Calling all Volvo recreational oil changers

[Green440wedge]

I started a post a while back about Volvo's retrospective extension of the engine oil and filter changes on the MK2 V70 2.3 T5 from year 2000 to 18k miles, and matters concerning oil performance longevity. The thread which featured quite a lot of banter seems to have mysteriously vanished I have noticed. Anyway...

On the subject of letting synthetic oil do its mileage rather than wasting oil, time and money by doing an oil change every 3 or 6k miles..... I drained by Alfa GTV 3.0's oil and saved it, sending a sample of this 10W60 Mobil 1 synthetic to Mobil 1 for oil analysis. It appeared black leaving a brown film in the drain bowl. The oil had done just 2000 miles. Mobil 1 reported back telling me not to be concerned at all by the colour, and that the oil was in perfectly good condition. They did not ask about the age of the oil, just mileage. However, the oil had been in the GTV for 4 years...

So I have put a litre or two of the GTV's old 10W60 in my Volvo T5 that uses a litre every 1200-1500 miles, and it loves the stuff. I have also been putting in some Halfords 5W50 Motorsport oil drained from a Rover V8 engine, similar mileage, in there for 5 years. The Volvo loves that too, and I am just about to touch 18,000 since the last full oil and filter change, about 18 months ago. I'll do a fresh oil and filter change this time around. Sounds sacreligious doesn't it? But in engineering terms for normal useage it is fine.

So you guys doing your recreational oil changes, it is not really worth it is it. If you can leave API SN spec synthetic oil in for 4-5 years on low mileage, the only thing 3-6000 mile synthetic oil changes achieve is to unecessarily dispose of good expensive oil. £50 a gallon, that Mobil 1. Perhaps oil used for racing is the exception.

Some of you may remain culturally unconvinced, but it is worth thinking about.

[Georgeandkira]

1) Customers at one garage were said to change their Mobil1 too frequently as per the opening post here.
The employees would drain this oil and reuse it in their own vehicles.
They dubbed it, "Mobil2".

2) Oil analysis kits (WIX) are available on the RockAuto site for ~$11 here. While RA ships worldwide it isn't an option for UK as shipping the oil back to one of the US labs (Georgia & Ohio) would be dear.

Using Volvo's recommended 7,500 mile OCI, these affordable analyses claimed I might extend to 10,000; having additional analyses done at 1,000 mile increments.
I have flirted with 9K but a beautiful day or immanent long trip gets me under the car before the 10,000 mile mark.

My old oil went to top off family and friends' cars. The scattering of friends-and their purchasing of higher end cars- has greatly reduced the need for topping off.

Here, the cost of repeat analyses -other labs cost $30 to $40- quickly eats the savings of extended OCI's.

There are guys, like you, who claim to go the advertised 25,000 on Amsoil and others. However, with my engine and driving pattern, if WIX analyses are to be believed, I seem to belong in the "10-12K Club".

Personal note: My V70 base came with70K. There were gross, black chunks on the oil fill cap. I have to assume such deposits were to be found throughout the engine.
The original owner had the oil changed at 6K at the dealer. using conventional oil. On no receipt did the word "synthetic" appear.
Only the last two oil change intervals showed reduction of darkening. This indicates to me that the residue has finally been reduced/removed.
I might just take this load to 12K and send a sample in.
That'd be in Spring 2023.

[barrybritcher]

I change mine yearly. six months its still golden colour- 18 months is too black.
(I do 6k miles a year) 2.4 T5

[stuart bowes]

I did mine about 6k / 1 year after purchase. I was umming and ah-ing over whether it was necessary tbh but it came out black and went in treacle coloured which is visually pleasing if nothing else (Castrol Edge 0W-30 A5/B5 fully synthetic)

at the end of the day £50 a year is a miniscule cost, my time actually doing the job was worth more but I was already on the car doing a few jobs so that was mitigated somewhat

will probably go 2 years before putting any more in (providing the level isn't dropping at all which it hasn't done so far) because my mileage is relatively low

[Pidgeonpost]

If engine oil prices become subject to the same sort of price increases as petro/diesel I should imagine quite a few people may review their oil change interval. Our annual mileages for both vehicles combined used to be around 10-15k. Now it's nearer 4k on each. That being the case I'd be hard pushed to justify anything more than an annual change - maybe longer. I know when I first started driving a diesel I was horrified to see how quickly the oil became black. Two dealers (Citroën and VW) both advised me that it was nothing to worry about - just a characteristic of diesel engines. Our V70 is in for service at local independent next week (first service in our ownership) so it'll be interesting to see how long the oil stays looking new. My guess would be 'not long'.