TerrainSLE2 said:
Thanks. It sounds to me like I just need to trust the technology. I does sound nice to not have to change my oil every couple of months.
Mechanics 101 - Engine oil serves 3 mail purposes - cleaning, cooling, and lubricating. The primary purpose of an oil change is to assist in the cleaning function, not the cooling and lubricating function. If the oil isn't overly dirty, then why change it (at $50 a pop)? If your baby's diaper isn't dirty, why change it? Changing it for the sake of changing it doesn't help you.
Sure, maybe changing your oil every month will keep your engine that tiny bit cleaner and buy you another year, but at what cost? $400 or $500 worth of oil changes per year? After 10 years, you can just rebuild the engine for less... And as I mentioned before, Engines are so good nowadays, the rest of the car will fall apart before the engine does.
And modern oils are so incredibly well engineered with so many additives, you just don't need to worry about it *that* much. Since the Terrain/Nox are direct injected, you'd be much better off spending your time making sure you fill up at stations that have the toptier clean gas.