I have a Forester with 100k miles. I changed the oil every 3000 miles with Castrol brand 10-40w. The price of motor oil costed $12 now for an oil change. That's $3 a quart. Can I buy an off brand? What is the draw back? What about oil filters. I am using Fram or Purelator now. Can I use an off brand filter and still get the "benefit?" Any comments would be appreciated.

 

Standby for a lot of input on the subject; this is a hot topic that has been addressed from time to time and always generates a LOT of opinions. IMHO the 3000 mile interval is antiquated (that's going to generate some hot debate) given the engineering of both today's engines AND the motor oils. Check you owner's manual and see what it says; there will be a "normal" and a "severe" service interval. Most people's driving is somewhere between the two. In your case what I would do is simply change to a 5000 mile interval. It won't significantly affect engine life and the savings on an annual basis will be about the same as switching to a cheaper oil.

Here's some pretty good info on oil filters:

http://www.ntpog.org/reviews/filters/old_filters.shtml


Here's some previous discussions:

http://forum.doityourself.com/showth...ght=oil+change

http://forum.doityourself.com/showth...ght=oil+change

http://forum.doityourself.com/showth...ght=oil+change

http://forum.doityourself.com/showth...ght=oil+change

Let the games begin!!!

 

I've started buying the 15,000 mile rated Mobil 1. In a five quart jug, it's less than $6/quart.

 

15000miles between changes seems to me, to be tooo long.. irregardless of the 'claim'.
Oil is your engine's blood and life line. Dont skimp.
I use Mobil 1 and oem filter and change every 7000kms.(MX6) and my wife's '03 Eclipse.

 

Back around 1980 I took a course about Fluid power.[hydraulics] Synthetic oil was new to auto oil changes. The claim was 10.000 mi. between changes. My instructor claimed even tho the oil is good the filter should still be changed at 5,000 mi. because dirt needs to be filtered out of the oil. My personal thought is if you change the oil & filter every 3000 mi. You could use any oem compatable oil.

 

Yeah, I use the 15K oil, but I still spin on a new filter about halfway through and top off the level.

 

I used to think changing the oil frequently was more important than the quality of oil but I've changed my mind I recently tore down the top half of a straight 6 that always had the oil changed regularly but a cheap brand [still met specs] was used. I was shocked at the "glaze" that was left on the parts - I know that wouldn't have happened with valvoline

Stick with your castrol - it's good oil. As noted synthetic is better but a little pricey for some of us.

 

you can use an off brand oil and filter to maintain your engine in fact an engine is likely to last about as long using cheap oil as it is using a high priced synthetic eventually the engine will wear out regardless of what type of oil used if you have the vehicle long enough.

 

Copyright of Consumer Reports:

Myth: Engine oil should be changed every 3,000 miles.

Reality: Although oil companies and quick-lube shops like to promote this idea, it’s usually not necessary. Go by the recommended oil-change schedule in your vehicle’s owner’s manual. Most vehicles driven under normal conditions can go 7,500 miles or more between oil changes. Some models now come with a monitoring system that alerts the driver when the oil needs changing. Depending on driving conditions, these can extend change intervals to 10,000 or 15,000 miles.

 

I have had some old used vehicles where I have gone thousands of miles without changing the oil. One was an old pickup. I went at least 80,000 miles without changing it, and it had 235,000 miles on the V-8 350 after the rear end fell apart, and the engine ran strong up until the end, with excellent instant throttle response. It burned oil alright, but the oil burning pretty much stayed constant after a while. I base that on the fact that once it began to burn oil, it got so bad that I had to add so much new oil frequently that it always stayed clean-looking on the dipstick thereafter, and probably slowed down any additional wear.

On another car: It has been maybe 3-4 years since I have had the car. (I'll have to look at what the mileage was when I bought it, as now I am really curious.) I have NEVER changed the oil. I have only changed the filter once, fairly recently. I drive about 22,000 a year in a mix of highway and lots of stop and go traffic. The car is now starting to use a little more oil, but not to any real great significance (maybe 1200 miles?, just a guess). This oil is black. But I do add various brands of that thick honey like stuff periodically. This car has almost 255,000 miles on it.

So it is obvious from these two tales that a car is not going to suddenly wear out/seize up if oil is not changed in 3,000 miles. Granted, I suppose if I was to have regularly changed the oil, the car could have gone a million miles? (Sort of like when someone says their grandfather smoked his whole life and lived to be 93?, but one then could argue he may have lived to 103 if he never smoked?) But probably something major would fall apart anyway, requiring a new car?

I think I have done this as sort of an ongoing experiment, based on the fact the car only cost me $500 back then, and I already found out my pickup kept running like a champ without changing the oil. (BTW, even though that truck went thru a quart in maybe 200 miles, I could never see it burning blue smoke)

***Note that this post is not an endorsement to not change your oil! But thought I'd share this to show anyone who has no idea about what not changing oil quite on schedule might do (or not do).***

 

i'm not going to add anything about frequency and brands (altho I DO have an opinion!) but i have a question for the original poster...why are you using 10W-40 oil? that's not the recommended oil for that engine I'm actually with Tow Guy on this one...I tend to stretch my mileage a bit more to offset the maintenance cost on my Tahoe.

 

Go ahead and use any oil that's meets/exceeds the API specs Subaru requires; which should be any oil off the shelf these days.

Consumer Reports did a test on oil and they came to the conclusion that oil brand didn't make any real difference.

If your looking for extended change intervals, go Synthetic but make sure you change the filter between changes. You might be surprised at this, but Dino oil was last way longer then you might think (this may depending on driving conditions).

On my pickup, I use Dino oil (Whatever is the cheapest) and I use to get my oil tested. And the conclusion was that, no matter what cheap oil I used, the oil was coming back good every time. I took it to 10K miles between changes and the oil came back good. But even with the report, I didn't want to go past 10K miles. These days, I do the oil changes between 7500 to 10000 Miles. Might seem crazy, but oil analysis doesn't lie.

 

I had a 91 grand prix with 235,000, used mobil 1 full synthetic always and went 8-10,000 between changes. I drove it like I stole it every day (between 100 and 200 a day) and never had a problem untill that pesky near head on collision totalled her

 

In the 60's, my father, who performed all his own maintenance on our vehicles, read an article in a magazine, (popular mechanics, or similar) where an engineer was fired by a major oil company because he stated that oil did not wear out, only gets dirty, which thickens it & thus flows slower etc. something to that effect. From that day on, my Father did as that guy recommended,( probably because he had 6 kids to raise) and only changed the filter and added a quart of oil to top up the level. I don't ever remember one vehicle that had engine trouble, broke down on the side of the road or anything. Every one of those vehicles were in the 150,000 - 250,000 mile range when traded, and still purring like a kitten, and lots of power, but we all still have to remember that's also when you could shoot a cannon under the hood & not damage the engine, because some of those old engines were indestructible. No aluminum heads etc, and were made to last, not to be disposable as is the case now. Manufacturers were building on the fact that a stronger powertrain, meant better reliability, longer life etc. Then came the idea by the numbers crunchers that if they didn't last so long, people would buy more often, thus increase in sales. They tell you today that it was all in the name of weight decrease, thus better mileage, thus better for the enviroment. Well I remember every one of those vehicles were built like a tank, metal dash, weighed a ton, with a Big V-8 , that could easily haul all the family around and allow my father to pass when needed, and still get 20 -25 MPG when tuned properly. Now I have a V-6 with aluminum heads that would at best get those figures, and weighs half as much ? Now that I got that off my chest, (ha-ha) With my current vehicle, it tells me when it's ready, by oil usage. doesn't use any after an oil & filter change, for quite a while, and eventually I have to add a little here & there, but when adding gets a little more frequent than I like, I change it & filter everytime. Did anyone see the 20/20 or whatever show, when they used brand new New York City cabs, and put expensive, major brand of oil in 50% and cheap oil in the other 50% of the cabs, and tore the engines down on some of both, at the same mileage, and measured everthing to find No significant difference in engine wear?
Anyway, have a good day !!

 

Just use the brand and weight approved by your manufacturer, 3K miles oil change is more like overkill nowadays, go by your computer monitoring system or around 5K miles intervals if mostly highway driving you could go even longer just top off when needed.
Changing oil before it is actually needed creates more oil waste which is NOT good for mother earth my friend, make the car work for you not you for the car

 

[B]Does Quaker State oil still have paraffin base?[B] Maybe 25 yrs ago, a mechanic showed me a big V8 in repair bay, intake manifold & valley plate off, there was lots of wax everywhere inside engine. He claimed it was the Quaker State oil and lack of regular oil changes.

Is Havoline oil sulfer based? A fleet mechanic a while back explained Havoline, if used, should not be mixed with any other brand because it is only brand of oil that is sulfer based?


Any thoughts on these two brands, I have stayed away from these just for those reasons, or are these claims nothing to be concerned about?

Thanks,

 

You don't need to worry about Quarker State or Pennzoil causing wax build up. All the wax is now filtered out.

In the old days, Quaker State's base stock came from Pennsylvania; so did Pennzoil. Oil from Pennsylvania, was known to contain lots of Paraffin wax.

BTW, I remember those old Quaker State commercials stating how their oil quieted a motor. Yeah it did, by using wax that clogged everything up. When the word got out, they made sure their oil was refined to make sure the paraffin wax was gone....

I wouldn't worry about Havoline oil either. Sulfur causing a mix problem ... my butt!!

Motor oils are refined to specific standards these days, and if you look in your cars owners manual, it states exactly what grade/weight of oil you need to use as a minimum.

Oil now is a global commodity, and in the US, not every oil company has a refinery. Because of this, base stocks from one brand can and will be the same used in another brand. Base stocks also change, depending on where the oil is coming from. Regardless, crude is refined to a base stock then additives are added to the brands requirements.

Oh.. I should clarify my comment on Sulfur.... Sulfur is a good lubricant, but due to emissions, more and more Sulfur is being removed from oils and fuels. Personally, I'd rather use high Sulfur oil and fuel, then one that's low.

 

Valvoline was supposed to be used by more mechanics than any other brand. That ad sold me. I used it for years prior to the cost of oil skyrocketing except for budget oils. When I removed my valve cover on engine with over 200K on it, everything inside looked clean and new. I could not believe it. Since then I have switched, thinking oil brand claims are bs. Well, this last time I took off the valve cover gasket, it did not look quite as good inside.

I heard the reason why Valvoline was supposed to be superior was something to do with their formulation or ratio of ash content. Any knowledge on this?