1st oil change confusion on 1.5 BS

[rocks]

They may not use a "break-in oil" but is probably Motorcraft synthetic blend. I changed the oil at 500 miles on my OBX because I wanted to change over to a full synthetic. I'll change oil and filter every 5000 miles or yearly from now on.

Your car, your money! Do what you think is best.

I'm doing a 1500 mile round trip next month. I may have the dealer do a synthetic oil change before I go. I'll have about 500 miles on her. Maybe when I get back home?

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[jkeaton]

Manufacture specs blend, so blend it is.

 

[BillC]

Having spent most of my life working on vehicles, including a short stint of 20 years (age 15-35) doing it professionally, and holding a Red Seal (Canadian interprovincial certification) in Automotive Repair(Mechanical) and a Service Station Mechanic license (Province of Nova Scotia certification, last step before the Red Seal), I can tell you my professional opinion is to do what you think is best for your car.
That being said, the owners manual is the ultimate bible for your Bronco Sport. The dealership has a sales guide that recommends more extensive service and more frequent visits to help them build profits and see you more often. The positive of following the dealer schedule is that your doors and weatherstripping will stay lubed up, your tire pressures will be monitored by them more frequently and you'll have a record of filter, brake, and other "consumable" item wear and tear. I don't like going more than a year on oil because the additives and detergents break down, and the filter gets compromised over time. Even in a brand new vehicle, especially a turbocharged one, some oil will get consumed. It's a good thing. It means the piston rings and valve guides are getting proper lubrication. I also want the oil to transition from a very light honey color to a maple syrup tone, while still being translucent. That means the oil is doing its job cooling the internals of your engine, and taking away the deposits that build up inside to be trapped by your filter. If the oil stays on the full mark, and/or turns black and possibly thin, it likely means the engine is probably "making" oil. Direct fuel injected engines (usually diesels) will do this. The fuel doesn't get completely burned at idle speeds, and washes down the cylinder bores to the crank case. If you drive your vehicle until it reaches operating temperatures, even of its only once or twice a week, then you won't have to worry about anything I mentioned above. Change it once a year, keep an eye on your battery connections for corrosion, make sure your coolant is always at a decent level in the tank, and check the tire pressure with a decent guage.
Most importantly, enjoy driving the Baby Bronco.

 

[Chiefthepup]

I've heard oil time interval changes should be no more than a year.

For mileage... there's several different schools of thought. It used to be every 3k miles, then 5k. My old Honda was around 7k but used a Maintenance Minder to use data (speed driven, hard accelerations, idle time, etc) to guesstimate oil life. I took the valve cover gasket off about 205k miles and it looked pretty clean in there. I did have some gaskets start leaking but, from what I've seen online, that's all pretty common for a 17 year old car.

I haven't changed my oil on the BS yet but I'm going to trust the oil life monitoring system. I figure Ford, and Honda, want to have a reputation on engine reliability and they're going to do what's best for that while balancing waste reduction.

Exactly what I’m gonna do. I was stressing about it than was like ya know, I’m gonna trust ford and experiment with this by only changing my oil when ford recommends it. It’d be sweet to get into the high 200k area and be able to say I literally just changed it when they recommended.

 

[RSH]

I am surprised the dealer service manager put you off. Usually they are more than happy to take your money. It should'nt matter to them when you want to change your oil as long as your within the maintenance guidelines and or the oil life mileage monitor.

 

[RodNSA]

I am surprised the dealer service manager put you off. Usually they are more than happy to take your money. It should'nt matter to them when you want to change your oil as long as your within the maintenance guidelines and or the oil life mileage monitor.

Maybe because it was in a rural area and I'm 65 ... trying to save me $ ... not sure.

 

[Mark S.]

I am surprised the dealer service manager put you off. Usually they are more than happy to take your money. It should'nt matter to them when you want to change your oil as long as your within the maintenance guidelines and or the oil life mileage monitor.

Some dealerships have more service business then they can handle, and oil changes are normally a fixed price no matter how long it takes.

 

[RSH]

Some dealerships have more service business then they can handle, and oil changes are normally a fixed price no matter how long it takes.

The Op had an appointment, it wasnt a case of just driving in.
Now if the dealer was too busy, the service writer or manager should have explained the situation and rescheduled the appointment to another date to address the Op's concern, not say come back in January.

 

[Mark S.]

The Op had an appointment, it wasnt a case of just driving in.
Now if the dealer was too busy, the service writer or manager should have explained the situation and rescheduled the appointment to another date to address the Op's concern, not say come back in January.

My guess is the service manager assumed OP got an oil-change-due recommendation from the IOLM. Once he came in and the service writer realized the situation he notified the owner. In the meantime, he freed up a technician to do other work.

 

[RSH]

My guess is the service manager assumed OP got an oil-change-due recommendation from the IOLM. Once he came in and the service writer realized the situation he notified the owner. In the meantime, he freed up a technician to do other work.

As you said "My guess"
None of us know the real situation.
From what I read I don't think it was handled properly.

 

[Mark S.]

As you said "My guess"
None of us know the real situation.
From what I read I don't think it was handled properly.

At OP's current mileage accumulation rate, he'll have some 4500 miles on the ODO by January, which is far below the expected 10k miles change interval for normal use. The owner's manual, however, cautions (see Scheduled Maintenance on page 395) never to exceed one year without changing the oil. So telling OP to come back in January--one year from purchase--reflects Ford's recommended service interval. Sure, the service writer might have saved everyone some time by asking if the IOLM had illuminated instead of assuming, but in the end he saved OP the expense of an unnecessary maintenance procedure.

Whether that's "proper" depends on how you prioritize time, money, or the wasted resources resulting from an excessively early oil change. To me, the money and resources saved trumps the mild inconvenience of an unnecessary trip to the shop.

 

[RodNSA]

At OP's current mileage accumulation rate, he'll have some 4500 miles on the ODO by January, which is far below the expected 10k miles change interval for normal use. The owner's manual, however, cautions (see Scheduled Maintenance on page 395) never to exceed one year without changing the oil. So telling OP to come back in January--one year from purchase--reflects Ford's recommended service interval. Sure, the service writer might have saved everyone some time by asking if the IOLM had illuminated instead of assuming, but in the end he saved OP the expense of an unnecessary maintenance procedure.

Whether that's "proper" depends on how you prioritize time, money, or the wasted resources resulting from an excessively early oil change. To me, the money and resources saved trumps the mild inconvenience of an unnecessary trip to the shop.

... this pretty much sums up the exact line of thinking from the service manager. It just shocked me that even a synthetic "blend" can go for one full year. I definitely put less than 5k per year on my vehicles and this is the first time I've gone to a Ford Dealership's Service Department for my oil changes ... but because I'm in a rural area and they allow you to drop off your vehicle and will provide complimentary transportation back to your house and pick you up whenever you're ready (up to 60 miles round trip) ... I thought I'd take it in. I'm 65 yo and have been driving since I was 15 ... never been told "no" for even an unscheduled oil change before and he was dead serious when he said ... "Sir, it's not time yet and this would be totally unnecessary for proper maintenance of your vehicle ... if you continue to drive with this type of mileage accumulation ... come back in January."

 

[SgtT11B]

Ok ... yes, I have an owner's manual, and I can read and I also have the Ford Pass App that monitors my oil ... BUT ... I bought my NEW '22 BS with the 1.5 engine the first few days of January '23 so I have already owned it for 8 months + a few days. I am retired and don't drive that much and my current mileage is 2824. My oil has never been changed and it has the Motorcraft blend in it (I assume). I made an appointment and took my BS in for it's first oil change (because of TIME not miles) and the service manager told me if I keep driving it as I currently am ... to COME BACK (so didn't change the oil) in JANUARY?! OK ... I'm old school so going an entire year without an oil change? My mileage in January will probably be around 4300 miles and I would have owned it for ful year.
*DOES THIS SOUND CORRECT?
*YOUR EXPERIENCES around 1st oil change in the 1.5 engine?
Thanks ... Rod

My SA did this, I took it to another tech. I wanted the original oil out of it. I changed it out at 5k miles or 8 mos into ownership, when the oil monitor said to change it I did. So by 8500 miles she had 2 changes on her.

There are quite a few master techs that work for Ford saying not to listen to the recommended oil changes for these cars, or any Ford in fact with the Ecoboost motors. I also look at what kind of mileage have I been doing. Is it a lot of short drives without the engine coming to complete operating temperature, or is it a lot of highway mileage. Is it a mix?

 

[Deleted member 6350]

Ok ... yes, I have an owner's manual, and I can read and I also have the Ford Pass App that monitors my oil ... BUT ... I bought my NEW '22 BS with the 1.5 engine the first few days of January '23 so I have already owned it for 8 months + a few days. I am retired and don't drive that much and my current mileage is 2824. My oil has never been changed and it has the Motorcraft blend in it (I assume). I made an appointment and took my BS in for it's first oil change (because of TIME not miles) and the service manager told me if I keep driving it as I currently am ... to COME BACK (so didn't change the oil) in JANUARY?! OK ... I'm old school so going an entire year without an oil change? My mileage in January will probably be around 4300 miles and I would have owned it for ful year.
*DOES THIS SOUND CORRECT?
*YOUR EXPERIENCES around 1st oil change in the 1.5 engine?
Thanks ... Rod

Go to another Dealership, you can change your oil whenever your heart desires or per the manual.

 

[RSH]

At OP's current mileage accumulation rate, he'll have some 4500 miles on the ODO by January, which is far below the expected 10k miles change interval for normal use. The owner's manual, however, cautions (see Scheduled Maintenance on page 395) never to exceed one year without changing the oil. So telling OP to come back in January--one year from purchase--reflects Ford's recommended service interval. Sure, the service writer might have saved everyone some time by asking if the IOLM had illuminated instead of assuming, but in the end he saved OP the expense of an unnecessary maintenance procedure.

Whether that's "proper" depends on how you prioritize time, money, or the wasted resources resulting from an excessively early oil change. To me, the money and resources saved trumps the mild inconvenience of an unnecessary trip to the shop.

I usually change the oil on new cars after the recommended break-in interval, which for the Badlands is 1,000 miles. Others have posted procedures, so I'm not going to go into that other than to say the bash plate on the bottom is substantial. I removed all the bolts except for one in front and one in back, then used my knee to hold the back up while I removed the remaining two bolts.

*EDIT: As MaxVelocity points out in this post, the two holes in the back of the skid plate are slotted, so you don't have to remove the mounting bolts all the way to get the plate off. This also helps when reinstalling the plate. Leave the two aft bolts mostly screwed in and slide the plate onto them. The bolts will hold the back end of the plate up for you while you put the rest of the bolts in. I never noticed the holes were slotted!

After that, it's like changing the oil on any other vehicle.

Something I always do on the first oil change is to inspect the oil filter. I use an oil filter cutter to get at the filter media. The series of photos below show the filter in various stages of dismantling. The first is what you see after you cut the end off the filter.

The rubber piece is the anti-drain check valve. It prevents unfiltered oil from draining back into the sump, bringing with it any debris caught by the filter.

Below that is the media seal and the actual filter media. Oil flows into the filter from the engine, past the anti-drain check valve, around the media seal to the outside of the filter, then through the filter media (see below) before returning to the engine through the hole in the middle.

Below, you can see the filter media assembly after removal from the filter. The media itself is typically a paper material that allows oil under pressure to flow through, but not debris large enough to cause damage to internal engine parts.

To inspect the media you have to cut it off the media assembly. Use a utility blade (carefully!) and cut around both ends of the medial assembly. After that you can remove the paper media and spread it open for inspection.

Below you can see the media removed from the media assembly. The assembly core is made out of metal to hold the media in place, otherwise the paper would just collapse in on itself under the pressure generated from the pumping oil.

After you spread out the media you can look in each of the pleats for debris. Remember, the oil flows from the outside of the filter inward, so you want to inspect the side of the media that faces outward. Note the small, metallic particle next to the tip of the pen and on the pleat to the right. There were a dozen or so particles like this throughout the filter.

It's not uncommon to see small bits of metal like this following engine break-in. What's more important is what they're made of. Use a magnet to determine if any of the particles are ferrous. Ferrous metal comes from bearings, cams, crankshaft, connecting rods, etc. None of the metal bits I found in the filter were ferrous (they were most likely bits of aluminum from piston skirts or left over debris from production), but if any had been I would have documented it, made a report to the dealership to get it on the car's permanent maintenance record, and changed the oil/inspected the filter after another 1,000 miles. A trend of ferrous metal particles in your filter would be troubling. Once out of break-in you really shouldn't see any significant wear on internal engine parts made from ferrous metals. In my case, I saw exactly what I expected to see. I usually inspect the filter every other change for the first four oil changes, and if I don't see anything alarming I go to every fourth oil change.

In this oil change thread you seem to be a do as I say not as I do type guy.