I know the process and everything about the 3x3 drain and refill but I was wondering if I can go 500 miles-1k miles between drains? Or would that just defeat the whole purpose?

 

you could, but really it should be shorter. driving the car around the block is good enough, you just want to circulate and mix the new fluid with the leftover old.

 

The whole purpose is to be driving with fresher fluid and drain out the heavier older fluid
Driving 500 or even 5000 miles won't bring you back to how shity the fluid was when you did the first drain and fill
Waiting a bit won't hurt.

 

the whole purpose or 3x3 is to do it 3 times in relatively short order to do a full fluid replacement and get as much of the old crap out as possible. if you are driving 500 or 5000 miles in between, it isnt a 3x3 anymore, its jsut a drain and fill... and the whole time you are still riding around with mostly old dirty fluid.

if your fluid still looks nice you can do a drain and fill, i like to do it every other oil change on these cars. if your fluid is dark or burnt, thats when you do 3x3 to get 90%+ of the fluid replaced to new

 

A drain and fill is changing ~40% of the fluid.
It doesn't matter if you put 5 miles on that fluid or 5000.
The load of 5000 miles is insignificant to the load of fluid with 25/50 k miles.
A 2nd and 3rd drain and fill down the road is essentially the same as a 3x3 in short order.

You're not replacing 90%+ on a 3x3
A 3x3 equates to ~80% newer fluid
Another drain and fill is ~88%
To get 90%+ you'd need to do 5 drain and fills.

 

3x3 is to dilute the old fluid, in the end to have a thinner fluid. The fluid is not in a line and has to be done back to back to back.