tennisbp

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I did my first oil change at 2,703 miles yesterday on my '22 Badlands and I wanted to share my takeaway after doing my own oil change.

Firstly, if you do NOT do highway driving frequently, seriously consider doing oil changes at a lower mileage or time interval. This applies to the 1.5L and 2.0L engines. We're talking 3k - 4k mile intervals or every 6 months to 1 year. With work from home being a common thing nowadays, I feel more of us fall into this category. The reason I mention this is that my old oil was diluted with fuel, I could smell it without me having to put my nose close to it. It just reeked of fuel. With highway driving, engines get the opportunity to get up to temp and the hotter temp vaporizes the fuel out of the oil. Without the hotter engine temps, the fuel gets trapped in the oil.

Here is a video from a Ford master tech explaining why and the impact on your engine of letting your oil changes go too long.

These EcoBoost (i.e. turbo) engines need fresh oil. They are dirty engines. Keep them well fed with fresh oil and prevent the sludge and carbon build up. A $36 dollar DIY oil change and an hour of time is cheap compared to an engine rebuild.

I use to do 5k-6k mile changes on my Mazda3. After doing this change on the Badlands (first vehicle with a turbo), I am convinced of doing 3k mile changes.

Other thoughts:
- The bash plate was easier to get off than I thought. Fully remove all the T30 screws and the four 13mm bolts on the sides of the plate. Leave the two rear 13mm bolts on, simply loosen these only, as the bash plate has slotted holes on back.
- My first impression was that the oil from the oil pan was going to shoot straight into the plastic bumper. It didn't. With the initial pressure, it fell short by a couple inches.
- The 15mm drain bolt was not machined on, thankfully. I could undo it without the use of a breaker bar.
- The oil filter did need the use of a oil filter wrench tool. I used a cheap $10 universal one on amazon that fit my ratchet.
- Don't cheap out on your oil filter. The Motorcraft FL910S is a great filter, especially if you are doing frequent oil changes.
- You don't need a fancy lift or tools to do a DIY oil change! I have car ramps, a Dewalt ratchet set, and a oil filter wrench, all of which can be ordered without leaving your couch. You can do it, too!

TLDR: If you do short drives/commutes and do not frequent the highway, REALLY think about doing 3k-4k mile oil changes, or every 6 months to 1 year.
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Wolf256

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Had my first at 4908. The dealership I purchased from gave me my first one free. 🎉 Next one will be at 10000. I’ve been driving lots of highway/freeway miles.
 

Osco

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My 1.5L reaches full operational temp after 4 miles of normal driving and a one minute warm up.
My shortest trips are 8 miles one way at mostly 60 mph.
My average trips are 34 miles round trip with 3/4 being 55-65 mph and the rest small town stop and go stuff. It seems plenty to burn off any fuel in the oil.
I do 5,000 mile intervals with The Motor craft blend and a FoMoCo Filter, the $39 oil change.
I have smelled and felt my oil before draining and have never smelled any fuel or anything telling me my old oil was not normally dirty.
I did my first oil change at 2,500 miles, second at 5,000 then 5K intervals. The first oil load at 2,500 was just like all the 5k changes.
No fuel smell.
 
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PaulOinMA

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Thanks for the tip about the rear bolts.

I bought the 12 pack of Motorcraft filters at rockauto. Brings down the price even more.
 

FakeCowboy

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These Ford ecoboost engines DO suffer from fuel dilution even if you can't smell it in your oil. Almost all direct injection turbocharged engines do as a byproduct of insane cylinder pressure mixed with a fine mist of fuel from the direct injection. The blow by gases get past the rings and dilute your oil in the crankcase. People will tell you that 3k oil change intervals are a waste but my last direct injected turbocharged vehicle went 130k and still ran like a top when I sold it after 3k oil change intervals. I strictly used Pennzoil Ultra Platinum and my last used oil analysis with Blackstone at 125k miles came back perfect and far above average in terms of wear metals in my oil analysis. I calculated that I spent about $700 more doing 3k oil change intervals which is lower only because I do my own maintenance and repairs but I think that's a small price to pay considering the thousands it would cost to replace one of these motors.

Do what you want but these motors, especially if driven hard do not like extended oil change intervals.
 


Mark S.

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People will tell you that 3k oil change intervals are a waste but my last direct injected turbocharged vehicle went 130k and still ran like a top when I sold it after 3k oil change intervals.
Yet there are others who report the same excellent performance following Ford's recommended service interval and oil.

FoMoCo spends millions on R&D and testing before setting service intervals and oil specifications. I think it's reasonable to assume the vast majority of owners follow manufacturer recommendations, yet we do not have evidence of widespread reliability/durability issues with these engines.

I think that SOME engines driven by SOME drivers may have problems with excessive blowby and fuel-contaminated oil. I would image engines with more miles on them are more likely to exhibit such symptoms--much like ALL internal combustion engines. If you're concerned you should take an occasional oil sample for testing. If you're one of the unlucky folks with an issue then you should consider more frequent oil changes.

If not, I see no reason to do anything more than the manufacturer recommends.
 

FakeCowboy

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Yet there are others who report the same excellent performance following Ford's recommended service interval and oil.

FoMoCo spends millions on R&D and testing before setting service intervals and oil specifications. I think it's reasonable to assume the vast majority of owners follow manufacturer recommendations, yet we do not have evidence of widespread reliability/durability issues with these engines.

I think that SOME engines driven by SOME drivers may have problems with excessive blowby and fuel-contaminated oil. I would image engines with more miles on them are more likely to exhibit such symptoms--much like ALL internal combustion engines. If you're concerned you should take an occasional oil sample for testing. If you're one of the unlucky folks with an issue then you should consider more frequent oil changes.

If not, I see no reason to do anything more than the manufacturer recommends.
Not quite sure the manufacturer has your best interest in mind with extended servicing. If you keep your vehicle while in warranty and then sell, by all means do what you like or just do what you like any way. I urge you to do a quick google search of "Ford fuel dilution blackstone labs" and read through even just a small portion of the results from forum members. Many results will show that even at just 5k intervals your 30 grade oil is a 20 grade oil or worse after just 5k miles. Like I said, this is my experience and I'm not saying it's the rule but I doubt most owners are getting any UOA done let alone regular UOA.
 

Mark S.

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Not quite sure the manufacturer has your best interest in mind with extended servicing.
This is always the response when I mention all the testing manufacturers do to set service intervals. My response is that manufacturers have the OWN interests in mind. Vehicles that do not last do not sell.
I urge you to do a quick google search of "Ford fuel dilution blackstone labs" and read through even just a small portion of the results from forum members.
Anecdotal data will never approach the massive amounts of test data collected by Ford. That said, I acknowledge some may experience this issue, which is why I recommend an occasional oil sample. If sampling shows that your engine is not showing excessive fuel contamination in its oil then why would you spend an additional $700 over 100K miles for oil changes?
 

FakeCowboy

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This is always the response when I mention all the testing manufacturers do to set service intervals. My response is that manufacturers have the OWN interests in mind. Vehicles that do not last do not sell.

Anecdotal data will never approach the massive amounts of test data collected by Ford. That said, I acknowledge some may experience this issue, which is why I recommend an occasional oil sample. If sampling shows that your engine is not showing excessive fuel contamination in its oil then why would you spend an additional $700 over 100K miles for oil changes?
Alas, as stated in my original post, DO WHAT YOU WANT. I am merely serving up a warning for people to get a UOA done and NOT TO TRUST THE FACTORY RECOMMENDED SERVICE INTERVALS on their ecoboost engine. This is a UOA from an ecoboost engine with less than 3k miles on the oil. Look at the viscosity and flashpoint ratings and that's just with 1.8% fuel dilution. Not to mention that the Ford synthetic blend oil isn't even a really great oil. I don't really care what Ford research has said, their sole intent is to keep selling vehicles, they do not care about long term reliability as obvious by their ratings in Consumer Reports, True Delta, so on and so on.

Ford Bronco Sport 1st Oil Change on Bronco Sport Badlands -- Thoughts and Things Learned! Eco UOA
 

FakeCowboy

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This is always the response when I mention all the testing manufacturers do to set service intervals. My response is that manufacturers have the OWN interests in mind. Vehicles that do not last do not sell.

Anecdotal data will never approach the massive amounts of test data collected by Ford. That said, I acknowledge some may experience this issue, which is why I recommend an occasional oil sample. If sampling shows that your engine is not showing excessive fuel contamination in its oil then why would you spend an additional $700 over 100K miles for oil changes?
Also, clearly you didn't watch the video in OP's writeup......
 


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tennisbp

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Alas, as stated in my original post, DO WHAT YOU WANT. I am merely serving up a warning for people to get a UOA done and NOT TO TRUST THE FACTORY RECOMMENDED SERVICE INTERVALS on their ecoboost engine. This is a UOA from an ecoboost engine with less than 3k miles on the oil. Look at the viscosity and flashpoint ratings and that's just with 1.8% fuel dilution. Not to mention that the Ford synthetic blend oil isn't even a really great oil. I don't really care what Ford research has said, their sole intent is to keep selling vehicles, they do not care about long term reliability as obvious by their ratings in Consumer Reports, True Delta, so on and so on.

Ford Bronco Sport 1st Oil Change on Bronco Sport Badlands -- Thoughts and Things Learned! Eco UOA
I appreciate your (and everyone's) personal experience. The more data we have, the better we all are.

The same master Ford tech that I linked in the video on my first post mentions that the manufacturer recommendations in the manual are the minimum requirements, which is in alignment with your data and observations. More frequent oil changes will likely keep build up of carbon and sludge to a minimum.
 

Mark S.

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Alas, as stated in my original post, DO WHAT YOU WANT. I am merely serving up a warning for people to get a UOA done and NOT TO TRUST THE FACTORY RECOMMENDED SERVICE INTERVALS on their ecoboost engine.
I AM doing what I want. The way forums like this work is people post their thoughts, ideas, and opinions, then others get to respond. You are telling people to spend more time and money than the manufacturer says they should on vehicle maintenance. I am challenging that recommendation. I can share my opinion and make recommendations just like you. How 'bout that? Communication is great!
Also, clearly you didn't watch the video in OP's writeup......
I did watch it. I've watched several videos from that channel; some I agree with, others I don't. He's just like other YouTube producers (and media producers in general) in that the more sensational a claim or subject the more views he gets.

That aside, let's dig a bit into what he actually said.

He stated the owner complained of driveability issues, which he diagnosed as caused by coolant intrusion into the cylinder. Then he switches subjects to the "sludge, grime, debris, dirt, carbon buildup" which he claims resulted from infrequent (5K miles) oil changes. I've seen the inside of a lot of engines, and I've never seen one that doesn't have internal deposits like the one in the video. The question is are the deposits he showed us excessive and/or harmful to the engine? He says they're "terrible," but never tells us what "normal" deposits should look like. Additionally, by bringing up internal deposits in this video he is suggesting they have something to do with the problems this owner experienced, but he offers no evidence to support that implication. That's called "sensationalism."

Then he shows us a piston that he claims is only sufficiently cooled on one side. Is that because the oil is contaminated, or because there is only one oil jet? Is he saying a single oil jet for cooling is insufficient? What does this have to do with contaminated oil? Would this piston have received sufficient cooling from the single jet if the owner had performed more frequent oil changes?

It all seems like "common sense" until you actually think about what he's saying. Could the issues we see be caused by the coolant intrusion into the cylinder that was the cause of the engine teardown? Could the deposits be related to that as well?

No word on that, just the dogma to change the oil more frequently.

I'll stick with my original suggestion: Have your oil tested occasionally. If there is evidence of fuel contamination—or more "sludge, grime, debris, dirt, carbon buildup" than normal—then you might consider more frequent oil changes. Personally, I would want to get to the bottom of whatever is causing such issues rather than cover them up with more frequent oil changes. Changing the oil more frequently will not fix whatever is causing excessive contamination.
 

FakeCowboy

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I AM doing what I want. The way forums like this work is people post their thoughts, ideas, and opinions, then others get to respond. You are telling people to spend more time and money than the manufacturer says they should on vehicle maintenance. I am challenging that recommendation. I can share my opinion and make recommendations just like you. How 'bout that? Communication is great!

I did watch it. I've watched several videos from that channel; some I agree with, others I don't. He's just like other YouTube producers (and media producers in general) in that the more sensational a claim or subject the more views he gets.

That aside, let's dig a bit into what he actually said.

He stated the owner complained of driveability issues, which he diagnosed as caused by coolant intrusion into the cylinder. Then he switches subjects to the "sludge, grime, debris, dirt, carbon buildup" which he claims resulted from infrequent (5K miles) oil changes. I've seen the inside of a lot of engines, and I've never seen one that doesn't have internal deposits like the one in the video. The question is are the deposits he showed us excessive and/or harmful to the engine? He says they're "terrible," but never tells us what "normal" deposits should look like. Additionally, by bringing up internal deposits in this video he is suggesting they have something to do with the problems this owner experienced, but he offers no evidence to support that implication. That's called "sensationalism."

Then he shows us a piston that he claims is only sufficiently cooled on one side. Is that because the oil is contaminated, or because there is only one oil jet? Is he saying a single oil jet for cooling is insufficient? What does this have to do with contaminated oil? Would this piston have received sufficient cooling from the single jet if the owner had performed more frequent oil changes?

It all seems like "common sense" until you actually think about what he's saying. Could the issues we see be caused by the coolant intrusion into the cylinder that was the cause of the engine teardown? Could the deposits be related to that as well?

No word on that, just the dogma to change the oil more frequently.

I'll stick with my original suggestion: Have your oil tested occasionally. If there is evidence of fuel contamination—or more "sludge, grime, debris, dirt, carbon buildup" than normal—then you might consider more frequent oil changes. Personally, I would want to get to the bottom of whatever is causing such issues rather than cover them up with more frequent oil changes. Changing the oil more frequently will not fix whatever is causing excessive contamination.
Clearly you don't understand how direct injected turbocharged engines work. I based my 3k oil change intervals on fuel dilution. At 3k miles there's typically at least 1% fuel dilution on this engine. There is no "problem" to be addressed with fuel dilution on these engines, I think I did a pretty good job of explaining it like you're a 5 year old in my post above. It's just the inherent nature of how these engines operate. Add in cold weather and it's further exacerbated. You just sound like an oppositionally defiant angry person so, you do you. I'll bet you also believe that the transmission fluid Ford puts in your Bronco Sport transmission is "lifetime". Good luck with that. It's purely a marketing campaign to get naĂŻve people interested in their products. In the end Ford does not care when your engine or transmission fails at 110k miles. Most people here will still buy another Ford product especially since Ford has a pretty good corner on the market for Niche segment vehicles like the Bronco, Bronco Sport, etc etc.
 

Mark S.

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Clearly you don't understand how direct injected turbocharged engines work.
LOL! I guess I've learned nothing from 40+ years ownership of cars with turbocharged engines, and 8+ years ownership of Ford cars featuring direct-injected turbocharged engines.

At 3k miles there's typically at least 1% fuel dilution on this engine.
When you use words like "typically" I don't think you understand how data and statistics work. YOUR data is a fraction of a fraction compared to the millions upon millions of test hours Ford conducts. Do you know what Ford engineers consider to be "typical" fuel dilution?

There is no "problem" to be addressed with fuel dilution on these engines...
If you're getting so much fuel contamination that you need to change your oil more frequently than the manufacturer recommends then you have a problem.

I think I did a pretty good job of explaining it like you're a 5 year old in my post above.
Sorry, I think a little deeper than the average five-year-old. Perhaps that's the issue.

You just sound like an oppositionally defiant angry person so, you do you.
I just looked up oppositional defiant disorder; you may be on to something...

I'll bet you also believe that the transmission fluid Ford puts in your Bronco Sport transmission is "lifetime". Good luck with that.
This is a logical fallacy called a "strawman" argument. What does transmission fluid have to do with this topic?

Would you care to address any of the points I made regarding the video, or are you just going to ignore them?
 

FakeCowboy

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LOL! I guess I've learned nothing from 40+ years ownership of cars with turbocharged engines, and 8+ years ownership of Ford cars featuring direct-injected turbocharged engines.


When you use words like "typically" I don't think you understand how data and statistics work. YOUR data is a fraction of a fraction compared to the millions upon millions of test hours Ford conducts. Do you know what Ford engineers consider to be "typical" fuel dilution?


If you're getting so much fuel contamination that you need to change your oil more frequently than the manufacturer recommends then you have a problem.


Sorry, I think a little deeper than the average five-year-old. Perhaps that's the issue.


I just looked up oppositional defiant disorder; you may be on to something...


This is a logical fallacy called a "strawman" argument. What does transmission fluid have to do with this topic?

Would you care to address any of the points I made regarding the video, or are you just going to ignore them?
I posted an oil analysis which shows fuel dilution and a degradation of viscosity and flash point, what more do you want? This is not anecdotal, this is FACTUAL. Of course you didn't address the "lifetime" transmission fluid either, that would implode your "argument".
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