Seems some people think that way.

I know I'm kinda guilty, my ex's Corolla when I was responsible for maintaince of it got driven 74,000kms without an oil change but it was topped up a few times so was reasonably fresh.
I was in the mindset of "can't kill a Toyota" and hey it proved true, thing still ran like clockwork.

But I thought people may get a laugh from this one though.
I called into John Shermans to pick up some brake stuff and he's like Stan, been in VW cirlces for so long and just loves a good chat about them, I was there over an hour just catching up.

Anyway he was showing me all that's new and great, including his latest adaptor kit.
Someone hit him up to make a VW adaptor kit to fit the V6 lump out of the current VE Commondoore.

Naturally he needed a engine to mock it up with and the one he's got is a classic example of the dumbass oblivious modern driver with more dollars than sense.

It's out of a 2007 VE Commodore and the guy that owned the car bought it and never once changed the oil!
Just drove it till it died.
By the looks the timing chain let go.

I've seen some pretty neglected engines before including that E46 BMW driven for 100,000kms with no oil change -

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?s=a280632a5fe4d905e6834fd...

But this one was something else.
It doesn't look so bad from the bottom with the sump off, just little bit sludgy.




But it's under the rocker covers you can really see the carnage.
Bear in mind this is only a 4 year old engine, exact KMs unknown but apparently it wasn't high.






Looking closely it's like someone took a container of grease, added a few cups of dirt and went to town.

Oil is cheap, much cheaper than engines, I don't get some peoples logic.

Holly Crap....
Better go change the oil in the wifes magna......

That's pretty nasty. I reckon that going 4 years without any servicing at all is a pretty good achievement for a DOHC engine though! Lots of bits in there to gum up. I change the oil on my modern car at 5,000km intervals and feel guilty stretching it out to 6,000km! However, I am partly guilty of skimping on maintenance because I generally only change the oil and oil filter. The air filter gets a tap out over the bin every four or five services if I feel particularly keen and I usually leave the sparkplugs alone altogether. About 10 or 15,000km ago I reset the gaps on them and put them back in, they're probably a couple of years old. At least it gets clean oil though! So far it hasn't given me much trouble. Having said that, the car is 21 years old so giving it the full maintenance schedule isn't particularly worth it to me. If the old spark-plugs are still firing perfectly then why change them?

Yet Holden themselves, don't change oil until every 15,000kms. And this is by the book and still covers warranty.

Kev

I had two CE lancers

First one was 1997 GLXI 1835cc and second one the same 2002 model but the oil change was different on the second car ...
it might have been 10,000 and then 15,000klms..

both cars were identical mechanically..

I still changed the oil and filter every 6000klms.. on both cars..
changed spark plugs every year...
cleaned air filter then fitted K & N air filter which was cleanable

had no problems... with either cars..
changed the coolant every 3 years...
Nulon additive in the transmission..

Lee

People always come into work and ask the question "how often should I change my oil" (Im tooo lazy to open the glovebox and read the manual)
The look of horror on their face when the reply is "ever 5 - 10 thousand" is always an eye roller.

Poor little VE.

Well, I went and bought two bottles of oil and two oil filters today after reading this thread! One for my Nissan, which was due a service anyway, and one for my Holden, which I've only just bought and have no service history on. As this thread reminds us, for the sake of about $20 for a bottle of oil, $10 for a filter and less than an hour of my time, it's worth doing the services.

Camo, I also agree that the logbook service intervals on modern cars are far too long for my liking. However, the engineers responsible have done a lot of testing to make sure that the engine will survive without durability issues at the recommended interval. Better safe than sorry though. The one which I find the worst is the fact that there is no oil change at the first service! On most new cars, the first service occurs at about 3000km or so. However, all this involves is a general inspection of the car and re-tensioning of any drive belts if necessary. The first scheduled oil change is usually not until 15,000km after the first engine start! If I bought a new car, I would definitely be changing the oil at the first service.

Exactly, it all comes down to proper maintenance.

Another example of that, I testdrove/inspected a 96 Excel for a friend a few months back that had 388,000kms on the clock but had belonged to the wife of a mechanic and had been religiously maintained.
I could sense the KMs in the steering, suspension and gearshift but mechanically the engine was running like clockwork, a huge feat considering the cruddy mitsubishi engines in those things give alot of trouble/short life span, and yes still original.

The EJ22 in the subi joints Subaru Liberty shop car has around 420,000km on it, never beeen touched aside from seals and timing belts and my mates 68 bug has clocked up 200,000miles since the engine went in back in 96 on its 1500 single port with only a head freshen up.

Love your car, it'll love you back

I nabbed some good wisdom from a jdm engine expert from ipswich road and track, and the whole 'lack of maintenance' and crazy sludge is something VERY common to see in import jdm motors, despite them being low km. best to look under the rocker covers for the sludge prior to purchase from the importer, otherwise the low km engine won't last all that great.

In regards to engine longevity i have to mention Lucus oil stabiliser, i stand by this stuff. Theres even a classic vw testimonial going around (not my own) where an oil pump failure lead to zero oil pressure (oil pump shaft broke) whilst in the middle of high rpm driving (racing), and upon tear down nothing in regards to wear due to lack of lubrication (from loss of oil pressure) could not be found as the stabiliser maintained a film on all the bearings etc.

ratty 63, I am sure that engines will last longer with more frequent oil changes, but for a new car buyer, servicing every 5000km is excessive. Given that most new car buyers are keeping their car for 3-5 years and getting all of their servicing done at dealerships for $250-$750 a service, I would advise them all to stick to the logbook! After all, modern oils and oil filters have advanced a long way in the last 20 years. Not only are the oils far better than ever, but the local manufacturers have been progressively enlarging the oil capacity of their sumps in order to lengthen the service interval and make the car more attractive to fleet buyers. The VE Alloytec engine, for example, takes 6.5 litres of oil! That's a lot, and the Falcon sumps take even more. With a modern engine there is less blow-by and wear to contaminate the oil, so it will last longer. Add all of this up and 15,000km is not unrealistic.

Quote:

Originally posted by vlad01 check this classic example, oil hardly changed, thrashed to the shit house, failed at 383,000km