yep, rrm has been cool so far with my first transaction with them. have always answered my questions quickly and fully. can't wait for my new brakes to arrive

one more question - what is the typical oil consumption on lancers? for example, how many KMs or miles would you have to do without an oil change before you run dry? assuming a healthy well kept engine

 

In canadian dollars, 35$ at the dealership and 45 at home Gotta love Royal Purple

If anybody knows they are not on this board anymore. Dry engine = No more engine. For proper maintenance you should be doing oil change every 5000 km.

 

Free for life(dealer)

 

$28 at the dealership.

 

That's only Lancers with an added turbo, and it's a hit-or-miss issue with the factory tolerances of their parts. For na Lancers, we're fine.

And as for an oil change, I pay $8 for 4 quarts of Valvoline dino oil, $4 for a Purolator filter, 15 min of work and I'm done. I even rotate my tires and inspect the brake pads every other oil change, so I am confident that I know how well my car is doing in all aspects, and $12 is a lot less than the $30-35 most places charge. Oh, and don't let them give you that "but we add other fluids as well" crap. Windshield washer fluid is 99 cents a gallon!

 

I check my other fluids like coolant. But the apartment I live at doesn't have much parking space to get into much under the body.

 

I'm guessing the MMC in your name and the fact that you live in Charleston means you're a Marine? Most apartments out by me will have a fit if you try to do much car maintenance in their parking lots.

 

Hey guys...don't call me ghetto or cheap...I get synthetic oil (5 qts) for $12 from walmart and the fram filter is like $5...so $17 max and if get the cheap wal mart filters its only $2 for yah under $15 for a synthetic oil change...i do it every 5K miles

 

Synth is a waste of money on these cars and as discussed it may be dangerous on turboed engines.
3 qt Castrol 10w30 about 2.20 each
1 qt oil stabilizer (becasue I race) about $8
1 oil filter $6

every other change I do plugs, too. NGK copper plugs 1.99 X 4 plugs.

I do an oil change about every other month because of racing and I'll top up between events as needed. I have almost no consumption unless I'm pushing the car (autocross school was 6 hours straight of redline driving and only ate 1/4 quart of oil). I just did an oil and plug change last month and probably won't do another until Februray as I don't drive much, even in summer, really. But I figure racing takes its toll and $20 every other month is cheap "insurance".

If I didn't race I'd probably go about 5K miles between changes. It's been established that the 3K mile change schedule was proposed to sell more oil, not to protect engines. In fact, some studies show that oil has its best protection between 2500-5000 miles in a broken-in engine.

Oil takes about 15 minutes, plugs another 7-10 and if I'm lucky no shop towels for clean up

 

You change your plugs every 6k miles? I must be making a killing, I'm at 30k on mine, no problems but I know it's time.

 

I figure it's worth $8 to have good spark all the time I've never had a nasty plug come out so I know it's overkill. But it's $8 and maybe 10 minutes, if the plug socket comes off the extension and I have to fish for it

Like you, I'm checking everything all the time. Ride height, camber, toe, make sure the teins haven't slipped a valve position, tires at the pressure I want them, make sure the filter hasn't sucked up too much dirt or bugs, check coolant level, check TB tension, brake pads (I'm surprised how long the posigrips have lasted! almost 25K miles and there's still lots of braking power... sorry OT) .... everything. The work gets spread out over a week or so, I check one or two things a night between races, but it all gets done. How much of successful racing is prep?

 

Granted there is always a debate on synth vs dino oil, the bottom line being to keep your car well-maintained. But since synthetic flows better then dino oil (especially in the cold) and that many high-end cars come with or recommend synthetic oil, there must be something to it, besides oil companies squeezing money from us. Every jet engine uses synthetics since they have better flow and less volatility then straight dino oil.

Granted we aren't close to jet engine tolerances and environment in our cars, but every little bit extra helps to save the car from wear.

I used Mobil 1 from 5k until I sold my Focus 45k later. Didn't use a drop between my 7500 mile oil changes and no other ill-effects either. I'll stick with synthetics.

In all fairness, take care of your car how you want. But 6k plug changes, even on copper plugs, is a bit much. And some people out there might claim your oil stabilizer might be doing more harm then good. Synthetic oil is more stable to begin with and will cost you just a bit more then adding $8 oil stabilizer.

 

When I bought my Evo I got Great Neck Mitsu to give me free lifetime oil changes. So as long as I don't lose my invoice slip I get a free oil change every 3750 miles. I always go and get it changed after 3000 and they never give me a hard time.

 

Let's not compare multi million dollar engines with thousands of pounds of thrust and afterburners to a 4G94 if you want to discuss oil I'm not so full of myself to say that I'm not wrong about synth oils. Hell, I've even considered switching for a year and going to 6K+miles between changes, just to see what happens in terms of performance and mileage, I still might. I'm a creature of habit and I haven't heard from anyone who made a concious decision to switch to see what the difference is, but I DID read about the oil pump issues (yes, I know they were turbo problems, but I run my engine for prolonged periods at high RPM so I figured the circumstances are kinda similar).

As for the plugs, well, it's $9 after tax. Frequent plugs changes won't do ANY harm and it's my money. And then, you really didn't have to bring it up except that you wanted to take an extra shot. That's ok. You drive an LS There, we're even

 

OK, I wasn't taking a pot-shot at you, just replying to your message. Our engines share one thing with a turbine engine: it's a hard-working machine that requires lubrication to prevent wear and to stay running. And I feel that synthetics provide more protection then regular oil. THAT was the point I was trying to make.

I used to run regular oil too, I thought synthetic was way too much $$. But then I figured you could run extended oil change intervals, saving time if not money.

I run synthetics because:
1.) The car seems to start easier, especially when the temp falls below freezing.

2.) After 7500 miles, synthetic still has enough "slip" to it that it could go another 3000 miles and still protect the engine.

3.) The engine seems to rev a little bit better and mileage seems to improve a tiny bit.

And running your engine at high-rpm puts more stress on it, but still not as much as a turbo does, so the situation is not all that similiar.

I still feel that while 6k plug changes certainly won't hurt anything, it's still overkill and a waste of money and resources, but you go ahead and do what you wish. It's your car and money, I was just offering my opinion. Once again, you maintain your car how you want.

Oh, my "LS" is a Sportback. While it's nothing to brag about, I do use it for work. I enjoy it and I drive 3500+ miles a month. It's no Ralliart or Evo, but it's an interesting car and the 2.4 MIVEC at 160hp has enough power to be fun and surprise more then a few "Fast n Furious wannabes" in Hondas, even with the automatic.