How often does everyone change the oil in their classic oldsmobile?? I do mine once a year because I only put on a 1,000 miles a year. Should I wait longer or is that good?

 

With mileage like that, your approach is totally reasonable. I do my 455’s about 2x a year but put 2 or 3 thousand miles on my cars per year, I think.

Basically you want the engine oil to be a nice honey color (not black) when you take the car out for a run and you want to be sure it’s full (not needing) oil. Before you fire up the car, check the level & color cold. If it’s not been run for a few days, all the engine oil will be in the pan so you get the most accurate level measurement possible. Keep a quart of your preferred oil in the trunk so you can add at will.

I use blue tape on my radiator with scrawled notes about the last oil change date, oil weight and my Lucas additive. I also scrawl the oil change date on the filter with a sharpie. That way next time I wonder about it, I know what I did 6 or 9 months ago. There are more elegant solutions, like a logbook, but scrawling on parts works for me.

I’m in the camp of “an oil change is cheap insurance”. I do my Audi’s at 5,000 miles with synthetic, although Audi recommends oil changes every 10k miles. But then my 122k mile 9 year old V6 runs like a top and a lot of people are turning the 2016’s in because the burn oil. VW-AG (aka Audi) is in the business of selling cars. I deeply suspect their maintenance recommendations support more sales than max value to customers.

Carry on and have fun with your car.

Cheers,
Chris

 

I'm in the limited-mileage camp too, so every fall before I put it away. Actually, I'm thinking of giving it a miss this year because between extensive summer travel and fuel system woes, last fall's oil change only has about 25 miles on it.

 

x3 on doing an oil change once a year. Actually, I generally tune up my mower in the fall and change the oil in my jalopy and jitney in the spring.

 

I change oil in the spring.

 

x2 on the Spring oil change, it's a busy time around here in the garage in mid April.

 

I just hate having it sit all winter with dirty oil.

 

5,000 miles or once a year, whichever comes first.

 

Joe, where do you weigh in on doing it on limited-mile vehicles, spring or fall?

 

Definitely spring

 

Specifically, the time the sun crosses the celestial equator which will be on 3/20/2026 at 9:46 am CDT.

 

I'm in the opposite camp, fresh oil for driving all summer.

 

I agree on the spring oil changes, once a year no matter the mileage, same for the boat, every spring, oil and filter and gear oil in it's drive. Honestly the amount of oil changes on the fresh engine was a lot and dropped the gear oil in the rebuilt Olds 12 bolt rear and may do it again this Winter.

 

I'm a mechanical engineer and was doing engine block and cylinder head design for an OEM in the '90's. I'll just say it was not a US OEM. I still remember the chief design engineer asking me why in the world "Americans" were hell bent on changing their oil every 3k miles. There was a significant amount of data to support that 10k miles should be considered the 'minimum' for conventional oil and synthetic could go well beyond that.
Even though I had firsthand access to good data, I STILL routinely change all of my oil approximately every 3k miles. The 'toys' get an oil change once a year due to limited mileage and living pampered lives.