When you buy a car, you know the general rule about having the oil changed regularly. In fact, at Main Street Automotive, we put a helpful sticker on your windshield to help remind you. But generally speaking, the rules have changed since you likely owned your first car, especially if you were told to come in every 3,000 miles or 3 months, whichever came first.
Today’s cars can go a lot further, especially if they’re running on synthetic oils. As a general rule of thumb, you can go about 5,000 miles or 6 months before it’s time to change the oil. Most cars today have computerized systems that will remind you when it is time to make an appointment for your oil change.
But what if you don’t? What if you ignore it and keep on driving? Cars are certainly designed to give you fair warning. For example, when your gas light comes on, you’ve got about 40 miles left on that tank to get to a gas station. But that doesn’t mean you should push your luck.
If you don’t change your oil in your vehicle on time, you’re not lubricating your engine properly and carrying the heat away from it. There are thousands of components in your engine and that oil helps keep it going. But as it does, it picks up dirt and other little bits of debris from your engine. This is food for keeping those particles out of your engine, but with time, the oil becomes dirty and needs to be changed. [Read more…]
