Auto maintenance advice

[LennG]

 I have a question to throw out here.

My wife's car, an 'older' PT Cruiser with about 135000 miles. She drives this thing less than 2000 miles a year and basically always local. It does get on the highway once in a while when I take it out for a spin.

It has been about a year since we changed the oil and I am wondering if, because we only put less than 2000 miles on it, we need to change it again? I know good maintenance would say we should, but I was really curious if it needed to be done automatically, even though limited miles are put on the car.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I believe that oil disintegrates over time inside an engine. I could be wrong. Also, if it's regular oil and not full synthetic, you should change the oil every 2 or 3 thousand miles anyway. If it was my car, I'd change the oil. At 135,000 miles, the engine needs to be cared for more so than a car with say 25,000 miles. Especially if it isn't used a lot and you're not using full synthetic. A car sitting without running for a long time tends to dry out the head gaskets and gunk in the engine settles to the oil pan

Caveat: I'm no auto mechanic. I stopped working on cars years ago when they had carburetors, distributor caps, and you had to set the timing, change the plugs often, etc. For the last 40 years or so, I take it to the garage where I trust the guy, and he doesn't tell me I have to have a new "hard-to-find strumble frocken, but he can still get one", replaced for 500 bucks

[ozzie]

Non-Mechanic here too, but I agree with Jolly. From what I understand, motor oil will break down over time.
I would have it changed. Better safe than sorry.

[Ed Vette]

Change the oil. It's just as Ric said.

[Moose135]

With that little annual mileage, I would get an oil change once a year. It's cheap insurance to keep it running well.

[LennG]

I kind of figured that. Thanks all.