I use Mobil-1 Synthetic and I last changed my oil in Dec 03, however, I have only put about 1000 miles since then.

My question is, it has been almost 6 months, but I have only put 1000 miles.

Should I change the oil or wait until I hit another 2K?

 

I think you can wait another 2k. Don't think synthetic will break down like natural during those months. Plus isn't it 5k per change with synthetic?

 

My Audi recommended synth oil and 5k changes. The new Audis and BMWs are recommending 10k changes with synthetic! That's a bit long for my tastes, but I'd guess that 5k is fine if you're using synth.

 

I still do changes at every 3000mi and I'm using royal purple @$10 per quart but I have only put 9000 miles on it since I got the car in September 2002. The oil comes out just as clean as when I put it in... my range rover says every 7500 with synthetic

 

I only change it every 3.5k miles, so no matter how long it takes me to get 3.5k mile.

 

I was told service intervals in Europe are 9000miles

 

I only have 8000 miles on my car, and I'm going to go with approx. 4000 miles between synth changes. As the motor gets more miles on it I'll stretch that out to maybe 7000 miles. Alot of the metal wear decreases as the engine gets more miles on it.

The synth oil (I use Amsoil) can easily go 12,000 or more before any kind of breakdown of the oil unless you're doing some racing.

A couple of my frineds have BMW's and they have some kind of oil change indicator/sensor that tells them when to change the oil (using synth). They've all gone past 10,000 miles before the indicator signalled an oil change was needed--this was well after the breakin time and they had some miles on the engine.

 

Don't they use metric over there?

 

not in UK

 

you might want to check www.bobistheoilguy.com. Talk about hard core oil specialists... They are very knowledgeable and helpful to "newbies"....

According to what I heard, with some oils you can go as long as 10-12k miles, while still changing the oil filter every 3-5K miles. These are the likes of Amsoil, Redline...

Gurgen

 

I don't have synthetic oil in my Z. But I have 8300 miles on my Z, and I know I have only had one oil. I think I screwed up because I checked the oil yesterday and it was BLACK! ****! I was waiting for 9k miles for some reason and I don't remember why...especially since I know I have only had one oil change...

 

How much oil spills if you don't drain your pan first (if I just want to change the filter) does the oil just keep spilling or does it stop after a little bit.