Re: Plan on driving a new car on a 3000mile highway trip. Bad idea?

Hachiroku ハチロク wrote:
> On Wed, 14 May 2008 23:54:26 -0700, SMS wrote:
> 
>>> Maintenance is a wonderful thing.
>>>
>>> Phew...
>> Recreational oil changing is pretty wasteful. All the experts agree
that
>> there is no additional benefit to the engine from changing the oil that
>> often.
> 
> On my Corolla, I have 260,000 miles. That's 81 oil changes at about
3,200
> miles between changes. At an average of $2/qt, that's $650. I buy
filters
> in bulk, since I usually have two cars that use the same filter. I get
> genuine Toyota filters, by the case, for about $3.50 each. 
> 
> Over the life of the car I have had no oil related failures, it doesn't
> burn oil no blow-by, nothing. The engine responds like it did the day I
> bought the car. 
> 
> And if you average the life of the car, that works out to an oil change
> every 3 months. 
> 
> $650 sounds like cheap insurance to me.

It's not insurance. In fact, you risk getting a faulty filter, not 
tightening the drain plug properly, etc. Plus, it is a waste of money. 
And, the oil filter has tiny holes in the filter media such that during 
the first several miles, the oil filter doesn't filter out small 
particualrs so well.

Jeff