What Happens When You Don't Change the Oil

[Community Alumni]

Dear Lord. According to the article this was the engine of an Audi TT that had not had its oil changed for 84,000 miles. There's not much detail beyond that, but the article has a higher resolution image.

Article

[bobx2]

dodge guy wrote:
And yet we have people here that will tell you it`s OK to change your oil at 12-15k miles! Heck......even 6k is pushing it!

Just pay attention to the oil life monitor, and change your oil accordingly. No reason to waste time, money and oil because of being afraid of todays engines and lubricants. It really is OK to believe what your truck is telling you.

[goducks10]

I would never go past 4000 miles with my 12 CTD because of regens. The oil level increases over time. Extra diesel being dumped in during regen can't help the oils viscosity. There's a big difference between the older diesels and the newest diesels. Newer ones, at least Rams, allow 6 months or 15,000 miles which ever comes 1st. Mine only gives me 6 months or 7500 miles. DEF extends the OCI.

Can't really lump all motors into the same OCI.

[4x4ord]

I change the oil in my diesel trucks and gasoline cars every 25k km. The manufacturers of the new farm equipment recommend change intervals every year or 600 hrs of use, whichever comes first. 600 hrs at 50 kph would be 30,000 km. And the engines are often worked hard in very dusty conditions during farm applications.....a 500 HP combine engine might burn 20 - 30 gallons of fuel per hour. So oil changes after 12000 gallons of fuel.

[fj12ryder]

I change oil at 5,000 miles, old habits are hard to break, and send samples off to Blackstone. They usually say the oil is good for more miles, 6,000 miles is hardly "pushing it".

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

dodge guy wrote:
And yet we have people here that will tell you it`s OK to change your oil at 12-15k miles! Heck......even 6k is pushing it!

Show me an oil analysis that says that.

[Dave_H_M]

dodge guy wrote:
And yet we have people here that will tell you it`s OK to change your oil at 12-15k miles! Heck......even 6k is pushing it!

Well Toyota says the wife's highlander is just fine for going 10,000 miles between changes. That is on synthetic.

And they provide a lifetime warranty on the drive train. :h

[Tvov]

Dog Folks wrote:
Not always stupid.

The company I worked for had fairly new vehicles in the fleet. Come to find out they ran the cars with absolutely NO MAINTENANCE at all, including no oil changes.

At three years they replaced the vehicle with a new one.

As I had just the opposite theory (Buy new, Maintain them, and keep them a long time,) I really wonder how cost effective that theory was.

From a strictly money / budget point of view, regular maintenance on vehicles that you know you are going to replace soon and/or on a regular basis is a waste of money.

If vehicles are going to be kept for as long as possible, regular maintenance will save money.

This is why I never will buy used "fleet" vehicles, unless I can talk to the mechanic who actually worked on them - if they were ever worked on!

[dodge_guy]

And yet we have people here that will tell you it`s OK to change your oil at 12-15k miles! Heck......even 6k is pushing it!

[colliehauler]

On my 84 Dodge I changed oil every 10k using Mobil One had 200k miles when I sold it 10 years later. The person that bought it drove it another 10 years using Mobil one as well. He sold it to another person in town and it is still running on the original motor although the transmission was rebuilt. It was a 318 CI.

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

goducks10 wrote:
There was guy on the Ram diesel forum that IIRC ran Amsoil for 24,000 miles in his newer 6.7 CTD. I don't remember if it was once or twice but he ruined the motor. Thick sludge when they tore into it. He misread the Amsoil milage recommendation and missed the part about diesels. Live and learn I guess.

Diesel Engine Service

Three times (3X) OEM* recommendation, not to exceed 50,000 miles/600 hours or one year, whichever comes first. Drain intervals may be extended further with oil analysis.
2007-2009 Caterpillar C13 and C15 on-highway engines must follow OEM drain interval.
2007-Present Dodge, Ford and GM light-duty diesel pickups must follow OEM-recommended drain interval. Drain intervals may be extended with oil analysis.

I ran one year oil changes in my 2004 and at 110,000 miles when I had the lifters adjusted the guy asked "how many miles do you have on the truck?" when I told him he said he could not believe how clean the engine was. You do have to use their filter and it has to be changed every 25,000 miles or one year. I posted a pic of the top half during the adjustment I'll see if I can find it.

Don

[LowRyter]

I worked with an engineer that never changes oil in his cars. Claimed it works fine. I said good for him.

[jerem0621]

Here is my 4.6 V8 at 160k miles. I was changing the valve cover gaskets.



I run a 5k oci with motocraft 5w-20 and Motocraft Oil Filters.

Something was very very wrong with the motor in the op.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[camperforlife]

I had 2 reps where I use to work that never changed the oil in their company cars. They locked them up min less than 40K miles. Later I heard that there was a third but after he locked it up he went home and changed the oil in his personal vehicle and put the dirty oil in his stalled company car and got away with it.

The company paid for all maintenance so there was no reason to ignore it. Both took the "24 month payroll deduction" option to pay for their ignorance rather than losing their job. That was before you could track maintenance by computer.

[nevadanick]

Airport shuttle service in Prescott Az changes oil in its vans every week. Many of the vans have 600k plus mi on them.

[gbopp]

I don't think SeaFoam will help that engine. :E