Nothing works harder than the oil in your car's engine and everyone agrees that regular oil changes prolong the life of your engine. But when do you change your oil? When should you change your oil?3,000/5,000/7,500/12,000/15,000 miles?  Is the 3,000 mile oil change interval maintenance or myth?

It depends on who you talk to..

Whether it’s the little sticker on the windscreen or the sticky reminders from the quick-lube place, we’ve all been beaten over the head with the 3,000-mile oil-change for years. But for today's vehicles though, this could be like changing the bath water 1/2 way through the bath....

Ford found that its customers like a set mileage interval and they recommend changing the oil every 7,500 miles for vehicles used in "normal service".  

Toyota reduced it’s oil change interval from 7,500 miles to 5,000 because they were finding sludge in the engines. This led to a class action lawsuit and forced them to lengthen their warranty coverage on most 1997-2002 model year vehicles.

Some manufacturers, like Honda and GM have stopped making recommendations altogether and rely on oil-life monitors, better quality oil and modern engine technology, to prevent unnecessary oil changes. If the monitor senses you’re allowing the engine oil to warm up, and you take it easy until it’s at operating temperature, an interval of 5,000 or 7,500 miles is not uncommon. If you start your car cold and immediately tear onto the highway at 80 mph, however, expect your next service date to arrive sooner and include more than an oil change if you continue to thrash on a cold engine.

Higher-end cars like BMWs, Porche and Mercedes can recommend oil-change intervals from 10,000 to 20,000 miles! Why? They have larger oil capacities (the average Mercedes-Benz takes 8 quarts vs. 5 for a Toyota) and they're confident that the synthetic oil that they recommend won't break down as easily as the traditional, "dinosaur" based oil.

3,000-5,000-7,500-10,000-15,000? Conventional or Synthetic? Who should you believe? At Kenwood, we recommend changing your oil according to your vehicle manufacturers "severe service" recommendation, as found in the owners manual, which is usually every 3,000 to 5,000 miles for conventional oil and every 5,000 to 7,000 miles for synthetic oil.

We use quality Kendall Motor Oils that meet or exceed manufacturers specifications.Please contact us with any questions about your oil changes and anything else (auto related!).