? about maint. schedule

[BobT]

The last two vehicles I’ve owned were purchased new. These were the only vehicles I’ve ever owned that were less than eight years old. My first was a 2001 F150, 5.4L Triton with 6qt. oil pan and then this past July I traded that one for a 2009 F150, 5.4L Triton.

First a little background information. I live in rural Osakis about 1/4 mile from a paved county road. I do some driving on gravel but 95% is on paved roads. I’ve never really understood how gravel roads contaminate oil in a sealed system. Anyway, I drive about 20 miles to work in Alexandria and rarely subject my vehicles to city driving where I might be forced to wait for stoplights or deal with stop-and-go traffic. I avoid letting my vehicles idle more than necessary. Even on cold winter mornings I only idle them for about 60 seconds and then I’m on my way. I actually watch the clock so I know I’m not exaggerating.

I am one of those drivers you hate to get behind, especially when my vehicle hasn’t warmed up yet because I take it real easy on it when things are still cold and I rarely exceed speed limits. I am not a heavy foot on the throttle and I like to decelerate earlier than most. I prefer to stay off interstate highways so most of my driving is at lower speeds.

The heaviest load I might put in the truck box would be my ATV (600+ lbs.) maybe four or five times a year. During the summer I will pull my 16’ Sylvan Adventurer to and from local lakes on occasion with maybe three long trips; once to Canada and twice to Vermillion so I don’t tow my boat a lot but some.

For the life of my 2001 I followed the Mfr’s maintenance schedule pretty close and based on my driving habits I felt I could go with what they referred to as the “normal” use schedule. This schedule had a 5,000 mile service interval. I always took it to the dealership for service and always used Motorcraft parts and lubricants. Every once in a while I checked my oil prior to taking it in for service to see how contaminated it was getting between oil changes. Every time I checked, it looked like new oil and if it was one of my previous junker vehicles, I would be inclined to only replaced the filter every other cycle.

My 2009 has a 7qt. oil pan capacity and they increased the “normal” use interval to 7,500 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first. They use the same synthetic blend 5w-20 motor oil as was used in my 2001. I don’t know what improvements may have been made to the oil in the past decade but I’m sure there are some. I took it in yesterday for my first service visit. It had 5,800 miles on it turned six months old in late January. When they asked me whether I wanted the oil life warning reset to 5,000 or 3,000 mile interval, I told them the Mfr schedule was 7,500 or six months and I thought that might work. They raised their eyebrows a bit on that. When I asked, they said that as a dealership they recommend no more than 5,000 miles because of the winter and what they feel is “normal” for this area.

I would like to hear other’s views. What do think? Would I be pushing it too much to go 7,500/6mo considering the advances in oil lubrication quality, resistance to thermal breakdown, larger pan capacity, and my driving habits? I wouldn’t expect to put on more than about 6,000 miles in a six month period so it would be rare that I’d put on 7,500 miles, but it could happen.

[Jeremy airjer W]

"normal" only exists in a laboratory controlled environment. Toyota tried the 7,500 mile interval on there camrys a few years back. They replaced a lot of motors. They since went back to the 5k service and there have been no issues.

Nissan has a 3,700 mile interval (i think) on there new 3.5. Go over a couple thousand miles and your oil change will cost you an extra $100 for diagnostic time to tell you you need to change the oil. The oil ports for the variable cams are super small and cam timing can be affected by dirty oil which will turn on the check engine light.

[Scott K]

My opinion Bob, is in your case I would change the oil at no more then 5000 miles, until the engine has broke in, about 15000. After that I think with your driving habits you would be ok to go to 7500, but you may be wise to follow what the dealer is recommending to you until it is out of warranty.

The reason I say this is, if your engine fails at 58000 miles, and you bring it to your dealer and ask them if there is anything Ford can do to help pay for this, the first thing they will do is see how well the truck was maintained. If they recommend 5000, and you change it at 7500, the dealer would then say, you didnt change your oil at the service intervals they recommend for the area, so they refuse you for assistance.

Same truck, but you changed oil at 5k, engine locks up 58000 miles, you bring the truck in to see if they will help you out. The service manager looks at your maint record, sees you have done it when they recommended for the area. Ford and dealer pay 90% of the repair bill to install an engine. All for the extra $30 per year it will cost you to change your oil at 5k, rather then 7500.

[srj]

I've also wondered about maintenance schedules since I bought a GMC Sierra fall of 08. I had previously driven Toyotas and followed the "severe driving" schedule as I tow a lot. After a mandatory 3k oil change when new, the manual says to change oil when the vehicle computer display indicates your "oil life remaining" gets low. There is no severe driving indicated in the manual. THe sensors are supposed to compensate for conditions. The oil life is way over 7500 miles, probably over 10000. Thoughts on the GM system? With a 100k warranty, one would think GM would not put the engine at risk over oil change life.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I have personally run into vehicles with around 80k miles that have never had the oil changed. Short term 100k with 10k oil changes more than likely will not hurt anything. You can pretty much not do anything to a newer vehicle and get 100k out of it. Its the next 100k that you will pay the price.

Higher service intervals require you to keep an eye on the oil level! Something a lot of people can't handle in between standard service intervals.

I know for a fact that just about every front seal, rear seal I replace is on a dirty engine. You pull off the crank pulley and you can see years of neglect built up on all those components. I just did a front crank seal late model jeep with 54k on it. the crank pulley was just caked with oxidation and oil smootch! Something that could have been avoided with more frequent service?

I also agree with 4 on the factory warranty issues and how they are handled based on your loyalty to the dealer and service!

[BobT]

You bring up a good point, 4wanderingeyes. I'm thinking your views make sense along with my dealer's thoughts.

Thanks,

[fishing tech]

Normal conditions is not MN. It should be say under ideal condition. I work at a ford dealership and when my wife bought her new Fusion they put an oil change sticker in it that had 7500 miles on it. The salesman told her the same thing. I change her oil every 4-5000. I change my car and truck every 2000. I had a 92 Explorer with 235000 miles on and never did anything to the engine except an upper intake gasket and plugs and wires. Oil, coolant, and trany fluid. Changing these things will get you more miles. Trany fluid especilly if you tow.

[BobT]

First, I personally wouldn't pay much attention to a salesperson's opinion about oil changes. Sales and service are two totally different things.

I know there are those that hang on to the old school idea that oil should be replaced every 2,000 miles. While it doesn't hurt, it is a bit excessive, adds a lot of cost to the overall vehicle life, and not really necessary in today's quality engines. Having one vehicle last for a 1/4 million miles is great but not necessarily proof that changing the oil every 3,000 or 5,000 would have made any difference. I have similar history with my vehicles and I haven't used a 2,000 mile interval since I had my 1970's vehicle. I've had more than one last over 200,000 miles and these were old vehicles, not present day technology. My most recent diesel that I sold had over 300,000 miles on it and I changed that oil at 5,000 mile intervals.

I can remember one time asking a service tech how long a lifetime was. This was because my truck's transmission oil had never been touched and I had 238,000 miles on the truck. His response was that I probably exceeded what was considered a lifetime even though type-F oil was considered a lifetime lubricant. Ford has since moved away from type-F and now uses DexronIII I believe.

Anyway, with the advances in ignition technology comes better and more efficient fuel ignition and consumption resulting in less carbon deposits and oil contamination. Oils have come a LONG way in development especially with the introduction of synthetics. The old 2,000 mile interval applied when oil suffered from thermal breakdown and inefficient fuel usage resulting in higher levels of contamination. Also notice that manufacturers are increasing the size of the engine oil capacity. The advantage here is that the oil runs at a lower temperature and there is more available to handle contaminants to keep them out of the moving parts. In other words the oil is able to last longer before becoming saturated with contamination.

That's why I'm asking these questions. The average driver in the US spends a large part of his/her time in city driving. This means they spend a lot of time idling at stop signs, stoplights, heavy traffic and running at low speeds. Idling and low speed are inefficient and introduce more contamination for the oil to deal with than driving down the highway. If you have an on-board computer that shows you the instantaneous fuel consumption in mpg, notice that at 30mph and less, it is consuming more fuel per mile than at 55mph. Because the vehicle is moving too slowly or not at all, the oil is also not cooled by air moving past the pan and this introduces more heat to deal with. Naturally towing or hauling heavy loads also adds to the equation.

Just trying to figure out what "normal" driving is. Based on some service personnel, that "ideal" condition does not really exist except for maybe a salesperson that spends most of the time on highways. If so, why does the manufacturer use that rating? It would seem to make more sense to give the consumer a recommended service schedule that is most likely to meet the average person's driving habits. I think they should be a little more descrptive because many of us might be adding more to the pollution index and maint. cost by changing our oils more often than really necessary.

At any rate, I have taken the advice here and reset my trucks warning system so that I get reminded at about 5,000 miles instead of 7,500.

[Hafnutz]

I have run many vehicles into the 125,000 plus range without any engine problems, I had a Buick in the 70's that I bought new and sold at 194,000 and it still ran good. I generally try to change oil around 5,000 miles. Always have. Totally agree with what Bob has to say..Like I've said before: Oil and filters are cheap insurance.