- Going too far between oil changes will not affect you engine until later in its life, 100,000 miles or more. Then it will burn oil, and maybe lots of it.
I dont really buy this. If not changing the oil is going to affect the engine till later in its life then it probably wouldnt ever affect it. The first few thousand miles on an engine probably involves more wear on the parts than any other miles. More wear equals more contaminates. Also as far as burning oil. I have had 3 vehicles with 130000 plus miles and none of them used oil any more when they had high miles than with low miles. One of them used a little oil.. maybe a quart every three or four months but after fixing the valve cover gaskets it quit doing that. My last two have regularly went over 20000 miles between oil changes with some of those more in the 50000 mile range and I have never had to add a drop of oil. And yes I do check the oil I just am really bad at putting off changing the oil. I am not saying you shouldnt change it... you definatly should. I just dont buy all the bull about changing it real often. I met a guy a few years ago that worked for Mobile 1 and he was telling me about testing their synthetic oil. To make a long story short they tested oil from his personal vehicle at different intervals... even after 20000 miles the oil had less contaminates in it than conventional motor oil. I guess if you are like me and dont change your oil very often it would be a good idea to at least run synthetic. I do. In short.... do change your oil but just dont help support the multi billion dollar profit oil companies any more than you just have to.