it is recommended that the oil be changed every 3.750 miles, it says it on the oil change coupons from the dealer, in the manual, and on the subaru website.....i was just wondering if anyone changes their oil according to manufacturer, or still changes it at 3,000 miles?? Just want to know what is best for my car

 

It's a matter of cost - more often is better. The oil is the blood of the car, the cleaner it is then the fewer problems. If you drive in really bad conditions (nasty cold winters or very hot dirty places) then do it every month.

Your car/choice

 

I try to change the oil and filter on the first opportunity I get after rolling 3k miles. I never let it go past 4K without a change.

I've had a lot of experience doing this with all of my cars for the last 35 years. My car before the WRX Sedan was a 1990 Mitsubishi GS Turbo that turned 260K miles before I sold it. It was running fine then, too.

A good oil filter (Subaru, Purolator, Wix, NAPA) will do it's job long after the 4K. But, it needs to be replaced with every change because any motor oil (conventional or synthetic) will collect water and other acids. These acids and other damaging chemicals are byproducts from operating any internal combustion engine. Oil filters do nothing to remove liquid-state chemical contaminants from the oil. The only way to get rid of them is to change the oil and the oil filter.

I use a good brand of conventional oil (Castrol GTX) at the weights and quality specified by the owners manual that came with the car. Under "normal" driving conditions, conventional oil will not begin serious break-down before 4K. Since I'm changing every 3-4K, it's the most cost-effective way to go. Used oil is stored in milk jugs in the garage before hauling them to the recycling center. I buy oil at the parts store when it's on sale, usually several cases at a time. Sometimes, the stores will only let you by one or two cases on sale per visit or day. When that happens, I'll buy a couple of days in a row or hit multiple stores. I also stock up on the drain plug compression gaskets which I get from the Subaru parts department.

The benefits of good maintenance are a good-running, long-lived engine with fewer repair costs.

 

couldn't of been said better!

 

If the car is stock and being used for normal driving, the difference between 3000 and 3750 is not going to be an issue. If you are running synthetic, even less of an issue.

I change mine around the 3750 mark but I'm not worried about a couple of hundred miles each way.

 

After 16 years of owning a Chevy Astro we finally gave it away to someone that really needed it. It was still running, ofcourse. That old van had close to 300,000 miles on the original engine (although the engine did spin a bearing while still under warranty at 45,000 miles, all GM did was replace the crank, the bearing, and a piston). That van didn't know what "taking it easy" meant. It went through several kids hands, including my own, as a first car after we had each received our licenses. And that alone, is saying something. We also drove it on rural Idaho mountain roads through half of its life. When it came time to change the oil, and if we decided to change the air filter at the same time, you could literally shake clumps of dirt off! The Astro outlasted any of our expectations, especially when considering the maintenance we put into it (or lack of). The oil changing history you ask? We changed it a total of 8 times, or, an average of every 2 years and 35,000 miles! So, is it really necessary to change it every 3,500 miles, or is 35,000 okay?...You be the judge.

 

geeahhh... 35,000 miles? no. no. no. what you got there was sheer luck. i've heard of cars doing things like that - lasting forever with hardly any oil changes... just running off of sludge and gunked seals.. if you love your car and want it to truly last you should (even if you have to) nickel and dime it (do your own oil changes if you can't afford the full service). people will know how you treat the car. the peep's that service it and those that here the valve ticking and rod knocking. a moron at my last shop left a subie r. diff check plug out and the car blew it's diff in less then a week. my girlfriends 05 discovery II left its first oil change at 2500 w/M1 from the dealer who left the oil plug out. the result was a seized engine - might as well been a useless (overly large) paper weight..

 

Interesting point. The US is unusual in this frequent oil change thing. In Europe, most modern cars run a 10,000-20,000 schedule between services. Subaru's manual suggests 7500 miles between oil changes even for the WRX. It is only the dealers who suggest oil changes between these intervals for some reason. Maybe they have a financial interest in changing your oil?

However, I do change mine every 3750 miles because when I sell it, the buyer will probably expect this, so for the minimal cost, I might as well do it.

dubRexer: I'm not sure what you are saying, it sounds like the vehicles you are talking about were damaged because of bad maintennance? If you forget to replace the drain plug, it will be bad for the engine regardless of how often you change the oil.

 

Lorry what up man - i'm just reinforcing (or trying to!) the point of oil. the vehicles were damaged b/c of negligence. as far as oil changes- do'em when you want to, i just like my oil in clean and out clean! but when you get mobil 1 free whenever that's easy to say..
if you're driving a turbo or any hi output kinda car oil is very important i can't stress it enuff.. i honestly don't think the "us frequent oil change.." is just a marketing ploy.. i work on cars and i can tell you the importance of oil changes as well as properly lubrication and not driving on broken down lubricants. besides the fact when your car's oil breaks down it doesn't retain heat as well and thus you're loosing power. having seen internals from blocks with frequent oil changes to blocks that didn't have enuff (and resulted in getting rebuilt) i can honestly say that oil changes are as important as changing it every 3-3500 miles or less! - as well as making sure your car (i.e. checking a lot esp. if turbo and a wrx!) the oil level and topping off as needed between oil changes.

 

Sorry, I misunderstood your original post. I agree that oil changes and regular maintennance is important, but it varies enormously with the type of vehicle and its usage. A full track car is going to hammer the oil a lot faster than a car that is only used for freeway commuting.

 

totally. that's why with drag cars you go the extra mile to insure not screwing up a record breaking or winning e.t. by building a major block with race oil, piston squirters, etc... these types of blocks are stripped down and essentially rebuilt after each use. however oil is important i wouldn't venture over 4,000 miles on a wrx and personally i don't go a hair over 3,000. Especially do them every 3-3,500 miles if you do not regularly and I mean on a daily basis check your oil level to make sure it's at the "full line." turbo anything but esp. turbo with the inline engine creates lots of heat and friction which burns oil. make sure you got enuff oil and aren't 'blindly' driving going over 3,000 miles each oil change... i'll burn almost 1qt on a good sunday night just dragging my car in a matter of hours.

 

totally. that's why with drag cars you go the extra mile to insure not screwing up a record breaking or winning e.t. by building a major block with race oil, piston squirters, etc... these types of blocks are stripped down and essentially rebuilt after each use. however oil is important i wouldn't venture over 4,000 miles on a wrx and personally i don't go a hair over 3,000. Especially do them every 3-3,500 miles if you do not regularly and I mean on a daily basis check your oil level to make sure it's at the "full line." turbo anything but esp. turbo with the inlineor horizontally disposed engines creat much more heat and friction which burns lots of oil.just make sure you aren't 'blindly' driving going over 3,000 miles each oil change... i'll burn almost 1qt on a good sunday night just dragging my car in a matter of hours.

 

My bro does 5kmi oil changes with synthetic in his GTi 1.8t... My parent's MB SLK230 (supercharged) goes in for service every 12k+ with synthetic and the "Flexable Service" indicator (measures actual driving habits etc). I know Toyota has gotten rid of the "Severe" (every 3750) and "Normal" (every 7500) oil change schedules in favor of a standard 5000mi oil service interval. I was thinking of just using synthetic and changing every 5kmi. Thoughts??

 

i was using crappy oil (Quaker State) and change every 3k. Now I am switching over to Mobil1 Clean 7500 and planning on changing every 6k now. Just a buck more a qt, not bad. I just changed it this weekend, and I already notice the difference. My car was shaking a bit at low rpm, now it is nice and smooth.

 

Hahha I just switched from quaker state 10-30 to Mobile1 Clean 7500 last weekend.. .not sure if I notice a difference, but I'm trying to extend my oil changes, too.