Hello All,


If this issue has been discussed before, I apologize. At what mileage intervals should you change the oil and oil filter? I have 2 1996 850 wagons, non-turbos with 5 speed manuals. One car has 270,000 miles and the other 200,000. One car I got new, the other when it was 3 years old with 50,000 miles on it. I also have a '99 XC which I bought used with 12K on it and which presently has just over 94K on it. I have changed the oil and oil filters on all these cars at 5,000 mile intervals. On previous cars, an old Volkswagen Beetle and several Asian cars, I changed the oil every 3,000 miles.

When I got the Volvos I jumped to 5,0000 mile intervals. This was due to what the owners manual said in the 850s: change the oil every 10K or at 5K if the car was involved in heavy duty use or adverse conditions. The cars are not used in heavy duty use or adverse condition Also, a few years ago Consumer Reports did a report questioning the necessity of changing oil every 3K which was a popular rule. CR took a fleet of new Chevy Impala taxi cabs and broke them up into two groups. Those that had their oil changed at 3K intervals and those that had it done at 6K intevals. After racking up 60K plus miles, it broke down the engines to check for engine wear. It found minimal differences, but not critical, between the two groups of cars. CR attributed the lack of difference to the fact that currents oils are far more efficient at protecting engines from dirt and combustion byproducts than oils of a few years ago, when the 3K change interval was recommended.

Recently, my independent mechanic, who works exclusively on Volvos told me I'm doing a disservice to my 850s, that I should change the oil at 3K intervals (certainly not let it go more than 3,500 miles). I use conventional motor oils on my 850s and Mobil 1 on the XC. He said it was "OK" to change the oil on the XC at 5K intervals becaue I was using a synthetic. I confess, I respect his opinion.

Both 850s don't seem any worst for wear, but I'd like to hear the thoughts of others on this topic. Thanks to all who respond.

Hugh

Hello All,


I wanted to express a "global" thank you to everyone who has responded so far. I'm sure I'll receive more replies, but I wanted everyone to know I'm reading these responses and do appreciate them. Collectively you have demonstrate the value of the Brickboard community.

Hugh

I see you have non-turbo 850's. All I can say that with my '95 850 Turbo, around 2500 miles you could see the non synthetic oil starting to get noticeably darker, and up around 3000 it became thinner. So I made sure to change by 3000 miles max. For the non turbo, I wouldn't know.

Heavy duty use includes making short trips and the engine oil does not get hot enough to burn off the impurities. If you commute 15 minutes each way, that is heavy duty in the winter time.
Connecticut is a very damp area, so you will get a lot of condensation inside the block. A 3K interval with dino oil sounds reasonable. So does 5K with synthetic. If you go 5K or 7K respectively, that should be your upper limit.
I like to change my filter every 3K or so and top it off with a quart of synthetic, then flush at 6K or so. But, Minnesota is much drier than New England in the winter.

Klaus
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Volvoless. Its been 90 days. BUT I am getting a 1966 122 soon.

I concur 100% with Klaus on this one.

Keep in mind what 'severe' service is, as defined by the manufacturers (volvo) and you'll see that many many people fall into this category.

If the air is damp or very dusty, you're experiencing large ambient air temp swings, or a large percentage of your trips are short trips (less than ~30 min of driving) or if you're idling a lot (traffic, warm ups, etc) then you are in the severe service category. As I said, most people probably do fall into this category.
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1998 V70 AWD Turbo 180k+

I do mine with conventional oil at 6K or a little over. I have 255K on my engine and it runs great.

I recently did a test on my oil and sent it in to www.blackstone-labs.com at 6500 miles. They gave me the report letting me know that the oil was nearing the end of its life, but still good and that the condition of the engine was good.

The only people perpetuating the 3k oil change myth are the oil companies and the parts/service people doing the changes.

I think if I lived in Arizona, 5,000 would be fine. But up here in the Northern US, you get alot of condensation in the engine because of the temp swings and I think that builds up in the oil. I wonder where Volvo ever came up with 10K for normal oil anyway. I have always done 3K....oil changes are what... 10 minutes and 20 bucks? I use the magnetic drain plugs too.....

Hello gwen, Has your magnetic drain plug ever caught anything? "Fuzzy" stuff counts. Kira

Here's my $.02 I have only ever heard the 10K change for synthetic only. And even that sounds high -how much work do you really want your oil filter to do? 3K sounds too frequent, but safety is good. You can change to synth or blend without fear, and get better piece of mind and run less risk of sludge, which is very real risk with conventional and long intervals. Posts with better expertise than mine will follow. But I'll feel better now about my last 2 intervals that were longer than I would have liked (9K & 7K). Hey I'm busy I have young kids. Have fun and don't worry too much.
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'97 855na, Mobil 1, K&N, various IPD's and eBay's