Oil & filter change intervals / frequency

[sajohnson]

I'm glad to see the discussion has not ended.

Which oil and oil filters are "best", and how often to change the oil is a classic debate that will be going on until the end of time. A huge asteroid could slam into the Earth and there would still be people arguing over Amsoil vs Royal Purple, and whether to change the oil every 2,000 or every 2,500 miles.

Most of us have read a bunch of "oil threads" and "octane threads", but there will always be people who haven't.

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[point78]

This is all fun for me to keep in the back of my head, but I'm in cold Northeast winters. The car will be started more often remotely, idling for more time, at colder temps. The starts of my drives will be the engine working while the engine isn't fully at heat yet. The IOLM will account for this, feed the data back to Ford via Fordpass, and based on my new trend for oil life, update the oil change estimate. I would expect this date to move up sooner based on winter driving conditions.

Interestingly enough- I decided to check and see what my Fordpass oil life would say.

I changed the oil for the second time at 4800 total miles. (I typically just do 5000 intervals to make it easy).
I've put 400 miles on it since then. Mountain driving in the winter. (3/4 highway miles)

It currently says Oil life remaining is 88%, and Estimated distance is 3600 miles.
That will put it at 4000 mile interval for the next change.

 

[coopny]

Interestingly enough- I decided to check and see what my Fordpass oil life would say.

I changed the oil for the second time at 4800 total miles. (I typically just do 5000 intervals to make it easy).
I've put 400 miles on it since then. Mountain driving in the winter. (3/4 highway miles)

It currently says Oil life remaining is 88%, and Estimated distance is 3600 miles.
That will put it at 4000 mile interval for the next change.

This is why I choose to believe the machine. The car is constantly tracking all of the inputs that affect oil life and then calculating how taxing the conditions are on the oil... your driving conditions are tougher (cold winters). That puts you on the extreme operating conditions schedule.

Of course, come warmer weather, you may have less idling, less running at lower temps, and less wear on the oil. So depending on how quickly you put on those 3600 additional miles, it could be less or more.

This is a great example of "trusting the machine" instead of using a general rule like 5000 miles. Your car knows that it needs oil changes more often than most diligent/overly cautious vehicle owners change oil "as a precaution". Other BS owners without as extreme driving conditions get told the oil is still good for longer.

Absent the IOLM, I would probably change full synth at 1 year/7.5k miles... which is what I typically drive anyways. But based on the IOLM's warning on my last Ford, I've changed the oil at 9900 miles, I've changed it at 5200 miles... it can track all of the operating conditions and effect on oil wear better than my brain can guess.

 

[rocks]

7k miles or one year with full synthetic. 5k or 1 year with a turbo.

 

[sajohnson]

Just as a broken clock is correct twice a day, a fixed mileage interval will be correct in some cases, for some vehicles, but most of the time it will be too long or too short.

That's why Ford (and other mfrs) are using oil life monitors -- and why people have their oil analyzed at labs like Blackstone.

Facts and data are your friends.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

Just as a broken clock is correct twice a day, a fixed mileage interval will be correct in some cases, for some vehicles, but most of the time it will be too long or too short.

That's why Ford (and other mfrs) are using oil life monitors -- and why people have their oil analyzed at labs like Blackstone.

Facts and data are your friends.

The oil monitors are fine except mine is telling me to wait another 8 months and 4K miles. Not gonna happen. I'll do it at my regular interval as I'm not going to go 8K miles / 12 months on an oil change.. Now, if it told me to do it sooner, I probably would depending on how it looked and smelled..

When you are old and grey like me, you still check you oil with a dipstick, and still look at the color and give it a sniff. Us dinosaurs are going away sooner than later, but there are still some of us out there that here that have been driving before all the nannies took over.

When the ABS went out on my 2006 Escape, the pimple faced kid at the service counter told me I had to get that fixed right away because you can't drive a car in the winter without it. Nearly 10 years later, still no ABS. I'm guessing he didn't realize cars didn't always have ABS. Most of mine didn't.

 

[Bucko]

All this talk about oil and oil filter changes...

When should I change my air filter?

My drawers?

 

[sajohnson]

The oil monitors are fine except mine is telling me to wait another 8 months and 4K miles. Not gonna happen. I'll do it at my regular interval as I'm not going to go 8K miles / 12 months on an oil change.. Now, if it told me to do it sooner, I probably would depending on how it looked and smelled..

When you are old and grey like me, you still check you oil with a dipstick, and still look at the color and give it a sniff. Us dinosaurs are going away sooner than later, but there are still some of us out there that here that have been driving before all the nannies took over.

When the ABS went out on my 2006 Escape, the pimple faced kid at the service counter told me I had to get that fixed right away because you can't drive a car in the winter without it. Nearly 10 years later, still no ABS. I'm guessing he didn't realize cars didn't always have ABS. Most of mine didn't.

I'm getting grey myself. I don't need no stinkin' ABS or stability control either. <j/k>

I still use the dipstick, and smell the oil too -- although it always smells the same. Maybe I'd notice if there was a lot of fuel dilution? It's just a habit.

For the first 15-20 years I was driving, the widely accepted oil change interval was 3,000 miles. When I first got a car that had 5K/7.5K mile (severe/normal) oil change intervals (with conventional oil!), that seemed to be REALLY pushing it. However, since essentially all of our driving was highway, I went with the 7,500 mile interval but used synthetic oil.

Then the engine blew up at 40,000 miles, but I'm sure that was due to gremlins.

Actually, none of the 3 vehicles had any engine problems, or burn any oil to speak of. The NX2000 has 250,000 miles; the '97 RAV4 has close to 200,000, and the '02 WRX has over 200,000.

The NX and WRX were driven like I stole 'em -- lots of downshifting and high rpm operation. And get this -- Nissan recommended oil filter changes every other oil change. The filter was a PITA to get to, so I followed their recommendation. It still runs smoothly.

The WRX has been at Cobb Stage 2 since ~100,000 miles. I did have its oil analyzed twice by Blackstone. I had been using the shorter (5K mile) interval with it due to the increased output, but they said I could go to 7,500 miles. So I did that, had it tested again, and they said I could stretch it another 1,500 miles but I kept it at 7,500.

Have faith in the IOLM. It knows all and sees all!

 

[rocks]

All this talk about oil and oil filter changes...

When should I change my air filter?

My drawers?

I go 15k miles or so and 10K or so on the cabin filter.

 

[HUSBANDOFBS]

When should I change my ...

... drawers?

As with oil, color and sniff test.

 

[Mark S.]

All this talk about oil and oil filter changes...

When should I change my air filter?

My drawers?

Take a rapid, deep breath. If you hear a weezing sound you either need a new filter, or you have COVID.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

As with oil, color and sniff test.

I think this wins the internet today!

 

[Escape2Bronco]

I go 15k miles or so and 10K or so on the cabin filter.

So you are saying 125k and 18 years is too long on the cabin air filter? Turns out the rodent nest basically replaced the cabin air filter. Here I thought the smell was my shorts all this time!

 

[MJS54]

I purchased my '23 BS Big Bend new in October of '23...(BS was built in Sep '23)...this month in August of '24 I only had 3,700 miles on her, but the Oil Life Monitor said I have 18% life left...so I took her in and had an oil/filter change done at the dealerthe other day. I thought I could go at least a year on the synthetic blend (5w-20) and get 5-6K miles on the oil at least. (did that with my previous Mustang GTs)..I do mainly in- town driving and sometimes on the highway. How accurate is this "oil life monitor" supposed to be? Anyway, after driving 48 miles with the new oil...the OLM went from 100% to 99%...so every 100 miles it appears to drop about 2% of oil life? That really doesn't make any sense. That would equate to a 20% drop in oil life every 1K miles...can that be right?

 

[Quashish]

Anyone with a badlands using a bigger filter? Been doing my focus ST every 6000 miles and using the FL400S which allows a bit more oil capacity. I can use an even 6 quarts instead of the recommended 5.7.

I haven’t got our badlands yet to see how similar the engine in that is to the ST but I plan on doing the same. More filtration and more lubrication are a good thing in my opinion.

just seen the badlands oil capacity is only 5.5 quarts.

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