How many miles can a car go over oil change

Q: Can I go 1000 miles over my oil change?

Unless you are running some dinosaur from the 50s, it is highly unlikely you need a 3000 mile oil change and even if you do and went a 1000 over its highly unlikely to do any harm unless youre doing very short journeys in freezing weather.

The 3,000-mile oil change is dead. Cars can be driven more miles between oil changes than this outdated rule of thumb would have you think. Which leads to a slippery question: How often should you change your oil?

Table of Contents Show

How often to change your oil
Oil life monitoring systems
Why frequent oil changes aren’t actually better
Oil Change Interval Myth
How Long Can You Go Without An Oil Change After The Light Comes On?
How Often To Change Oil If Don’t Drive Much?
What happens if you go over your oil change mileage?
Can I go 1000 miles over my oil change?

You could just ask your mechanic. However, that’s an invitation to recommend too frequent oil changes. It’s a mistake to “drop the keys on the counter and tell the mechanic, ‘Do what you think is right,’” says Richard Reina, product training director at auto parts site CARiD.com.

Instead, arm yourself with knowledge about what your car needs. You’ll save time and money — and protect yourself from upselling when you take your car in.

How often to change your oil

There are two ways to know when it's time for an oil change:

1. Look in your owner's manual. In the scheduled maintenance section, the manual tells you how many miles or how much time you can allow between oil changes. Most manufacturers also recommend changing the oil filter — an inexpensive item — when you change the oil.

Many owner's manuals list oil change schedules for severe and normal driving. If your driving habits fit the description of severe, such as driving at low speeds, extensive idling or towing a trailer, you’ll need more frequent oil changes.

For example, the manual for the 2016 Mazda3, a popular compact car, recommends oil changes every 7,500 miles, or six months, for normal driving and every 5,000 miles, or four months, for severe driving.

If you’re not in the mood to crack this seemingly impenetrable book, look for it online. Most manufacturers now have online versions that can easily be searched.

2. Look for the service light on your dash. Some cars have a light that says “service” or “service now” while others have an icon of a wrench or some other symbol. Generally, when the light comes on, it’s time to schedule an oil change.

However, the service light might be telling you that you need other maintenance performed, too, such as a tire rotation or routine inspections. To find out exactly what your light means — you guessed it — look in your owner's manual.

Oil life monitoring systems

Some cars use a different system for calculating when you need an oil change, although they, too, display a service light. Sometimes called “oil life monitoring systems,” a computer records information about how you drive, such as how long you drive and the engine’s operating conditions. It then determines when an oil change is needed.

The quality of the oil isn’t measured; instead, a calculation is made based on your driving patterns. So, if you take a lot of short trips, the light might come on after driving only 5,000 miles. If you do a lot of highway driving, which causes less wear on the engine, it might come on after 6,700 miles or more.

If you have an oil life monitoring system, you don’t have to worry whether you are under the normal or severe schedule — the car’s computer figures out what's best. You can find out from your owner’s manual whether your car has an oil life monitoring system.

Why frequent oil changes aren’t actually better

After an oil change, your mechanic might put a little sticker in the corner of your windshield telling you to come back in 3,000 miles. Over 60,000 miles of driving, that would be 20 oil changes, compared to 12 oil changes if you followed your manual's recommended 5,000-mile intervals.

Should you follow the repair shop’s timeline? After all, giving your car an oil change feels like you’re giving a reward to a hardworking friend.

But experts say that too frequent oil changes won’t make your car last longer or run better. Plus, you’re throwing away your time and money and a natural resource.

And while the oil change itself isn’t too expensive — between $42 and $79 for most cars, according to RepairPal.com — you’re likely to get pitches for additional services you might not need.

Changing your oil too frequently, and the dumping of waste motor oil, are also bad for the environment. Though much of it is collected after use, used oil “continues to be a serious environmental problem because it is insoluble and contains heavy metals and toxic chemicals,” according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

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There’s a common myth that you need to change the oil in your car engine every 3,000 miles, is the true? Exactly how many miles can you go over an oil change?

Basically, if you use synthetic blends or conventional motor oils, your oil change intervals should be 5,000 to 7,500 miles. On the other hand, if you use fully synthetic motor oils, your oil change intervals should be 10,000 – 12,500 miles.

Yes, driving your car up to 10,000 miles before changing the oil won’t cause any damage to your engine.

However, when you’ve driven more miles – past your oil change interval range, that’s when you should be worried about the health of your car engine.

Oil Change Interval Myth

Already, you have an interval you follow to change the oil in your vehicle engine. If you decide to skip the interval at some point, that could be the worst decision you’d made so far.

Yes, oil is the “blood” of any engine, and what the engine needs is “clean” oil. The oil in an engine (even if the engine is not being used daily) would get dirty over time and need to be drained out.

A dirty oil would rather mar the performance and functionality of your engine, which can lead to a serious breakdown. In a bid to avoid such a scenario, automakers indicate the interval for an oil change in the owner’s manual.

But, sometimes, their oil change intervals are too early; thus, you may want to plan a seemingly suitable interval for yourself. Well, whichever interval you choose is good, but your mileage bracket shouldn’t be too far from what’s specified in your owner’s manual.

For example, if your manual says 3,500 – 5,000, you can adjust to 5,000 – 6,000. On high-end modern cars, you’d get a notification on your dashboard when the centralized computer believes you need to go for an oil change.

Driving with dirty oil can cause a lot of costly damages, and you definitely don’t want that to happen.

Related Posts: Clean Vs Dirty Engine Oil

Well, you actually need to go for an oil change if you’re reached the interval. However, it is yet safe to drive up to 500 miles over an oil change. If you exceed this mileage, you’re simply putting more stress on the engine.

The more you keep driving over an oil change interval, the dirtier the oil in your engine gets. When the oil must have contained so many particles and create mucks in the engine, your car would start exhibiting unusual signs, and possibly break down.

How Long Can You Go Without An Oil Change After The Light Comes On?

How Many Miles
Can You Go Over An Oil Change

The icons on your dashboard don’t just illuminate – something have have triggered the illumination. So, if the oil change icon or notification appears on your dashboard, you really need to change your oil as soon as possible.

However, you can still go a few miles (up to 500 miles) safely before getting signs that something is not right in your engine. Well, some drivers don’t pay attention to their oil change intervals – they oil change their car’s engine oil when they deem it fit.

Related Posts: How Long Does Synthetic Oil Last?

How Often To Change Oil If Don’t Drive Much?

Okay, you have a car parked in your garage; it’s not your favorite ride, so you don’t always go with it, but you’re concerned if you also need to change its oil?

Actually, auto manufacturers recommend changing the engine oil on any vehicle at least twice in a calendar year. This applies irrespective of whether the car is driven every day or occasionally.

Thus, even a car that is only driven once a month needs to get an oil change at least two times a year. In this scenario, you don’t calculate the oil change based on mileage, you calculate by months.

For example, you can decide to change the vehicle’s oil every 5 months. This practice is to keep the engine from rusting. An oil that has stayed long inside an engine would gradually get darker, which is not good for any engine.

What More?

You shouldn’t go over 1,000 when you’ve already crossed your oil change intervals. When you feed your car engine with clean, smooth oil always, it’d always deliver the best performance, and also last longer.

Related Posts: Oil Change Time Vs Mileage

What happens if you go over your oil change mileage?

In fact, if you wait too long for an oil change, your smooth and clean oil will turn into dirty sludge. When this happens, your engine must work harder to fight through the buildup of muck. It loses its lubrication, and decreases heat absorption. This means that your car will be susceptible to major issues.

Can I go 1000 miles over my oil change?

Unless you are running some dinosaur from the 50's, it is highly unlikely you need a 3000 mile oil change and even if you do and went a 1000 over it's highly unlikely to do any harm unless you're doing very short journeys in freezing weather.