I passed 1,000 miles today on my 40 mile commute home from work. It's been an anxious couple of weeks. I was tempted to open it up a few times, but I was good. I'll be there in a couple of days and then I'll open her up.

 

I'm a confessed maintenance freaque, but I would 'never' run any oil to 12 or 15K miles, especially the first new batch.

I changed my oil at 1000 miles and caught it in a nice clean new aluminum turkey pan. It was black and gorpy. I then filtered it through nothing more than a paper towel. I caught all sorts of grit, little metal pieces, copper turnings and a sludgie mess that looked like aluminum paint mixed with chocolate ice cream. I took the filter out and pulled apart the paper pleats and found more grit, little shiney metal bits and more copper turnings.

I want this stuff out, so I'm glad I did.

I changed again at 5K miles and found no such stuff. I change every 5K thereafter. ( I have a Volvo currently in my drive way with 550K miles and never had the head off or the oil pan off. Religous oil changes is the key

I'm a big fan of breaking the engine in by putting it under load (not abusing, but a hard load) as soon as the temp guage is up to normal. I read one article that claims most of the piston ring to cylinder mating is done in the first 20 miles of driving. My 06 was mostly broken in by the time I got it home from the dealer (200 miles). All of those 200 were done at varying speeds and load it hard and coast down, load it hard and coast down. You can load it hard and still not ignore the 4500 rpm and 90 some mph limits. Just make it pull hard to force those rings against the cylinder walls.

Just my two cents and I'm sure others will disagree. But I just can't understand spending $25K on a car and then not spend a few bucks to change the oil, or spend money on oil analyses to prove you don't need to change the oil.

I couldn't care less what an oil analysis says or means. I just change it, use that time to inspect all I can see under the car and then not worry.

Sorry for anything that sounds like a rant. If you search for my name, you'll find other posts that explain why I think new car manufacturers are moving to these crazy long fluid maintenance intervals. It is certainly not for the good of your engine. I won't bore you here, if you are interested, you can find them.

YD

 

I agree with your 5k oil changes - even with the high end synthetics like Mobil 1. I change the oil every 5k on general street cars and after every track weekend on a track or race car.

Regarding the wear issue - don't know if this is true or not but a Porsche engineer told me that 60 to 70% of the wear on an engine occurs in the first few seconds - in other words as you crank the engine with the starter and before the oil pressure is up. This period is where the latest tech oils make a difference.

 

WetNose,

I think you are right on. I never push hard until the temp needle is up to snuff.

Remember before FI when the engine was cold and the choke went on and increased the idle to about 2000 rpm, when you hit the gas pedal and starter. You instantly had 2K rpm, flooded with extra gas to keep it going on a cold engine. The wear during those couple of minutes must have been tremendous. I think FI that gives just the right air/fuel mix and keeps the revs low at cold idle has done a lot toward reducing that start up wear.

I have even wanted to install a pre-oiler that runs for 20 seconds when you open the drivers door. Get the oil pressure up way before you ever hit the starter. Oh well, too many plans for things to do and not enough time. Just a thought.

About the oil, too many people think that all of the oil is filtered every time the oil gets picked up by the oil pump. Only a small part of the oil is filtered, the rest goes directly to the bearings, etc. I just can't stand the thought of all that grit and crap being circulated, even if the oil analysis says the oil is still OK.

It is just cholesterol in your arteries. The sludge builds up slowly over time and eventually restricts the tiny oil passages and then no lube to something.

I'll shut up now. Sorry again.

YD