Just curious where you saw this data. Do you have a cite?
That’s pretty sad, because a quart every 1,000 miles is excessive. No doubt about it. The recommended interval for my Volkswagen is 5,000 miles, and it holds 5 quarts. At that rate, the engine would be completely empty! As it is, it uses a little under a quart between changes, and everyone I’ve talked to remarks how they think that’s a lot.
By the way - back to the original subject: I half recall hearing the guys on Car Talk discussing whether it’s economically feasable to change your oil. Seems to me they were suggesting that after you add up all the money spent on oil changes, that the additional life you get out of the engine may not be worth the money spent. Anyone remember that episode?
Do I have a cite?
Unfortunately, the best I can offer is posts on the aforementioned internet message board. However, the data comes from multiple posters on the board, and no one has EVER challenged that data with the exception of people who feel as you do… “It’s WRONG… but I have no evidence it’s not accurate.”
Wish I did have a cite. Your best bet would be calling up your dealer and asking what the oil consumption warranty standards are for a given car.
On the topic of “my engine could be completely empty in 5,000 miles at that rate”, my answer is TRUE.
I saw a poster on the Cartalk message board whose still-under-warranty VW Passat TDI experienced a seized engine due to low oil level.
When I say low oil level, I mean that after it broke down, they towed it to a shop and when the mechanic pulled the drain plug, nothing came out.
I believe that car has something in the vicinity of a 9 quart capacity.
This guy’s warranty claim was denied by VW based on the fact that he should have checked the dipstick more frequently than he had.
I believe the owner’s manual in my last car suggested checking your oil level weekly, or at each fuel stop. Something like that.
All the cars I have owned or used came with the recommendation that the oil level be checked every week or every 250 miles, whichever came around the sooner.
I usualy check my Accord every six weeks/2,500 miles. Only topped it up twice in the last 14 months, about a quart in total. And yes, it is 17,000 miles overdue for its 60,000 miles service and yes I do feel guilty.
Damm, that’s even more impressive you have established a NEW record. I’ve gone 100,000 miles, but she has gone 250K miles, I bow in humility. Now here are a couple of questions/observations:
Is it possible that there is something about changing the oil regularly that could actually SHORTEN the life span of vehicles?
Somehow I doubt that I should try this strategy with my 2001 Chrysler Concorde. I bet with most American vehicles such a strategy would result in an incredibly early demise.
Here’s a good question. In highschool I had a 1982 Ford EXP which my Dad made me have the oil changed on every 3,000 miles. However, it blew THREE engines in the space of about two years! Why didn’t changing the oil protect that engine (note that it had about 40,000 miles when I bought the car and each new engine lasted no longer than about 10K miles).
I’ve rebuilt a couple of engines, including one on 1 1948 Super A International Harvester tractor that had been run continuously up until the rebuild in 1998 or so. In this context Roland’s Toyota is still a youngster.
Changing your oil is cheap insurance, for a very expensive piece of equiptment. Your failure to do so at reasonable interviews is akin to making a bad bet.
What you have going on is probably several different effects.
First, and most importantly, you stopped changing your oil after the car had been very well broken in. Most of your engine parts had worn against each other and what filings etc. that would generally end up in the oil have long since been taken out of the engine, so your oil tends to stay more clear and free of debris than a knew engine would.
Secondly, your oil filter is surely doing nothing by now. The filter has been clogged completely and pressure has punched one or more holes in it so that your oil is completely unfiltered.
Third, is the gunk factor. All of the inoperative surfaces of your engine are surely coated in a thick coat of burned oil grime, the consistency of tar. When your car sits, debris naturally precipitates out and gets stuck in this grime and builds up. This is giving you some filter action, catching debris.
Fourth, I doubt you are and have always religiously added a quart every 1,500 miles. More likely the engine had gone very low on oil from time to time. What remains thickens into this gump until you add more oil.
Fifth, adding more oil isn’t as good as a change, but it is giving you a beneficial effect.
Sixth, you are lucky.
Seventh, you have surely significantly lowered the useful life, and power of your engine.
What is going to happen is that you are going to have a catastrophic failure at some point, likely in the near future. The gunk is going to clog the intake to your oil pump reducing or eliminating lubricant circulation and your engine is going to seize up. Alternately, some of the debris may break loose, get into a place it’s not supposed to be and kill your engine.
When I rebuilt the tractor, I had about two inches of gunk inside the block, and I changed the oil every season. You may have more.
I too, have to admit that I find your abusive of such a fine and reliable engine to be personally offensive. That’s my problem.
I honestly don’t know what advice to give you though. Your catastrophic failure is probably so imminent that the machine can’t be saved. In fact, if you do attempt to alter things at this point there is a significant chance you will precipitate the failure.
If it were my car, what I would do is empty the oil and replace the filter and fill your oil level up with kerosene when the engine was cold. I would run the car for five minutes or so, and then drain the kerosene and examine it for filings and what have you (it will probably close to tar consistency.) I would repeat this process several times (changing the filter each time and waiting till the car was cold) until either the kerosene came out more or less like I put it in, or your car started leaking kerosene from it’s various seals.
I would change out any leaky seals or gaskets and then run oil and a clean filter in it and change it religiously every 3,000 miles. I probably wouldn’t bother with this if significant amounts of metal showed up in the first kerosene change or I heard significant tapping from the valves.
I would also be checking my coolant for oil and my oil for coolant. Now that I think about it, it is probably likely that you have a blown head gasket.
Er, I think 1 quart per 900 miles is in excess of 1 quart per 1000 miles. 
Yes.
I worked at the local MW store.The auto shop foreman used to adjust steering linkage while the techs were working on the other side of the car. Lord knows what he did while they were working on the rear tires.
Also its fairly easy to strip the threads on an oil filter and even worse to strip the threads on either the oil plug or the oil filter thingy that the filter screws onto.Especially if the oil has been changed dutifily every 2000 miles.
How would those things actually damage the engine? Would it result in oil leaking from the crankcase which someone might assume is a valve or seal problem (and thus think they needed expensive repairs)? Why was the manager messing with the linkage anyway?
Also, why does the person who worked on tractors think that my car failure is imminent (I’m not saying that it is not, but the car seems to run as good as the day that I purchased it except that it does “knock” after I turn the ignition off unless I use the high octane gas, this is something that didn’t start until about 150K miles)? If I had posted this post when the car had 180K miles wouldn’t you guys have said my car was “imminent toast” those many years ago (when my oil changing schedule was only slightly better at maybe every 40,000 miles). If by some miracle my car should endure to 500K miles (and I had not made this post) I suspect that most of the GQ mechanics would say my car engine would soon be toast. The point is that you will eventually be correct.
Yes they result in oil leaks.Also if the pipe that the oil filter screws onto is stripped it needs to be replaced. They would see it as a seal problem since the oil would show up on the lower part of the engine.
The manager was drumming up buisness. I don’t know how common this is but you’ve got to wonder.
When you say “drumming up business” do you mean that he was doing extra work for free in an effort to make the customers so happy they will be more likely to return? Or are you saying that he was deliberately damaging their automobiles (which is at least a misdemeanor and possibly a felony) to make them have to come back and get the problem he created fixed?
They didn’t do allignment work.
Just curious, do you ever change your air filter Roland?
Well on my 2001 Concorde with 115,000 miles I change everything about every four thousand miles or sooner (sometimes I let the air filter to two changes or about 8,000 miles). However, on the Toyota I’ve only changed the air filter at the time I’ve had the oil changed. That would be about six times since I’ve had the vehicle.