My car is a 02 I35 with 20xxx miles on it right now. The last two oil changes were at 16500, and 18xxx. Both with 9E000 filter and Mobil 1 5W-30. On a daily basis I drive 15 miles at most, 100% city traffic, lots of stop and go. Because I never make it to a high mileage on an oil change, I go by the every 6 months. Without performing an oil analysis, what do you think of my OCI?

 

I am of two minds. On the one hand, I am leaning to suggesting you to extend the OCI to 12 months given how few miles you put on the car. On the other hand, I would be concerned about moisture in the oil as the car seldom gets up to operating temperature for an extended period.

You should get your car out on the highway periodically and give it a good run.

As a compromise, perhaps you should change the oil after 9 months.

 

So, somewhere between 2500-3500 miles, depending on what's behind the xxx?

You're right to be relatively conservative with so much city driving. My gut tells me Mobil 1 5w-30 should be able to run longer than that, but there's no way to be sure without an oil analysis. It really depends on the particulars of your engine and your driving.

Are you looking to stretch your OCI? You could probably double it with a better oil and filter.

 

better filter? There is a better filter than the 9E000? I am asking in case I am NOT chnaging it enough. Although I do city driving, I do get on the highway once or twice a week for 5 miles at most. Each time driving in the city I do get it to op temp, but not long afterwards I turn off the engine. As for a "good run", I make sure at least once a month to give it some hard acceleration, or else why did I buy an intake haha.

Oh and I use Mobil 1 because you can't beat the 5 quart jug for $20 at Walmart. And currently I am at 20,955 miles.

 

What is the farthest this car has ever been driven from home? 25 miles, lol!

 

Once a year I make a trip back to NJ, which is 800 miles approx. Other than that, daily driven to school.

 

Amsoil EaO filters are the best you can get. They're expensive, though, and you have to order them directly from Amsoil. IMO, an EaO filter would only be worth getting if you're ordering Amsoil engine oil as well and going for significantly longer OCIs.

If you're changing your filter with every oil change, you're doing fine in that department.

Getting it up to operating temp and occasionally accelerating hard are good things. But, what Bobo was talking about was just running it at highway speeds for a while. When you do that, you're keeping the oil at operating temp and circulating it at a steady, fast rate for a decent amount of time. That really helps get moisture out of the oil and push contaminants out of circulation.

 

You should change your oil before you go on your annual road trip.

 

There's really no way to tell what you oil is doing w/o an analysis first.

 

Or immediately afterward, depending on when your last change was.

 

My last change was July, I was hoping to change it after the trip which will be early January. I guess then I will send a sample to Blackstone.

 

Good advice above here. You need to get the oil to operating temp and keep it there for at least 30 minutes. You trip to NJ obviously does this. Winter is your worse time of year for the oil, possibly not even letting it get to operating temps.

I have a similar problem with my Dodge pickup -- low annual mileage and only 2 longer trips a year in the spring and the fall. I have been using synthetic in the Dodge and changing it once a year.

You could consider the same OCI. If you do, you should change the oil just before winter each year (like Oct or Nov). You should also do some longer driving (more than 30 minutes after reaching operating temps) like in Feb or March (after the worst of winter is past) to get rid of any moisture. With synthetic and a good filter, this should work fine for you.

You did not mention if you keep your Max in a garage. This alone helps (particularly in the winter) to get the oil to operating temps faster than if the Max was outside all night.

 

Nan - if you want an alternative filter, give WIX/NAPA Golds a try....I went on http://www.fleetfilter.com/ and got quoted like $42 shipped for 10 filters

These filters are raved all over on BITOG forums...I would def pick this $4.20 filter over the $11 mobil1 filter...

 

Haha Andrew, back from your ban? Been a while...

 

The man speaks the truth!

 

Does the NAPA Gold filter quality apply to other cars as well? I change most of my friends' cars' oil, I usually have them go to their respective dealership to get it. Can someone link a review from BITOG?

 

Yes it does.

 

haha, yup...bannded for like 1 month...been reading up on BITOG while i was gone

 

as far as i'm concerned, yes the quality has been pretty consistent...i've heard NAPA Gold here, NAPA Gold there, and never heard any problems with the different setups

and another thing i learned while my stay at BITOG...Puralator Premium Plus is another great filter...(not Pure One, which is the higher end filter)...and if you hurry up, Pepboys has mail in rebates for those filters...limit 4 however...but they cost $2.99 per filter...and the mail in rebate is worth $1.98

$2.99 x 4 filters = $11.96

limit 4 rebates = $1.98 x 4 = $7.92

$11.96 - $7.92 = $4.04

not bad for $1.01 per filter...according to BITOG, these filters rank very well for 5k OCI's on dino oil

 

Thanks for the info, I'm sure my cheap *** friends will complain less now going to the NAPA store down the street instead of the stealership.

 

heres the link to the rebates page

http://forms.young-america.com/52292_PB-061001_ALL.pdf

you ask the pepboys clerk for the form...when you check out..

Oh another thing, Puralator PureOne is the higher end version, of the two filters...they cost $5.99...currently no rebates however...but people on BITOG say PureOne filters rank just as well as Mobil1/K&N filters but at half the price...

 

I am using mobil 1 synthetic with purolater pureone and no problems so far i would stick with that last oil change i had took out the old purolater with 4k miles on change and the oil was still a bit clean then it was with the nissan one.

Regards,

Mike

 

how does the pureone filter compare to the wix?