Should I be worried about cheap oil change?

albertu

Sorry guys, but there's no such thing as too early for an oil change. 3k? 5k? even 1k depend on how you drive or how deep is your pocket. 5k is kind of the nom nowaday, but if you can do it at 3k, even better.

Nikon FM

I have driven near what is called out for in the manual up to this point ~730 miles. I checked the oil using a white paper towel and saw a bunch of stuff that didn't look like oil residue on the towel, so I took the car in to get the oil changed. I took my own oil in (Castrol 5-30w) and asked them to give me the filter before cleaning it up. Sure enough, some of the same stuff I saw on the paper towel was on the inside seal area so I asked the mechanic about it. Turns out to be "normal". I'm going to moniter how the oil looks but most likely will change it out again at 2-2500 miles or when I see the "normal" stuff again.

My dealer has a special price for the first oil change so my total cost was only $7 and change.......no complaints.

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Buddy Revell: "One man's sooner is another man's later"

dad

Was it "kinda white froth" looking?

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We can do without any article of luxury we have never had; but once obtained, it is not in human nature to surrender it voluntary.

Nikon FM

The oil was it's usual color but the other stuff was darker and looked like a finer version of dark grease. I should have took pictures, sorry for the bad description. I thought that it might have come off the stick so that's why I checked the filter at the dealership. If I see it again after a few hundred miles I'll shoot the pics and post them.

__________________

Buddy Revell: "One man's sooner is another man's later"

dad

Sure, buy your Z , take it home, change the oil right then. Let me know how you engine is when you get too 25 or 30k.

__________________

We can do without any article of luxury we have never had; but once obtained, it is not in human nature to surrender it voluntary.

Crash

+1

I did my oil changes after every race day! And when I stopped racing, did them every 3000 miles on the dot.

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2002 Corvette Z06 - Totaled
2003 Corvette Z06 50th Anniversary

dad

I believe albertu, is refering to every day driving.

__________________

We can do without any article of luxury we have never had; but once obtained, it is not in human nature to surrender it voluntary.

FlashBazbo

Sorry, but for the INITIAL oil change, it can definitely harm an engine to change the oil too soon. After an engine has run in on its original oil, which under normal conditions takes more than 1K, THEN there's no such thing as too early (except for the money wasting thing). An engine needs a little time run on less-than-brand-new oil to get everything sealing right and working together smoothly. (Think of it as a final machining/honing operation.) If you don't give it time to do this, you'll see high oil consumption down the road.

[At the other extreme, although I would never come close to risking this in my vehicle -- scientific testing has shown that modern oils in normally-stressed engines (probably not your Z!) are fully capable of providing "new oil" performance beyond 15,000 to 20,000 miles, depending on engine load. I'm a 3K oil changer myself -- and probably always will be -- but I know I'm wasting a huge amount of money at that. My wife's car has an oil quality sensor that tells you when it's time to change the oil. Her second oil change came about 22,500 miles after the first! I've heard that a lot of Hondas using oil quality sensors go over 20,000 routinely between oil changes with no problems.]