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Should i change the oil?


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I have an 02 Sunsetter VLX and last year we only used the boat twice on a fresh oil change.  We are about to take it out next weekend and i am wondering if i need to change the oil again with such little use from last year.  What are your opinions?

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It is good practice to change it at least once a year no matter how often it was used in my opinion

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Thanks for the replies guys.  I am usually very rigorous about changing oil on time but I just hate to change fresh oil that has maybe an hours worth of run time on it. 

 

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If it has been only a few hours, your OCD has taken control if you are thinking of changing it.  It is like the guy who asked if there was an expiration date on oil....,  it is dinosaur juice....  it lasted hundreds of millions of years.  It comes out of rocks.....

Why do you think it has gone bad..?  Only then should you consider fixing the problem and then figure out if you need to change the oil.

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@duval7:  Reasons not to change the oil - 1. there is always a chance that something goes wrong and then a bigger problem arises (oil filter gasket sticks and new one is reinstalled with 2, result oil all over the bilge) and 2. why dispose of perfectly good oil when you don't need to, that does not help the environment.  Any contaminants from the 2 run events are in the bottom of the oil pan and simply draining the existing oil won't clear them out if you don't warm up the engine.  Reasons to change oil - 1. accumulated the # hours identified in the owners manual or 2. looks dark or milky.  If your oil looks clean on the dipstick & has few hours on it, I would not change it.  Spend the oil money on gas or cold beverages.

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If the boat was on a lift or had a lot of water in the bilge and was stored for an extended period I would change it.  The risk with having it sit for a while is that condensation will get in the oil and break it down, it would have to sit for quite a while to just go bad.  The condensation issue is why many people change it in the spring.  My boat never sits for more than a couple months without use, is stored in a dry garage, I always keep the bilge dry and use water absorbing pellets if stored for a couple months and I just follow my normal schedule.  That said I am usually wakeboarding, surfing or skiing when the boat is in use so I change the oil about every 30 hours vs. 50 hours based on the type of use. 

It sounds like it may have been over a year since the oil was changed based on you initial comment about only using it twice last year, so maybe it was even longer.  If it has been over a year I would just change it.

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