CapoTL

I began working in the same place as my father a month after I bought my TL so I dont drive it much. I have about 1500 miles on it right now and I believe the indicator says 70% left. It has been around a year and 2 months since I bought it. Should I just do the oil change since its a year or wait until the light pops up. I do not want to do it to early since I believe it has the break in oil in it. Although I am concerned since the oil is probably old by now. If I change it, any suggestions? Can I switch to synthetic or is it to early to do so?

Mr.Skytech

iTrader: (13)

As soon as you hit 50%

Stew4HD

If you are concerned, just change it now for peace of mind.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Go ahead and change it. Why do you want to change to synthetic oil?

Mr.Skytech

iTrader: (13)

Can you go back and forth between sythetic and regular oil?

lji

I'm wondering if the MID allows for longer oil life when using synthetic... I'm @ 30% oil life and considering synthetic for my next oil change.... any ideas??

swoosh

iTrader: (5)

OP I would change my oil....it says you have to change your oil every 6 months or 5-6K miles (depending on oil) which ever comes first....its barely $30-40 for a synthetic oil change if you do it at home....

Yes you can

NWSTL

Answering a question that wasn't asked... I would sell it and buy something a lot cheaper if you're only driving 1500 miles per year. That's insane amounts of money flying out the window just sitting in the garage! Oh well, at least you have nice garage decor.

Prime Mover

What kind of logic is that? I could easily say to a high mileage owner that he should buy a cheaper car because that's an insane amount of money just flying out the window as he burns up a car every few years.

NWSTL

The logic is that if you're making payments, you're basically paying $400 (example) a month for something you never use, while depreciation is killing you on the back end. If you bought the car in full, you're still losing on depreciation. On the other hand, the OP may have the financial means to blow money and not worry about it, so I may have been making assumptions based on the masses.

Your logic makes sense as well. I bought my TL with 111k because I typically drive around 25-30k miles per year, and paying a premium for lower mileage makes no sense.

swoosh

iTrader: (5)

both your points are right fellas....

if you drive a lot buy a cheap car....beat it around....

if you dont drive that much, why buy an expensive car and make payments while it sits in the garage....

but lets not deviate from the subject here....

Shellyduchsk8s

I drive my ass off - I bought a car I liked, regardless of cost. Who cares how many miles you do or don't put on it, as long as you love what you are driving?

Everyone has the choice on how to spend their money, and on what. Might as well spend it on something that makes you happy. You only live once, right?

jspagna1

I would change it now as it's worse that the car doen't get driven much. Also I would stick with every 6 Months or 4,000 miles in your case because of the fact that you don't drive the car much.
Also I have always used conventional oil in my vehicles. With the frequency that I change my oil, the synthetic is just not worth the extra cost for me.

eazy

iTrader: (8)

There is no such thing as a break in oil. Its the same Acura/Honda 5w20 motor oil that you use when you get an oil change at the dealer.

I changed my oil at 1.5k or so the first time. Went with Acura/Honda 5w20 for the first change and then I went synthetic. I used Royal Purp 5w20 synthetic as my first synthetic. Problem I had with that was after 1-2k miles I would get a check oil level warning for like 1 second n it would go away but I think it was burning oil(common problem for royal purp). I use castrol syntec now. Haven't had a problem again.

CGRobb

I think I'm going to switch to synthetic on my next oil change.
I really dont know how much I trust that oil life display. I just drove from NY to VA took a vacation then drove to Oakland California and I'm still at 70%.

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

change it as per when the MID annoys you or every year, whichever comes first... my buddy has a vette which he barely drives so he changes it once a year, which last time the MID showed 70% oil life at 2k miles..

eazy

iTrader: (8)

normal driving and highway miles is easier on your oil life

swoosh

iTrader: (5)

^^^

Nexson

Just so you know, that oil percentage measures the quality of the oil, not the quanity. The cleaner it is, the higher the percentage will be. I change it around 20%, as that is what the dealer recommened. That gets me to about 5,500 miles

swoosh

iTrader: (5)

depends a lot on your driving style and area...city driving + agressive driving will get your % down very quicky....highway + moderate will have your oil life go down slowly....

the % also depends on the thickness of the oil + other factors....

my penn plat 5W-20 gave me on an average 600 miles per 10%...i changed the oil every 5K miles and the display was between either 10 or 20%.....mobil 1 EP 5W-30 gave me 700-750 miles and again for my 5000 miles interval the oil % was always either at 20% or 30%....

i just put redline 5W-30 and its giving me close to 900 miles per 10%....i am changing my interval to 7500 miles....and lets see what % i will be at

CapoTL

I will probably just do the oil change in the next few weeks, as far as the point of the car sitting their it dont matter I can afford it.

Thermoguy

I change my oil and rotate my tires at 5000 miles. I've only had to do this once on my TL so I don't know about the reminder yet. I was still at about 50% when I changed it the first time. But, if you need someone to put some miles on your car, just let me know. I would be happy to trade you for a few months and break it in for you