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Comment by pixl97 | Hacker News Reader

>and oil change costs about $50, once a year - if you're actually urban, you might not rack up 5k miles in a year, and could get by on a single oil change

Um, that's a really bad idea. Even if you are using 5k rated oil, you should get your oil changed every 2.5k or so if you are always in city driving.

Why is that?

Severe conditions. Pretty much every oil bottle and car manual says change your oil more often in "Severe conditions". Of course most people think of severe as stomping on the gas and going 100mph, or driving in mud and deep water, or something else just as crazy. Of course that's only part of what your manufacturer calls severe, this is also called severe conditions

* Driving repeated short distances.

* For extended periods of idling or low speed operation.

* More than 50% of driving in heavy city traffic in temperatures above 90°F.

* If using brakes extensively.

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>you should get your oil changed every 2.5k

Now you're just making stuff up, right? To support the narrative of the major hassle of oil changes, right?

(FTR I change my oils every 18,000–19,000 miles, or maybe once in 2 years, and while my city living and driving tends to focus not on churning on grid-locked centre but rather a bit more flowing sub-urban areas – still a far cry from countryside driving – a necessary 2,500-mile oil change scream nothing as loud as a garbage engine, vintages be excluded. Perhaps I should avoid talking about cars with Americans, they seem to live in a complete wacko-world when it comes to many things driving.)

>>Um, that's a really bad idea. Even if you are using 5k rated oil, you should get your oil changed every 2.5k or so if you are always in city driving.

If you love spending loads of money on oil, sure, but there's absolutely no point. Oil change every 10k miles for new cars is more than enough. My last car had a recommended oil change every 18k miles, or every 12k during "heavy use". I had it changed at 10k and was told it was too early(based on the condition of the oil, not what the manual said).

> If you love spending loads of money on oil, sure, but there's absolutely no point.

I change my own oil on my vehicles. With synthetic oil and a new filter, it doesn't cost more than $75 USD per change, and you can take it lower if you get the oil on sale. Mineral oil, even cheaper.

> Oil change every 10k miles for new cars is more than enough.

For new cars, sure. I have used vehicles with > 100k on the odo; I tend to change my oil every 3-4k (so about 3-4 times per year). I could probably go longer between changes, but it would require me to have analysis run. If I'm feeling lazy, though, I know that I can safely get away with a new filter and top-up with a quart or so of oil.

> My last car had a recommended oil change every 18k miles, or every 12k during "heavy use". I had it changed at 10k and was told it was too early(based on the condition of the oil, not what the manual said).

You can't really tell what the condition of the oil is just from looking at it. To really know, you have to have it analyzed:

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

Why are oil changes so frequent in the USA? Here in Germany the manufacturer's recommendation is usually an oil change every ~10k miles or once a year (whichever come first).

It depends on cars, and on quality of oil and on driving style/habits, I had a (German BTW) turbodiesel car where the on-board computer would tell me when the oil change was necessary, and it averaged every 30,000 to 33,000 km (which happened after a little more than one year). I changed car only when (12 years old) it was around 340,000 km without having ever had any engine related issue (and it was still running fine, I changed it only because a relative's car with only 80,000 Km became available).

It's basically the same for modern cars in the US, too.

I lease a Toyota Corolla and bring it in for the regular maintenance every 6 months, as instructed. They only change the oil every other visit, or roughly every 10-12k miles. The other visits are just inspections and tire rotations.

The maintenance guide says the oil should be changed every 5k miles only if driving under "special operating conditions":

- Driving on dirt roads or dusty roads

- Driving while towing, using a car-top carrier, or heavy vehicle loading

- Repeated trips of less than five miles in temperatures below 32°F / 0°C

- Extensive idling and/or low speed driving for a long distance such as police, taxi or door-to-door delivery use

Because it is "harmless" and supports the oil change companies therefore they spread the myth that you need to change your oil more often than is required as a treat to your engine.

Ummm, most modern cards can go far above 5000 miles, and definitely longer than 2500 miles. If you have an old beater from the 90s, it might be a good idea to change it every 2500 miles but definitely not any car made in the past decade.

https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/tips-advice/stop-changing-y...

"One GM car Edmunds drove went 13,000 miles before the monitoring system indicated the need for an oil change. We sent a sample of that oil to a lab for analysis. The results showed that the oil could have safely delivered at least another 2,000 miles of service."

To be honest, most of these things, you don't actually care about the engine oil, so much as greasing all the other bearings that are involved in the typical oil-change/service.

that's true if you're squirting your oil thru a screaming hot engine full of a thousand moving parts ... on an electric you're really just lubricating the gear train (which is likely simpler because of the greater range of an electric motor) which is not running anywhere as hot as a traditional engine

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