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0 pointsjve6y ago0 comments

A mechanic which has put gas equipment for my car said that this is CRAZY. Oil could bear 35K km, but not the oil filter. He said that car should have oil change at ~10K km.

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jacquesm6y ago

If I were your mechanic I'd say that too. Heck, there is a whole industry that is working hard to convince you to change your oil every 3000 miles or three months.

dzhiurgis6y ago

I think it really depends a lot on quality of oil and age of engine.

prepend6y ago

The manufacturer incurs a lot of liability by setting the oil maintenance window so high. So I don’t think they would do that without data to support this requirement.

If the oil filter truly couldn’t last, then there would be many more failures. Which would be payable by the manufacture (either through warranty or class action law suit).

Based on this simple analysis, I believe the manufacturer docs vs. a mechanic with no skin in the game who also makes money from frequent oil changes.

jtbayly6y ago

Unless they know it will last 150k miles and don't care beyond that. Or put more cynically, have set the window for artificial obsolescence of their vehicles early enough to goose sales, but late enough that their reputation and liability don't take a hit.

prepend6y ago

That’s why I mentioned class action suites. If a manufacturer did that, it would be a dream for a law firm as it would be pretty easy to show the damage of doing 5 oil changes over 150k miles as recommended (vs 15 or 30 or whatever). Of course consumers would get $5 or something small, but a law firm would get millions that would be paid by the manufacturer.

Again, hard to know. But when the manufacturers have something to lose from being wrong and random mechanic who sells oils changes doesn’t, it makes it easier to man vehicle maintenance.

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jacquesm6y ago

If I were your mechanic I'd say that too. Heck, there is a whole industry that is working hard to convince you to change your oil every 3000 miles or three months.

dzhiurgis6y ago

I think it really depends a lot on quality of oil and age of engine.

prepend6y ago

The manufacturer incurs a lot of liability by setting the oil maintenance window so high. So I don’t think they would do that without data to support this requirement.

If the oil filter truly couldn’t last, then there would be many more failures. Which would be payable by the manufacture (either through warranty or class action law suit).

Based on this simple analysis, I believe the manufacturer docs vs. a mechanic with no skin in the game who also makes money from frequent oil changes.

jtbayly6y ago

prepend6y ago

Again, hard to know. But when the manufacturers have something to lose from being wrong and random mechanic who sells oils changes doesn’t, it makes it easier to man vehicle maintenance.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse