Oil changes

I am about to hit my 3k mark for changing my oil. I did the first change at 1900ish and im about to hit 4900ish. Well I went out and checked my oil level like I normally due and seen the oil is still pretty clean and clear. In any other car I owned at 3000 miles the oil would be black. I know the manual says like 7500 miles or something and was wondering is anyone really waiting for that 7500ish miles or are they stticking to the old fasion 3000 mile mark? I know this motor was built to run alot cleaner than the standard motor and I am seeing that now that I looked at my 3000 mile old oil that still looks good .

I stick to the 3000mi oil change. I think it all depends on the type of driving you do. If you do a lot of city driving then it will have to be changed more often compared to highway driving where you can go longer between changes. Also, another big factor is the type of oil, wether you use synthetic or not can determine the time between changes.
Hope this helps!

Changing at shorter intervals is never a bad thing and is relatively cheap maintenance. 

3000 for me all the way. I always use mobil.

Whether its clean or not it still breaks down. Also others dont recommend using synthetic before 6000miles. You want the rings and cylinders to wear to each other and seat properly before running synthetic. Personally I wont consider synthetic before 10K.
 
Also run it in manual every once in a while and downshift manually so you put some backpressure on the rings this also helps them to seat better.

Is the Outtie a pretty easy car to change the oil? I am debating whether or not to do it myself, or take it to the stealer. I have never changed oil in a car before.

If you do plan to did it yourself, at least take it to the dealer once and again for an oil change so they can take care of other maintenance issues.

I take it to the stealer the first time just so they can be the first ones to break the oil bolt and filter loose the first time. It usually takes all day, I make sure its documented that I had to wait for hours. Then if mitsu tries to say I never took it to the stealer for the next changes I tell them it takes too long so I went elsewhere and keep reciepts.

true. i am not using synthetic on my outie right now. im only at 3200 miles. after 10k, i will switch over to syntehtic.
 
btw, i just added a quart of oil to my outie since im just breaking in the car and the oil level was pretty low when i checked. but is it ok since i spilled some oil and it drips near the spark plug? When i turn on the engine; it gets warm and the oil began to burn off. is that ok?

ok after reading the service manual in the sticky thread, i see that it says 0w-30. But in the manual on my outie said 5w-20. Does that mean i can use 5w-30 also?
 
 

quote:

ORIGINAL: tufduck

true. i am not using synthetic on my outie right now. im only at 3200 miles. after 10k, i will switch over to syntehtic.

btw, i just added a quart of oil to my outie since im just breaking in the car and the oil level was pretty low when i checked. but is it ok since i spilled some oil and it drips near the spark plug? When i turn on the engine; it gets warm and the oil began to burn off. is that ok?

 
Its fine and Im sure it wont be the last time   I could tell you stories that are much much worse, just make sure you remember to put the oil filler cap back on

I have yet to buy into the whole "don't use synthetic before XX miles, etc." position.  I have used synthetic in all my vehicles and bikes for the past 18 years from day one.  Granted none of the engines were pre-89 but I have not had any problems thus far.
 
I hate oil debates so I won't have one.  Oil is like religion - YMMV.

lol thanks. im just afraid since this is my first outie.
 
doh! i just forgot and I am kinda worried right now. When i checked my dipstick and the indication oil that it was halfway (between the 2 dots/holes) i just put in a quart of oil. is it ok though or too much?

I was trying to start a huge debate over oil I just was curious on who was going for the 7500 mile mark or keeping it at 3000. I was just amazed at the oil being clean still at 3000 miles.

Did you check it warm and did you check it after you added a quart? Were you on a level surface?

Its unlikely it needed a quart unless theres a problem with the engine but if you didnt check it when you got it you wouldnt know what it started out with.
Usually the entire space between the marks is 1 quart, however I usually add a small amount then check then add then check until Im happy.

If you overfilled then change the oil now, dont try draining any its just a mess. Youll also want to pick a brand of oil and use that brand and weight to top off.

Dont feel bad my husband didnt have much knowledge about cars, he does know which fork to use at a fancy resturaunt though. Sometimes you only know what your parents felt was necessary

I had a festiva that held 3 qts total oil. He was driving it I told him it had a leak and to make sure he kept the oil topped off. He was checking it in the garage that dips to the front left tire. It ended up with 5 quarts total in it by the time he was done "adding" oil. It went that way for some time and didnt hurt it.

Well I can tell you that I have a '93 Chevy truck with a 350 at 108,000 miles that had synthetic for most of its miles.
It now has blow by on deceleration and hard acceleration under load. I'm not happy about that and have started to wonder if its because of the synthetic too early.

Another interesting thought I had was related to Mobil1 change in their formula, it is no longer a true synthetic oil. Its put in some cars out of the factory I wonder if they changed the formula so the rings would seat properly without admitting full synthetic from day 1 is a problem. Just a thought.

It is funny how hot oil topics can get, I even had a guy at Walmart spend an hour telling me all he knows about oil, fuel additives and filters from his Audi website buddies.

Im always open to suggestions, right now I run Shell Rotella synthetic in my motorcycles and Castrol synthetic (which the Audi guy approved of)  in my truck I don't go by the miles before change I change it 2x a year because it doesn't get enough miles usually.

I still haven't decided on an oil for the outie, the first change was at the dealer I'm still under 5K gotta decide soon.

 It may be base formula castrol, I ran that in my miniban and it held up even with coolant in the oil at 90K I traded it in it at 140K still saw no blow by at all and I used to tow my boat with it. Its also in the POS Alero with 98K on it.
Both were changed between 6-7K never at 3K.

Let us know what you decide.

hahahallololol thanks for the great story.
 
yea i heard about "oil" can be a lot of debates. but hey, funny things just pop up from people to people. :)

The 3000 mile interval is overkill .  This is from the days when motor oil wasn't refined nearly as well and had a lot of paraffin (wax) in it, which would start gunking up about this time. 
 
Mitsubishi says 6 months or 7500 (for normal driving) and is giving us 100K mile warranties...so they must be pretty confident in it..especially since replacing an engine isn't a cheap fix.  However, I'll say that 7500 seems like alot of miles..I usually did between 6 and 7 thousand in my Saturn, because that's when the change light came on.
 
Oil will turn dark well before it's useful life is over.  Turning dark means its cleaning..so a newer car and a clean engine means it will take longer to turn dark
 
You can break in an engine with synthetic.  They put it in as factory fill in Corvettes, and Porsches, among others
 
I plan on doing 6 months intervals (I only put about 1000-1200 a month on it) and I like to use synthetic since I do short trips
 
You can do 3000 mile intervals, it won't hurt..but I feel I can give less money to the oil companies and not sacrifice my engine
 
Ulimately, do what you're comfortable with
 

btw, do i have to use the recommend oil 5w-20? Can I use like 5w-30 or 10w-20/30?
What do you guys recommend b/c I am moving to North Dakota for school pretty soon and it's really cold there.
 
Also, after ND, I'll be moving to Houston, TX. Again, what oil do you guys think?
 
Thanks alot.

Alot of oil debate. I think some took it alittle too far. So it seems just 1 other guy is with me going over 3000 miles so far.

After I get a few more miles on it Ill run longer intervals intentionally I do on my other cars 6-7K. For now they might be longer but Im trying for shorter.
 
Its like eating pink pork chops, the USDA says 140* is ok nowdays but its hard to get used to the idea when its been drilled into your head that it has to be grey and dry.

I guess I'll chime in for a bit. Although I'm no mechanic or Oil Guru

I use full synthetic in every vehicle I've owned, and have always changed it at the 3000-4000 mile mark. Oil will stain the aluminum heads and the darker (browner) it is, the worse off the vehicle looks. Oil also gets thicker and potentially cause lifter tick as well as not properly lubricate and help keep engine components cool. So I would say the 3000-5000 mile mark is the safest bet, while 7500 is extreme. Of course the type of driving one does is going to determine the way the oil looks anyway. You drive it hard, it's likely to become dark do to heat and the break down of it's chemical properties, or if you do a lot of stop and go (Los Angeles) traffic driving, that would also be driving it harder and considered outside of normal driving conditions.

Too me the cost of doing an oil change at $40 is a lot cheaper than that 100,000 warranty that just got voided because Mitsu decided to be fickle because your oil looks dark. Just because we have 100,000 powertrain warranties, doesn't mean Mitsu will honor everything that breaks. When it comes to costly repairs, those usually are the ones that are most scrutinized and have an actual Mitsu master mechanic inspection to figure out the cause before approval of the claim. This all being because of the long road to recovery after nearly bankrupting themselves and the overzealous Evo owners in a quest for more power.

I do the 3k change as well because I am anal about CHANGING oil becasue I drive my bikes and vehicles hard.  I also get ****ty mileage but let me tell you I have fun!  Give me a nice two lane twisty with no traffic and either my right foot's pegged or my right hand's cranked.   The oil companies love me.
 
Now if I could find a decent tire for my FJR....

quote:

ORIGINAL: tufduck

btw, do i have to use the recommend oil 5w-20? Can I use like 5w-30 or 10w-20/30?
What do you guys recommend b/c I am moving to North Dakota for school pretty soon and it's really cold there.

Also, after ND, I'll be moving to Houston, TX. Again, what oil do you guys think?

Thanks alot.

 
I'd use the 5w20 for sure in ND..I'd consider using the 5w30 during the summer in Houston, but you probably don't need to. 
 
I've used both in a Honda engine and couldn't tell a difference.  I think I read the fuel mileage difference is only 1 or 2 percent in lab conditions in favor of the 5w20, but that's pretty much impossible to tell in the real world

I'm not going to do 3k or 7.5k.  I am going to be a non-conformist and go with a 5k oil change schedule.  I will be doing the first one this weekend and will be putting synthetic in.  I have done 4k in my GTI with synthetic since day one.  I only do 4k due to it being a turbo and I drive it as hard as it can be driven.  I use oil filters on the GTI as big as the old Ford truck filters which helps as well.  It will hold almost an entire quart of oil.