mrgentleminh

this is very weird to me.. it's kinda scarey... mazda told me they recommend me to bring it in every 5k miles for an oik change.. i'm used to 3k and never heard about 5 k miles.... is this ture or is it just a way to get ur car fucked up faster so u ahve to pay for service!!!??!

Mach 1

5K is fine, and a good compromise beween the manufacture recommended "normal duty" 7.5K and the 3K your used to.

Sir Nuke

change it at the interval that you are use to and accustom to...every 3000 miles....its cheap insurance.....

not to mention if you will rotate your tires EVERY oil change.....since they are recommended to rotate every 3750 miles......that is a good time to perform that maintenance as well.

and BTW.....Welcome to our happy little corner of the net, and to our Club. There are TWO BIG fridge'S in the corner with anything you can think of in them...help yourself...of course only take what you can LEGALLY have.

make yourself at home on one of the big fluffy couches, kick your shoes off, put your feet up on one of the tables, yes we are allowed to do that, mom don't care....and take it easy.

oh...btw....every once in a while a food fight breaks out...so you may not want to wear nice clothes here.

Welcome!!

ProtegeMaster

Changing your oil every 3000 miles is a myth created by oil changer businesses to pump up their cash flow, and one subscribed to my far too many.

Consumer Reports did an extensive study on oil change intervals several years ago, and here's how they did it, for all of the naysayers who insist you have to change your oil at 3000 miles all the time:

They filled a fleet of New York City taxi cabs with standard grade motor oil (not synthetic), and took measure of the engine's conditions at the beginning of the study. At various stages of mileage they measured engine wear using precision instruments designed to note changes on the microscopic level. In terms of the way most normal people drive, the way New York taxis are driven far, far surpasses the punishment rendered by most any other human being out there. The findings? There is no meaningful difference in changing your oil at 3000, 5000, even 7500 miles under normal driving conditions. And these are conservative recommendations.

People love their cars, and because of that it's easy to feel all warm and fuzzy when you change your oil every 3000 miles, feeling confident you're making a difference in how long your car will last. But the bottom line regarding this practice is, for most normal drivers, it's an utterly unnecessary, wasteful practice. In every way. You waste your money, resources are wasted, additional toxic used oil is rendered, etc..

I’m not suggesting for a moment that anyone neglect their engine oil, as, of course, this is the life blood of the engine and must be changed at the right time. It’s just that the 3000 mile change interval is total bullshit, and too many business have brainwashed too many people into believing the hype. For all of you autocrossers who wind out your engines close to redline all of the time maybe it's a different story, but for the vast majority of people? No. 3000 miles is a big time scam, and oil changer shops are loving every second of it.

Go by what the official Mazda manual recommends. They know more about what’s good for your Protégé than Minute-Lube.

germanwolf

Dude! They are wrong! change your oil & filter every 3000-3500 miles. Antifreese yearly, Spark plugs yearly{purchase Bosch Platinum 2-point}, fuel filter yearly, air filter {get a K & N}.

ProtegeMaster

Hey TheMan -- It actually wouldn't surprise me if your FS runs more smoothly than many others'. If you're red lining your engine nearly every day, you're surely raising temperatures in there higher than most others, thus buring out carbon deposits and the like. Indeed, pushing one's engine a bit every once in awhile is probably a good thing!

And regarding the 3000 mile thing, this IS a myth. Of course, it doesn't hurt your engine to change it every 3000 miles, but it DOES hurt the environment and your pocketbook. Some engines, in fact, are starting to make use of sensors that actually can tell when you honestly need an oil change. With these, you can sometimes see change intervals getting up towards 10,000 miles! Weird to consider, but it's true. 3000 miles is a bogus number for almost everyone...

LaRRy

Rotate the tires?

Is that suppose to be done every oil change toooo?

Whats the procedure? Just sawp the back and fronts?
*will it harm the tires if i dont rotate them?

Mach 1

I never rotate mine, because to me, its more hassle than its worth.

Rotating them will give you maximum tread wear and life from your tires, but I really dont think it makes a whole lot of difference, and as long as you keep your front end alignment good, you will get good tread life from your tires without rotating them.

I would like to really know the difference in mileage from rotating versus non rotating. I would guess maybe 1 or 2K more miles from them if rotated at the most

germanwolf

Personally with my old 323 I used to wear out the front, then rotate them to the rear end & change the rear end {used & worn out ones}. That way since the rear tires don't wear much & the most they would do is dry rot as they got older, I can successfully buy 2 at a time & rotare appropriately. With NO huge fee for 4 tires at a time.

distance

These manufacturers of theses cars have done their own studies and must have concluded the same thing. 8000km /5000miles for oil and filter! I have had no problems as of yet. 3000kms in these newer cars are overkill. Save your money and get some yummy sound, or body kit, or first intake. Don't blow your money on 3000 mile oil intervals unless you race! Better yet, send that extra oil from those premature oil changes to me (expecially 100% synthetic and I'll use it for the extra 2000miles!

LOS-323

I´ve had my car for three years (30,000 miles), and I just bought new tires about a month ago. I had only rotated them once in the three years I´ve had the car and never aligned them (I did align and balance them now that I got the new ones of course), and I must say that the tread wear was perfectly even in all four tires. No signs at all of uneven wear.

I think that unless you have some alignment problem or you notice uneven wear it´s probably not worth the hastle. Wouldn´t hurt to do it once or twice a year though... if you have the time and the energy... or if you can get someone else to do it for you.

hihoslva

I can't be bothered rotating at 3750 miles either, but it IS a good idea:

Your car weighs about 2600 lbs. And the Pro probably has about a 60/40 front/rear weight distribution. So that means your front wheels carry about 500 lbs more weight than the rear. 500lbs is a lot, and WILL shorten the life of the front tires if not rotated - and not by just 1-2k miles - maybe more like 10-15k, depending on how you drive.

It's a good idea to swap tires front to back at some point - I try to do it every 10k mi at least.

~HH

Mach 1

Thats funny, as I never rotate mine and the fronts are worn exactly the same as the rears.

Even if they did wear a lot faster, and I believe in some cases they will, if you put the rears on the front, then they will wear out faster than they would if left on the back. So now you are wearing out all 4 of your tires at a faster rate then just replacing the two front tires and keeping the rears where they are.

LOS-323

Well... it is a front wheel drive car, so if you launch fast often, then you would wear them more on the front.


Going back to the topic, I just read my manual, and it recomends oil changes every 10,000km.... which is about 6,250 miles. So 5,000 miles should be alright. Good way to save $20 bucks.

Farsyde

you have to keep in mind the inertial effects that are placed on the front and rear tires. It really is important to rotate your tires. Think about it, the rear tires only really have to respond to a vertical weight transfer. Therefore, if the suspension is aligned properly, then the rear wheels will wear at an identical and very consistent rate. Now to the front tires. This is where rotation is very important. Think about how many times a day you are braking. The nose dive your car takes puts close to 80% of the weight of the cars on the front tires (I'm guessing here but it is not even front to back) This is only in a straight line braking event. Now think about how many turns you take during a day. Every time you turn the tire on the inside of the turning radius will "dig in" much more than the other 3 tires. Since right and left turns happen about as often you can equate both front tires to taking the same amount of wear. However, front tires don't generally wear as evenly as rear tires. They wear more on the outside of the tire where there isnt as much tread as the center of the tire. Therefore your tires may look perfect but you culd have a huge blowout on the sidewall of the front tires. I've seen it happen and its amazing how a perfect tire could just fail but it does.

Also, tire manufactures will not honor any tire warantees if the tire blows before the warantee is up if it can be shown that proper maintanence (that means tire rotation alignment) wasn't taken with your tires.

Considering it really only take 10 minutes to rotat the tires, just like it only take 10 mins to change the oil, and you've already got the car up on jacks for the oil change, rotate the tires. It protects your investment.