Question

Should I change my car's engine oil? I use my car only on Sundays and drive less than 20 miles a week. Now its over a year and the oil looks so good with original viscosity/colour still maintained. In addition, it drove far less than 1,000 miles. Do I need to change it? With the colour and viscosity still ok, has it undergone any chemical change (with time) that can affect the car's engine?

Answer 1

1) if the car is still under warranty, you must be able to prove that you have followed all required maintenance in the event of a warranty claim.

2) are you using conventional, semi-synthetic or full-synthetic oil? No reason to change synthetic IF when you do drive it, you drive long enough to fully warm-up the engine and oil to burn-out contaminents.

I'm in exactly the same situation: have a car that's never been driven more than 5000 miles a year, and now we're down to less than 1000. It goes to the dealer once a year for a check-up.....it's a Ford and original requirement was for semi-synthetic oil. In chatting with the Service Manager, he suggested switching to full synthetic and changing every-other year. Again - contaminants build-up with short trips if the engine is never warmed-up fully - so when we do take it out we make sure to drive minimum 5 miles.

You must follow some services on a time, rather than mileage basis. For example, follow the manufacturer recommended interval for flushing the cooling system and replacing coolant: rust and corrosion inhibitors must be renewed, especially in newer cars with a lot of aluminum components.

Hope you are putting gas stabilizer in your fuel - and a good idea to keep the tank well filled: less air space means less condensation.