The controversy continues ... even the auto manufacturers can't agree.

http://www.brandonsun.com/story.php?story_id=47077

 

Just do it every 3,000 miles. Like why not? there's no way you can go wrong with changing it every 3,000. Go to 5 if you wanna be lazy, but I don't understand the point. Oil is cheap. Filters are cheap. It never hurts to get her greased. And in the end it will make your truck last forever.

 

Controversy indeed. That article is a bunch of crap. 10 or 15 (+/- 5 or 10)years ago is when they went from saying every 5k-7k to saying every 3k. Those fat fvcks say what they are paid to say. I have a 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 van whose odometer ( and speedometer ) quit working four years ago at ~150k. I know that motor (318) has got every bit of 300k (conservatively)miles on it.It was my companies first truck, bought new. Before the odometer quit working, I changed the oil religiously at 5k. Afterwards, I have been changing it when any one of the following criteria are met.
a) the oil looks dirty or black( no longer is transluscent at all)
b)Ifcan feel the lack of viscosity between my fingertips.
c)Ifthe oils feels overly thick.

Funny how it waswhen we had the 3k revalation that the 7-11 oil change conglomerates started popping up on every other street corner.

 

Also, if anything oil standards have gotten worse. The epa and its catalytic converter guidelines have taken the level ofphosphates that oil companies can adddown to a bare minimum. If you have an old street rod or truck with a flat tappet cam and lifters you would be hard pressed to get 100k even if you changed the oil every 100 miles.

 

If you use Royal Purple oil like me oil isn't cheap. I used to change mine every 3k miles but this last time I let it go almost 5k until I changed it do to the cost of the RP oil getting to me. I'm can't decide if I want to do 3k or 5k from now on. I let it go like 300 miles under 5k last time so I guess 4,700 miles.

 

That's a bit diffents mate... If you're using royal purple or amsoil or something like that I'm sure it's okay to let it go to 5k. I don't know about 20k or anything crazy like they say, but if you do you should at least still change your filter and grease ever 5 - 7 k miles

 

i was always taught and still do it to this day...2,500-3,000 miles for every change especially if it was driven for really short distances like 3-5 miles one way and shut down and 3-5 miles back and that was it...or 3,000 miles for a oil change if it was like normal highway/city mixed..and 3,500-4,000 if you were going on like a long trip and it would be almost all highway miles...i was taught these things by my dad who has been building engines for nascar for 20 years now so hopefully i was taught good

 

If you are going by the way the oil looks and feels ? then your story is total BULL**** ...

 

If you were going to go by how it looks and feels (unless you're just wiping the little bit off the dipstick) you'd have already had to open it up and drain it. I mean I guess you could put it back in, but I'd just put new oil in.

 

Right on dude, If I drive my truck non-stop from MD to CA (~ 2100 miles at ~2000 rpm's constant or so) then that is going to have the same affect on my oil as driving 2100 miles around the town that I live in. You got it- It ain't the oil companies it's me.