2000 Silv Ecsb W /110k Miles @5000mi/year

[rjirvine]

Hi All,

I have a question with oil change intervals for my 2000 ECSB Silv 4x4. The truck has 110k miles on it and with my new job I only put about 5000 miles a year on my truck (8 miles door to door each way).That means I only change my oil about once every 10 months or so. When I bought the truck with 91k miles on it I had Blackstone labs run an oil sample and they said the first time there was a little too much fuel in the oil which reduced its viscosity to the minimum for 5W-30. Not unexpected with such short trips. They recommended I drive it for about 30 mins next time before changing the oil. I did and the oil analysis was perfect.

 

I put Valvoline 5 Quarts 5W-30 and one quart of 10W-30 In at every oil change now (to help with borderline fuel/viscosity issues)

 

I am wondering if I should change the oil more often or stick with the OLM which comes on about 3500-4000 miles?

 

I always use Valvoline oil and a Purolator "Pureone" filter

[HawkeyeOC]

My .02:

 

I would look at oil change intervals in terms of time instead of how many miles driven for a vehicle such as yours. One of our vehicles is driven about the same amount of miles per year as yours and I change it every 6 months. Short trips such as your are considered more severe use than highway miles.

[rjirvine]

I realize that my driving is more severe than all highway miles. However I am asking the question because I think the 3mos/3000 miles mantra is crap. Would a synthetic oil be bettter?

[gnet158]

Syn would help out a lot with the short trips, but since Blackstone didn't see any unusal wear then I'd

 

Stick with Dino oil and change every 6 months

 

OR

 

Switch to Syn and change it once a year.

 

 

I use Pennzoil Platinum 5-30.