How Often Should You Change Engine Oil
Knowing how often to change engine oil is essential for keeping the engine of a vehicle in good condition. A dirty lubricant will not perform its job properly and the engine will wear out more quickly. Newer cars do not need their oil changing as often as the older ones but this job is still an essential part of maintenance. At OneHowTo we'll explain how often you should change engine oil.
Steps to follow:
Our first recommendation on the subject of how often you should change engine oil is to check your car's manual because you can find the exact specifications that the your car model requires.
Cars that are already more than 10 years old should have their engine oil changed more frequently, between every 4,500 and 9,000 miles. However, newer cars do not require so much attention and can withstand 18,000 miles without a motor oil change.
All these recommendations are for a car with average usage. However, if the vehicle has to be used in extreme weather conditions, with very low or very high temperatures, you should change the oil more frequently, as these conditions will cause the lubricant to not last as long.
You should also change the oil more frequently than indicated in the car's manual when all of its journeys are in the city and it spends most of the day circulating. This happens in the case of private transport vehicles, such as taxis, ambulances and police cars.
In any case, if you do not use the car a lot we recommend changing the engine oil once a year, as even though you may not have traveled the miles indicated by the manufacturer in this period, engine oil also deteriorates with cold starts.
If you do not yet need to change the oil in your cars engine, you should still check the engine oil level and if necessary give it a top-up.
Finally, we should advise you that when it comes to car maintenance, prevention is almost always cheaper than the cure. For this reason, you should make sure that you replace things such as brake rotors and brake fluid as regularly as necessary!
If you want to read similar articles to How Often Should You Change Engine Oil, we recommend you visit our Car Maintenance and Repair category.
