.....
I'm sure that there are some out there using the recommended 9000-mile oil changes on XPS brand oil with 200,000 miles on their Spyder, but I tend to be a little more conservative on oil change intervals, and so far, I've never had an oil related failure on any vehicle in 50 years of driving!
Fair assumption, but what's that old saying about assuming....
Not saying this applies specifically here, mec, but I reckon the following juuust might be worth thinking about - if you want to even consider it!
The part of your post I quoted above seems fairly logical, true; but then, I doubt that anyone who changes their oil at 1000-mile intervals would expect to have any issues either?! So you gotta ask how far could/should you take that, if at all? I'd suggest that really, unless you are doing the oil change yourself with an oil you know, like, & trust for a given milage, how far any of us would be prepared to go between oil changes probably comes back to
how far are we (any of us) prepared to trust the manufacturer's recommended schedule &/or the dealer, doesn't it?! :dontknow: I mean, if
I have to get a dealer I don't know/trust to do an oil & filter change while I'm away from home, I know that
I'll always do another oil & filter change
as soon as I get home again anyway, regardless of how many miles since the dealer did it... Don't you??
I do that cos I just don't trust many dealers, or the oil & filters they
might be using... :sour: But even so, I'm
pretty sure that Can Am/BRP has done the calcs to show that the likelihood of too many Spyders being serviced at the specified intervals/with the specified oils, filters etc failing before the warranty runs out is statistically more often going to fall on the '
UN-likely' end of the scale... :thumbup:
Still, I'd think that most here would normally agree that doing an oil change sooner rather than waiting out the full time &/or milage is fair enough, a pretty reasonable assumption to make, isn't it?? But let me throw this out there for you - waaay back in the dim dark when I had oversight of a vehicle fleet that was spread out over a few remote sites where unscheduled downtime or breakdowns could be life (& business!
) threatening, one of the sites had an old-school Head Tech who
insisted on doing oil & filter changes on
HIS vehicles (first mistake there - everyone knew they were
MY vehicles! :roflblack: ) every 5000 km
regardless of the manufacturers spec & regular oil analysis checks recommending that doing that every 10,000 km was more than often enough, and going by the earlier comments, that should've been an OK assumption, right?? Everyone at that site assumed it was a good thing too; until I reviewed all the downtime, scheduled maintenance, breakdown costs, etc across
ALL the sites and compared them!! :shocked:
Pulling all the servicing & maintenance times & costs across all the sites together showed that
not only was that one site spending more time & money on servicing their vehicles; but also, their unscheduled downtime & breakdown rates plus maintenance costs were significantly higher than any of the other sites too!! A thorough review of this, plus some actual measuring of wear on components replaced after breakdown fairly conclusively proved that the 5,000 km service interval
that site was using was
actually CAUSING more wear (some of it caused just by putting vehicles up on hoists &/or pulling service panels & components etc simply to
DO the extra services!
), increasing unscheduled downtime, breakdowns, maintenance issues, & basically incurring greater costs than they were saving by using shorter service intervals!! nojoke
So while this
might not be the case with Spyders, nor necessarily be quite as potentially life threatening, I reckon it's still worth remembering &/or maybe even looking into for each individual Spyder owner who cares/can be bothered - even if you might
THINK (or ass-u-me
) that you're doing the right thing and can't harm anything by changing the oil more frequently than specified,
that is not necessarily always the case!! Some engines, oils, &/or filters actually work best at or near their given service intervals; so changing any of those sooner without due consideration/investigation might not always be as 'good' as you might think!!
AND you should maybe also consider your '
total servicing time/cost over ownership' too - is servicing your vehicle & changing the oil more often than is strictly necessary &/or ideal
truly in your best interests in the long run?? :dontknow:
Since that first time I discovered
that it DID NOT help &/or save anything in that particular site; but rather, it COST (& risked!) a fair bit; I've come across a number of other instances where '
servicing/changing the oil & filters sooner than specified' wasn't such a great idea cos it was actually
OVER-servicing and not only costing more than necessary in the actual service costs, but when that sort of over-servicing does occur, it is also fairly often associated with increased breakdown & wear rates - and not necessarily
just in the oil related areas, either!! :lecturef_smilie:
Food for thought, maybe?? :dontknow:
Me, now that
I hafta pay for it, I get an oil analysis done every third oil change, and I follow the advice given, albeit balanced against the manufacturer's maintenance schedule! So I reckon I'm having a bit of a 'both ways' bet! YMMV! :thumbup:
