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6151 Views 76 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  weasel_j66, 
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Again I'm just curious, Do you still run Mobil 1 or another synthectic oil?
How often do you change your oil? Berad
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R
Mobile 1, every 3K.....Religiously
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I switched to Castrol Syntec, just because I've used it for a long time - same weight, though, and every 2500-3000 miles. Still have to get that damned 32mm socket...
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Mobil 1. $22 for a case of 6 quarts at Costco. I haven't changed mine yet, because the car hasn't told me to yet. Close to 5k miles. Probably will change it anyway once I get past 5k.
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shaneathan said:
Mobil 1. $22 for a case of 6 quarts at Costco. I haven't changed mine yet, because the car hasn't told me to yet. Close to 5k miles. Probably will change it anyway once I get past 5k.
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that's 5k worth of break in debris floating around in there, granted the filter probobly got most of it, but still.


i use mobil 1, have used it in most all of my cars, and change it every 3000, also changed out at 1000 in the first place
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Vita said:
that's 5k worth of break in debris floating around in there, granted the filter probobly got most of it, but still.


i use mobil 1, have used it in most all of my cars, and change it every 3000, also changed out at 1000 in the first place
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We can get into the oil change debate if you want. If Saturn says wait until the gauge tells you to change it, than I'm going to. There is no "break in debris." Maybe in a 64 Mustang. Not in this car. And if there is any, it's nothing that will hurt. Changing your oil quickly after you first buy the car is a mistake. And changing your oil more often than you need to hurts the car more than it helps.

Mobil 1 lasts longer than 3k miles. If you want to waste the money, at least give me a cut.
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unknownsuperhero
Mobil 1 Right around 3K
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dazednconfused75
Mobil 1 at about 1500 and every 3k after that. They tossed in the oil change deal when I got the car so I'm going to use it.
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shaneathan said:
We can get into the oil change debate if you want. If Saturn says wait until the gauge tells you to change it, than I'm going to. There is no "break in debris." Maybe in a 64 Mustang. Not in this car. And if there is any, it's nothing that will hurt. Changing your oil quickly after you first buy the car is a mistake. And changing your oil more often than you need to hurts the car more than it helps.

Mobil 1 lasts longer than 3k miles. If you want to waste the money, at least give me a cut.
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wow I work for saturn in service and all i can tell you is 3000 miles and nothing past. ive seen those oil change lights not come on til almost 9000 miles for the first time. if you want to risk youre engine on that light i guess its youre car.
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oh ya one more thing, dazed has car care through saturn, they pay for an oil change every 3000 miles, not when the light comes on.
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John said:
wow I work for saturn in service and all i can tell you is 3000 miles and nothing past. ive seen those oil change lights not come on til almost 9000 miles for the first time. if you want to risk youre engine on that light i guess its youre car.
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Good to know. But I intend on doing it at 5k, since that's what Mobil 1 recommends on synthetic. FYI, in Europe it's normal to change your oil every 10k miles. And their cars run fine. I think sometimes we've bought into the dealer's whole 3k religiously thing when it isn't usually warranted.
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John said:
oh ya one more thing, dazed has car care through saturn, they pay for an oil change every 3000 miles, not when the light comes on.
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Someone should be fired for that business decision. . .
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J
man ive seen the inside of to many engines with 6000 mile oil changes and they look like burned marshmallows coated in sludge. but good luck anyway, and if you were paying for warranty repairs you would change it every 3000 also.
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John said:
man ive seen the inside of to many engines with 6000 mile oil changes and they look like burned marshmallows coated in sludge. but good luck anyway, and if you were paying for warranty repairs you would change it every 3000 also.
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Not with synthetic oil. You would have to go a long while for that to happen with mobil 1.

But if my dealer was paying for the oil changes I probably would have it done every 3k. . .
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Sp00ner
John said:
man ive seen the inside of to many engines with 6000 mile oil changes and they look like burned marshmallows coated in sludge. but good luck anyway, and if you were paying for warranty repairs you would change it every 3000 also.
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Then why the HELL does the car have an oil change light, the manual says to change it when the light comes on, and the salesmen tell people to do it when the light comes on? Good thing I paid for an oil life monitoring system, how much did Saturn blow on that great idea. Would have been easier to set the light to come on 3,000 miles after it gets reset.

Sorry, I know you didn't put the light in there, or design it, but I hate useless equipment. I believe you said you hate the light previously as well, but you're closest to the source...
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shaneathan said:
Good to know. But I intend on doing it at 5k, since that's what Mobil 1 recommends on synthetic. FYI, in Europe it's normal to change your oil every 10k miles. And their cars run fine. I think sometimes we've bought into the dealer's whole 3k religiously thing when it isn't usually warranted.
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FYI- the fine print on the Mobil1 website says that you should still have you oil changed at the dealer recommended intervals. Even says that for the 'extended life' oils. So they completely contradict themselves on it. I'm not saying that every car needs an oil change every 3,000 miles, but just so ya know.
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Since there seems to be a lot of knowledgeable information about this, riddle me this: I'm old school 60's and 70's muscle car mentality. Even back then, oil change intervals were generally 6k or 6 months. With the advances in oil refinement and the invention of synthetic oils combined with the advancements in engine design and materials, how does it make sense that you need to change oil more frequently?

My take....scam between the oil companies and car manufacturers to take our hard earned money.

Reality...I'm following manufacturers specs until out of warranty. Then go to my usual ways of 6k/6mo. (At least until someone can convince me other-wise).

What are your thoughts?
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Change your oil every 3000 miles. The oil change light is there because most 'typical' saturn owners change thier oil every 20 to 30K miles. I've torn apart and rebuilt many S-series engines. The ones with tons of sludge and stuck rings were the ones that needed the most work. The ones that were clean were just a dream to work on.

When I bought my 01 SC2 I changed the oil as soon as I got home. Then I changed it again at 1000 miles. Then again 2000 miles later (3000 miles on the odo). I did do a test to see when the oil change light would come on. The first time it came on at around 6000 miles. The second was around 20K miles. I learned to never trust the oil change light.

Since you guys have the Ecotec I would recommend changing the oil at 3000 miles religously. Use 10W30 if you are in temps above 40*F. Below 40*F, use 5W30. If anyone uses 20W50 I will fly out there and beat you with your burned up oil pump. :)
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weasel_j66 said:
Since there seems to be a lot of knowledgeable information about this, riddle me this: I'm old school 60's and 70's muscle car mentality. Even back then, oil change intervals were generally 6k or 6 months. With the advances in oil refinement and the invention of synthetic oils combined with the advancements in engine design and materials, how does it make sense that you need to change oil more frequently?

My take....scam between the oil companies and car manufacturers to take our hard earned money.

Reality...I'm following manufacturers specs until out of warranty. Then go to my usual ways of 6k/6mo. (At least until someone can convince me other-wise).

What are your thoughts?
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Well, for those of us without the years of experience that you have, it's basically what I was brought up with. My father told me that you change the oil when the car folk tell ya to. If it's 3,000 miles you do it then, if it's not, you do it when they tell you. For the cost of an oil change, before I had to use almost 8qts of Mobil1 synthetic, there was no reason for me to wait more than 3,000 miles. My dad's theory was, you can't change it too much, but you can change it not-enough.

The technical reason that I was told a few times, was the incredibly close tolerances that new cars are built with compared to an older car, and they don't like to have ANYTHING in the oil that could become 'stuck' into small crevices.

My feelings on it are still similar to my father's, hence the reason I'm so annoyed by the warning light that apparently dosen't have any real function, and the manual instructions that don't match what the Saturn techs state. Who the hell do I believe? This guy works on the car every day, but you would assume that someone with an engineering background has something to say about oil change intervals in the writing of the manual....
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LowSL2 said:
Change your oil every 3000 miles. The oil change light is there because most 'typical' saturn owners change thier oil every 20 to 30K miles. I've torn apart and rebuilt many S-series engines. The ones with tons of sludge and stuck rings were the ones that needed the most work. The ones that were clean were just a dream to work on.

When I bought my 01 SC2 I changed the oil as soon as I got home. Then I changed it again at 1000 miles. Then again 2000 miles later (3000 miles on the odo). I did do a test to see when the oil change light would come on. The first time it came on at around 6000 miles. The second was around 20K miles. I learned to never trust the oil change light.

Since you guys have the Ecotec I would recommend changing the oil at 3000 miles religously. Use 10W30 if you are in temps above 40*F. Below 40*F, use 5W30. If anyone uses 20W50 I will fly out there and beat you with your burned up oil pump. :)
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Even with the synthetics you recommend changing the oil weights from summer to winter?
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