Oil changes...so I bought my STi in March, with 3k miles on it. It has 24,100 miles on it as of today. I treat it like a baby for maintenance and just did its 6th oil change. I'm starting to worry about my mental health. That's an oil change ever 3750 miles and about once a month. Can/should I push it to 4500....5000? Any tips on bulk discounts for oil filters/oil (using rotella t6).
Errr....doesnt the factory manual suggest changing it every 3750? I change mine right at 3000 miles. You should just do it yourself if you want to save yourself some money. I always look at the Auto Parts stores to see what they have on sale. Or go to Walmart and get one of their jugs of oil.
If highway driven you can go up between intervals, of course if you hammer on the car all the time then change after every fill up at QT
After I switched to synthetic (T6 for summer and GC for winter), I just change every 5k miles. I have zero oil burning issue, and car still feels smooth every day.
I change every 3-3.5k miles. If i have a track day or more aggressive driving ill do it 3k(or if scheduling convienence), if im doing more long trips that month ill bump it back alittle. I pushed my sti to 5k on one interval with a track day and sent my oil off to get analyzed. Came back saying lubricants and additives had been depleted and the oil in general was in bad shape. Something to think about.
I've never understood why people insist on saving money this way. Find another way to save money and change your oil. Its really not that expensive.
You can say its not that expensive about lots of things in life. I hear that comment related to any maintenance related item. Fact remains that it is OK to push your oil changes to 4-5k as long as your not dogging the hell out of it. Would I do it? No. But if pep are looking to save a buck, its not gonna hurt anything as long as you know what your doing, keep an eye on the oil level, etc...
I understand what you are saying, however what I'm saying is find another way to save the money. Stop drinking bottle water, cut back on your porn purchases....whatever. I just don't think its a good way to save money, is going 4000 or 4500 miles going to hurt anything....probably not.
I've done some OCI at 6,000 or so on Rotella and had them tested. No alarm bells ran. The only thing that I've ever noticed in the last 106,000 miles is that after 3,000 miles or so I will start to burn a little oil. And it's been that way since the first oil change It is all personal preference. Afterall, what makes a Subaru a Subaru is that no two are built alike!
i changed mine between 3000-5000 miles. just depended on when i remembered. but i always remembered the mileage at which i changed it and gave myself that 5000 mile cushion and as long as i did it before then i was good. i pretty much follow the same philosophy on my bike. try to keep it closer to 3000 miles, and then change the tranny oil every other oil change. but as stated before, it really is personal preference. i think the factory recommendations are just like a speed limit. meaning: they know its perfectly safe and acceptable to go longer than 3750 per change, but they set it there so people keep it close.
damn...i changed my oil between 2-3000 miles...I'm with Ball, I'd rather spend the extra $40 as opposed to $4000 just in case. When I went to the built motor, I changed the oil less than every 500 miles. I put less than 2,000 miles on the setup and changed the oil 6 times. The only time I made it to 500 miles was when I went to the dragon. I would change after every dyno session, pretty much. That being said, I change the Taurus on 5,000 mile increments. My last oil change came out looking brand new. 145k and it has never burned a single drop.
if you're that worried, start sending the oil out for analysis. just do an iterative process and compare results between a 3k oil change and a 5k oil change if there's no difference between the two just change it at 5k. if there's no scientific reason (in YOUR case) to change it at 3k, then don't. the analysis will tell you whether you can or not
no one answered the more important part of the question, where are the bulk discounts at? There has to be something. Once a month does add up, so saving a few dollars will help (on bulk).
You aren't going to get major discounts on oil. Most of the time oil is a loss leader for a retail store. Meaning if you see oil cheap somewhere they are probably selling it under their cost just to get you in the door.
the only way i see you saving money on oil is by buying a cheaper oil or using dino oil vs synthetic. or you could by a beater for your daily driver and save the mileage on the subie.
So, the only service manuals I have ever seen recommend first oil change at 3000, but every other oil change at intervals of 7500 miles. http://www.subaru.com/content/downloads/pdf/maintsched/2006SchedCA.pdf I did find this "amendment" to the official service manual mentioned here on nasioc:http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1259545 Read the part that says: "2) Severe Driving Conditions will require the oil change interval to be increased to 3,750 miles or 3.75 months. New for 2008: All turbocharged models are considered to be operated under severe driving conditions and require the oil interval of 3,750 miles or 3.75 months." So basically double the amount of oil changes just for a turbo.
well, walmart does sell t6 decently cheaper than autozone, so it's probably not a bad deal if they are not making much profit on it...
FYI the 2.0L heavily beaten to death EJ205 that was in my old WRX had 170K miles on it. Changed every 3k for the first 40K miles of it's life. Then after that every 5k intervals with many 6K ones. Oh and it was an alcoholic.....drank the meth daily. If you are using a good synthetic (read NOT MOBIL 1!) then I don't see why you can't go to 5K intervals.