Regular readers will know that we're big fans of painfully obvious press releases. Although it's been a while since a really stupid obvious PR shout-out has crossed our e-transom, it was worth the wait. Honestly, I can't do justice to this one. So, at the risk of seeming as lazy as a newspaper automotive supplement editor, here's the text: "Peanut butter and jelly, chips and salsa, vegetables and … oil changes? They really do have something in common — they both promote good health. Just like your mother told you to eat your vegetables so you could be strong and healthy, you have probably been told that you are supposed to change the oil in your car regularly, according to the guidelines in your car's owner's manual. Your driving habits, the climate you live in, and the conditions you drive in will determine whether you are on a regular or severe schedule. But like you may skip the broccoli and opt for fries instead, you may let your oil change slip, thinking it really doesn't make that big of a difference. But regular oil changes and maintenance can have a big impact on how long your car lasts… So the next time you're tempted to skip that oil change, remember the price you and your car may pay in the long run. As for skipping the vegetables … well, you know what mom said." Podcast with Steve Christie, Executive Director of the Automotive Oil Change Association below.
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These painfully obvious warnings are no problem if they’re ignored by the media. But, sometimes, common sense fails everyone… for a while, the media seemed to be in love with “The Center for Science in the Public Interest,” who had some dark-haired woman giving breathless press conferences warning of the dangers of things like:
1) Going out to eat! Those “dinner houses” would often give you LARGE PORTIONS of HIGH-FAT FOODS and you could GET FAT!
Well, duh… isn’t that the general idea? Nobody brings in more trade for dinner by saying, “Our steaks are 30% smaller than the competitions!” And nobody eats there every day. Except maybe people from Edina.
2) Breakfast foods are FULL OF FAT!
Helloooo??? Breakfast is made with things like butter and sausage. Of COURSE it’s full of fat. Anyone with the IQ of a dog realizes this. YOU people eat the granola; I don’t want it.
So, RF, giving these groups a platform for the painfully obvious is bad.
But calling them up and mocking them… I’ll tune in for that.
I’m just glad that they didn’t start pushing the “every 3,000 miles” BS.
KixStart–
I used to wait tables in college, and people actually used to complain about the large portions. i used to tell them that i wasn’t going to force them to eat it–it’s like it never dawned on them that they could take some home for later. idiots.
Automotive Oil Change Association? Seriously? Really. Wow, then I guess I can consider myself greenlighted to found the National Chips and Salsa Foundation.
It may seem a subject not worth mentioning to pistonheads, but lots of folks may need reminders for the not-so-obvious. I knew a girl who loved her seven-year-old Miata, however she didn’t love it enough. It burned oil and she didn’t check, add, or change the oil for a year and a half of Houston driving. Woops.
For some car owners, this message must get lost in the “noise” of their daily living.
Here’s an quote from one of these “reminder” pieces that ran in the Bend Weekly (out of Bend, OR) a few years back:
From the owner of a garage in Ohio:
“I had a car in here recently for an oil change. It was 29,000 miles since it was last done,” he said. “The sticker was in the corner of the window noting when it was time to change it again. It was tens of thousands miles overdue, but some people wait until a light kicks on, on the dash, before doing anything.”
Go figure.
Plenty of tests have been done on cars run 50K without a complete change, only oil filters. generally it didn’t seem to hurt most cars.
If you beat the shit out your car regularly maybe it’s a good idea. I run 10K on Mobile 1 and it seems to be pretty clean when it comes out.
Very funny interview!
I thought the comment about synthetics lasting a small amount over 3k miles was interesting. The synthetic I have been using claims 5k miles, and my changer has been putting that on my reminder sticker.
I wonder if your guest is skeptical of Mobil’s claim.
GS650G: How would one go about changing the filter without draining the oil? It is difficult enough on my car to change the filter without 4 quarts of oil behind it.
My Civic recommends an oil change every 10K. I change it every 5K to be safer, and because I may fall in the “severe” driving category.
Somebody should tell the Germans, who almost to a man are out to 15,000 miles between oil changes, using synthetics of medium quality.
They’ve even taken away the dipstick on some models.
Synthetic oil quality is decided by price, because pure PAO products cost more for ingredients than do the more common, but still excellent, esther products.
I personally change oil on my Porsche, which is only used on weekends in the summer, every four years or 24,000 miles using a top grade pure PAO.
Lab tests on my waste oil show absolutely no dangerous deterioration and the filter is perfectly clean when it is cut open and examined.
Good to hear that a lot of other knowledgeable car buffs are waiting 10K+ to change their oil when using synthetics.
I’ve always had this irrational fear that I should be changing the synthetics more because that’s what I’m used to on my cars that run on regular oil even though the manual specifically states otherwise.
This puts my mind at ease.
What a surprise, a PR release that doubles as an advertisement for the very product/service that the PR company hawks…..
RyanK02 wrote:
GS650G: How would one go about changing the filter without draining the oil? It is difficult enough on my car to change the filter without 4 quarts of oil behind it.
I have a drain plug separate from the oil filter, when i take the filter off the oil stays in the pan it seems. Some topping off is necessary, but then topping off is a fact of life for older engines.
So the additives in oil know what the odometer reads?
of course the guest is not a shill for an association of jiffy Lubes, not at all. Heaven forbid you use a oil like Mobil 1 that has been proven in independent studies to be 9 times as good as dead dinosaurs over the long haul, even if the odometer says 10K since the last time it was changed.
My neighbor works at a dealership as a mechanic. Once a month a car is trailered in because Jiffy Lube pulled the wrong filter and put oil in the transmission, or didn’t tighten the filter enough. That is a case where missing 1 oil change would SAVE your engine. The forgot to put the cap back on one engine and oil was sprayed under the hood, causing all matter of problems.
Snag an interview with chemists from Amsoil or Mobil and get real facts on what oil does in engines, that would be more productive.
I once got a lecture from an oil chemist. Most engine oils are now synthetic by definition. And as a result, engine oils will be effective much longer than oils from 10 or 15 years ago. So even the cheap Quaker State stuff will last 5-7000 miles. Just look for the API (American Petroleum Institute) seal that states, ‘For all gasoline engines.’
And how ‘clean’ the oil looks when you drain it is not an indication of remaining life. Oil turns black because it picks up soot and combustion byproducts that leak into the crankcase, not because the anti-friction properties are gone.
I had a five hundred dollar oil change from Jiffy Lube once. I’ll be going to the “stealership” from now on, thank you very much.
What?!?!? What?!?! How did you get a five hundred dollar oil change?! The absolute biggest rip-off I’ve ever seen was like 80 bucks at an Acura/BMW dealer.
Holy hell, $500?! Did they sprinkle gold dust in your oil or was there a happy ending..or for that price, both?
My uncle used to peddle an oil additive (similar to slick 50) that did some amazing stuff. They put it in my dad’s old Chevy truck (the block had frozen and busted the previous winter), ran it for a few hours, drained all of the oil out of it, and drove it at highway speeds for several hours. The truck didn’t like it, but it never locked up.
My wife scowls at me when I say we should wait longer than 3k miles to change to oil; it’s worth the 20 bucks every few months to keep her happy. It probably doesn’t hurt to have a mechanic look at your car a few times a year anyhow; they always snoop around a bit to see if they can’t rip you off with a minor fix.
I’d rather we stop oil changes now and drive the Lumina till the engine locks up and explodes so I can get a better car… not likely, though. Curse the reliability of base model, milquetoast American sedans with bench seats!
It cost five hundred bucks to get my oil changed on my E46 325i. Jiffy Lube screwed up the oil pan when plugging it back in, needed to get a new pan and all that fun stuff. The also left off the the underbody cover, thankfully, so that I noticed oil leaking all over my drive way. The garage I took it to said I was lucky. Had I hit a speed bump or pot hole at speed, could have opened up the leak (they over tightened a bolt) and lost way more oil than I did.
I worked with a lady that owned a Honda Civic and she never changed the oil since new. It had 60K miles and sounded a bit like a diesel but dang….
Try going 60K miles without a Nick Tahou Garbage plate.
From personal experience, I can attest to the 3 things Jiffy Lube is best at:
1. Overcharging
2. Technical Ineptitude
3. Constant Upsell
(Attractive to customers, isn’t it?)
Haven’t gone to them for almost 5 years for those reasons!
Try going to “whats wrong at jiffy lube.com” and it will blow you away what you find out. Never again for me.
It looks like cbrjim is referring to JiffyLubeProblems.com .
# philbailey :
September 28th, 2007 at 11:41 am
“Somebody should tell the Germans, who almost to a man are out to 15,000 miles between oil changes, using synthetics of medium quality.
They’ve even taken away the dipstick on some models.
Synthetic oil quality is decided by price, because pure PAO products cost more for ingredients than do the more common, but still excellent, esther products.
I personally change oil on my Porsche, which is only used on weekends in the summer, every four years or 24,000 miles using a top grade pure PAO.
Lab tests on my waste oil show absolutely no dangerous deterioration and the filter is perfectly clean when it is cut open and examined.”
Let me get this straight….You want us to believe that (a) you own a Porsche and (b) you allow the engine to run 24K between changes.
I HOPE this is just a poor attempt at sarcasm.
Most filters are running in bypass after 3-4000 miles. The filter is doing little or nothing after 8-10000 miles.
“I’d rather we stop oil changes now and drive the Lumina till the engine locks up and explodes so I can get a better car… not likely, though. Curse the reliability of base model, milquetoast American sedans with bench seats!”
It sure wasn’t reliable for me. Fuel injectors going out (it’s lots of fun driving that trash 3.1L on 5 cylinders), turn signal switch broken, power locks not working right, bad wheel bearings. Seat back was messed up. I also like how some of the power locks would freeze in the winter. Just a really poor vehicle in every way that was worth about $6 and a pack of Juicy Fruit when I resold it.
As for the 3000 mile oil change, the fact that the manufacturer lists much longer intervals is proof enough for me. I imagine they’re pretty well clued in on what’s needed for their own product, and are probably very conservative with their numbers.
Snag an interview with chemists from Amsoil or Mobil and get real facts on what oil does in engines, that would be more productive.
Mobil will not get another dime from me in this lifetime. Their partner in crime, Exxon, nearly ruined my wife’s car thanks to the cleaning fluid they stored in one of their tanks instead of gasoline (about a dozen cars had to be towed away from the station that day – most of the cars were no more than 5 years old).
Amsoil may have a good product- but their sales techniques resemble that of Amway.
I personally order and use Motul synthetic ois…
rtx –
Phil is a trusted automotive personality in eastern Canada. I highly doubt he’d post on TTAC.
That and thanks for the reminder to change my oil
//obvious