[SaabMon]

Should I change the oil in my car even though it has only been driven about 600 miles since the last change. Problem is,the last oil change was about a year ago.
The oil still looks almost new.What to do?

 

[900t]

I'd keep driving...

 

[jmurray01]

This is the dumbest (sorry) question I have EVER heard! Oil never goes bad. Its been sitting undergound for over 2000 years for goodness sake! It would only go bad after a LONG LONG time! By that I mean sitting in the engine for 30 years.

 

[SteveTheFolkie]

This is the dumbest (sorry) question I have EVER heard! Oil never goes bad. Its been sitting undergound for over 2000 years for goodness sake! It would only go bad after a LONG LONG time! By that I mean sitting in the engine for 30 years.

Danger Will Robinson - - sorry - I'm old - while the oil may not go bad the stuff added to the oil decays over time - there are detergents and other "stuff" added to those dead dinos that help keep your engine alive - I'd change the oil and the filter - that's why they recommend both mileage (like "every 3000 miles) and time (like "every six months") -

 

[SaabMon]

This is the dumbest (sorry) question I have EVER heard! Oil never goes bad. Its been sitting undergound for over 2000 years for goodness sake! It would only go bad after a LONG LONG time! By that I mean sitting in the engine for 30 years.

Sorry the question seemed so dumb! But I have heard that if a car sits for a long period of time,you should put fresh oil in.So,in theory,if you discover a car sitting in a barn for twenty years and want to restore it,you don't need to change the oil.Obviously I don't use my car that much.At the rate I'm going it would be about four years before a scheduled oil change.

 

[crwchf01]

In that case I'd consider the annual oil change a preventative measure, unless you use an oil analysis program. Reason, combustion products that make it past the rings and into the crankcase can become corrosives over time. Without at least once a month running of the engine, water can also develop in the oil due to condensation, especially in coastal areas like yours. This water will mix with the combustion products over time and cause the corrosive to develop. Alternately drive your Saab, mon and make this a moot point. :lol:

 

[900t]

In that case I'd consider the annual oil change a preventative measure, unless you use an oil analysis program. Reason, combustion products that make it past the rings and into the crankcase can become corrosives over time. Without at least once a month running of the engine, water can also develop in the oil due to condensation, especially in coastal areas like yours. This water will mix with the combustion products over time and cause the corrosive to develop. Alternately drive your Saab, mon and make this a moot point. :lol:

The problem would be water contamination and gasoline contamination. BUT if the car was stored, I don't think it would be a real issue. Oil sitting in the pan is just like in the bottle, the worst condensation would be the humidity in the crankcase but there is only so much water in there.

Now if you say drove 600 miles over the past year at 0,6 miles at a time, or 2 miles a day or something like that I'd expect more condensation and blowby contamination from the engine never getting hot to "distill" that stuff off. But then I'd expect the oil to look black or even starting to get the white water-soaked oil look.

Certainly if the car was in a barn for 20 years I would change the oil promptly. If the oil was at the proper level, even if it was black or something, I wouldn't hesitate to start the car and drive it out of the barn or even back home but I'd change it very soon. But in such a case, probably the main seal (if it is a rope seal) will dry out, and get spun out by the crank anyway necessitating engine repairs and if you changed the oil you'd waste it all on the ground anyway :lol:

But for 12 months I wouldn't be too worried... more importantly the Saab engine doesn't even seem to care much about oil as long as you have some oil inside and you have oil pressure. If you had a 9-5 I'd be more cautious but probably you could keep the same oil for 50 000 miles and the engine would still be humming like a sewing machine (I don't recommend this!)

I think another consideration would be how much you are going to drive. If you're going to make only another 600 miles it is nuts to change it but if you are going to make say 6000...

 

[drbolaget]

Many car waranters require an oil change every six months, regardless of mileage. I believe that is because the oil additives break down, as said in one of the above posts. Maybe that's why auto shops clear oil at cheap prices when it has been sitting on the shelf for a while. I don't think you are facing any kind of a 'dilemma'. Even so, a quick oil and filter change is no great difficulty, so why not do it? The only question is whether you've got the $50 or so it takes to do it.

 

[turbo1992]

FWIW that was NOT a dumb question...no such thing in the car world and the replies prove it. We will always be here to help

If it's a non-turbo [I think it is] use Castrol GTX 10w30. Total w/filter should be about $25.00. If you take it to a service station make sure you point out where the drain plug is so they don't drain the transmission! It's the one towards the front of the car. And if at all possible buy a filter from eeuroparts or Saab. Someone here may have a recomendation for an off the shelf filter.

I also recomend starting the car and taking it for a spin until fully warm at least once a month...this is good to keep all of the moving parts happy.

 

['97 Saab SE Turbo]

I'm curious how many new Saabs sat on the dealers lots for six months or more. I'm pretty sure that the dealers didn't go out of their way to change the oil just before delivery... Ron

 

[dobrosaab]

Keep on post'n

This is certainly NOT a stupid question and I have seen my share of stupid questions on different car blogs. IMHO I see many many more stupid answers than questions. I would not worry too much about changing the oil in this case if money is an issue - as long as you don't have any problems with the car e.g. coolant "dissappering". That having been said, for $20 it can never hurt to change the oil. I also give thumbs up to Castrol GTX even for Turbos. Been using it exclusively for more years than I care to admit and my high-milage engines are always sparkling clean. My 91 Saab Turbo I have been driving for 12 years daily approaching 200k miles has had only GTX - its the energizer bunny...

Cheers,

M

 

[turbo1992]

I used GTX on all of my prior cars [944, 951, 308, etc] but on this one I decided to go with Mobil 1 Synthetic. Good stuff and I am a lucky one, it never needs topping off...even at 170+ K. Changed the tranny to Redline. Smooth as silk.

 

[SaabMon]

Thanks for all the great advice guys! Up until a year or so ago the car was a daily driver,and I changed the oil and filter every two thousand miles( I know it was overkill,but I couldn't help myself;oops.I always did it myself,and enjoyed doing it.Also I always start the car every few days and let it run awhile and drive around the island a little bit.
I use Valvoline 10/40 Maxlife,which is a synthetic blend.Never any problems,and at 200,000 miles I never have to add any oil.I took an early retirement,and living on a two by four mile island there isn't too many places to go. But, tomorrow I'm going to go out and change the oil.

 

[turbo1992]

I'd say your in good shape then

 

[rawill]

I wouldn't change the oil in my car if it had only done 600km in a year.

I'd be always changing oil - too many cars here. 8-10 depending on what you count.

 

[Jim Mesthene]

Should I change the oil in my car even though it has only been driven about 600 miles since the last change.

Don't bother.

 

[DurocShark]

Someone here may have a recomendation for an off the shelf filter.

NAPA Gold (aka Wix) is right up there with the Mann / Mahle filters.

 

[Max Blast]

The only way to tell for sure is to have the oil analyzed by a laboratory specializing in oil analysis.

 

[tucksayre]

Yeah this is probably one of those 10 hotly debated topics of all time (for car people)...

Oil gets contaminated with moisture and other crap over time (especially if the engine never gets up to temp). The detergents in modern oil add a whole complexity to "oil." I wouldn't think detergent breakdown would be an issue (you'll just have oil...), more likely as too much particles and crap get in the oil they fail to keep things disperse causing nasty mixtures.

I've been changing the oil on my s10 every year for the past 3-4 years and I've maybe traveled 2000 miles (of course it has 198k on the original engine, head gasket; it's even over heated a few times due to rusty coolant and freeze out plug nightmare). Now I have a friend with 2 trucks ('70s f350 and '80s chevy) that have both driven as farm vehicles and the oil has not been changed on either one of them for 4 years.

Oil will breakdown but older engines will have a tolerance for it (why they got crappier gas mileage). I've seen jeeps pulled out of barns, hooked up to an aux. gas tank, fresh battery, and away it went! Of course the oil was later changed during restoration.

For a newer car, I would change the oil every 6 months but a c900 is slightly older, I might go once a year. Almost any oil filter is good (except for cheap frams at wal mart, even wal mart brand filters are better).