The car I purchased had an oil change done at the Acura dealership 100500 which was about 6 months ago. The car now has 101,000 and displays 80% oil life. The salesperson. At Acura told me I won't have to change it until it hits the 10,000 marker. My question is does the engine oil have a lifespan before reaching 10,000 miles. I remember for my old 2002 car I had to replace the oil every 3,000 miles or 3 months.

 

You're good for at least another 6 months, or at least another 5K, whichever comes first.

 

Wait until it's down to <15% or one year, whichever comes first.
Depending on driving conditions might see 6-7k miles.
Years ago when using the car more, the change wasn't needed until 7,800 miles,
but now I change the oil/filter every year as it's only driven 3k p/year..

 

If you're using decent quality 5w20, just follow the MID and keep an eye on oil levels and you should be fine.

 

I think some of you read the OP too quick..

Oil does have a shelf life.. 3-5 years typically (pretty conservative, probably longer if stored well).
Shelf-life usually means unused oil, as-in stored on the shelf.
You're actually using the oil, and the sediments and contaminants that get introduced to the oil during use, break it down faster.
If you're only driving 1k miles a year.. I'd change it at 3k miles or 3 years, whichever is first.

I usually do long OCIs with very good grp IV or V oils and excellent filters. I'm still conservative at that running it 8k miles or so before changing both.
Sometimes I'll run a decent reggo filter and change that out twice before the oil. But consider that I drive those miles in 6 months or less.

 

Good catch on the time vs mileage question...

1.) For low annual mileage cars my assumptions would be to change it at 6 months (if you only do short trips) or 12 months (if you do longer trips)
-- short trips assumes less time to burn off moisture

2.) I would never let my car go 10k miles between changes unless I was running some good synthetic
-- pretty sure the longest I have gone in the TL is right around 8k (the MID hit 0% at the end of a long road trip)
-- no idea if I am using synthetic or conventional...it is whatever the dealer uses so more than likely conventional (free lifetime oil changes)

 

"If the message ‘‘SERVICE DUE NOW’’ does not appear more than 12 months after the display is reset, change the engine oil every year." - owner's manual

 

Who knows if the previous person just reset the light in anticipation of a sale.
just pull out the dipstick and check, it's not that hard to see really dirty oil.

 

Many good points. I typically will change early on a new-to-me car simply because I'm a bit low on the "trust level". Good oil & and filter and trust the MID thereafter.

 

You can usually tell just by looking under the passenger wheel well. New filter or nah?

 

Now they could have just changed the filter, but who would go through the trouble of changing the filter and not the oil?? especially a dealership with oil on tap. They could have also just cleaned up the filter housing too.. but again. lube job isn't worth the trouble.

 

Ive been using mobil1 extended performance oil and their oil filter.. claims to last 15,000 miles between changes. I actually change my oil and oil filter @ 12,000 miles and so far its been good

 

I also used the same in my previous 08 TL and my current G37.

In the TL i went by the mid indicator and usually got 6-7k miles between oil changes.

In the G37 I change it every 5k. It looks pretty bad and dark at 5k miles in my G. I can't imagine running it to 12k or even 15k miles.

 

color doesn't mean squat though..


Unless you do an Used Oil Analysis with a company like Blackstone, you won't know whether or not scientifically and definitively you can longer OCI (Oil Change Intervals)

 

I did the free blackstone oil analysis twice with the oil in the TL. Both times I put about 7000 or 8000 miles max on the oil. They said I could have probably made it to 12,000 between oil changes.

I still never ran it over 8000 miles though.

I just feel safer changing it every 5k miles. Toyota does 10k OCI's also.

 

I let 3 years and 4 months go by on my last oil change (MID still showed 20%). I never meant that long of an interval to happen but lots going on and some health challanges for awhile and I just lost track of the time. Anyway, previous change was October 2012 (20,291 miles) with Redline 5W-20 and a RP glass filter (the larger S2000 size). Never added oil since it never dropped. Last change I did was February 2016 (26,697 miles) with Mobil 1 EP with Mobile 1 EP filter (S2000 size). I will change it February of next year (currently 27,900 miles and MID shows 90%) so that'll be 2 years with M1EP). It runs like champ. I was worried I let too long go between those changes but I saw someone on here mention to take off the oil cap and look at how it looks if they're any globs of oil or sludge crap in there and mine looks all bright and clean so I guess all is fine. Probably helps I never do any trips < 7 miles...I'll always drive around for a bit first.

 

I just made a trip to the local walmart to pick up a 5qt jug of oil tonight and saw this stuff for the first time. It was only $3 more than the standard Mobil 1 Full synthetic but I passed. What is really that different about it and is it really worth the extra $3? I mean dirt gets into the oil and that's not good for anything.

A long time ago I used to run Amsoil and run it for 15k miles, swapped the oil filter only at the halfway point 7500 miles. Then just topped it off with the same amount that came out of the filter. Never had any engine problems with that method. When I switched to Mobil 1 I just started changing it completely at 7500-10000 because its really not that expensive at $5/qt

 

There's been numerous discussions on here that the regular M1 is NOT full synthetic while the M1EP IS full synthetic, IIRC. Something about some government decision. found this https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...rmance-774826/

There are better threads but can't find them atm.

 

Wha Wha wHat?? It says Full Synthetic on the bottle of Mobil1.. I know they have the cheaper mobil super synthetic blend crap stuff, but shouldn't something that has Full Synthetic on the bottle itself actually be full synthetic?

We need an independent petrochemist up in here... Need someone to say buy x because it truly is the best and let us know why :-)

 

http://www.autoeducation.com/autoshop101/oil_bible.pdf

Looks like some good info here about engine oil...

I am putting in M1 extemded performance next oil chamge nd a fram ultra sythentic filter... 99% efficiency at 20 microns... Should be ok. And I am going to let the MiD go through two cycles before changing it... Unless the engine starts to feel overly sluggish then ill change it sooner...

 

^ Good info and thanks for the link. I changed the oil today in the TL and used the Regular Mobil 1 Full Synthetic and put in a Bosch D3323 Distance Plus filter 99.9% @ 40microns(not cheap) but its heavy and well built from what I can tell. As I was putting the oil in today I thought about this extra $3 for the 5qt jug. I should have just used the Extended Performance... I really don't know why I'm worrying about a 60cent/quart price difference... If there is even a slight chance it is better stuff I might as well get it. Next time ill get the EP... :-)

I'm going to take the 5qt back I bought for our Odyssey and get the M1 EP instead. Good thing I only changed the oil on one vehicle today.

 

I normally use the mobile one advanced sythentic amd chane at about 1.5 mid intervals but the ep was on a good sale just after Christmas so I picked up a few jugs. Says its guaranteed protection up to 25,000km which is the same rating on the fram ultra filter. (Miles... 19k?) The regular advanced synth oil is recommended to be changed according to vehicle manufacturer i believe.

As long as the oil doesnt become too contaminated (i.e. rings still seal fairly well) it should provide good protection for an extended period of time.

 

Here is a excerpt I found on another forum. It started with Mobil 1 filing a complaint against Castrol.

A TRUE synthetic is anything that is Grp IV or V. Just about all "Full Synthetic" oils you see on shelves at walmart, autozone, oreillys, napa etc are just Grp III oils. Below is the reason why many companies are able to get away with labeling their bottles as "Full Synthetic" when they aren't really "Fully Synthetic"

 

Good info and to be honest I've never heard about the different base groups. Weird to know my Full Synthetic is still made from the black stuff that comes out of the ground. I'm still wondering what the difference is between M1 and M1 EP. Kind of sounds like it may contain group IV or more of it, or maybe just different additives. I'm not sure but if there's a chance it is better, for $3 more I can swing it :-)

 

I change filter and oil at the intervals using the MID. The service manual says that based on engine operating conditions and accumulated engine revolutions the TL's ECM calculates the remaining engine oil life. I am at 162K and have owned it since 89k and my valve-train looks like this:

 

I looked and found some of ihatecars posts on the synthetic/faux-synthetic topics (post 20):

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g.../#post11968772

good reading here, too (post 27 and 28):

https://acurazine.com/forums/fifth-g.../#post15349232
https://acurazine.com/forums/fifth-g.../#post15349255