I have never heard that frequent oil changes are bad (just a waste of money), but found an interesting SAE report and was curious if anyone had access to it....

"Engine wear actually decreases as oil ages. This has also been substantiated in testing conducted by Ford Motor Co. and ConocoPhillips, and reported in SAE Technical Paper 2003-01-3119. What this means is that compulsive oil changers are actually causing more engine wear than the people who let their engine's oil get some age on it."

Why would used oil cause less engine wear than new ?

 

I think it has to do with the cleaning agents in the oil, actually working on the metal.

that is a guess based on a article I can't remember well.

 

i dont know how true this really is?? what kind of oil are they talking about

 

Interesting. So an example of compulsive oil changers would be those who change thier oil how often? say every 2k?

 

Not sure exactly, but several of the tests I have read about indicate that 8K intervals are great....Also, adding oil (if your car burns it or leaks it), extends the intervals as you are effectively adding new additives...

At a minimum, I would not change oil sooner than the factory recommended intervals (but that was based entirely on financial perspective, not this new / old data that indicates additional wear).

 

was this with Dino oil or Synthetic...?

and quit the guessing and send your oil out to have it analyzed...

 

Most times I change the oil because it's fouled with fuel or it's been cooked.

Remember turbocharged cars =/= NA commuter cars in terms of heat and fuel put into the oil.

 

I've got some used oil sitting in my garage that probably has been there for five years. It is really aged. Anyone want to buy it. Make me an offer.

 

lol ill give you $20 for a case.

 

Well having "Ford" in that report makes me think its a lie lol

 

I don't think I'd be trusting anything that's coming from "fix or repair daily" motorco haha. This doesn't even sound logical. Anybody ever see how dirty oil gets and how fast after just a few thousand? I don't want all the circulating through my engine for another couple thousand miles if it looks almost black after just 3k.

 

Hmm i highly doubt that's true. I guess i would be on the list of compulsive people who change their oil "too" frequently cause i do it every 1-1.5K miles.

Aaron

 

Lol, its to trash your car so you have to get a new one...

 

I think i've heard something like this before. But i am sure it depends on the car, engine, mileage, how mileage was obtained, etc...

Kinda like high mileage engines should use thicker oil due to parts being worn, thats the only instance on which i can imagine it being a bad thing.

 

This is the Abstract of the paper being cited and it seems to be an investigation into how much phosphorus (and other additives) should be in engine oil. I would assume the analysis of used oils was to determine how these additives are depleted over time.

So, just looking at the abstract, and the abstract should include any important discoveries, it doesn't seem to be indicating what the OP thinks it does (used oil is better).

Abstract:
The overall purpose of this research is to determine the antiwear capability of low phosphorus engine oils containing 0.05 wt% phosphorus. The antiwear performance of 0.05 wt% phosphorus engine oils was evaluated using a laboratory valvetrain bench test rig coupled with an on-line wear measurement technique and a high frequency reciprocating rig (HFRR). Low phosphorus engine oils were compared with GF-3 engine oils containing 0.1 wt% phosphorus. In addition to fresh oils, long drain used oils from fleet vehicles were also analyzed and investigated. This information is important to develop engine oil formulations to meet the latest government emission and fuel economy requirements. The results indicate that by appropriately selecting and balancing supplemental antiwear and/or antioxidation additives the wear loss due to the reduction of zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) may be compensated or even reduced.