Changing oil annually irrespective of miles accumulated is wasteful & irresponsible

[Ray,IN]

In the bigger diesel engines the oil turns black seemingly immediately. This is because about a gallon of motor oil is "trapped" in the system and does not drain out.(it's explained in my Cummins engine manual) Another reason to change motor oil per mfgrs. maintenance schedule, plus-if you have an engine warranty from the mfgr or an ESP-not changing oil per mfgrs maint. schedule can/will void the warranty.
This is also why some folks question engine oil capacity and dipstick markings not matching.
Concerning the comment "wasteful", it is not. Recycled used motor oil is reclaimed and new additives blended in, then repackaged for sale. Another use for used motor oil is heating, I know of at least one large vehicle repair shop that heats their building with a used motor oil furnace. That meets the EPA definition of recycling too.

[timetogo]

If an engine manual says oil capacity is 6.3 gallons with filter change, then I put 6.3 gallons back in. The oil level will be at full on the dipstick. Not over or under.

[vincee]

I change the oil on my gas rig once year with yearly mileage being between 4 and 5K. Same with the generator. I do believe some manufacturers recommendations are overly cautious because of warranty and liability concerns. Some information they put into their owners manuals are more a C.Y.A. effect put in by the legal department more so than what their engineering departments say. This became very evident back in the 80's with cars and towing capacities being so reduced you couldn't pull your kids red flyer wagon.

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by timetogo

If an engine manual says oil capacity is 6.3 gallons with filter change, then I put 6.3 gallons back in. The oil level will be at full on the dipstick. Not over or under.

You are right of course, but when the engine is initially filled with oil at the assembly plant, the quantity of oil installed is more than the oil change quantity, at least in my Cummins ISC engine manual.
I was wrong when I said it was explained, it took close reading for me to discover that fact.

[Smitty77]

Originally Posted by TimSullivan

Big Oil says motor oil shelf life is 5 years--google shelf life for motor oil and you'll find that Big Oil says that motor oil shelf life is at least 5 years. Given that Big Oil is saying this you know its probably much longer than that given their lack of credibility to begin with. So, I think its safe to say that you could go significantly longer than one year on low mileage oil changes. Caterpillar says 15,000 miles is the factory recommended distance between oil changes on my C-10 diesel engine. Thus I change its oil every two years or 10,000 miles which ever comes first. To change 34 quarts of oil annually just because 12 months have gone by, irrespecutful of miles accumulated, is wasteful and frankly, irresponsible.

Well frankly, one of the rudest non value post I've read in along time. Have an opinion? Great. Do you know how everyone else uses their coach, or the environment they use them in? Of course not. But yet still up on your high horse with such a comment as
'is wasteful and frankly, irresponsible.'

This board is a group of members sharing info, helping each other learn, and from time to time some good old fun.

If you spent just 30 minutes searching the subject of 'oil change frequency' (Or similar.) - you would see that not many different usages of our equipment exists.

Me? I follow what both Cummins and Allison says to do, as well as Country Coach in regards to my chassis servicing. So that is yearly, as I've never had severe enough duty, or miles, to do otherwise. (Came close at just about 13.8K miles round trip on our 2014 Alaska trip...)

Please, keep posting. Please keep researching. Please be a bit more selective in your wording... IMO, you got your wording wrong on this one! (You know, maybe ask a questions of 'Why?' we might do more frequent oil changes then you do... Vs stating what you did.)

Best to you, and all,
Smitty

[tim myers]

Slightly off topic here, but for the once a year oil change population, do you prefer to change prior to storage for the winter (for those not full time) or wait till the beginning of the season to change it.

[Cat320]

Change it at the end of the year, prior to storage...then run it. That way clean oil sits in the engine all winter.