How long should car engine oil last?
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How long should car engine oil last?
It depends on your drive cycle. If you have an oil life monitor follow that, when it tells you to change the oil, change the oil. If you do not have an oil life monitor, look in your owner’s manual. Some companies have different drain interval which is why I would suggest looking into your owner’s manual for their recommendation. Not all engine oils are created equal, but I would not recommend extending oil drains unless you are sampling and sending the oil to a lab to determine what life is still left in the oil.
The best way to determine this is to get an oil analysis done. Basically, you send a small sample of you oil during changes to an independent laboratory – they analyze the oil to determine if there is still life left, the type of metals in it, which can indicate wearing of bearing material or other internal engine wear and so on. Some people need to change the oil every 5k miles, some people can go 15–18k miles. You can get even more if you install a bypass filter.