Oil Change

[ceedeerrr]

Just a thought. My envoy has 35000 miles and i have only changed my oil 4 times (using synthetic motor oil). I am waiting for the change engine oil light on the gauges. According to the manual, the computer detects when the engine oil needs changing and it could sometime run up to 10000 between oil change. I am quite concerned since most shops would do it every 3500 miles or 3 months. Which should i follow, the manual or the experienced shop mechanics? :roll:

[Steve]

Several years ago some newspaper (or magazine) did a test to see what the optimum oil change schedule should be for Taxi cabs in new york city.

They studied hundreds of taxis (which are abused almost as bad as rally race cars) and found that the optimum was 7,500 miles. That was the trade-off between doing engine damage from not changing it enough, and wasting money and oil from doing it too often.

I've found that changing it every 5-7,500 miles (for 10w30 or whatever) hasn't lead me to break down on the side of the road or have any more problems than by changing it more often. With modern oils (especially the synths) that's probably right.