oil change

[Matthew Klinger]

Question about the oil change. They say to change it every 6month/7500 miles, I think since I will never reach 7500 a year and I will only drive it during the spring/summer months I will just change it once a year, in the spring. Anyone else do this? Can this be bad? Also does anyone change their oil or do you just take it to a garage, if so how much does an oil change run. Do you get the diff. oil's change too?

Thanks

 

[GoldenVenom]

Hi Matthew Klinger,
My ACR has oil change every 6 month with only about 2000 miles per oil change. My 04 SRT-10 has oil change every 6 month even I only drove it less than 200 miles (580 total miles and only short trip about 20-40 miles/trip). I live in southern CA so I could drive it year round. I think it is a cheap insurance for our Vipers. I have the dealer do it because I want them to do other visual inspections and I have the records for warranty's purpose. It costs about $100 or more. My cars have not had a diff. oil's change yet, maybe this summer. I have both cars for less than 1 1/2 years and my ACR only has about total 4700 miles. How long have you have the car and is this your first oil change? By the way, my cars have the first oil change at about 200 miles.

 

[GTS Bruce]

I don't drive it year round and change in the fall and put the car away. GTS Bruce

 

[Bonkers]

My understanding, the correct answer is - change the oil every three months regardless of travel. The oil collects the acids and other contaminates that the engine produces under normal operation. If you leave the oil in for 12 months, even if you occasionally run the car, all that crud builds up an can damage softer components.

I'm not one who is confident with the whole extended life oil campaign and on an engine this pricey I'd rather not take the chance. Think of it as a $400/yr waste of money vs. $10,000 worth of engine damage. Plus if you do it yourself you can keep an eye on the undercarrage.

The typical oil change at a dealer should run $100-125. A jiffy-lube type place will likely charge $90-100. But if you do it yourself you can pull it off for under $50 - Wal-Mart sells 5qts for about $22 (you'd need two) and a Mobil 1 filter at AutoZone runs like $5 (same filter as the old V10 Ram.)

 

[Jerry Colpitts]

And don't forget to protect that engine. EXP 4 OIL TREATMENT. IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!! Check it out on exp4additives.com

 

[ERDOC]

It really depends on how you drive your car. You can easily go every 7500 or 10000 miles if you use your car as a daily driver with lots of highway miles. It is after all a fairly low compression normal aspirated motor. Porsche recomended 15K miles for their 996TT motors which are under much more stress than our stock motors. On the other hand, if you do lots of 1/4 mile runs or track your car or drive it for short distances in stop and go traffic for only 2000 miles per year, I would change it every 2000 miles or perhaps even twice per year under that kind of load. I don't think I would ever keep a car long enough for engine wear to even matter.... so a lot of what you hear is just propaganda from the oil and service companies trying to drum up more business.

 

[Matthew Klinger]

My understanding, the correct answer is - change the oil every three months regardless of travel. The oil collects the acids and other contaminates that the engine produces under normal operation. If you leave the oil in for 12 months, even if you occasionally run the car, all that crud builds up an can damage softer components.

They actually say every 6 months/7500 miles. I agree with you, I just thought it to be over kill, esp if my car is going to sit for 6 months of the year. I am not all that concerned about the extra $$ it would cost but more about the time and/or idea of taking it and leaving it in someone elses hands for a extra length of time. One work around could be to have a full oil change in the begining of the summer and then just change the oil at the end of the summer (seems like the oil filter is the difficult thing to change)

Thanks to all

 

[S-JC]

It's so easy to do it yourself; a half hour and $50 every 6 months is absolutely NOTHING. I spent more time researching and buying my Viper than I probably will with all the oil changes added up together.

 

[95Viper]

Call a local oil change place and ask to rent their bay for $10 an hour when they are slow. Especially if it's your first time, much easier standing up.