How often to change my oil?

[Buglover]

Ok here's the deal,In one of my earlier post I said I am using "Castrol High Milage" oil and found that the oil loss has become next to non existent. My question is: With all the miles I put on Doobie, Which are all highway miles at 70/80 mph. Should I keep changing the oil every 3000 or should I extend it some? On most of my trips I can easily put on 2000/3000 in a week or 2. What's every have to say? Thanks for the input.


Should I change every:
1. 3000
2. 4000
3. 5000

[Smileybug]

I change mine roughly every 5k. Never had any problems. With the miles I put on it though, I'm changing my oil every 6 months.

[FineExampl]

i've always changed between 3 and 5. I don't drive as much as you. you may want to change more often and monitor your levels more often too.

I'm not sure when to change mine right now though. I just switched to synthetic. I imagine 5k for me now and for the next 2-3 changes. Than longer after that.

Someone with more experience will chime in though.

[segue17]

i've been told by a good mechanic that I trust that how often your oil needs to be changed is dependent on both the type of driving and the conditions driven in. Highway vs. city and clean vs dusty/muddy -- the latter requiring more frequent changes. Checking the oil periodically is just a good habit to have. when i learned to drive it was automatic to just check the oil at each fill-up -- we've kind of gotten away from that with the increase in self-service and the technology put into our vehicles, but maybe not such bad advice...

[wawalker]

I use Mobil 1 in my TS and change every 5K, if I were you, and doing all those highway miles, I'd go full synth and change it every 10K.

[antonym]

Are these measurments in miles or kilometers?

... that does make a difference....

I do mine every 4-5000 miles, and I do not burn oil, and I use regular cheap crap that the service company puts in it. I am thinking of starting to do it myself though and using synthetic stuff from castrol.

[SMG]

I do mine every 5000kms (3000 miles).

Mine's also making like 140whp and I drive it hard, so I like to keep fresh oil in it.

[branvan]

before the beetle, i drove a land rover and i got accustomed to oil changes every 10k and only filter changes every 5k, so that's what i've been doing with the beetle as well. the oil still looks clean at 10k so i'm pretty sure it's okay to be running this long (i run synthetic btw).. any thoughts?

[SMG]

It's not a Land Rover, follow your maintenance schedule.

[wawalker]

Originally Posted by SMG

It's not a Land Rover, follow your maintenance schedule.

That's actually better than what VW says to do with the 2.0L, which is at 5K, then 10K, then 20K, 30K, and so on....

[wawalker]

Originally Posted by branvan

before the beetle, i drove a land rover and i got accustomed to oil changes every 10k and only filter changes every 5k, so that's what i've been doing with the beetle as well. the oil still looks clean at 10k so i'm pretty sure it's okay to be running this long (i run synthetic btw).. any thoughts?

I'd say your fine as long as your oil changes aren't more than a year apart.

[branvan]

yea i was pretty sure that's what the schedule said anyway - just wondering if anyone had any strong advice against going that long.. hehe

they aren't more than a year apart btw.. maybe about 10 months.. i avg about 1k per month.

[Lmhansen]

I change every 5K or 5 months, whichever comes first.

[noR]

I stick to 5K changes, but in your case, due to milage I think you'd be pretty different from me. Different motor, different type of driving.

Theres various places you can find to analyze your oil though. http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/Sea...CategoryID=245 here's one that's not too costly.

I know you don't use Amsoil, but they can probably still test other types of oil. They should be able to tell you what condition it's in and explain the life-expectancy (of the oil) based on your personal results. Y'know wear-agents, detergents etc etc.

[HudsonValleyVDub]

Synthetic oil....5000 miles.
Conventional oil..3000 miles.

If in doubt, an oil change is the cheapest insurance you can buy!

[Jian]

This is what I have been doing for the last 215,000 miles and counting.

change the oil filter every 5,000 miles
change the oil and filter every 10,000 miles.

5w-40 synthetic

The engien uses about 1/2q every 5000 miles

David

[HudsonValleyVDub]

I've never understood the idea of changing the filter and not the oil. If I'm going to go through the motions anyway, I'm changing the oil too. You lose less oil with the crankcase empty anyhow.

[Timsforgiven]

[QUOTE=Buglover][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=blue]Ok here's the deal,In one of my earlier post I said I am using "Castrol High Milage" oil and found that the oil loss has become next to non existent. My question is: With all the miles I put on Doobie, Which are all highway miles at 70/80 mph. Should I keep changing the oil every 3000 or should I extend it some? On most of my trips I can easily put on 2000/3000 in a week or 2. What's every have to say? Thanks for the input.

I change mine when the oil gets a dark color. Usually can go 8k miles before it needs to be changed.
Drive 70 to 75 MPH on freeway.
Do about 12 to 15K miles a year and have never had a problem, this was suggested to me by a VW mechanic.