today’s modern and advanced cars are generally designed to run up to 7,500 miles (around 12,000 km) between oil changes with no mechanical consequences whatsoever with the caution that heavy drivers might need to change their oil slightly more frequently.

The fact is that majority of the auto manufacturers now recommend oil changes every 7,500 miles for gasoline powered vehicles, which is actually more than two times as long as the 3,000 miles myth.This myth without any doubt is the effort of oil service industry in order to boost their revenue J

Not only is the above, this myth also goes back to a time when there was a need to change oil at 3,000 mile intervals, but it was when the only oil available was non-detergent and there was no such thing as multi weight oil.

In fact the user manual of your car will tell you how often the manufacturer recommends you change your car oil and there’s really no need to do it more often than that. Another common myth is that one should change their car oil when it gets dark in colour. But the car oil used these days does get dark over time since the detergents it contains are designed to suspend soot particles and keep them from becoming sludge.

But irrespective of what you may have heard related to the changing of car’s oil, if you drive a gasoline powered car, you can now go 7,500 miles between oil changes, and just because your oil has turned darker doesn’t mean it’s not doing its job. Normally if you look at oil of your car at 3,000 miles, you can see that it has become darker, but that oil can still work perfectly fine for lubricating and cleaning your engine for another 4,500 miles under normal driving conditions.