Oil Change or Not...What would you do?

[GreenF8]

So I am driving the '19 Laramie to Canada and back for a fishing trip June 16-24. 1400-ish miles round trip. Truck info says my oil life is at 35% today; likely between 30-35% by next Friday. If you were me, would you change it before the trip, or wait until after. The new filter and synthetic oil are sitting on the garage shelf. Thanks

 

[PolarisCobra]

I generally change mine at around 25% on the oil life gauge. Might as well get it done now, and look everything over before the trip. May find something else that needs attention, easy to take care of it now, and have an uninterrupted vacation.

 

[brian42]

I didn't change my oil until less than 5% (PUP). Since you're using synthetic I wouldn't change the oil before the trip unless it was at 10% or less IMO.

 

[TotallyHucked]

Forget the percentage, how many miles are you on this oil change? If you won't be over by much and you don't beat the snot out of your truck, you'll be fine to wait till after. I typically change mine just somewhere around 5k. It's not a big deal if you're over by a few hundred or even 1k miles if you're using quality oil and not running the truck super hard.

 

[Tulecreeper]

I change mine the week the "Change Oil Soon" light comes on.

 

[Tom Davis]

Running synthetic I would guess you should be fine. But if any doubt at all, or having to question it, I would change it as it wouldn't hurt anything to do so.

 

[Jane S]

So I am driving the '19 Laramie to Canada and back for a fishing trip June 16-24. 1400-ish miles round trip. Truck info says my oil life is at 35% today; likely between 30-35% by next Friday. If you were me, would you change it before the trip, or wait until after. The new filter and synthetic oil are sitting on the garage shelf. Thanks

Forget the guage.

Mileage and idle hours is the metrix.

 

[REDinAZ]

So I am driving the '19 Laramie to Canada and back for a fishing trip June 16-24. 1400-ish miles round trip. Truck info says my oil life is at 35% today; likely between 30-35% by next Friday. If you were me, would you change it before the trip, or wait until after. The new filter and synthetic oil are sitting on the garage shelf. Thanks

I either go by too much time elapsed since last oil change, or a quickly accumulated mileage amount (meaning it's certainly getting changed from that). the "oil life" suggestion the truck gives out doesn't ever interest me. so I would first ask, how many months (6-8 months it's getting old) has that oil been in the crankcase? and if it's old are there a ton of miles on it too?? I don't like old/higher mileage oil churning thru an engine on road trips (but that's probably just my superstition). YMMV.

 

[Tulecreeper]

I either go by too much time elapsed since last oil change, or a quickly accumulated mileage amount (meaning it's certainly getting changed from that). the "oil life" suggestion the truck gives out doesn't ever interest me. so I would first ask, how many months (6-8 months it's getting old) has that oil been in the crankcase? and if it's old are there a ton of miles on it too?? I don't like old/higher mileage oil churning thru an engine on road trips (but that's probably just my superstition). YMMV.

Changing oil just because of age is wasting money; oil doesn't really have a shelf life. Hours of operation is what I have always gone by. I sold a boat with a Mercury outboard on it in 2020. The manual said to change the oil at 50 hours, then every 100 hours after that or annually, whichever came first. I bought that motor in 2007 and it had about 120 hours on it in 2020. No way was I going to change the oil on that motor every year with only 10 hours since the last oil change. I changed the oil twice in those 13 years - once at 50 hours in about 2012, and again in 2019 just because.

 

[JayLeonard]

Interval is just a target. I'd run it and get it changed when you get back. You engine won't faail because you put an extra 1000 miles on it.

 

[Jane S]

Changing oil just because of age is wasting money; oil doesn't really have a shelf life. Hours of operation is what I have always gone by. I sold a boat with a Mercury outboard on it in 2020. The manual said to change the oil at 50 hours, then every 100 hours after that or annually, whichever came first. I bought that motor in 2007 and it had about 120 hours on it in 2020. No way was I going to change the oil on that motor every year with only 10 hours since the last oil change. I changed the oil twice in those 13 years - once at 50 hours in about 2012, and again in 2019 just because.

You used it 10 hours a year?????

Were you dumping bodies?

 

[JHoward]

You used it 10 hours a year?????

Were you dumping bodies?

Excellent, lol!

 

[GTyankee]

That percentage thing can not be trusted,
An honest Service Manager will tell you that

Look at the Ram 1500 owners manual, it has the number of miles between changes

NOTE: Under no circumstances should oil change intervals exceed 10,000 miles, (16,000 km), twelve months or 350 hours of engine run time, whichever comes first.
The 350 hours of engine run or idle time is generally only a concern for fleet customers.

 

[RC Turner]

Most of us change our oil much more often than necessary. (me included) Adding 1400 highway miles to what you have already driven won't bother a thing. Plus, you will probably find that the highway miles will not change the 30-35% very much. Oil monitors like highway miles.

 

[brian42]

I drive over 20K miles a year so my oil life was pretty much proportional to miles: 100 miles = 1%

 

[Andrei20]

So I am driving the '19 Laramie to Canada and back for a fishing trip June 16-24. 1400-ish miles round trip. Truck info says my oil life is at 35% today; likely between 30-35% by next Friday. If you were me, would you change it before the trip, or wait until after. The new filter and synthetic oil are sitting on the garage shelf. Thanks

I'd throw in a can or two, depending on the oil volume, of Seafoam, or other long duration engine oil flush and and a can of oil viscosity stabilizer and change the oil after coming back.
Holding the engine mostly at stable cruising rpm most of the trip will make that additive work best on cleaning the crankcase. 1400 miles on highways is about 25-30 hours of engine running, which would be about 10% of average combined city/highway use of a vehicle between oil changes (@200-300 engine hours), so you have plenty of room for your 30-35% oil life.
The 10 minutes engine oil flushes are garbage imho. The long lasting ones are a better option.
But we all believe in different gods and rituals, so critics and laughs accepted.

 

[HEMIMANN]

I don't go by the oil counter. I go by mileage. Target OCI for Hemi engines is 5,000 miles, not to exceed 6,000 miles.

Neither do I trust Used Oil Analysis for oil change intervals for these engines - they have too many things to go wrong with them from a lubrication standpoint to risk reducing oil flow from deposits. It's not about whether the oil can go further - it's about whether the oil condition can continue in these marginally-lubricated Hemi engines.

If I were going on a 1,400 mile trip, my not-to-exceed mileage to start the trip is 4,600 miles, nominal or average mileage would be 3,600 miles. Any mileage over these and I would change oil before the trip.

 

[craigsez]

Depends if your a stop n go alot or highway type driven....
Are you the type to just in a cold truck,spark it up for a min and drive 3 .in to the store,shut it down the same back home type??
Do you get in warm it up a min or two and drive for 20 minutes or more.......

If its the 1st i would change more often,2nd i would hang off till after the trip

 

[PaleFlyer]

I didn't change my oil until less than 5% (PUP). Since you're using synthetic I wouldn't change the oil before the trip unless it was at 10% or less IMO.

Depends on the synthetic.

When I first started changing the ram's oil myself (didn't have a good place for years, until last year), 5k on Havoline's synthetic was black as night, while PP at about 5k was like iced tea. Heck, PUP looked better at almost 9k then Havoline's crap did at 5k.

And I told them I wanted whatever their best crap was. (The PP change was also with just the 10k STP filter from AutoZone they had as a promo with the PP, that I bought accidentally instead of the PUP.)

 

[GreenF8]

Ended up changing the oil yesterday. It was pretty dark. Glad I changed it whether it really needed it or not. Thanks for all the feedback. Time to find the next sale on 5W-30