Is it feasible to never change the oil in your car, but just keep topping up when you are down a quart? I'm talking about Mobil 1 synthetic oil.

Cheers, DPW [Everything has limitations... and I hate limitations.]

 

If you have a little leak, it is feasible. But just adding new oil to 'burnt' oil is no good. Even a little bit of old oil will contaminate the new oil and cause breakdown in the new at lower temperatures. The expired synthetics can also bond to one another causing filtering problems. If you could change the filter without spilling all of the oil out of the engine, you may be able to keep it clean enough. But you would still have to change the filter frequently.

 

The actual "oil" base doesn't wear out, it's the "packages" added to the base that deteriorate. Such as the detergents, friction modifiers, and chemical buffers that go bad over time. Plus if the engine doesn't spend enough time at a high enough temperature it gets contaminated with water(from condensation).

 

Is it feasible to never change the oil in your car, but just keep topping up when you are down a quart? I'm talking about Mobil 1 synthetic oil.

Cheers, DPW [Everything has limitations... and I hate limitations.]

in a voodoomojo twisted logic way, yes.

the longer you keep just adding a fresh quart when the oil level is down a quart will speed up the frequency of when the oil will be down a quart and you will have to add a fresh quart which in turn will have the tendency to render the oil cleaner and cleaner each time you have to add a quart.
(is that a "run-on" sentence?)

 

So, if the filter is doing its job, why not just change the filter several times a year to remove the sludgies and keep topping up with oil when it is low. Supposedly, the new synthetic lubes have much longer lives than regular oil, so would this strategy work?

Cheers, DPW [ Follow the money.]

 

If you have a little leak, it is feasible. But just adding new oil to 'burnt' oil is no good. Even a little bit of old oil will contaminate the new oil and cause breakdown in the new at lower temperatures. The expired synthetics can also bond to one another causing filtering problems. ......

kidding aside,
after the filter is plugged (and it will plug), the oil flow by-passes the filter. Now there is no safeguard in place. Whatever is at the bottom of the pan is whipped freely throughout the engine, causing wear on important components. Newer engines can handle a bit more abuse than older ones but many parts are very sensitive. The more sludge, the more wear.
Most oil consumption, leaks not included, happens when a cold engine is first started. Check the exhaust when first starting.
Valve guides are still valve guides.

after awhile the sludge will not be transferred by the oil pump.
After all, it is an oil pump not grease pump.

That is when catastrophic damage occurs.

 

So, if the filter is doing its job, why not just change the filter several times a year to remove the sludgies and keep topping up with oil when it is low. Supposedly, the new synthetic lubes have much longer lives than regular oil, so would this strategy work?

Cheers, DPW [ Follow the money.]

A question to ask is what caused the first and all subsequent quarts of oil to need replenishing.
The engines we install in our equipment are Ford, GM, Cummins, Deutz, Continental, John Deere, Perkins, Kobota, Honda and Hatz. Our customers are miffed when engine warrantys are denied because the damage was caused by filthy oil.

Companies that don't have regular PM scheduling that includes engine oil replacement have an extremely higher occurance of engine failures.
Their maintenance to revenue P-L proves this.
Our warranty claims prove it.

We manufacture and sell over a billion dollars of equipment a year. We know which of our customers just "top off" the oil and those that have a rigorous policy of oil changes at 100 to 150 hours.

Wanna bet who has a drastically lower amount of engine warranty claims?
There are litterally hundreds of thousands of dollars per year differences between the different fleet owners when it comes to damages inflicted.

Another one is dirty air filters.
An old thought is the dirtier the air filter, the better it filters. The air has to come from somewhere so if it can't make it past the filter it will suck it up past the rings or valve guides. This is a cause for oil consumption as well.

We hear it all the time.
"Damn oil companies ripping us off!"
"I'll show them!" "I'll skip a few oil changes and save a few bucks!"
And then it bites them right in the ass with decreased engine life.

Up to a couple years ago, fleet owners sold or traded their equipment every three or four years so slip-shod maintenance was tolerable. (Unless you were the poor jamoke that ended up with that maintenance abused piece.)
Now times the fleet owners are expecting greater longevity out of their equipment. Service and maintenance are in the focus as never before.

It all boils down to how long you want to keep the engine.


Our Reliability Engineers conduct destructive testing on all components.
The engine destruction testing is by far the most interesting.

A tastey tidbit of info:
The Isuzu engine ran the longest with no oil or coolant, surpassing all other engine makes by over 200%.

 

I change my oil pretty regularly myself, though I'm not going to stop at exactly 3000 miles to do it.

I've stopped using the fast oil change places. They are cheaper, but the 3rd time my filter was hanging on by a few threads I decided I was getting what I paid for. Now my mechanic does it for almost twice the price, but I don't have problems (and he gets to inspect for other problems on a regular basis).

 

Take your old oil that you don't want to change
dilute it with water on paper towel,let dry.Then
take strong magnet and see if you find minute
metal shaving,a sign of wear and metal to harm your
engine.

 

Aww, loosewire, As I was reading your post, I thought you were getting at something really cool.I was hoping for something like: "By laying the used oil on a paper towel, then applying 115vac from corner to corner, it will produce the worlds longest lasting light with milliwatt power usage"

Or "The used oil soaked paper towel, can be used as a solar cell."

.. alas it was just metal shavings..

By the way, how do you dilute oil with water?

 

Condensation, dew. The engine goes from really hot (and burning gas, of which steam is a major byproduct, maybe we don't want to talk about oil) to really cold, which would suck moisture out of the air. We're talking long term here.

 

My wifes nephew bought a new (in '98) Chrysler K car. He was under the impression that the oil light was a suggestion to add some oil. He had never changed the oil in the 4 years he owned the car, only added when the light came on. The car eventually jumped time, which had nothing to do with the oil as the timing belt is external. When the dealer saw the condition of the oil they wanted to void his warranty. Because the oil level happened to be ok, they couldn't void it. He claimed (to me) he didn't know it had to be changed, just topped off !!!

 

It adheres to the oxygen bubbles
when you shake it.