I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __Oil change interval
So I know it’s supposed to be adaptive, depending on how the car’s driven, and I’ve no issue with changing the oil when it says I ought to, but is is normal to show ~6000 miles just after a service.
Yes, that seems odd. You can turn that schedule to off in those settings. I usually do as soon as I go in the car after it’s been serviced. It won’t show up anything then.
I’m not sure of flexible services etc, I just thought it was 12K miles/1year. I have mine serviced at a year even thought I do about 1.5K miles annually or so.
Someone will be along with a better explanation!
That feels extremely low, I was expecting it to be the tyre change flagging that up (think it is every ~6250 miles) but not the oil immediately after a change!
I would double check with the garage who did the service, although they will probably just say we forgot to reset it and reset it
Scheduled should be off, tyre rotation is your choice and the oil change should be displayed as a percentage (Flexible/My Mazda) Service. It’s been set wrong by the dealer.
Regardless of what the car system says if I was keeping the car long term then a 6k interval for oil changes is probably sensible. It’s not an expensive thing to have done and probably the most important thing you can do to ensure an engine stays in the best condition. A lot of mechanics complain about the long intervals now whether using longlife oils or not, regardless of the oil spec the general consensus is leaving oil in the car for long periods is no substitute for regular changes when it comes to reliability and longevity.
When you say ‘many mechanics’ are you taking about common or garden folk you’ll find in your average dealership or experts with the experience, research, and tools at their disposal to understand what’s really happening in the engine with choice of fuel and oil quality and other variables like trip length, how the engine’s treated on every cold start etc etc?
When something goes wrong it’s easy to blame manufacturer’s standard fuel/oil/servicing choices as a ‘feeling’ without proper testing/evidence etc., ignoring the many cars doing 100’s thousands of miles sticking to regular by-the-book standard servicing and consumables…
That said, I also modify what I do to hopefully extend component longevity - without the hard evidence to really prove how effective (or even damaging) that really is…
Most new car warranties are only for 3 years or 36k miles - beyond that the dealer probably couldn’t care less. Low cost servicing is attractive to people buying a new car and from what I’ve read is the main driving force behind extended oil change intervals, for anything other than cost and convenience it doesn’t make a lot of sense. As an oil change only costs me around 50 pounds per year, I’ll carry out at least that one thing annually without fail. I’ve had things go wrong with cars but never had an engine fail and would like to continue that tradition - and if it costs me 50 pounds a year ‘insurance’ then I’ll take it .
This is my opinion but there are countless mechanic videos moaning about extended oil change intervals on YouTube, in some they’ll open it up and show you the sludge, burnt on deposits and varnish. Very cheaply and easily avoided by doing this one thing.
Yes, but how are they sure the “sludge, burnt on deposits and varnish” are actually due to extended oil changes or something else? Maybe the car is routinely left to idle to warm up on cold mornings - do they know that’s not been the case? Many people do that still.
What damage does starting the car just after an oil change do - is is starved of oil whist the filter fills up? Of course doing that once every six months, that will be more than offset by the benefits of new oil, but maybe there is a downside to very frequent oil changes too?
Popular past wisdom isn’t always valid. E.g. we used be told to carefully run in our engines keeping speed and revs down for 1000 miles, progressively increasing that over the miles. Folk used to drive at low speed up motorways to do that quickly (and then the oil was changed at 1000 miles). Today, with modern manufacturing and materials, running in that way will actually compromise the engine, causing glazing of cylinder walls and improper seals on piston rings. And who changes the oil after the first 1000 miles? Modern running in instructions are basically to deliberately use the rev range and power (with some restraint) and don’t drive at constant speed - i.e. just don’t thrash it…
My point is that things change - we DO have much better oils, filters, materials, manufacturing techniques etc. and I’m just questioning assumed wisdom from (some) mechanics vs engineering based investigation, controlled testing etc.
As I said I do actually favour doing stuff to extend longivety of the car, and I do also believe that what’s driving the manufacturers is making it easier to buy and own the car for the first owner. But even using their extended service intervals engines last a LOT longer on average these days then they used to, right?
Oh I agree engines on the whole last longer in normal service compared to the old stuff I think, but they really should as manufacturing standards, techniques and tolerances have improved so much - however because of this some oilways, vvt solenoids etc are so small and oils so thin that it doesn’t take much crud to impede their function in some cases.
I find the achilles heels now are normally from the odd poor design that went to market anyway or seem to come as a result of the additional parts fitted to comply with emissions regulations etc as opposed to the engines themselves. In some ways the great leaps forward that have been made in reliability are negated or set back by some of these devices that improve the ‘environmental friendliness’ of the engine but in some cases make it less reliable. Things like egr, dpf, direct injection etc which in my opinion has shown itself to have bigger pitfalls than it does benefits - manufacturers seem to acknowledge this as they have started to add an additional set of port injectors back in to reduce the carbon buildup issues, but again an example of trying things to meet mandated targets that doesn’t always have a net benefit to the engines function or reliability.
Back on topic, I just work to the old addage that changing your oil early will never be detrimental to your engine but changing it too late will always be detrimental - and as I say, it’s so cheap for the most important thing you can do with an engine.
The dry/filled oil filter is another hot debate altogether but in the case of the mx5 and my swifts I’ll prefill the filter because it’s a vertical install. A lot of cars this is impossible to do as it’s a side mount or cartridge type. Some say this is good, some say bad, my rationale is that the filter has oil in it when the car is in service so filling it before the first start after a change should make no consequential difference.
But again, I can’t talk from a place of any technical authority other than messing around with cars for many years - I’m no mechanic. This is purely my personal opinion which was formed from observing other people’s and my own experiences .
I’m in a) Is a car PCP? If so, just do what it needs to maintain the warrenty and drive it how you like. Don’t fret over the 0.6 mile ‘trip’ to the shops.
b i) Did you first have the car new, or with not many miles on it, and you expect to have the car beyond the warrenty? Never more than a year/sub 10-12K miles (or less)
b ii) A tougher one if you got a used car with say 30K miles on it, or a few years old or already out of warrenty? Then who knows how the previous owner drove it, but hopefully one would have some idea of it’s service history. Depends then how long you think you’ll keep it. But then, crucially, some people (me included) like to look after a car however old it is when acquired.
c) If you get newish cars, get a car with a decent length warrenty to start with (longer than the 3 yrs the likes of Mazda provide), and/or have a service activated one, like Suzuki or Toyota. Again, something Mazda don’t offer!
I was pleasantly surprised when I changed the oil and filter on my newly acquired ND that I could prefill the filter with new oil before fitting it and save some of the time/wear waiting for the oil pressure to build up. Having said that I suspect that the oil film on the crankshaft will protect the big end bearings at tickover until the pressure builds up. Unfortunately the days one could crank an engine over with the ignition turned off are long over. Even if one disconnects the ignition, neat petrol from the injectors will wash off the oil on the bores.
I work for a transport company and the fleet manager once said ,the one thing you must never miss is the oil change. Engines will go and go until you start missing the oil change.
I have taken that on board for the last 30 years and i never stretch the time between changes. In fact im over the top really.
My mx5 in my ownership has had at least 5 oil changes in the 5 years i have had it, and ive done probably 5000 miles in that time.
My Merc did 800 miles last year and had its oil changed as normal at the yearly service .
I dont miss an oil change. If you doubt this ,come sniff my dipstick for proof.
There is nothing more satisfying than seeing golden oil when checking the oil level.
I recoil in horror if my oil looks black, and thats even in diesel cars. It needs to be golden.
Only my opinion.