MegaTRon

car says oil is at 20%. Does the computer go by the 5,000 mile intervals or does it actually read the quality of the oil? making sure my oil isn't bad cause the Amsoil 0w30 is rated for 30,000 miles changes but i plan to change it every 10,000.

I am at 4,000 currently on the amsoil.

zeroptzero

It does not know the condition of your oil it just estimates based on a calculation , definitely ignore that and it is fine to go much longer than 4k.

jeggy

That's what I do. I use amsoil as well.

robrob

Keep in mind that it's not that the oil wears out, it's that it gets dirty and needs to be changed. A top quality synthetic will still get dirty. When you get to 5000 miles and your oil on the dipstick is dark I'd recommend changing it. For a street car I think it's actually better to run non-synthetic oil and change the oil more often rather than running expensive oil and extending the change. For cars that see track duty a good synthetic is worth the cost in added protection. This is of course just my opinion.

JackS

Most here including me, are much more conservative than to allow the car to go more than 5,000miles between changes. Disregard the oil mfg's rec. and use your maintanance minders rec of 5,000mi.

zeroptzero

Nothing wrong with 5000 mile changes, but any over the counter oil can go that distance with ease. Dumping amsoil at 5k miles is a huge waste as it would have plenty of protection left in it and you pay for it.

slalom44

It depends on your driving conditions. If you make a lot of short trips with cold starts, stick with the oil chang interval (OCI) suggested by your monitor. If you see a fair amount of highway driving and your typical trip is over around 20 miles then you can easily go 10,000 miles.

I use Amsoil 0W-30 and my last OCI was 39,500 miles. I have an AP1, so I burn a little oil and I drive mostly highway miles using a bypass filter, but this oil holds up really well. I suggest that you get your oil tested at 10,000 miles (with a TBN reading) for some peace of mind. You'd be surprised how long this oil can last.

SpitfireS

Which Amsoil 0W-30 are we talking about?|
The "good old" SSO?
The new AZO is not rated for the long OCI's anymore, but 5k miles is still no problem at all.
IF you do a lot of short trips + change every 5k miles you're probably better off using a less expensive oil.
OTOH you "want" a 0W-30 doing lots of cold starts & short trips.
Dilemma!
Depending on the outside temps you start the car in some 5W-30's may be almost as thin at cold start-up.
Good advise!
If you don't want to take it 10k miles get a sample at 5k and send it in.
Whatever you do: the colour of the oil is not an indicator to change oil.
Oil is supposed to keep "dirt" in suspension so oil getting dark is showing you its doing its job.
Even black oil can have a healty TBN = no real reason to change as long as it hasn't sheared into water and is contaminated with fuel.
A U(sed) O(il) A(nalysis) will tell you all of this.
Base you decision to change oil on the outcome of the TBN, viscosity and contamination tests.
I thought my OCI was long at ~17k miles (no bypass filter and a lot of highway miles)
Damn.. there's always someone doing more miles on their oil

zeroptzero

Slalom44 also has one of the best used oil analyses I've ever seen on an S2000 , even at over 38k miles, it looks better than most short oci Uoa's, i believe it is posted on Bitog and this site. It is the king of uoa's IMO., even if you account for the 5 quarts added between changes. The preluder and bypass filter combined with a great oil really did the job.

takeshi

Already mentioned above but do not assess oil based on its color and get a UOA's to determine the intervals that you can safely use.