Browsing through some Jeep sites, I found links to the following site

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/s.../oil-life.html

These guys are serious about oil performance, and are attempting to do a comparison between the Synthetic oils out there. For those of you that don't care about oil life, and and just change your oil every 3000 miles / 3 months regardless, then just ignore this thread.. For others, I find the whole site an interesting read. As far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be any affiliation with any oil companies, just guys serious about oil performance. Thus far they have conducted a study on Mobile 1 and showed that Mobile 1 lasted 18,000K before needing to be changed. They are currently under way testing Amsoil.

I've found that those interested in oil performance often get in heated debates about Mobile 1 vs Amsoil. I'm not trying to invoke one of those debates. I thought the site would be interesting for readers of this site.

Be sure to browse around that site. I found some pretty good info on there. It definately make me think differently about my oil. Before I was sweating it "stretching" my oil changes to 5000K miles on my wife's Liberty using Mobile 1. Now I don't feel so bad.

 

Love Mobil 1 run it in my Saturn I change twice a year in the Fall I put 0w-30w and in the spring I put in 5w-30w regaurdless of the mileage it's less than 10K however at that point and it looks pretty dirty test like that show me I need not worry. Mobil 1 keeps the engine looking clean also.

The truck is a different beast it get's new Delo every 7500 miles.

 

I used Amsoil before and was not impressed, but it may be a subjective thing, to me not worth the effort when I can buy it at Walmart for $4.77 and it's there when I need it. I was a pain finding Amsoil when I needed it. I don't like having to forcast and mail order product. My .02.

Pete

 

Good info to read. I will chime in and say that if they were to use a synthetic oil filter( one designed to work better with synthetic oil) the results would be different to this point.
I do like the fact that they are being very fair to this point
I myself prefer AMSOIL or just about any other brand(except Quaker State) over the Mobil 1. That's just my .01 worth

 

Miles should NOT be the determining factor in oil changes. It depends on fuel burned, temperatures, humidity, driving conditions, ect. Its the oil CHEMISTRY that determins when to change oil. If you want to ahve you oil tested for $$$ know yourself out. If you want to be safe than sorry then change oil every 4-5K miles and have done with it. Its not rocket science....its engine lubrication oil and these are DIESEL engines.

The difference between 5K miles and 7K miles on oil changes is maybe $250 over the life of the vehicle as long as you own it assuming you keep it for 150K miles.

Also, changing the oil more frequently get you under the hood more often and under the truck for inspections, greasing, checking the tire pressure, radiator, washer fluid, brake fluid. battery levels and connections, trans fuild level RIGHT? .

Did you know you are suppose to change your brake fuild every year?

 

I do find this interesting. I bought a 94 Ram with 2700 miles and the V-10 in it. I used moblie 1 on every oil change without fail. I changed the oil approximately every 10,000 miles. When I sold the truck to a customer of mine in 2000 it had 233,000 miles on it. He still owns the truck and kept using mobile 1. When I was up at his business last month, I looked at the odometer, 322,000 miles. The engine has never been touched. As a matter of fact the transmission fluid has never been changed, the truck still has the original tranny. So my opinion of the 3000 mile oil change is that it's a complete waste of money and resources. I don't use mobile 1 in the diesel tho, I just follow the specs in the owners manual 7500 miles.

 

"I don't use mobile 1 in the diesel tho, I just follow the specs in the owners manual 7500 miles."

Thats my point, its a diesel engine.

 

I agree. I'm a little overkill and change every 5,000 mi. with Delo. Synthetics....just expensive lube that ends up where the rest of the oils out there ends up...drained and tossed out.

 

I ran the same oil in my old 89 for 4 1/2 years, 60000 miles. The samples were still coming back good at that.
There is another dealer in NC somewhere that had over 300000 miles on his oil the last time I talked to him.
I run my current oil 25000 miles changing the main oil filter every 5000 and both filters at 25000.
Not recommending anything here, just telling you what I do. I'm not real fond of laying around under a vehicle and this has worked very well for me.

 

What actually IS your point? Since this is a 3rd gen forum, I'll make comments based on 3rd gens. They are VERY easy on oil! Easier than your typical gasser with a 4quart capacity, so I'm not sure what your 'it's a diesel ' comments mean. Third gens can easily go 7500 miles, that's a very conservative interval. If you guys actually take the owners manual seriously, they tell you that 7500 miles is for SEVERE SERVICE, which most people do not induce. Sure some of us qualify at times for some of the severe service conditions, but primarily I feel most people fall under the schedule B or normal service, despite what they think. 10-15,000 miles between changes is not unreasonable on our trucks, especially using synthetic..

 

What I find most interesting is that, according to my manual, the LEV California trucks are supposed to have their oil changed twice as often as the rest of us. I wonder if that's to keep the emissions lower or because those motors are harder on the oil?

I'll probably change my oil at 7,500 miles (already did the break-in oil change), again at 15,000, and then do synthetic every 10,000 from there, or when the oil looks like it needs it.