I have a recently acquired 2001 Odyssey with 115,000 miles, but I only use this van about 1,500 miles per year. I've always changed oil and filter on cars I've owned every 3,000 miles. But I have always driven at least 3,000 per year. Can I wait until I have 3,000 on the Odyssey (about 2 years time) or do I need to change it sooner?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

 

3000 is such minimal time you will be fine waiting

 

Given the amount of sitting time, the oil still must be changed on a time interval to keep solids for accumulating on the bottom of the pan. This will ruin your pump and starve engine bearings over time if it does separate.

The real cure would be to drive the car more. The phrase "use it, or lose it" has great significance on most things in the world.

 

you may check out the oil analysis labs like Blackstone. if you really want to do it the "right" way, you'll need some first hand data independent of what the powertrain engineers used. when the labs send your results back they can usually recommend a change interval to suit your specific situation.

or just one a year, independent of mileage.