When I first bought my Acura I could go 7500 and the oil would look good (or slightly brown when ready for a change) and I wouldn’t be losing any oil. But as the car has aged, 5000 miles is a more accurate time to change the oil. The oil gets a dirty brown and is about a half quart low. I have no oil leaks, but if you do you’ll loose more oil.

The Camry – my husband’s car – still has golden oil at the 5000 mile mark. But I encourage him to change it anyway since its usually been 9 mos. since he changed it last.

My experience has been that you should generally follow the suggested guidelines for maintenance on a car. But as it ages you will have to adjust. My independent mechanic has confirmed this. I also experienced similar results on my previous car (a 16 year old Nissan) – it, too, required more frequent oil changes as it aged. But I have never changed the oil at 3000 miles on any car I’ve owned, no matter how old.

But if you are in doubt…let you car cool off and check the dipstick. You want a nice golden color (not dirty or black) and you want it to be between the indicator lines on the dipstick which measure the level. I’m sure if you do a google search for checking your oil you’ll see what I mean.

Lubricants and Engines are sold on minimum specifications. Check for the API/SAE on the Lube you use matches your Engine recommendations. That said, these are minimum performance requirements and purchasing a “top” tier lubricant can extend the life of the engine and the drain interval. Ultimately the only way to know when the Lube needs changed is to test it (there are many available testing labs for under $5). Personally, I change my oil based on the lube tests and have gone as far as 20,000 miles between lube changes with 3 filter changes (all highway) to as little as 2,000 miles (wheat harvest dirt road driving) and no filter change.
I have worked in the lubricant and engine market for over 20 year

My 91 Chev Lumina manual said to change oil @7500 miles if they were highway miles or 3000 if local miles. I did it 7500 all the time and put 250k on that one also. When it died it had 316k miles on it.

On my present Ford Taurus Wagon, I change it @ every 3k miles because I am retired and take a major road trip twice a year. The rest of the time I do only local driving and even just fill up my gas tank once a month.

I actually heard much better advice from an old timer mechanic. He said we waste by far too much oil. He said to check your oil monthly and put some from the dipstick on your fingers and see if it is still viscous (thick). If it is thin, it is time to change it. It has gotten too hot. He said what we should be changing every 3k miles is the oil filter. That keeps the oil cleaner longer and keeps waste away.

But ultimately, oil has 3 basic functions in an engine – clean, cool, and lubricate. Even after only a couple thousand miles, the oil gets fairly dirty, so you’d think that changing it early and often is a good thing. But no the flip side, the engine itself is rarely the breaking point nowadays. Tranny’s and everything else are far more likely to die before the engine. All else aside, a fairly well maintained modern engine can probably go a million miles without major issue.

I think its a must have for just about anybody, and they obviously provide you with unbiased advice on the subject of maintenance and just about everything else.

However, I’d like to add one more thing to the “don’t overdue the maintenance list”. Don’t purchase “extended warranties” on electronic items. For example, extended warranties on printers are usually worthless, same goes for cell phones.

From my personal experience, by the time the extended warranty is coming up for expiration, the item is already replaced or far beyond repair.

-Little House

About refrigerators: if you still have a freezer that needs to be defrosted, it’s time to get a new one. Not only is it a messy, time-intensive job (esp. if whoever rented an apt. before you had dogs, and their fur is entangled in the ice), an old fridge costs way too much to operate. Refrigerators burn more energy than any household appliance besides heating and cooling, so it’s worthwhile to invest in an Energy Star model. My power company is offering $35 and free removal for customers ready to ditch older fridges. Cash for Coolers?

I think that, once the warranty is over, you should do as much as possible yourself or find someone really good, but that can be hard to find. There have been so many exposes (sorry, can’t get the accent on there) on auto mechanics that it leaves one feeling kind of jaded and suspicious.

I see no reason why this car shouldn’t last 20 years though, with continued maintenance. In fact, it had better do so!

But think about it — the effect of bad oil won’t show up until 150,000 to 200,000 miles. Most earlier problems are transmission, suspension and other non-engine valve problems.

I brought my car to the dealer is April 09 at 10500 miles for an oil change/filter change etc (as recommended by the manual). They put a little sticker on indicating 15500 or Sept 09 for an oil change. But my minder still says 30%, so I have a little longer to go.

The other added benefit that I didn’t see anyone mention in the comments (and Trent, you didn’t mention this either) is that changing the oil less frequently means less dirty oil goes down the drain. Admittedly, used oil is supposed to be recycled, but I’ll bet most DIYers just dump it down the sewer (not trying to be mean, just realistic). So yay for a cleaner environment!

Now, do make sure to check your oil frequently if you wait a while… And don’t trust dealers to do a good job all the time. I’ve heard horrible things about oil filters falling off —> seizing engines. If you don’t make sure there’s enough oil, that’s so much worse than changing it too often and lamenting the cost.

I also keep records showing the date of each oil change, the filter I used and the brand & weight of oil used. Usually doesn’t change much — Mazda OEM filters and Mobil 1 10w30. I didn’t know if I’d change or not, but I’m happy with my oil. (Use RedLine for everything else, but their engine oil’s a bit expensive for regular use to me…)

And while I bring up other oils — We’re just talking about engine oil here and over-maintaining that. How often do people even bother with transmission and differential oil?! Now there’s something I never hear a lot about… (Never mind taking it to dealers for service. Don’t go there with me.)

@steve I’m not hugely concerned with the engine completely failing, but somewhat concerned with small problems being denied based on my not getting proper maintenance done (like the lower control arm bushings that went bad @36000 mi in my last car, or other various issues).

That said, I actually know of a lot of engines failing. My idiotic family has a bad habit of buying high-mileage, over-priced used cars that last a year or two and then seriously conk out. In my mom’s case, that’s largely to do with under-maintenance, but all the same, my parents went through at least a dozen crappy cars while I was growing up, blowing the engines in almost all of them. Which is a. why I learned to do basic maintenance on my own, and b. why I buy late-model used cars and do the scheduled maintenance.