Oil change - infrequent driving

[user 5942]

Hi guys,

The Nav is my weekend car. I use it to get things from Bunnings (occasionally 4wd or camping), but most of our commuting I either use the bike or the missus car.

For that reason, the Nav hardly clocks up any mileage, in the last 4 years we did ~1000km/year on average (in between babies so there's a drop in usage

Anyway the question is considering the low mileage how often should I change the oil? The manual says every 3 months, I've gone every 6 months but even that sometimes seems like a waste. Not being too familiar with diesels and "trucks" in general, can I stretch it even further? Say every 9 or 12 months?

Thanks.

 

[tweak'e]

12 months no problem.

 

[jonney]

i can,t see why you need to change the engine oil any earlier than every 6 months if these are the K,s your clocking up [ 1k per year average ] the main thing is to always give the car a run atleast every week as its not good to let it sit idle . might pay to replace the water coolant more often as this product can gell up if left sitting to long. anyway every week as long as you run the engine all should be fine.

 

[Tappet]

yep, 12months would be fine so long as when you do run it it gets little cold running.

 

[user 5942]

yep, 12months would be fine so long as when you do run it it gets little cold running.

What did you mean by cold running? Running the engine cold?

As for moving it around, yap, at least once a week.

 

[Tappet]

Like a ratio of the number of starts you do for the amount of K's you clock up. Or perhaps I should say short running. If you do lots of short runs the engine will be running cold or under operating temperature for most of it's running. In that case more frequent oil changes would be required.

 

[Steve-D22]

Good excuse to do more 4wding and camping��