A Guide On How Often Should You Change Your Car Oil

You might already be aware of the fact that changing car's oil at regular but reasonable intervals is important. But do you know what's this reasonable amount of time or mileage between the oil changes? 

Dirty oil never does the job that fresh oil does. Actually the additives in the dirty oil usually boil out, the contaminants form in crankcase and eat the metal parts. Then water collects over passage of time forming sludge. Oil holds a lot of abrasive particles of the metal suspended in it and the particles wear away the engine's part, which the oil needs to protect. 

You might already be aware of the fact that changing car's oil at regular but reasonable intervals is important and for that you need to visit an automotive service centre in South Headland. But do you know what's this reasonable amount of time or mileage between the oil changes? 

The oil basically looks quite black within a few days after the oil has been changed. So, a great way to avoid running on the oil is you can keep a record of when the oil was last changed or to change the oil frequently. You can change it as often as every thousand miles during extreme operating conditions. By changing it frequently, you will get twice the mileage out of your car. 

You may be surprised to know about the extreme operating conditions-what they are.   Stop and go driving in the city, making short trips each day and then leaving the car parked long for cooling down the engine, experiencing rush hour traffic while driving or not getting up on a highway with high speeds are some of the extreme operating conditions. The engine of the car in all these cases hardly becomes hot enough for evaporating the water, which forms in the crankcase building up sludge in the engine. You may experience other extreme conditions if you haul or tow heavy loads quite often or drive in quite a hot weather or in the areas that have a lot of dirt or dust. 

In all of these extreme operating conditions, you should change your oil between 1000 to 3000 miles if its an old vehicle. However, if it is a new vehicle, make sure to follow the recommendations given by the manufacturers for extreme conditions on the user's guide. 

Some of the manufacturers suggest to change the oil every 75,000 miles or even more but that is based on the optimum operating conditions. After all, manufacturers are ones who would always want to sell you a new car if your old car has worn out prematurely. Although the new cars may be able to run smoothly on same oil than the older vehicles. However, since improvements in the oil have extended the efficiency over longer period of time, for being on the safer side, it would be great if you change the oil every 5000 miles or after every 6 months-whichever is earlier. 

If you happen to be a freeway driver who basically goes on long journeys at a high speed, you may extend your oil change interval, but on anything but a new vehicle. Do not go longer than 5000 miles between the changes and under any circumstance, never go farther than the maximum interval between the oil changes as recommended by the manufacturer.