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Old 07-22-2004, 02:34 PM   #1
Arcanum5
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Default Oil Change (FUD or not)?

The Subaru garage told me I ought to do an oil change on my STI at 4K miles.

Fair enough I thought, until a few friends told me that pretty much all cars in the US have a recomended oil change at somewhere between 4K and 6K miles.

Now this confuses me.

In europe service intervals are commonly either 9K or 12K miles. Given that driving conditions are pretty much the same (people do lots of short journeys), environments are similar (Swedish weather is similar to the north US and southern spain can get as hot as the southern US) and average mileages and engine lifetimes are not that much different here I wonder why?

I thought maybe the US car oil was of a lower quality (couldn't think of any reason why) but it seems the US has pretty much the same oil as europe.

The only plausible explanation I have is that oil companies here have spread lots of FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) about oil change intervals and made sure people continue to do a change even though they don't need to. Furthermore, car manufacturers go along with this because they make pretty tidy profits from servicing (very useful these days when they make so little off the actual purchase of the car).

Now I know a reply to this could be 'Heh, you don't want to mess with your engine for the price of an oil change'. However, unless there is a good reason an STI needs a more regular change I don't agree. If my Civic Type-R back in the UK had a manufacturer recomended interval of 12K miles and almost every other car is similar I'm not going to change the oil unless I need to.

If nothing else, the environmental impact of millions of motorists changing their oil more regularly than they need to is not good.

So are the intervals FUD or are there good reasons?
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Last edited by Arcanum5; 07-22-2004 at 02:51 PM.
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Old 07-22-2004, 03:00 PM   #2
cdvma
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Default

It all depends on how you drive your car. For example, I usually change oil at 3k...its not that expensive and its good preventative maintenance. At 7K my oil has usually turned to crap and I can notice an oil pressure difference. I'd say 5k at most for a car just because its not that expensive to change oil.
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Old 07-22-2004, 03:11 PM   #3
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I agree that hard driving should increase the regularity of an oil chage, but still don't agree with this kind of interval.

The UK STI service interval is 10K miles or one year. I know the engine is slightly different on the US STI but it isn't that different. And I can assue you that people don't drive their cars less hard in the UK!!!

Quote:
I'd say 5k at most for a car just because its not that expensive to change oil.
True but the long term environmental impact of millions of people changing their oil when they don't need to just to increase the profits of the car manufacturers and oil companies is not a good trade off.
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Old 07-22-2004, 03:19 PM   #4
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Anyone know if the UK STI comes with synthetic oil? That would explain the longer oil change intervals.
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Old 07-22-2004, 04:18 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beaverboy
Anyone know if the UK STI comes with synthetic oil? That would explain the longer oil change intervals.
I don't know for certain but think it is unlikely. Fully synthetic oil does not allow the engine to break in properly so for the Civic Type-R (and other cars I've owned) it was not recomended until after the first service at 12K miles.
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Old 07-22-2004, 04:27 PM   #6
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Read the Oil FAQ, it has TONS of info. Cliff Notes: change by what your manual says.
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Old 07-22-2004, 04:30 PM   #7
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You are correct. The short oil change intervals in the US are mostly FUD.

Simple rule of thumb is to follow your owners manual, check the level at every fill-up (most people in the US never check their own oil at all if you can believe that), and keep it topped off if/as necessary in-between changes.
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Old 07-22-2004, 04:31 PM   #8
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If you really want to be sure, send your oil away to be tested. http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

Generally though, the filter is shot after about 5k miles no matter what oil you use.
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Old 07-22-2004, 04:45 PM   #9
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Thanks, useful links (I did a search first but obviously did not get the right key word to hit your FAQ).

Seems that most cars are OK @ 7500 miles for normal driving and lower with 'severe' driving.

I'll probably just stretch mine to 5K as one of the links recomends while trying to stay somewhat close to the recomendation in the handbook.
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Old 07-22-2004, 04:48 PM   #10
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Wouldn't these differences (UK vs US) have to do with KM vs Miles?
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Old 07-22-2004, 04:55 PM   #11
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The UK uses miles the same as the US.
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Old 07-22-2004, 04:56 PM   #12
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Shoots down that idea!
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Old 07-22-2004, 06:19 PM   #13
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The metric system IS used in the UK, in fact, the only three countries in the world which have not adopted the metric system are Liberia, Myanmar and I forget the last one
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Old 07-22-2004, 07:14 PM   #14
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True the UK does use metric for many of its measurements, but trust me on this when I say the UK uses miles to measure distance, set speed limits and for anything related to cars.

As I was born in the UK and lived there for the first 24 years of my life I kinda know.

Fortunately the UK still uses pints for beer (and thats a proper 20fl oz pint)... although a litre of beer is always nice...
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