What Jiffy Lube has to say about oil change intervals!

Used to work for them in my teenage years.

While I never saw anything dishonest take place, I can tell you that the quick lube business exists for one reason: Change everyone's oil as much as possible and for as much money as possible. They might tell you to come in at 5,000 miles instead of 3,000, but they're going to tell you that you need synthetic oil instead of "regular" if you do...

While they may be conceding a bit on the side of scheduled maintenance, they're still always going to suggest that you come in sooner than later.

And they're always going to up-sell you that air filter, transmission flush, light bulb, ad infinitum...

I just do my own and avoid all the confusion. Why do I need someone telling me how my car should be maintenanced when I can read the owner's manual?

Jiffy Lube and its contemporaries are just kinks in the already complicated automotive chain. Avoid them.

 

I have never followed the 3000 mile interval rule. It usually ends up being just over 5k miles when I get it done.

 

You can do 5K miles on modern oils no problem. Mobil 1 you change every 25,000 talking to one of the guys that developed it. But Mobil does not want you to know that bit of info.

 

So long as you check it and see how it feels and looks, I see no problem with longer miles. It also depends on how much you drive at the ideal operating temperature range. I have longer drives, and I prefer to not come to a complete stop if I can, by rolling off the throttle and slowing down early for red lights, or other tricks to maintain speed in a situation where a lot of people have to stop. I took a look in my Porsche owners manual, and see that they recommended it at 24K KM(15K Miles)

 

After 20+ years in the auto parts business I've heard too many examples of people that did change their oil more frequently (once every 3-5K) enjoying greater longevity out of their engines than people that did not (people that think a synthetic will last 25K). I think the deal breaker in the longer intervals is that there are compounds that get into the oil which are not removed by the filter, and can only be flushed out as part of an oil change.

 

What does Jiffy Lube say about stripping oil drain plugs / pans? I can only assume they recommend it since they like the impact wrench for installing said plug, and rarely, if ever, inform the car owner of their stripped aluminum oil pan... Ask me how I know!

5k per change is no problem, the rev counter in our minivan recommends a change about every 8k miles. I've never changed the oil more often than 5k miles in any vehicle, and never had any oil related problems in over 30 years, and almost 1MM miles in total. On our minivan, we are at 160k miles and no oil issues, except for the 5 quarts left on Northlake Boulevard on the way home from the fireworks display this year causing a drop in oil pressure...

Additionally, I read in an engineering mag about a trucking company that NEVER changes the oil in their big rigs. They just test it for metal deposit accumulation and change the filters regularly, and they have many trucks over 800k miles on the same oil!


BT