My AP1 was in storage all winter and has been driven about 1000 miles since the last oil change in 2019. Was thinking the oil should be changed anyway because this is a high performance engine. The car has just under 32k miles and runs excellent. What do you think?

 

Full synthetic and a new Honda oil filter last year? It's fine. You'll get a dozen Chicken Little warnings to change it immediately but the sky is not falling. Oil change schedule is every 7500 miles with an oil filter every 15,000. Overkill, though, always works.

-- Chuck

 

Oil mfgrs generally recommend that you change it if it has sat a long time as well (not just mileage based). You will hear recommendations of 6 months or a year even if not driven. If I changed mine late last season and did not drive it much, I typically will go a while into the next season without changing. My car sits around 6 months over the winter in the garage, but I do not necessarily change it right after that if the mileage on the oil is still low.

 

If you didn't get a lot of moisture in the oil, it'll be fine. Don't waste perfectly good oil.

If you have a catch can or if you started the car to let it run over the winter....you've probably got a good amount of moisture in there and its a good idea to change it, unfortunately.

 

^ Yep, good point on the catch can. Did not ask about that.

 

My S2k is on an Annual Spring change. Only get about 1500 miles per year these days.

My advice, if it's been a year since its been changed. I would do it. Its easy and cheap enough these days.

 

Oil and the additives inside will oxidize over time, and can lead to sludge build up quicker or a raised oil viscosity.
Would it be best to change the oil? Yeah. I wouldn't stress about it though.

 

I change mine, at a minimum, when it comes out of storage in the spring (put in the good, expensive oil) and again before it's stored (plain old regular oil). Many would argue that's overkill, but it's peace of mind and cheap insurance. Were I in your shoes I would change it.

 

Idk if this will be a popular argument on this forum...

But...just the consideration of just wasting something to be overly safe seems like a bad idea, on a greater scale.

No?

 

Thanks for bringing this up. The adage that it is better to be safe than sorry has always been a pretty easy one to fall back on and one that I've never found any need to argue with. However, the point that you've raised be it popular or not, is incredibly valid as far as I am concerned. As far as my existence goes, I probably rate somewhere near the middle of the pack when it comes to my "Green rating". I do feel that there is an ever increasing need to address those issues that plague our planet and I also realize that despite my fondness for internal combustion engines, the ICE is under attack every single day. Anything that can be done that both helps the planet, while redirecting some of the criticism that falls upon the ICE, managing to extend it's stay is something that I'm open to thinking about.

I'll admit that I have never been deeply knowledgeable about oil. I have tended to stick with the manufacturer's recommended spec with any vehicle that I've owned over the years and did not give things much thought beyond that. When it comes to the S2000, I've changed the oil once a year as I never put much more than a couple thousand miles on the car during that timeframe. This to me, this represented a "safe approach" as I mentioned above. I've never felt the need to exceed this level of caution. On the flip-side I've also never contemplated whether or not it might make sense to extend this interval between oil changes when using full-sythetic oils. I'm curious to learn what others think and have little doubt that they will chime in.