Also, if you plan to keep the car beyond the warrenty period change oil at least every 5000, no matter what the dealer tells you,
On these cars run a good synthetic and go at least 10,000 miles. Anything less and you are throwing money away. You can go much longer too, get some UOA's to determine a safe OCI for your vehicle. 5k is too soon for all dino oils even.
I run 15k on our VW diesels using Castrol Oil meeting the 505.01 spec since one of them is an 06 PD motor. I use MANN filters in them.
The rest of the fleet gets either OEM or NAPA Gold filters. This would include pickups, semis and tractors. I've found CAT filters to actually be priced competitively and built like a tank. Napa Gold is a good alternative for many of the others though.
They just finished installing our new oil system as I switched us to a new company and we now run all Chevron Delo products. We do NOT run synthetic engine oils in anything because there is not enough advantages to justify the costs and hassles of storing it. The only advantage it would provide us is better cold starts, however the semis get parked inside during the winter and the rest of the cold starts on other equipment just do not add up to enough of an advantage.
People will say synthetic is better because you can save money with longer drain intervals, however that is not always the case. It is a balancing act. If you spend $20 for a gallon of syn versus $10 for dino, you better go long enough to offset the added costs of the oil but remember to figure in the filter and labor savings of not needing that extra oil change. The issue is that in order to hit a drain interval that long, many times the filtering systems just cannot handle it and additional bypass filters or centrifuges are needed, adding to the overall cost.
Other people say synthetics are better because they are synthetics. In reality, if you are a 5,000 mile OCI type of person, any oil will work at that short of a drain interval. If you want to get into "better oils" you need to do UOA's for your application. Delo is a dino oil, but uses very high quality basestocks and a great additives package that makes it one of the best oils for HD diesels. That does not make it better for your Escalade though, you have to do your own testing, or poll others with the same vehicle to find which fluids are working best.
More people need to start extending drain intervals. Not only are you wasting your money, but if you are a "green" type of person there are advantages as well. I am not a treehugger, but I look at it more as less waste to pay to dispose of. Not to mention all that extra time you could spend polishing your car because you wont be under it changing oil so often.
To put it into perspective a little, I will use some examples from what I have done with our fleet. It does not relate to most vehicles on here, and it is from a fleet perspective. Changing oil on one or two cars at 5 quarts each is a little different than multiple semis and tractors with up to 15 gallon sumps and running daily.
Just as many car owners are set on the 3-5k oil change interval, truckers like 10-15,000 and farmers like 100-200hrs.
I've extended our intervals on some equipment to 1500hrs(OEM reccommended 250hrs), semis to 60,000k and going (OEM 20-30k) and our Duramax pickups get changed at 7,500-10,000. This is using dino oil that I pay $10.70/gallon delivered. For warranty machines I run the max OEM reccommendation.
Even OEM's feel people should be extending drains, our newer tractors are all 400-600hr intervals, semis are up to 50k from factory, pickups are rated at 7,500. Cat is big into oil sampling and prefers that method over just mindlessly changing the oil.
I had calculated the other day just what we save on engine oil changes alone in a year simply at the current intervals we are at, it was over $10,000. Thats just engine oil. With Extended Life Coolants were able to run 800,000 miles, 15,000hrs, or 8 years without additives or changes plus its a better coolant on top of it. With traditional coolants we would be changing every other year. The ELC is only 45% more than the traditional stuff, so its a simple no brainer and also saves a lot of money. Then theres hydraulic fluids, transmission fluids, gear lubes, etc etc. If you add it all up on a larger scale, it becomes evident how much money you are throwing away. However if you really want to take advantage of extended drains you have to take time and manage it well. I spend a lot of time on this task alone in a day but it pays off. Finding good fluids, spending a lot up front on UOA's, and determining safe intervals takes time and money but works better for everyone in the end.
By not most people say changing oil is cheaper than changing an engine. I beg to differ. I ran the numbers on this for another gentleman that was adament about 100hr oil change intervals compared to my 1000hr intervals on that machine. That engine has a lifespan of 20,000-25,000hrs. My UOA's have yet to come back with any concerns, yet he would not know due to him not using UOA's and feeling changing often is better. Cost to overhaul that engine is around $20,000. If both of our engines made it to 25,000hrs and needed to be rebuilt, he would've spend over $24,000 more money just on oil changes than I would've and at the end of the day both engines would need overhauls. However at that rate I could afford to have the engine fail much much much sooner and still be ahead. Not that I consider that a goal, but at the same time I think some people will spend $100 trying to save a $10 part some days.
There are many ways to skin a cat, I am not saying you are wrong for changing YOUR oil at 5K, but bring some solid background and evidence into why you state your claim before giving advice to others. Gut feelings are better left for the lottery, or at the buffet line.
My car calls for 0w30 but its the same engine that was in my 2010 Fit sport and that oil cap said 5w20 and then a year or 2 later they said you could use either 0w20 or 5w20. I suspect the 0w is for "improved economy", whatever, LOL!
Sent from my SPH-M930 using AG Online
Partially for economy, and the new engines have very tight tolerances.
Semi's are now coming filled with Delo 10W30 from the factory and large fleets like UPS have been running it for years.
The oils coming for the next generation of semis will be so thin that they will not be backwards compatible, simply to get better fuel economy.
I have never seen 4 qt, maybe they are out there but for Mobil 1 at Wal-Mart it's 1 qt. or 5 qt.
Plenty of gallon containers, possibly not in the oil you want though.
