Do you need a oil change if i drove less than 1200 miles in a year?

Answer 1

That depends on how you drive .....

If your 1200 miles is a cross country run of 1200 miles straight, then the answer is no. The engine has plenty of time to warm up, the oil is operating under optimum conditions, there will be little fuel dilution and relatively little oxidation.

If, however, you drive 4 miles per day each day, then the answer is yes (probably). Short distance driving does not allow the engine to warm up, fuel dilution (fuel which gets entrained in the oil system from incomplete combustion in a cold engine) will lower the oil viscosity and dilute the additive pack - this in turn leads to potentially greater engine wear and less protection. If you then take the car on a longer run, the fuel can form oxidation products in the oil (soot) which then makes the oil even less effective.

I've seen oil from a BMW that had only been driven about 2000 miles per year by an inner city doctor making house calls (it does happen in Australia) for two years and the engine looked like one that had done 250000 miles of hard work. The rings were caked, the bore was polished and the bearings stuffed. The oil had become fuel diluted through the week and then would go for a short hop (about 30 miles) each weekend - enough to heat the oil up but not enough to boil off the fuel dilution - only to oxidise it. The oil looked like black glue.