Im not sure when the best time to do an oil change. Is it best to oil change every five months or when the maintenance light turns on? I rarely drive my car so it takes about a year for my maintenance light to turn on, my last oil change was in january this year and the maintenance light just lit up this month.

 

Generally you want to change oil every 3000-5000 miles. But it varies based on driving conditions and type of oil.

I normally change it every 3000 miles just to be safe even though I use syntactic oil that is supposed to last 15000 miles.

 

correct me if im wrong, but change oil when the oil life meter is 15%

 

so it doesnt matter if its been 5+ months?

 

and also correct me if i am wrong because i might be but your maintenance required light doesnt come on when your oil is bad it comes on every so often and you have to reset it. but goodluck!

 

3000 miles is wayyy too early.

 

true

 

THIS!!!

all the research I have done, says that this is an outdated standard that many mechanics push to get people in to change their oil more often, thus making more money. The number's I have seen are 5000 for modern conventional oils, and 7500 for standard synthetics, longer with higher end synthetics.

 

I change it once every summer, and basically check my oil one time every week.

When i first bought i didn't check the oil for 3 months, and boy was i lucky, it was on the low side of the stick.

 

The maintenance light comes on with mileage - after a reset, it will come back on based on the precoded mileage interval that comes out of the manual, which I believe is 7500 miles for severe use.

You should change your oil at least once a year if under 7500 miles, otherwise, every 5k for regular oil or 7500k for regular synthetic. I usually do mine in between that interval with the synthetic blend I run.

You should check your oil everytime you fill up, which is probably every 1 - 1.5 weeks.