why is maintenance schedule different from each dealer?

customboss · May 26

Double tap.

Edited May 26 by customboss
Double tap

OnTheReel · May 26

The brand stuff is always entertaining and I used to be super guilty myself. My dad used Castrol Syntec in everything. He put 180,000 miles on a Northstar V8 and credited the oil to anyone who would listen. Around the same time I put 205k on a VW VR6 and also credited the oil (Mobil 1). Both of these engines were notoriously problematic for various reasons. And yet we suffered no major issues. Rust got his Cadillac eventually. Sold my VW to a friend who still uses it. It’s up over 220k last I heard, still original everything. Even the clutch! Thing isn’t even rusty.

Neither my dad’s Castrol or my Mobil 1 were a boutique product. Nothing more than average oils (especially post-lawsuit era). The common thread was that neither one of us ever went over 6 months or 3,000 miles on an oil change.

My point is that in hindsight we were praising the wrong thing when we’d tell the stories about our favorite brand of oil and refused to buy anything else. It probably wasn’t the brands we used, but how they were used, and for how long. Today I would view any factory or dealer maintenance schedule with high suspicion. You’re basically on your own out there and unfortunately most consumers are trained to not even care. I was in that camp myself for a period of time (even though I was taught better long ago)!

Grumpy Bear · May 27

5 hours ago, OnTheReel said:

The brand stuff is always entertaining and I used to be super guilty myself. My dad used Castrol Syntec in everything. He put 180,000 miles on a Northstar V8 and credited the oil to anyone who would listen. Around the same time I put 205k on a VW VR6 and also credited the oil (Mobil 1). Both of these engines were notoriously problematic for various reasons.

Dad put over 700K on a FE390 Ford. Trop-Artic 10W30. But he changed it every 1K miles. Uncle Bob a million on a Flat Head Ford. OCI? 500 to 1K miles SAE 40 summer. SAE 20 winter. One valve grind. Lord knows what brand oil he used in that. He bought it in the early 40's. Grandpa use SAE 40 year around in his 47 Stude Commander. On cold days he had pan he put hot coals in to set against the oil pan to make it liquid. LOL. Ditto the tractor. This isn't his but looks like it.

OnTheReel · May 27

40 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Dad put over 700K on a FE390 Ford. Trop-Artic 10W30. But he changed it every 1K miles. Uncle Bob a million on a Flat Head Ford. OCI? 500 to 1K miles SAE 40 summer. SAE 20 winter. One valve grind. Lord knows what brand oil he used in that. He bought it in the early 40's. Grandpa use SAE 40 year around in his 47 Stude Commander. On cold days he had pan he put hot coals in to set against the oil pan to make it liquid. LOL. Ditto the tractor. This isn't his but looks like it.

Nice, those are some awesome figures that really took dedication! It’s always more impressive when you hear of people getting huge miles out of something old, obscure and/or not known for being long-lived.

Hell, nobody would even bat an eye at my old Honda Accord. 301k when I packed it in and drove it to the junkyard. I obviously didn’t put all the miles on it but I suspect there was no Amsoil or Red Line in it’s history. Think I splurged for Castrol GTX a couple times, but mostly used whatever crap oil the 18 year old me could afford.
Some vehicles just take nothing but a little care to get there. Others seem to fight you the whole way. Think most newer vehicles will fall into the latter category. My current truck included, no doubt.

KARNUT · May 27

I had one very high mileage diesel truck. My first diesel a 91 Dodge Cummins 5 speed. I put 100K miles on it in two years pulling my tractor to job sites. Then it became a crew ROW truck for 2 years another 100K. Then it became a shop backup crew truck. In 2001 a customer needed help for nine months on a job site. By then I was driving 1/2 tons. So I used it to haul a tractor around. By then it was on its fourth time around. It got painted once, a recalled injection pump. Just before the job I did a clutch as a precaution. A few years later unknown to me my brother as a Christmas bonus my brother gave it to our shop Forman. I wasn’t happy about it. He eventually traded it for a jeep, he wasn’t supposed to. It was on its fifth time around. The paint was fading again. It had a dash pad and a seat cover otherwise still ran good. Only Amsoil was used in it.