What Really Happens When You Skip Oil Changes ( From Service Tech's Perspective )

Good morning Niagara, you're tuned to car connection where the coffee's hot, the

tools are ready and the talk is always tuned up. I'm your host, Niall Modermal

Jenkins, coming to you straight from the car connection workshop this morning

where we mix a little humor, a little know-how, and a whole lot of horsepower.

Here it's not just about fixing cars, it's about keeping you rolling, saving you

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car connection. Here's Saturday morning pit stop for story smarts and a few good

laughs. I'm Niall Modermal Jenkins and we are shifting in to drive this morning.

We got a lot of information coming your way so it just might be like sucking on

a fire hose, I'm not sure. What really happens if you skip oil changes from a

mechanics point of view? So stick around for that, that's our topic this morning.

So just let your co-pilot know, did you get that? Did you write that? You got, no?

Broke your crayon? Well you suck. Well good thing there's 16 more. Make sure you

get your Crayola crayons. Anything beyond that ain't a crayon in my opinion.

Well we have a motormouth moment for you this morning, another motormouth tech

tip. So stick around for that and I think we should start the morning with a

swiggy. So let's do this thing, right? Let's do it. Let's count it down. Your

favorite morning beverage, whatever, I mean I think I need more coffee,

whatever that means for you. Alright, whatever that means for you, your morning

beverage, let's raise your cup, keep an eye on the roadway and the other guy,

yeah you know the idiot that changes lanes every 30 seconds. He thinks he's

running some kind of auto race, yeah. But you know what's always funny? They'll

pass you and then you're right behind them on the next ramp going off the road.

Yeah, brilliant. Alright three, I bought you a bit of time there and get your

beverage ready. Three, two, one, mmm, that is a super good swiggy this morning. I

gotta give that a triple plus. Yeah, alright, let's before I digress, let's

move on. Oil changes. I just talked about that a little bit touched on it a few

days ago. The small service that's a huge service and at our own automotive shop

that we had for 11 years on the Hamilton Mountain, we didn't promote oil changes,

we promoted full service maintenance. That meant we covered everything. That was

like the package, a bag of chips, a diet soda and a jelly filled donut all in one

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To our good friends, the brothers up at Rainbow Motors and Garage in Scarborough,

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Building and hardscape, landscaping materials, they can help you design, they can give you all

kinds of insight as to how to create that backyard space for 2026 that you've always

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properly landscape the backyard and the side yard. So we thought, well, we'll just call a

landscaper and get them to come in here and get it done. No, you don't. The guys that don't know

much are available, but the ones that are really good, you're going to wait. You're going to have

to go on a waiting list. So you want to get on their schedule as soon as possible when you decide

to make that backyard space that you've always wanted just a suggestion. That's what I experienced.

Two years. It took two years to get the landscaping company that we wanted to come in and do the job

because we'd seen their work down in Niagara on the lake and going, yep, that's exactly what I want.

And I've done that before, selected a company because I had to have it done today and then I

had to have somebody else come back and fix it all. Don't you just love that? No, not at all. I

don't love that at all. All right, let's jump right in this morning with our motor mouth morning tech

tip. Yeah, we got a top story this morning. Turns out 63% of drivers believe that their

windshield wipers are just fine. Right up until the exact moment it starts pouring rain. That's

right. Your wipers are the forgotten heroes of car maintenance. They survive blizzards,

bug storms, and bird related incidents. But if your wiper blades are streaking and squeaking

and flapping like a scared seagull, it's time to replace them. Here's my pro tip. Change your wipers

every six to 12 months if you're not willing to keep them clean. And I'm going to give you an extra

on that in about 15 seconds or replace them when they start sounding like a jazz saxophone solo.

Yeah, that's creepy. Are there notes in that music? I don't know. I can never figure it out.

Here's the secret. You know, when you go out for pizza and wings,

you know who you are. That's a good meal. Not all the time, you know, everything in moderation.

Those little handy white packets. They're amazing for cleaning the edge of your wiper blades,

because here's what happens when you're on the highway, if you're, if you're on the highway

right now, you're commuting to work or wherever you're going. All that schmutz buddy in front of

you is spinning on your windshield. That's called road crunch. Yeah, it's a technical term. We

developed it in the car connection workshop road crunch. It builds up on the edge of your wiper

blades because your wiper blades are basically squeegees. Yeah, that's what they are. They're

squeegees. Could that be a creature squeegee? I don't know. We'll have to look that up. So just

lift your wiper blades up, which you should be on a day like today because it's raining cats, dogs,

and a bag of hamsters. And if the temperature drops, guess what, everything's going to be frozen,

solid. So if you haven't put silicone spray on your, your weather stripping on all the doors and

entries of your vehicle, yeah, it's going to be a tough day tomorrow. And if you leave those

wipers on the windshield overnight, yeah, they're going to weld themselves pretty much to the glass.

And when you go to open the car door, you made, you know, like you're starting a lot more chainsaw,

you're probably going to rip the plastic handle clean off. So today's the day, you know, get one

of those packets, also the eyeglass cleaners, you know, you can get them in little packets

at the big W store. Those work perfect for cleaning the edge of your wiper blades. I'm just getting

ready to replace my wiper blades on our 07 Toyota FJ Cruiser. I put them on in 2014.

They're just starting to chatter. Why is that? Why did I get that much time out of them? Because I

clean them with one of those packets, keep the edge of your wiper blades clean, and they last a

long time. 2014, we're in 2025. I'm just putting the order in online today to get new ones. And I

like the, no, they don't pay for the show. So don't lose it, armchair warriors. Bosch Evolution

Wiper Blades. I like the Bosch series period. They just is something about the squeegee

that lasts. Don't you think 2014, 2025? Yeah. 11 years. That's right. 11 years, a little over a decade.

How? Using those hand wiper packets or the eyeglass cleaner packets. If you don't have that,

a little bit of windshield washer fluid on a clean called lint-free cloth,

or use a paper towel. Lift the wipers up, clean the edge of the blade, and you'll see this black

stuff coming off. Some of it is, you know, residue from the rubber, but a lot of it is the road

grunge. So there's an extra tech tip this morning because it's raining, trying to help you out,

folks. Because when the wipers chatter, it's no good. It's hard on the wiper motor and the

wiper transmission system pivots and everything because it's putting a lot of extra pressure

on those mechanisms. So let's jump right in this morning to

what really happens if you skip oil changes? Well, here's the first thing. First thing that

comes to mind is you have to be in control of your vehicle maintenance. If you want to keep

your car longer, like I do, I've made payments. I've made stupid dumbass payments for a long time

at high interest, 17.93%. And some of you are going, what? That's baloney. Yeah? 1981.

Or excuse me, was 83. 1983. 17.93%. But you know what? I still have that little pickup truck,

we call them Moe, because he's actually a Mo JV, Mo Javi, one of 500 in the entire world.

His number is 222. Yeah, I took care of it because I paid at that time like $22,000 for it with

interest. And if I could have paid cash, it was $11,200. So it's good to know and understand

your automobile if you want to keep it longer. Stop listening to my advice, stop listening

to the salesman and the white noise that comes out of their mouth, because here's the thing.

If somebody gives me a set of keys to a car and tells me I get four years, 60,000 kilometers

warning on it, I'm going to say thank you, but no thank you, here's your keys, there's your car.

Come on, that's the best you can do? Well, unfortunately, if that is the best they can do,

here's the problem. Somebody has to take care of it and it all starts with oil changes. The problem

we have is we've got people that are saying things don't need to be maintained in me. Oh,

it doesn't need that. Oh, you can extend your oil change to 32,000 kilometers or 16,000 kilometers.

Are you out of your freaking mind? That's my engine. And that's the way you have to look at it,

because the buzzword in the fizz is we want to hear maintenance free. Well, it's not stinking

true. I'm just going to put it out there flat. And that's flat, as they would say in the UK.

It's not true. It's not true. That's what we want to hear. And what they want is they want to get

your used car out from underneath your butt, because they have a list as long as your left leg

of people that are looking for a pre-owned, because we have a shortage of pre-owned vehicles.

I'm rolling this all in so you get a picture of how to play the game, because it is a game.

How is it that I can own a 99 Honda Civic DX with over 300,000 kilometers? We're still going.

The body's not rotted out. It's mint inside and out. And mechanically, it didn't do it by itself.

I got sick and tired, fed up, disgusted, and bored of paying interest. And I don't listen

to the salespeople whose lips are moving, telling me that, oh, that's maintenance free. And I don't

have to change the fuel filter. Yeah? Once the warranty runs out, that's lifetime gone. Lifetime

warranty's done. So if it's three years or four years, 60,000 kilometers, whatever happens first

voids your warranty. So if you run out by mileage in two years, warranties over, that's your lifetime.

You have to understand this stuff, folks. You really do. Because when you know the rules to the

games, you can play the games more better. Yeah, I had a tough time with English. More

better. You can play the game more better. And it all starts with oil changes. I've been hearing

this for a long time. And I'm going to give you a recommendation at the end of what I talk about

today with regards to oil changes. So get your crayons ready, you're going to want to check this

fella out, because he will set you right. And you'll be looking at the salesman next time with the

big stink guy and going, you're doing this. When I want you to do this, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Shut your head. That's exactly. So how important are your engine oil changes and services?

Three months or 5000 kilometers, whichever occurs first. That's what I have stuck with

my entire life as an automotive service technician. And I don't care if it's semi synthetic, full

synthetic, half a baloney sandwich in there, whatever. I don't care what it is. That's what I do.

I probably throw out better motor oil than what most of you have in your car this morning.

We don't give it the respect that it deserves. And I'm going to unpack that now. You go. So

armchair warriors are going, you're a freaking idiot, motor mouth. Well, you know what?

My FJ cruiser is just shy of 400,000 kilometers. How you do it? How you doing? Yeah, how you doing

exactly. As my military instructor taught us this basic idea behind oil changes,

it has stuck with me ever since. And you know what? I can put a half a million miles,

not kilometers, half a million miles on an automobile and still have the same engine.

How you doing? Yeah. So I give that to all the armchair warriors. Here's what I tell you you

can do. You can change your motor oil and put a cheap nasty oil filter on any time you want

because IDK. I don't care. As for me and my house, what's under my hood, I want that puppy to go

until it can't. And I'm going to help it get there. Extending oil change intervals is not a good

idea. And this is what we've been hearing for the last 10, 12, 15 years in the service base. It's

it is what is suggested by some service centers and dealers. But here's what I'm going to tell you.

And a lot of my buddies who are renters as well, and super techs,

I'll tell you the same thing. Stop listening to white noise.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Why? Well, now I'm going to give it to you.

Thermal breakdown of the oil is number one. It's not monitored. If you have one of those vehicles

that has one of those stupid maintenance reminder lights, you know what? I just said the word about

it. It's stupid. It is programmed by somebody stupid and programmed by people who don't want

you to keep your car and maintain it and head for 400,000 kilometers and you're not paying

any interest. And if you talk to any one of our certified financial planning professionals,

they will tell you this. Best vehicle in the driveway is the one that's paid for. Treat it

like it's a bar of gold and take really good care of it because that will make you money.

When you're turning the key and you're not in, you know, I remember one time,

here we go, story time, just a quick rabbit hole, crossing the border for like the 100

millionth time because I did broadcast from the US for 12 and a half years on ESPN,

24 and a half years on an FM network. And you know what? I could write a book just on crossing

the border, the crap that I went through. This guy says to me right out of the blue,

never been asked this before. Is that your car? I looked left and right. I'm going,

is there somebody else in the car here with me? Skippy? Are you here? I go, well, yes and no.

He goes, what do you mean? I go, well, yeah, yeah, I own it, but I'm making the payments.

I'm in partnership with the bank. The guy could not stop laughing. He goes, I have never heard that

in all my years on the line. I go, well, that's true. It's true. When I put the key in and I turn

it on, I'm fixing it. I'm maintaining it. I'm paying the car payment with interest and I'm in

partnership with the bank and I don't like it. And he goes, that's good. You have a great day.

Wave me off. He was still laughing. He goes, I'm in the same position and I don't like it.

Exactly. So anyways, the manufacturers create these maintenance reminder lights. You know what?

People used to bring their car in just to have me reset it so they could keep going down the road,

so it doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's like the money light. We just talked

about that a couple of days ago on podcast here in the car connection workshop. You might want

to swing into that. That edition and all our podcasts are up on our website in the archived

section and you can easily find that and navigate there. So thermal breakdown of the oil happens

no matter what it is, whether it's a semi or whether it's a full or whether it's conventional oil.

What am I talking about? Synthetic oils. So now I'm going to spin a little tip for you on this.

Here's what an oil engineer told me from one of the major, if I said the name of the oil company

he'd go, really? Yeah. Had a nice conversation behind closed doors with an oil engineer, one of

the major manufacturers of motor oil. And here's what he said. He said, today's average automobile

driver, if he's not on a racetrack, will never get all the benefits from running a synthetic oil.

Just saying, I'm not the message. I'm just the messenger. And it looked down and I go,

really? He goes, yeah, really, whether it's a semi synthetic or a full synthetic,

the average everyday driver will never get all the benefits from that semi synthetic or

synthetic motor oil. It's better to run a top quality motor oil and a quality oil filter,

change your oil more often and down the road you go and save yourself money.

So what do we see today? Well, price of motor oil either way has gone through the stinking roof,

but it's a preference. You know, if the manufacturer's calling for it,

you know what? I've had three vehicles already where the manufacturer says it right in the guide.

It's suggested. And as my representative from one of the major car manufacturers

around the world said to me, Nile, he says, the owner's manual and the maintenance guides

are only suggested. They're not cast in stone. So there's another answer

from those who have the fruit on the tree. That's a car manufacturer representative.

So number two, carbon buildup in the oil. And I'll round this off in a minute. These are the

things that happen with your motor oil. So if you extend your motor oil changes where you,

you know, you skip an oil change, this is what's going on. Thermal breakdown of the oil. That's

from heating and cooling, heating and cooling, heating and cooling, heating and cooling.

That motor oil gets so hot, you can almost make donuts in it. That's how hot it is when it comes

out. You shut the engine off, you've been driving it for a half hour or an hour. Go do an oil change.

You'll scald your stinking hands. I'll tell you that. Carbon buildup in the oil.

Excessive debris buildup in the oil, oil filter. There's always carbon particles,

metal transfers back into the oil. All that stuff is happening in your motor oil and it is not

monitored by the onboard computer. It's monitored by you, the vehicle owner, bottom line.

So if you were to capture the oil as it drains and pass it through, so if I'm draining and we've

done this several times this test, we've drained motor oil through a coffee filter and to see what

is in the oil. Like do a, we call it our science test. Check to see how the engine's doing. It's a

cheap what we call SOS test. Not sending it out to a lab. A sample. We're not sending a sample out.

We're just catching the oil, filtering it through a ground coffee filter or an automotive

paint filter and you will see harmful debris captured in that filter. So it's so important to

stay on track with your oil changes and not cheap out on the oil filter. A $3.95, $3.95

center, $6 oil filter is not on my vehicles, any of them at any given time ever. Ever. That's how

you get to a half a million miles is making sure you're changing your oil on time, every time,

not skipping, using top notch brands of oil, conventional oil or synthetic, whatever your

flavor is. I changed, I had a 99 Honda CRV and somebody convinced me, oh, you should be running

synthetic in there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, do this. You're

doing this. I want you to do this. So I said, okay, next oil change. I'll take you up on the challenge.

Did a full synthetic oil change? Started the engine next morning.

Sounded like a freaking John Deere tractor. I'm going, I can see, I can hear every stinking part

of the valve train in my motor. I'm like, that isn't good. I drove it for a day and it sounded

like a tractor. So the very same night, I changed the oil out, I left the filter on because it was

only a day old engine was happy and back to normal. Yeah, you figure it out. Synthetic on that engine

was a big no, no, absolutely no times no divided by no equals no. So again, if you were able to

capture your oil as it comes out, you'll, you'll be surprised at all the harmful debris

captured in that filter that gets past your oil filter. It happens. Be it conventional oil,

full set it full synthetic, or even so called long life oil, the results are the same.

Particles in the oil. So I'm going to wrap this up very, very quickly now. And I hope that at the

end of it, you understand that motor oil is the life's blood of your engine. How do I get to

almost a half a million kilometers? I'm giving you the secrets right now.

So how about using a high tech metal screened engine oil filter versus paper ribbed type oil

filter. So there's two types out there. Recent test results on types of oil filters. Here's what we

what I came up with some. This is the science. This isn't me speaking. I'm not the message.

I'm the messenger right here at this point. Recent test results were the screen type

oil filter fail allows point zero zero one microns of particles back into the motor oil.

That's not a good thing. The paper ribbed filters captured point zero zero zero one

micron particles. Did you catch that? So the screen type

foil filter would was allowing point zero zero one microns of particles back into the motor oil.

The paper ribbed filters capture point zero zero zero one micron particles. So ladies,

you I think you'll blow your man's mind tonight. When you get home, if you just kind of share some

of this with him going, you know, did you know, you know that the metal screened oil filters

only capture point zero zero one size particles when a quality top quality quality ribbed paper

oil filter captures point zero zero zero one. That's very teeny weeny.

So I'm going to leave you with this one of my favorite channels and I used to watch car racing

a lot. So I know this this young chaps father in NASCAR. He has his own channel called the oil geek.

So check him out on YouTube. Lake Speed Junior's father Lake Speed is a great NASCAR driver for

many years. So he runs excellent engineering type tests and amazing results to prove. So

armchair warriors, go take a look at his videos and watch the testing and the equipment he has.

And if you've got better equipment than Lake Speed Junior, the oil, the oil change geek,

the actually I think he calls himself the oil oil geek, that's it oil geek.

Then, then I'll listen to you. But if not, you know what, I'm going with what works, because the

the 07 Toyota FJ Cruiser is just shy of 400,000 K original motor, and we'll just keep going. We

will make it. We will go all the way to 500,000 miles on that motor. How do I know that? Because

I've done it before in a Toyota. Absolutely. So that about wraps it up today. Come and visit us

back Saturday morning. We'll see you right here at 8am with motor about morning drive for all those

who work weekends like I did up until recently 31 years without a weekend off broadcasting our car

connection live call in automotive program on a number of different radio stations. And now we're

podcasting and reaching a lot more people north, south, east and west around this rock that we're

spinning on. So I'm going to continue to share the knowledge that I've been blessed with over 40 plus

years as an automotive service tech light truck passenger vehicles, diesels, equipment, highway

trucks and coaches, the whole nine yards, the whole schmiel, and we'll see you right back here

tomorrow morning. So happy motoring. Keep it under 100 and put the coffee on because we're going to come to your house.

What Really Happens When You Skip Oil Changes ( From Service Tech's Perspective )

About this episode

extended warranties

light commercial vehicles

silicone spray

Toyota Fj

Bosch

wiper blades

windshield washer fluid

wiper motor

vehicle maintenance

Mo JV

oil changes

maintenance free

pre-owned vehicles

Honda Civic DX

motor oil

oil change intervals

thermal breakdown

Volkswagen Rabbit

maintenance reminder lights

synthetic oils

oil filter

carbon buildup

SOS test

Honda Crv

valve train

micron

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