Hey guys,

Question about the oil change interval.

I know there is a oil change reminder on the S.

I bought the car at the beginning of the year and I only drive it on the weekends.

It's now June and I'm at about 50% on the oil life meter. That puts it at about end of year for the oil change.

That's 1 oil change a year if I keep the same driving habits.

Do you guys follow the 3000 miles or 3 months, whichever comes first rule or stick to the oil change meter?

 

I would not go by time, go by mileage or once a year given your driving conditions.

 

I use the oil meter as a rough estimate. If I ran with regular dino-oil, I would probably use the 3 month/3,000mi rule. Synthetic I would do around the 5-6k mark, and 6mo on the time. It really mainly depends on how you drive the car too, which I know the trip computer is supposed to take into account.

 

I got 7500 miles on syn. Just follow the oil life indicator and you can't go wrong that's why they made it.

3k or 3 months is the oil changers business model to stay profitable. Almost all dino oil will go the 7500 miles almost all cars are spec'd to go. Case in point, family friend 320K on her old Acura Legend. How many times did they change the oil? Once a year no matter how many miles they drove. Burned very little before they scrap yarded it.

Oil life has to be the most over talked about topic on this forum.

 

On my cars I change once a year or 10K miles... I might pay attention to an indicator if I had one.

 

How many miles do you expect to put on in one calendar year?

 

I'm probably going to end up with 5k, 6k at the most this year.

 

The owner's manual is quite explicit about oil changes. Go by what the oil minder says or at 1 year, whichever comes first. Reset after oil change. It even tells you how to do that. Never hurts to read the owner's manual. Takes all the guesswork out.

 

The S2k manual was written in 1999 and the important stuff was not really changed afterwards.
Most of the changes are about how to operate the radio.
They certainly did never adapt the OCI to modern oils, all they did was change the API qualification.
To avoid owners looking for API-SH oils, going through old oil stashes in a dusty abandoned garages.
With a rusty windmill making sqeeky sounds in the background.......

So, in the case of the OP: once a year is no problem, no matter how much you drive.
Do you drive it in winter at all?
If not, change at the end of the driving season - to have fresh oil in over winter.
Drive all spring & summer, change at the end of season again.

Enjoy!

 

I ignore the maintenance minder and use 5,000 intervals -- confirmed via UOA's.

1/year is generally regarded as safe as a minimum. Again, UOA's will determine what intervals are best suited for your car, oil, driving, etc.

Don't overlook existing threads on the topic as nothing in here is new info.