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Niko_Fx
03-21-2004, 04:21 PM
I have a question and some of you might have the answer. Maybe it's something dumb that everybody else besides me knows.... but I just have no clue.

I have to make oil changes to my 4 Cylinder Honda every 3,500 miles while my dad every 10,000 miles to his Audi A6.

A friend of mine that had a Mustang GT had to make oil changes also every 3,500 - 4,000 miles. So this tells me that the # of cylinders doesn't matter that much.

Is it something about Audis? maybe European cars?


Thanks.

Egg Nog
03-21-2004, 06:30 PM
Your dad should be changing his oil more often :) Standard procedure is to do a change every 5000km or so, which is basically 3500 miles. The Audi's engine should be no exception.

Misho
03-21-2004, 06:43 PM
keep in mind that it is also dependant on the typr of oil being used. a synthetic oil such as mobil1 can be changed at 10,000 mile intervals. while a natural or non-synthetic oil such as super-mobil should be changed at around 3,000 mile intervals.

Niko_Fx
03-21-2004, 06:59 PM
Your dad should be changing his oil more often :) Standard procedure is to do a change every 5000km or so, which is basically 3500 miles. The Audi's engine should be no exception.


My dad thinks that 10,000 miles is too much, but that's the way the Audi dealership want's it. He once had a problem with the car and he was there at the dealership and he told them that the car had already 8,000 miles since the last service, so besides fixing his problem they might as well change the oil. And they told him to wait to 10,000 miles.....

Maybe they use synthetic oil as Misho says... I don't know.. :confused:

The car is 2001 by the way.

Egg Nog
03-21-2004, 07:36 PM
My dad thinks that 10,000 miles is too much, but that's the way the Audi dealership want's it.

All the more money for them, I suppose ;) Maybe they should've told him to just use rad fluid instead... then they'd make a mint off of repairs :)

Niko_Fx
03-21-2004, 07:40 PM
All the more money for them, I suppose ;) Maybe they should've told him to just use rad fluid instead... then they'd make a mint off of repairs :)


Yeah :mad: :mad: Those !@#$%^ Bastards

JK :)

Well, the car has been fine these 60k miles....... :confused:

kiwitt
03-21-2004, 07:52 PM
I have to change mine every 3,000 miles. Generally, the higher the average revs, the more cycles the engine makes the more oil changes it needs.

Some cars cruise at 2,000 rpm for 60mph other at 3,500 rpm; therefore if you have travelled for 10,000 miles (one has done 120,000 rev per hour the other 210,000 or 2,000,000 engine revolutions and the other 3,500,000 revolutions)

The manufacturers may base the changes on this calculation. Note the more sophisticated the car (VTEC, Multi-Valve, Turbo, Supercharging ) can effect oil life as well.

Ferrari Tifosi
03-21-2004, 09:46 PM
Every 3000 miles or 3 months, that's always what I've been told.

henk4
03-22-2004, 01:17 AM
Citroen 110BHP Hdi, every 20,000 km. Modern european petrol cars will do 30,000 km.

Matra et Alpine
03-22-2004, 04:39 AM
Every 3000 miles or 3 months, that's always what I've been told.
OUCH.

The thought I'd like to add is in addition to the synthetic option, the quality of the mineral oil used is equally important.

Good oils have additives to preserve molecule chain length and to de-emulsify the oil. Both of these occur naturally in the engine cycle and a cheap oil with little or no effective additives will need changin more regularly. As molecule chain length decreases ( it gets broken up ! ) then the oil is poorer at start and high temps.

And as has been stated the load put on an engine ( this is worse than revs for the oil film on bearing surfaces ) then the more 'damage' imparted to the oil itself and the more it needs changed.

So some guidelines on changing oils are based on experience with oils with poor or fewer additives ( old input or very cheap oil ). From competition I'd heard the best advice ever - that is to change your oil as often as you can afford to :) Taking an ecological stance I don't think I'd do it too often either as theirs a 'cost' their I worry about who's paying !!

Friend who's worked in petrochemicals for 20+ years uses 'smell' to indicate when an oil has gone off. He swears you can detect the additives and when they've worn out !! He once went through 3 oils with me - a bit like wine sniffing 'a hint of liqurice' :) - and told me which additives they had and why one was worth the extra !!

Personally I change my oil once a year on the family cars, once every 6 months on the classics and after every trackday/competition with the sportscars - but that's mainly so I can have a good look and see if there's anything wearing :(

megotmea7
03-22-2004, 07:47 AM
every 1500 miles with good ol' dead dino's on the FD and i topped it off every 2 weeks or so, on my caddy it has this neat gizmo that tells me the oil life based on my driving habits and oil consistance and what not, seems like its telling me to change it every month or so ;) ohh well, when the new motors in the fd ill probly have to use pre mix in the fuel too :eek:

rip any 33
09-01-2004, 07:12 PM
I have a question and some of you might have the answer. Maybe it's something dumb that everybody else besides me knows.... but I just have no clue.

I have to make oil changes to my 4 Cylinder Honda every 3,500 miles while my dad every 10,000 miles to his Audi A6.

A friend of mine that had a Mustang GT had to make oil changes also every 3,500 - 4,000 miles. So this tells me that the # of cylinders doesn't matter that much.

Is it something about Audis? maybe European cars?


Thanks.
i work for mitsubishi as a tech and we change oil and filter every 7500kmand all ways use good quality oil thats what i recomend every car should get

TheOne
09-01-2004, 07:53 PM
you can always get synthetic oil and change it every 10000 miles, thats something my brother didn't know though,lol.

my brother(the 1 who owns the mustang), changes his oil(i mean, i change his oil) every 3000 miles, but the type of oil he buys is 1 of the best for racing engines, called royal purple, with that type of oil(its synthetic), he should change it every 10000 or so miles.(tho he races almost every thrusday or sunday, so maybe its a good idea to change the oil at 3000 miles)

byronleehk
09-08-2004, 10:35 AM
I read this in another forum...

"While it may be "safe" to use a syn at 1000 miles, I held off till 7500 to switch over to synthetic. I was getting some oil consumption up till around 5000 miles, which indicates that the rings had not fully seated yet. Going to syn before the rings are seated will make that process more lengthy and perhaps even prevent it from happening properly. Some will dismiss this as an old wives tale, and it very well might be, but there is nothing wrong with erreing to the side of caution and waiting a bit to go from conventional oil to synthetic. Opinions aside, the above UOA with 7000 miles was from my car and the insoluables were incredibly low. This is indicative of an excellent ring seal and complete combustion, as well as very good oil filtration. BTW, I was using an OE spec Motorcraft FL-820S which cost all of about $3, so no need to spend the money on the fancy name oil filters.

I broke it in as per the manual, with light throttle and tried to vary engine and road speeds for the first 1000 miles. Changed the oil at 1000 miles with Motorcraft 5w20 and redlined it after a quick warm up . Changed again at 3500 miles with the same and went to German Castrol Syntec 0w30 at 7500 miles. I chose a heavier oil because of my climate (average around 95-100*F during the summer months) and have had good success with it. Some have tried this oil and have noted that the engine felt a little tighter and less willing to rev. My butt dyno hasn't registered any such ill effects, so I'm going to stick with it... that and I have about 25 more qts. of the stuff in the garage"

He's talking about a 3.0L V6 220hp Mazda engine.

Any truth to this? I always thought it's better to switch over to synthetic asap :confused: