High Mileage Oil?

[06wing]

Getting ready to do another oil change at appr. 106k on my '98 2.5l. Been running Castrol GTX and was wondering if I should bump up to high mileage? Also gonna do tune up and wondering what you guys suggest for plugs and wires?

 

[exbass94]

106k isn't high mileage, despite what the oil companies say. High mileage oil has seal conditioners to keep gaskets in good shape. Most of the time they make the seals swell up to seal minor leaks. It's not necessary to use high mileage oil, especially if your engine isn't leaking. But if you want to, go for it.

 

[armadillon]

Haha! Dear Lord, I've never had a vehicle with less than 120k on it. 106k is low as balls!

 

[Colin]

it wont hurt it

 

[Kenneth S]

The main things that wear on the 2.3's are the camshaft lobe(s), and rocker arm(s), but since yours has a roller cam, and roller rockers you won't have that problem. Just keep clean oil in it, and change the oil filter, and air cleaner on a regular basis it should be fine.

 

[97ranger xlt]

i have been using castrol gtx 5w30 for quite some time now, with excellent results.
as others have said change hot and often and i'll add always use motorcraft oil filters....

 

[armadillon]

I read a fascinating article on Jalopnik about changing oil in new cars. I'll see if I can find the link, but the gist of it is that the powers that be are starting to think that we're changing oil too early. Apparently with newer cars and newer oils the powers that be are saying that the normal oil change time should now be more like 8k-10k.

I'll see if I can find it!


Edit: Do NOT change your oil at 8k or 10k. As I said, I'm talking brand new vehicles and who knows what oil. Just wanted to throw that out there in case someone takes that to heart.

 

[97ranger xlt]

i don't put too many miles on my truck so about a year ago i thought i'd extend the change interval to 6 months instead of around 3 months. not a good idea... the oil was beat and beat bad..despite only about 3k miles on it as i recall. went back to 3 months change intervals which i was doing previously.
i'm talking dino 5w30 oil just to be clear.

 

[Sunk]

I read a fascinating article on Jalopnik about changing oil in new cars. I'll see if I can find the link, but the gist of it is that the powers that be are starting to think that we're changing oil too early. Apparently with newer cars and newer oils the powers that be are saying that the normal oil change time should now be more like 8k-10k.

I'll see if I can find it!


Edit: Do NOT change your oil at 8k or 10k. As I said, I'm talking brand new vehicles and who knows what oil. Just wanted to throw that out there in case someone takes that to heart.

The Ford dealer has been saying every 5k for my GF's 2010 Focus since she bought it new, so that's how often she gets it changed. Sometimes I go that long in my truck, but that's because I forget or I'm lazy.

In a few more years I wonder what they'll say, 15-20k?

 

[exbass94]

ANY modern oil can easily go 5k miles between changes, no matter what engine you have, new or old. The 3k mile rule is extremely outdated and obsolete. It is impossible to tell what condition oil is in just by looking at it, unless it is mucky sludge. Just because it "looks" dirty, doesn't necessarily mean the oil is no good. The ONLY way to tell if the oil is truly used up is to do a used oil analysis.

 

[EMB1230]

106k isn't high mileage, despite what the oil companies say.

What would be considered high mileage?

 

[armadillon]

I say 175k or even higher.

 

[upnsmoke]

ANY modern oil can easily go 5k miles between changes, no matter what engine you have, new or old. The 3k mile rule is extremely outdated and obsolete. It is impossible to tell what condition oil is in just by looking at it, unless it is mucky sludge. Just because it "looks" dirty, doesn't necessarily mean the oil is no good. The ONLY way to tell if the oil is truly used up is to do a used oil analysis.

I'm no expert on oil, but judging by what I do know, everything exbass has said here is right. FWIW, in my own engines, I change conventional oil every 6 months, and synthetic about once a year. Most of the time I disregard mileage because I have a lot of vehicles and none of them normally acculmulate a lot of miles.

 

[97ranger xlt]

i'm not letting dino oil go 6 months anymore - it came out beat. in town driving is the culprit i believe.
for 12-15 bucks for a 5 qt jug i'll take the new vs the old any day.
granted engine oil technology has gotten better since i first started changing the damn stuff 40 years ago, but at least on my engine 3 months is about all it will take...

 

[doorgunner]

What happened was.......the japanese engineers forced U.S. manufacturers to make high quality car engines---which last longer.....

now the U.S manufacturers need to devise a system that will wear out the engines faster...

but....the oil companies still need to sell their quota of dino-oil.....


then we get to argue about the problems that they create: for example--in 1966, a private company developed a sythetic oil that improved fuel mileage IN-TOWN by 4 mpg(the results of highway mpg driving were never made known)--documented by the Houston police dept. & aired on national news....well, guess what happened!

what a dilema.....