Despite what you may have heard, it's very important to remember to get an oil change every 3,000 miles.
The health of your oil is affected by many things, including heat, cold, and the severity of your driving conditions.
Though oil does have a better lifespan now than it ever has, our driving habits are worse than ever, keeping our oil's lifespan at right around 3,000 miles.
What Does Motor Oil Do? Cars use motor oil to prevent metal to metal contact within our engines.
Engines contain dozens of moving parts that should not connect with one another.
Should these metal parts come in contact, friction and wear become issues.
If there is enough friction and wear to your engine's parts, they will warp, distort, and eventually stop working together.
Motor oil keeps everything in your engine properly lubricated, as well as permits easy starting, cools the moving engine parts, keeps surfaces clean, prevents rust and corrosion, and seals tiny gaps between piston rings and cylinder walls.
Why Change It Oil works a lot like water when it passes through your car's engine.
It picks up debris as it goes, and it becomes dirtier the more it's used until it finally starts to leave dirt behind because it's more filthy than the things it's trying to clean.
The dirt begins to accumulate, preventing the oil from being able to lubricate your engine properly, which increases friction, operating temperatures, and ultimately engine wear.
When you increase the wear and tear in your engine, you shorten the lifespan of your engine dramatically.
It's significantly cheaper to change your oil than it is to replace your engine, so regular oil changes are essential to keeping your car going.
Severe Driving Conditions While many manufacturers may recommend that you get an oil change further down the road than 3,000 miles, there's always a warning attached to that: if you drive under severe driving conditions, you will need to change your oil more frequently, at around 3,000 miles.
But what exactly are severe driving conditions? You might be surprised.
"Severe" driving conditions are the ones most of us face every single day.
They include stop and go driving, short trips, time spent idling, towing other items, and very hot or very cold temperatures.
Sounds like an average commute! In fact, it's estimated that more than 80% of American consumers regularly drive in some variety of severe driving condition.
So, what does that mean for your oil? Severe driving causes your oil to get dirtier more quickly, giving it a less useful life.
The dirt in your oil also wears down your oil filter more quickly, filling it with gunk and severely shortening its life.
Replace Filters When you go in to have your oil changed every 3,000 miles, you should make sure to have your oil filter replaced as well.
As we already mentioned, the severe driving most of us do every day makes our filters less efficient and fills them with gunk.
You may assume, though, that you can still go without changing the oil filter when you change your oil-but that would be a huge mistake.
Dirty filters automatically dirty up the clean oil you've just put into your car.
They also run the risk of actually clogging with dirt thanks to their already gunky status.
If your filter clogs, you run the risk of damaging the engine.
Filters have an emergency bypass valve that will allow oil to enter your engine without going through the filter if it's clogged.
If your filter is clogged, your car will have no choice but to use that bypass valve, flooding your engine with dirty oil that can end up shortening your engine's lifespan.
It is usually a standard practice to have a filter change included in your oil change, but it is vital to ensure that your mechanic does include this in the price of their oil change.