Unreal Honda Story, re: oil change intervals

[gnXfan]

I was tuning the GN today. Its only got 200 miles since the Merkel rebuild, stupid snow.

Neighbor came over. He & his family own 3 Hondas. Only uses Synthetic Oil for the changes.

Car one has 310,000 miles.
Car two, 245,000.
Car Three 205,000

How often do you think he changes the oil?


Every 25,000 miles. Whether it needs it or not.

 

[gnx7]

I had a 4cyl '87 Toyota Camry (auto) with 230K+ on it. standard type oil changed every 5K miles. ONly big things replaced on the car its entire life (CV joints, alternator, starter, battery, and typical tune up stuff. Sold it for $2300 and it still got 32mph+ on the highway. NEver changed the trans fluid..... ever.

The round eyes can build powerful engines.... but they just don't last long for the most part. I do know of a friend with a '70 Blazer and over 250K miles on his original 350!

-GNX7

 

[kevans]

276,000+ on an 89 350 Chevy pick up...never touched. Get's 18 mpg too.

Kev

 

[myclone]

FWIW...

350k+ miles on my grandfathers 350 in his Nova SS/4spd, Havoline 10-40 oil, gets changed once in summer and once in winter but he was too old to change his ways... Could use valve seals but hes in no rush to do em since he passed away but I might do em this summer. Then again I might not.

90 GMC short bed, 305, tbi, 700r4.. Right at 320K miles when I sold it that used reg oil its whole life. Valve seals went bad at ~270k so I replaced em. The guy that owns it now is a coworker who drives it 100mi every day to work with ZERO probs (ok, so the ORIGINAL trans is finally getting a little soft )

 

[Men in Black]

86 Astro Van- 400,000 miles, never had the valve covers off. I finally gave it to my grandson.

 

[bruce]

Some of the fleet reports where they've done some serious testing on oil change intervals, are now going to 5K to 7.5K mile intervals.

IMO, changing oil at 3K miles on a primarily freeway driven car is just throwing money away.

YMMV.

 

[UNGN]

I worked with a guy who had a '77 nova with a 350 and he never changed the oil. He ran sythetic so it cost too much to replace. It would burn/leak a quart every 7K miles. He changed filter every 10K miles. It went 200K before it was wrecked for the final time.

 

[ITSNOTAGN]

i had a 90 cavalier z24, 3.1 5 speed, from fall 99 till summer 2002. i bought it with 160k on it an nothing but new struts and tune up stuff, (1 set of wires n plugs, fuel filter and pump). never once touched the motor. i drove it very hard (6 cv shafts in one year, 4 sets of tires). put in a clutch at 170k. changed oil every 10k. guess what it ran, 15w-40 out of the bulk barrel on the farm. when i sold it to my friend in 02, it had 320k on it. that was the first time it broke, 4 bad injectors. now it has 350k on it, and still makes regular runs to 6500rpm. oh yeah, and i had a 50 shot of nitrous on it for awhile. 155 on my radar gun and still going!! so i would say oil changes are a little overrated.

 

[striker_29]

And to think I feel guilty everytime I push my Yota beyond 3500 miles. Guess I shouldnt be so hard on myself

 

[WFO]

i learned to drive on my mom's '76 dodge dart,slant 6/3-on-the-tree.that car had 335k+ on it when my mom sold it to a college student.we used to see it around town for a couple years after.that thing ran like a top..not much for power tho

later,sean

 

[Taffy]

Pop has a 79 Chevy Luv (Isuzu engine). It has 550,000 (five hunderd fifty thousand) miles on the truck. Well, actually that is what the speedo says. The speedo did not work for a few months.
The first engine went approx. 400,000 before the head rotted so bad that it would not hold the head gasket in place. It literally drank the coolant. The new engine has 150,000 that we put on so far plus the mileage it had when we bought it from the junk yard.
Change oil every 5,000 with regular dino oil.
My 84 Honda Accord had 235K miles on the odometer when i got it, but the speedo did not work when we got the car. I delivered pizzas in it and drove to Washington from LA many times.
I NEVER changed the oil. ran like a champ. I sold it to a friend for $400 plus I threw in a Kenwood CD player. It is still running.
Oh I also boiled the coolant about 10 times in 3 days out of the radiator and kept driving it to deliver pizzas. Man I beat the crap out of that thing and it kept lovin me back.

 

[mygrain]

Our parts runner truck at my dads dealership is a 1986 Dodge van. 476,000 miles. 6 header gaskets, 3 head gaskets and 2 trannies and she still runs like a champ. Shell Rotella T 15w-40 and fleet guard oil filters. Same stuff we put in trucks.

 

[HurstGN]

A member of our local Buick club has a 79 GMC pickup. Daily driver. Hauls anything, goes anywhere. Has 750,000+ on it. He's thinking it's time for a new truck. I wanna see his face when he sees how much more a new truck is gonna cost.
Dan

 

[turbofrank]

87 GN 230k before rebuild only because t/chain never changed, 20k on fresh motor change oil 3 times a year on both. No syn for me.

Good motors don't fail because of oil changes but rather fail due to mechical problems. No motor oil can save ya.