oil change during pandemic

[dbrian]

hi all! since the pandemic, i've stopped daily driving my e93 m3 due to working from home. i do like to take it out every weekend though, but i rarely push it to the limits.

my last oil change was last year 5/2020 at 69352 miles. it is now at 73437, so i've driven 3905 miles in 18 months. i use liquimoly 10w60 and correct me if i'm wrong but it should be fully synthetic.

i haven't really given it much thought since i've driven less than the typical synthetic oil change interval (~7500 miles). my question is...is it time for an oil change? tia!

[Helmsman]

Miles before age so no change yet imo.

[tldude876]

Yes it is. The general rules is 12 months or 5k miles, whichever comes first. I've only done 2k since last December and I'm getting ready to do an oil change.

[tdott]

1 yr or 5k for me. I usually don't reach 5k miles in a year for the last little while so I change it yearly.

[tbuck]

Here we go again....

With oil change duration syndrome, or OCD, the sufferer finds it necessary to change their oil regardless of how many miles they have put on it. Symptoms can include, but are not limited to, the need to change oil annually even if the car is not driven, continual requests for oil brand recommendations and repeated post from Blackstone reports. Treatment often includes sufferer being forced to go the full mileage limit before being allowed to change their oil, however this has been shown to have a serious negative effect on the sufferers overall wellbeing. In general, allowing the sufferer to continue changing oil as they feel driven to allows the sufferer to feel much better about their car and the oil therein.

[Ximian]

As long as the rare or occasional drives are long enough to get the oil up to the full operational temperature, you can wait a few years before changing it again.

Short drives where the car never warms up enough is bad for the engine, exhaust, and battery.