A MECHANIC has revealed exactly when you should be changing your oil or else you risk “destroying your car”.
Drivers could be forced to shell out thousands on repairs if they leave it too long.
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Scotty Kilmer, who has gained YouTube fame after 50 years of hard work in the motors business, urged motorists to ignore their owner’s manual and be much more rigorous about oil changes.
The standard schedule for most models is to completely drain and replace the oil every 5,000 miles.
But Scotty strongly recommended a much shorter interval between services.
He said: “I say it’s a good idea to change it every 3,000 miles or once a year.
“It depends on how many miles you are driving.
“If you’re driving less than 5,000 miles in a year, use regular oil and change it every 3,000 miles or once a year.
“That will be perfectly fine.
“Just as a general rule of thumb.”
However, that timeframe changes if you use synthetic oil instead of the standard stuff.
Regular oil is made from crude oil the same as petrol, while synthetic oils are either totally or partially man-made and designed to be more durable.
Scotty added: “If you’re driving 5,000 miles in a year, I’d use synthetic oil.
“Change it every 5,000 miles or once a year.
“It’s not like it’s magic…it’s still basically regular oil and after a year things start to break down.
“That’s just how oil is, when it’s in an engine…it gets impure, carbon builds up and then you’ve got to change it.”
Failing to stay on top of your oil changes could have disastrous consequences for your engine.
The oil is what lubricates the engine’s moving parts and if it become too impure, its effectiveness reduces heavily.
If you run on bad oil for too long, the lack of lubrication could cause metal-on-metal scratching inside the engine or even cause it to seize.
In the latter case, you’d need a full engine replacement at a cost of several thousands of pounds.
It comes after petrolheads were wowed by the chance to spend a night at an incredible Ferrari AirBnB with a bed surrounded by F1 cars.
