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Oil changes - how often

Skylarking

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You did say that.
edited. Just realised its been edited.
RevNev would have edited his post after my quote (post 108) and before your quote (post 110), which is why it now reads correctly ;)
 

Martbar

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A little unclear.. did you mean something you’ve ”really” or “rarely“ tested? auto correct can do odd things :p

If not tested, maybe have your mate grab a sample of that 15km 5 year old oil and get a test done. Then post the results here, for the greater good of JC members :p:p:p
Hey mate, surely the oil company would have all of this sort of information. It would be interesting to know how much if anything, the oil had degraded
and if a short 15km drive would have any effect at all.
 

greenacc

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A little unclear.. did you mean something you’ve ”really” or “rarely“ tested? auto correct can do odd things :p

If not tested, maybe have your mate grab a sample of that 15km 5 year old oil and get a test done. Then post the results here, for the greater good of JC members :p:p:p
Educated guess, I suspect that oil is still 98% like new. The most likely issue if any would be possible water condensation build up. If ye was me is be staying that car much more often than every 5 years. Eventually he will end up with engine trouble
 

RevNev

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RevNev would have edited his post after my quote (post 108) and before your quote (post 110), which is why it now reads correctly ;)
Yes, I did edit and correct my original post to make sense.

Educated guess, I suspect that oil is still 98% like new. The most likely issue if any would be possible water condensation build up. If ye was me is be staying that car much more often than every 5 years. Eventually he will end up with engine trouble
The engine has never been started in 5 years with the oil in the sump vented through the PCV system and probably shouldn't have too much condensation. Starting the engine regularly for short periods with insufficient warm up will certainly contaminate the oil with condensation.

I've got a worse example with another mate I just thought of who has a 2007 FPV BF GTP Falcon with 58km's on the clock and sat in storage under a cover for 15 years with the original oil. He bought the car brand new from an interstate dealer, it was delivered by truck and he drove it around the block a few times on dealer plates that day and parked it. The car has never been registered and probably worth a bit more today than what he paid for it!
 

Skylarking

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surely the oil company would have all of this sort of information.
Yes oil companies and vehicle manufacturers would know all the finer details about oil degradation rates and such but they don’t share info as it’s “proprietary“…

You can pay for oil testing yourself and find out…

Basically oil companies want to sell oil and car companies want to support dealer service income and as such draw a hard line in the sand (9 months + 90 days for Holden). Miss the service due date and they can deny engine warranty claims (even though they know it’s not an oil issue)…

PS: I’m only following Holden’s rules for the moment because the car is still under factory warranty. Once factory warranty ends, I have no conceptual issue with leaving oil in the engine for at least a year (or until it has a few thousand kms under its belt). I’ll probably do my first oil test just as the normal service interval is up post end of warranty, just to check oil quality for myself… but that’s a few years away…
 
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Forg

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OK so a bit of a follow-up on the oil-change yesterday, at 8 months & probably about 3500km ... it was dirty enough that I felt happy that I'd done it. Didn't look much different to the new stuff on the dip-stick, but was obviously quite dirty once I have an entire oil drain pan full of the stuff (not to mention what I managed to spill all over the garage floor due to taking short-cuts that ended-up taking me longer than if I'd not taken said short-cuts). Absolutely no hint of solids & nor did the old oil feel any different to the clean stuff, and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as some of the used cars I've bought & immediately given a proper service just to feel better, but still happy I did it.
 
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