I have this machine and was told not to oil it. My concern is that doing that myself, I could get oil into the electronics and mess things up. The only "oiling" that mine gets from me is when I clean it. A bit of sewing machine oil on a Qtip swabs out the bobbin case. Then down into the spaces that the Qtip can reach. The only problem I've had with my 4800 is with the mechanism that winds a bobbin. When I've taken it to the tech for that, he has commented about how clean my machine is for the amount of sewing it has done. Sometimes I think on updating but then I look at the prices of new machines and wonder what I was thinking. My 4800 still does almost everything I want and it's pretty reliable. We're good friends!