Good maintenance or throwing money away - oil changes?

B0bbyEwing

Have had it put to me that I'm throwing money away so wanted to see what others thought.

Generally I change my oil every 6 months & do it myself - so only costs me whatever the materials cost me. I don't do enough miles to hit the mileage marker. I cover about 7000 miles per year, give or take a bit.

Now I suspect there's more to it than that as there usually is, so to give some more to it than that info...

I have a diesel car on about 160k miles, wife has a petrol car on 105k miles, both around 15 years old.

The cars don't really get used for a wide range of journeys so mostly it's as so...

3 miles to the gym in 30 zones. Repeat for the journey back. This will be on a Sunday really (saying this as other gym visits don't involve the 3 mile journey back as I head on towards work).

If i gym on a work day then typically after the 3 mile it'll then be around 10-11 mile, approx. half of which is motorway & the other half 50mph zones.

No gym but work would be 10 mile to work, maybe 3 mile 30mph with the remainder 50mph ....... then same back.

And that is basically it. Once a week the petrol car will get a 1-2 mile trip to the supermarket to load up & then back.

Occasionally there'll be journeys outside of this (usually at greater distance) but not often. We tend to walk if we're just heading in to town for anything that's carriable.


And so I've just done 6 monthly oil changes since my last car. We're not the type to be buying a new car every 12 months (I say new, i should say different). Haynes on my car actually does say 6 months. Wife's handbook says 12 months.

I assume it can "do no harm" but is it overkill is the question?

tacpot12

It would say it is overkill with the mileage you are doing. I think you could comfortably switch to changing the oil annually on both cars providing you are using a good quality oil.

Mutton_Geoff

Yep, seems like an overkill. What cars are they? 1960s classics, yes, 6 monthly worth doing, anything 1990s onwards, probably not.

Ebe_Scrooge

I'd agree with the above, with that sort of mileage I'd be doing it every 12 months.  But it definitely is worth doing - perhaps even more so on the diesel.  Older diesels are simple beasts, and actually there's not a lot of routine servicing to be done on them.  But if you do nothing else, regular oil/filter changes will do wonders to stop them throwing toddler tantrums.

I used to have an old diesel and changed the oil & filter religiously myself (although I was doing high mileage, so it was about every 7 or 8 months based on mileage).  But it had over 200k on the clock when I changed it for a newer car, and according to the online MOT checker thingy it's now got 260k on it, so I assume it's still alive and kicking.

cymruchris

I'd also go 12 months regardless of the low mileage. I'd only increase frequency if I was doing huge miles (and you're not). Unless it's some fancy car with a strange engine that's prone to regular failure (thinking Mazda RX-8's) - then I'd be saving the money and going annual. 

Bigwheels1111

My Peugeot 5008 is 6 now , 1.6 Bluehdi 18k on the clock.

I only do 3000 - 3500 miles a year.

One service a year.

I got what I think is a good deal on main dealer service packs.

Years 1-5   £830, All parts included.

Years 6-10 £900, All parts included.

Brake fluid every 2 year, Adblue ever year.

Nobbie1967

The short journeys may make a 6 month change worthwhile, but I suspect it’s pretty marginal. This might be worth a read. https://www.eurocarservice.com/do-you-need-to-follow-the-severe-service-schedule/

Brie

my annual mileage is similar to yours and I've never had an MOT/service where they said the oil needed to be changed more.

Ebe_Scrooge

Bigwheels1111 said:

My Peugeot 5008 is 6 now , 1.6 Bluehdi 18k on the clock.

I only do 3000 - 3500 miles a year.

I have to question why you bought a diesel for that sort of mileage?  Or did you used to do a lot more and have reduced your mileage substantially since you bought it? 

Bigwheels1111

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

My Peugeot 5008 is 6 now , 1.6 Bluehdi 18k on the clock.

I only do 3000 - 3500 miles a year.

I have to question why you bought a diesel for that sort of mileage?  Or did you used to do a lot more and have reduced your mileage substantially since you bought it? 

I was doing more milage when it came up.
Old shape, pre reg with 8 miles on the clock. Registered to Peugeot.
£27.5k car for £14350.00.
Near 50% discount did it for me.

Ectophile

It's sounds like an overkill to me.  The sort of thing they did in the 1960's when you could only get summer or winter grade oils, and multigrade hadn't been invented yet.

I get my oil changed once a year, as part of the regular service and MOT.  Never had a car seize through manky oil yet.