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Short Stuff: How Often Do You Need To Change Your Oil? · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. There's Charles w
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, I'm Josh Clark, there's Jerry over there. Um,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and this is the the short stuff where we improve
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: your life for the better. Yeah, one of our few
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: sort of auto centric. We don't do this kind of stuff. No,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: this is we leave this to the car talk guys.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: God rest one of their souls. They were great. Yeah,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: they were great. And you know, Hodgement, always John Hodge
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and our friend always, very sincerely said that he thought
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: we had sort of the most natural repport since he
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: had heard clicking clack. I forgot about that. That's a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: high compliment. Is a high compliment, thanks Hodgment. Yeah, so
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: this one's a little ironic because I am so far
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: overdue for an oil change. It's embarrassing. It's hilarious. Man,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: it's bad. I do the opposite. I show up. I'm
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: like as a time. Yet really they're like, yes, sure,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I guess man, I'm so are behind. And the main
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: reason is because I don't want to go to one
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of those I won't mention brands, but one of the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: no appointment necessary. We can do it in thirty minutes
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and you're out of here places, right, and you have
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to give them like the routing number and your bank
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: account because you owe them so much money when you leave. Well,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and it's just like you know, there's horror stories of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: them not really changing your oil and leaving the oil
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: tank empty and not changing your filter, and so it's
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: recommended to not go to those places. So I want
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: to make an appointment with like my mechanic, and I
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: just haven't done it, and so long, man, I know
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: how you feel. I gotta do it. Do you have
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: a good mechanic? Uh? Well, not since I've gotten the
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Honda Pilot. But I imagine I could go to my
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: other sort of stand by mechanic and it's not like
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I go to the same place. But it's not like
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: my my l A mechanic because I had an old,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: old junker car. Like we knew each other really well
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: because I was there a lot, so me and Jimmy
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: were pals. But I'm not pals with my mechanics. Now.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: That's why I hesitated when you said, do you have
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a good mechanic? And and uh l, A is a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a drive for an oil change. Yes, So
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: all right, Chuck, Well, how do you know you need
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: an oil change. This is my first question. There may
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: be more. Well, there's a few ways. Um you mean,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: how do I know right now? Yes? Oh, because I
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: am thousands of miles over even the highest recommended limit. Okay,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: all right, Well wait a minute. Does your car have
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: one of those um oil life indicators? Yes? Okay, has
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: it come on yet? Oh? It came on about months
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: ago and it says zero percent on there, which freaked
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: me out at first, because, as you will learn right
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: now everyone, if you have a newer car, there are
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: two lights. One that says, hey, you need an oil change,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and one that says you are out of oil or
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: close to it. And if you get that second light,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you need to stop driving right literally as soon as
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you can. That is why I'm really crazy about oil changes. Now,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: is I have I've done that. I've driven until the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: engine was like done. See you, thank you for my life? Yep? Yeah,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I mean that's what that means everyone. I'm not sure
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: if you know, if you drive a car that runs
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: out of oil sometimes even a mile, your engine is toast. Yep.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: They can't just like loop it back up again and
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: get it going. Yes, I was almost to the Peep
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: for brunch, and I was like, my god, I'm gonna
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: go eat brunch. First walk to the Peep and eight
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and then walk back and dealt with my car. That sucks, man.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Remember the Peep? Sure great place. Was it worth it?
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: How's that brunch? Oh? It was totally worth it. It
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: was the last, the last good brunch I ever had.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I'm kidding. So um, we should really specify. I wanted
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: you said it, but we really need to make clear.
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  Speaker 1: There are two different oil lights in a newer car.
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  Speaker 1: One is, hey, it's time for you to go get
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  Speaker 1: your oil change. One is pull your car over to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the side the road and stop driving it now it's
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  Speaker 1: really not worth like, oh, I think I can make
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  Speaker 1: it right. And the oil the oil system indicator, the
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  Speaker 1: one that just says, hey, go go get an oil
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  Speaker 1: change soon. That's a fairly new thing. And it's because
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: of that new thing that the recommendation of driving or
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: changing your oil after three thousand miles or every three
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: months is gone. That's gone. Unless you have an older car,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: it's probably not the case for what you need to
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: do with your oil. You're probably okay to go five
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: thousand if you drive a Jaguar the right way. Fifteen
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: thousand is their highest recommended time in between oil changes.
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  Speaker 1: So that whole three thousand miles or three months thing
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  Speaker 1: that's gone. But it's not gone. And from what I
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: can tell from what I'm reading in places like Edmonds, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: the only reason it's still around is because the auto
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: service industry is keeping it going with everything they've got. Yeah, man,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: because they want that money. Baby. Yeah. I mean, like
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: you said, if you have an old car, and and
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: when I had my old Plymouth Valiant, it was a
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: kind of deal where like I could tell when I
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: got an oil change. Oh yeah, like it drove better.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: And so modern cars, you know, you can't really tell
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: when you got an oil change. Uh. I don't think
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: so can you. I mean, this is the first newer
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: car I've ever had. Um, No, you really shouldn't be
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: able to. I think it's a real issue if you
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: can't tell. I'm gonna actually I'm gonna get my oil
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: change and then follow up and let everyone know. But um,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: certainly with a tune up you can tell, yeah for sure.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: But with so with that oil indicator, like what it's doing,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Chuck is it's it's analyzing how you drive. It's checking
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the oil, the temperature, all this stuff. It's basically keeping
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: tabs on your oil. And based on all this, it
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: will it will that it will turn that light on
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: when it's time for you to go get an oil change. So,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: even if you are beyond the mileage of your recommended
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: um recommended time between oil changes that you'll find in
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: your owner's manual, if that light hasn't come on, you're
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: still probably good. Yeah, but I would, I would definitely
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: trust that if you have a newer car and trust
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: that light over that little sticker they put in your window.
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  Speaker 1: That's a big one because they're still saying three thou
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  Speaker 1: miles right exactly. So So first things first, stop having
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  Speaker 1: any attention to that whatsoever. Unless you were literally related
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  Speaker 1: by blood to your mechanic who put that sticker up there,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: pull it off and throw it away. It is meaningless.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: It's a sales gimmick. Okay, that's two. Step one. Step
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: two is to then go to your owner's manual and
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: look up oil and it will tell you what the
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: person or the company that major car recommends how often
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: you get your oil. And it's not an arbitrary number
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  Speaker 1: that they just pull out of the air. Usually there's
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  Speaker 1: a low one in a high one, so something like
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  Speaker 1: five thousand miles. And as numbers depend on how you
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: drive your car, because there's really two ways you can
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: drive your car normally or severely. Yeah, mine is severe
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: not It's not that I drive crazy. I drive like
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: a grandma. But I can never get on the highway,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: which is great. I live near where I work and
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I don't really ever have to go on the highway.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I mean occasionally if I have some weird errand, but
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  Speaker 1: my normal everyday driving commute does not involved high speed
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: travel or highway mileage. And that's where you can get
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: away with going a little bit longer. It might be
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: counterintuitive because you would think that's harder on your car,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: but it's easier on your car. It is because so
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  Speaker 1: when oil, like especially like conventional oil, is stuff they
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: pull out of the ground and refine from petroleum. That
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  Speaker 1: stuff breaks down um over time, and like it condenses,
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  Speaker 1: water condenses out of it, and that water can mess
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: up your engine, right it can. It can lead to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: um engine part ruin Asian, I think is the technical
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: term knocks and pings pretty much. So I think that
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  Speaker 1: was from letting gets So when you drive out on
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  Speaker 1: the highway, which is something over like ten miles at
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  Speaker 1: like a highway speed, a distance over ten miles, you
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: actually get your engine going enough so that it burns
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: off any condensation that might have built up. Which is
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  Speaker 1: why if you drive on the highway regularly that's ideal
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: or normal driving. When you drive stop and go commute
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  Speaker 1: kind of traffic or less than ten miles just about
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  Speaker 1: every time, that's actually, like you were saying, way harder
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  Speaker 1: on your car than driving it on the highway because
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: of that condensation that can build up over time. So
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  Speaker 1: if you're driving it severely, you want to take that
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: lower number. Yeah. With that, that's also why when you
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: when you go to sell a car or buy a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: car use someone will usually indicate like highway miles, like
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  Speaker 1: higher miles, but highway miles is a lot of times
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: better than lower miles that aren't highway miles. That's right.
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  Speaker 1: So let's let's take a little break in here a
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: little buddy, and we will come right back. I can
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: talk a little more about some little oil changes. So
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Chuck um, like I said that oil indicator light is
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: one reason why you want to um or one reason
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: why you can go longer between oil changes, right, that's
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: reason why. The another reason is because people stopped opening
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: their owner's manual, so like for a very long time,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: owner cars have come out where they don't say three
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: thousand miles or three months, that's that's your oil change
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: place saying that right. But also there's been some pretty
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: big advances in in oil technology too, and actually the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: way that they make cars these days has improved tremendously. Yeah,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: for sure, fetic oil is something that you may or
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: may not use. Uh, you may have made that switch.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Again if you read your your manual, they may recommend
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: synthetic oil right off the bat, and it is more expensive,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: but it is way better um than regular oil, has
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: a lot more benefits, Uh, performances better just right off
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the bat. Uh, it is better for the environment. Um.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Which also, by the way, if you're I meant to
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: say earlier, if you're one of those people that's like, no,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I'm still gonna get it changed every three thousand, even
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: though that's like far too much because it's just good
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: for the car. It's really not gaining you anything. You're
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: just losing time, money, and it's bad for the environment.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: You know, oil changes aren't great for the environment. Yeah,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Like if if America's cars, of all the cars on
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the road, went from five oil changes a year so
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: every three months to three oil changes a year, Um,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: we would save something like four and a quarter million
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: gallons of oil that would be poured out of America's
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: car every year. Amazing. Yeah, so it's definitely having more
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of an impact than on just your free time and
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: your your wall with right. Um, but synthetic oil is
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: better for the environment. Um. So it depends on who
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: you ask. Like, if you ask some experts, car experts
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: might say, yeah, make the switch. If you have a
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: newer car, you should totally make the switch. If you
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: listen to other people, though, they might say that you
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: don't need to switch to synthetic unless your car specifically
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: calls for it. I know if you tow things a lot,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: then synth synthetics can be better. Uh, and it can
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: prolong like you're the life of your engine. But maybe
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: like if you do trust your mechanic, talk to them
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and say, hey, what do you think when you think
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: about the synthetics? Right, and they'll be like, why are
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: we talking on? Yeah, it's like come over here by
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the soda machine. So um, synthetics are are better for
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the environment, and that they last longer, so there's less
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: being poured out because there's just fewer oil changes. But
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: they all, I mean, they're made from chemicals and they're
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: they're bad for the environment if you just go dump
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: it in the grass or something. So but I mean
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: people love to poke holes and no, it's not even
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: better for the environment, you dumb hippie. You know that
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. So I just wanted to address that
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: so that you wouldn't get ambushed by somebody who talks
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: like that. I mean, it's not friar oil, no butt chuck.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I saw that canola oil is being developed to replace
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: synthetic and conventional and it actually lasts longer, it breaks
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: down over a longer period of time, and it actually
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: may be more violent environmentally friendly, and that would be
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: used as fuel or just as the engine oil engine oil. Interesting, Yeah,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: like canola oil. Just pour some pour some crisco in
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: there and see what happens. Don't don't do that, Do
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: not listen to me. I was just kidding. Just now.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: It's like Alive oils, America oil, had they tried that.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: It's right, it breaks down the antioxidants in your engine.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: You got anything else, really, Man, I think the keys
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: here of this, Chuck, listen to your oil um life
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: light and I know that's not what it's called, but
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I cannot get the words that it is called together
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: in my head. And um, consult your owners manual and
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: when they put one of those three months or three
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: thousand mile stickers on, get rid of it. Oh. I
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: do have one other thing, Chuck knew it. If you
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: are one of those people who drive your car less
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: than five thousand or miles or however much your owner's
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: manual recommends between oil changes a year, you still want
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: to change your oil because you're probably driving it on
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: short trips, so you're driving it severely. So your your
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: owner's manual probably recommend a time frame two and usually
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: that's six months, so you probably just want to change
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: it every six months at least because oil does break
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: down over time. All right, Okay, so that's the last one.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with us, send
• 13:55
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