Hey guys. I have a 2002 Venture about 140000 miles. I have lived out of the country for most of my life (over in Ukraine). I'm used to changing my own oil, but I've heard some different opinions on how often oil should be changed. I have a friend who owns a whole bunch of cars, and tractors, and all kinds of equipment, he's a mechanical engineer, and he is frankly an extremely smart person. He changes his oil in most of his Chevy's and other regular gasoline engiene cars every 5000. It seems that many believe that 3000 should be the number to aim for.

 

It depends on various factors. If you do a lot of long distance driving you can go more mileage than if you do mostly around town. Also, if you drive in a dusty and dirty environment you need to change more often. In any event keeping the oil clean is a major factor in getting good engine life.

 

oil is the life blood of the engine. It is cheap and easy to do so don't skimp. plain and simple; fluids break down. 5 to 6 thousand km is the interval i follow. Older engines with more blow by will have oil dilution at a greater rate than newer engines...hence very black oil on oil changes.

the oil life monitor system is causing time chain stretch on the 3.6l engines....the interval is too long and cam phase correlation codes are setting.

 

It depends on if your talking kilometers or miles; 5000KM is about 3100mi. All the recommendations that I have seen from the manufacturer and oil companies suggest every 3000mi or 3 months winch ever is sooner. If your using a full synthetic oil you could probably go 5000mi between changes. My wife usually gets her oil changed between 3000mi and 4000mi I can definitively notice when she has waited too long (over 3500mi) to change her oil. If your friend is changing his every 5000KM then that meets the recommended 3000mi change rate. if your friend is only changing every 5000mi then he is probably using a full synthetic oil.