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I feel that a 15,000 mile oil change interval on the 9-5 is too long, no matter which oil is used.
Why? Because:
1) the 9-5 is turbocharged, which stresses the oil--turbos are hot and spin at over 100,000 rpm!
2) the oil capacity is only 4 quarts (contrast this to the 9-3SS which holds 6 quarts, or BMWs which hold 7 quarts)
3) the oil filter isn't very large
4) the catalytic converter is very close to the oil sump, which puts additional thermal stress on the oil
5) the majority of drivers operate under severe, non-ideal conditions, especially during winter time
In my experience, the oil filter gets loaded up early on with a lot of metal bits as the engine breaks in. I saw this when I opened up the factory-mounted oil filter at 5,000 miles. Best to get rid of these sooner rather than later.
For '04 owners, I recommend the following oil change schedule:
-2,500 miles (a little early to get out excess metal bits)
-7,500 miles (a 5,000 mile interval)
-15,000 miles (a 7,500 mile interval--notice the gradual progression)
And then every 7,500 miles thereafter (22,500, 30,000, 37,500, etc).
Always use a top-tier synthetic such as Mobil 1 0W-40 or 5W-40, SAAB 0W-30 full synthetic, German-made Castrol 0W-30, Amsoil S2K 0W-30, etc.
If you don't want to go through the trouble of doing an early 2,500-mile oil change, then at a minimum, please change at least every 7,500 miles (7,500, 15,000, 22,500, 30,000, etc) which means you only add one additional oil change in between the "complimentary" oil changes.
The earlier practice of changing every 5,000 miles would be even better, but changing every 7,500 should be okay, given that one of the above oils are used. If you really want to know, let oil analysis be your guide.
Oil analysis on my own car shows that an oil change interval of 7,500 miles would probably be reasonable for my car's operating conditions: severe service (NYC-area driving) using fully synthetic oil. I'm a bit picky, though, so I go about 5,000 to 6,000 miles. I want the inside of my engine to be spotless, like the rest of my car.
15K, I don't think so... even BMW engines start to look ugly inside when going 15K on synthetic, and they are NOT turbo, they hold 7 quarts of oil, and use an oil filter which is twice the size of ours!
Check out the web site below...
posted by 68.237.97...
Thinking About Long Oil Change Intervals? (courtesy of genuinesaab.com)
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