How Often You Should Get an Oil Change

How Often You Should Get an Oil Change

Recently we got a question from a customer asking why we recommend an oil change every 3,000-5,000 miles when many of these newer vehicles can go much longer between oil changes—sometimes up to 10,000 miles.

Even with a newer vehicle we still recommend going no more than 3,000-5,000 miles between oil changes for two reasons: 

  • Vehicles can have oil leaks whether they’re 20 years old or 2 years old. You can catch and address some of these issues early if you’re taking your car in every 3-4 months as opposed to every year or so. Remember, we do a 25-point inspection on your vehicle every time you bring it in. This is a great opportunity for us to see your vehicle every 3-4 months and catch problems while they’re still small.
  • Living in North Texas we have a lot of tough driving. We are in stop and go traffic whether you take the Tollway or not; it’s crazy to pay to sit in traffic, but that’s just one sign of how much this area is growing! But besides the traffic on the highways, we sit in fast food lines, school pickup lines, and many other places where everything is stop and go. And then there’s the weather! We have extreme temperatures here in Texas. In fact, one of the jokes is that if you don’t like the weather here in Texas, just wait 15 minutes! One day it could be 100 degrees and the next day we might have ice. We can have extreme temperatures in the summer, which is not good for your oil. But we can have extreme temperatures in the winter as well. This is all hard on your engine.

Those are two of the reasons why we recommend getting an oil change every 3,000-5,000 miles. We do understand that on these newer vehicles they tell you that you can go up to 10,000 miles. We get that! And you can choose to abide by that. But our suggestion is that you come in more often. That way your vehicle is under our eyes more often, because we are all about preventive maintenance here, as opposed to tackling bigger problems down the road.

We hope this clears up some things! If you have any questions or if you need an oil change, stop on by!