Only 3000 miles on oil, but One year old. Change filter too?

[c good]

I'm at the one year mark for oil change. The filter is a Mobil One. Just curious whether I should change the filter also? It's low miles but up for the 12 month service interval. It's not so much the extra $11.00 or $12.00. Just don't want to be wasteful. Thanks for any input.

 

[Chickenhawk]

Trust your oil life monitor, but I would also change it once a year even with low mileage usage. Personally, I never change oil without a filter, but with your low mileage, the volume of oil the I6 uses and the quality of your filter, it is not really "dumping dirty oil back into the engine."

One of the reasons why I trust the oil life monitor but would always change once a year anyway is that a vehicle that sits a lot can build up sludge, and this can impact the variable valve timing system. After pandemic when it sat for weeks at a time , I had to run three changes with very short intervals in between when I got a VVT service light, and even with changing actuator and sensors, it still pops on a bit.

 

[mrrsm]

An Opinion Amplified in THIS Study...

Motor Oil Age Doesn’t Matter as Much as Mileage: Study

An oil testing laboratory has found that the conventional wisdom of six-month oil changes might be a waste of your money.

www.thedrive.com

 

[Blckshdw]

That's helpful. I change my oil and filter every December, but was starting to consider doing it every 6 months, as the oil is always black even though I put way less miles on it now, than I did 5 years ago. (thank you hybrid work schedule, and few and far between long road trips)

 

[mrrsm]

Oil is Like Blood... It is a Viscous Liquid...With SOLIDS suspended within it. In place of Billions of Red Blood Cells as in Humans... there are collections of microscopic particles of Dirt ingested via normal Stoichiometric inhalations ...AND ...Carbon *MUNG* Long Chain Hydro-Carbon Molecules will also form VERY Abrasive Particles suspended in the Fluid.

Just as troublesome is the issue that Carbon contamination can also mix with Blow-By Gasoline Rich Fuel Vapors that will combine with Water Vapor in the Crankcase Motor Oil and form Strong Acids that can eventually attack Bearing Surfaces.

The Early "Transfusions" of Fresh, High Quality Motor Oil ...AND... an Oil Filter ...AND... a New Air Filter (oft Ignored) will work together on High Mileage GM 4.2L Engines to help stave off the problems of having Low Lubricity, Dirty Motor Oil that fights against extending Motor Life... substantially.

For anyone interested... perform an Oil Filter Autopsy sometime and after spreading open the Filter Paper Fan Folds... squeeze some of those Black Coffee Grounds *GRIT* stuck deep in those folded segments through your bare fingers... and you'll soon get the idea.

 

[Mike534x]

That's helpful. I change my oil and filter every December, but was starting to consider doing it every 6 months, as the oil is always black even though I put way less miles on it now, than I did 5 years ago. (thank you hybrid work schedule, and few and far between long road trips)

This is what I started doing, but every start of Spring and Fall. Between using the remote start and short trips, I feel better knowing the oil will always be "fresh". At least for my case, it comes out to 3k miles between changes.

 

[Redbeard]

I don't think anyone on this site will "bust your shirt" if you chose to leave it or change it. As for me it is a good piece of mind to change both the oil and filter. Years ago I owned a nissan pick up and put 365k miles on it and I don't recall why but pulled the valve cover off. The cams had zero wear showing on them. But not many folks keep vehicles 19 years either. Blackstone once did some testing on old oil that was in their family. Like 50-80 year old stuff and it tested out fine for what was supposed to do way back then. It wouldn't come close to handling today's engines, but the point was it hadn't degraded either. Admittedly it was out of the can an not sitting in an engine somewhere. In days of old our family only changed out the filters every other oil change, but I don't think we could afford to do it each time. Heck the volkswagon we had didn't even have an oil filter, just a screen (like that would do much good!) It did make changing the oil easier though If you don't change the oil filter make a note of it so it does get changed on the next oil change.