I do mostly short trips. I live very close to my office (yes I still drive) and almost any place I go to on a regular basis is within 15 minutes.

I tried to find in the service manual how often to change the oil and all I could find was a * marking that said if you live in an area which uses LEADED fuel to change every 6000 miles. It said stuff about short trips changing more often but it didn’t say how often.

I put about 6k miles a year on my car. It is driven every day for the most part. I did the oil level test after getting to work and sitting in the parking lot for another 15 minutes and it was about ¼ the way down between the top and bottom oil level lines.

So…how often should I change my oil? And when should I add more oil?

 

If you are only putting 6k miles a year on the car I would change the oil once a year. As far as when to add oil, I wouldn't add any until you are 2 bars down. You have to be very careful you don't overfill. BTW, all this should be in your manual other than the frequency of oil change which I feel is way to lax.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave. The adding oil part might be in the manual. I just tossed that is there since I was already posting about how often to change it.

Do you think that even with my short trips every 6k miles is ok? How often would you change the oil if the car was used more typically for 10k-15k miles a year?

 

If you go by what Porsche says you would be changing out the oil every 15k miles now or 2 years which ever comes first. When the 997 first came out you didn't have to change the oil until 2 years or 20k miles, I believe they changed this to 15k miles or every 2 years. So if you are putting 10-15k miles ayear I would change out the oil every 7500 miles. Some people still change out the oil every 3k miles which I feel isn't needed unless the car sees a lot of track time. My car is averaging 6k miles per year and I change out the oil once a year.

Dave

 

I change mine about every 5K miles or after every track day. I use Castrol 5W-40 (Porsche approved) since the properties are better than Mobil without going for a more expensive oil like Motul. There are some good write-ups on here about changing your own oil which is a huge money saver over the stealer and gives you peace of mind that it was done right. I am going to post a write-up on my OCD oil change tactics soon!

Jason

 

Jason, I was thinking of switching out to this oil vs. the Mobil 1. I always found it hard to swallow using a 0W-40 oil...

Looking forward to your write up..

Dave

 

Changing your oil after every track day! Wow, I am kicking the crap out of my car and changing it every year. The last two years, about 3000+ miles on the track each year and only one oil change per year.

 

what happens if you overfill?

 

If you routinely do short trips, that is the worse life your flat6 can have. How short are the trips? 3 or 4 miles?

Short trip use leads to oil foaming and water accumulation. I would change oil very often every 3k miles or even 2k miles due to that. It's your car, but that is what I would do if it was mine and I planned keeping it.

 

I do combined "city" and highway driving (typical on LI) and my dealer recommended changing the oil every 8-10,000 miles. That is about twice a year for me (at the 8,000 mile interval).

 

Overfilling will require to drain out the excessive oil as this can cause flow issues as well as potential for leaks.

Dave

 

Although I know it is a different car, I changed every 3k in my STI with regular oil and never had a problem. I would think that with the synthetic oil I could go longer. Maybe I will shoot for between 4-6 and have a test done to see how it looks.

 

This has nothing to do with oil type. It has to do with short trip driving. Your oil mix must have a ton of water (especially where you live) and that kills your engine.

Synthetics go far if you do not do short-trip driving.

 

Understood. I will do an oil analysis with the first oil change.

 

The best thing to do is to regularly get the oil temp. above 212 degrees and boil the water off. If you get the engine to full operating temp. at least once a week, you should have no problems.