Oil servicing

A 2003 5.4 4x4 should get 12-13 city,16-18 straight highway. My 2000 is rated at 11 city, I get 9 1/2 to 10, 15 straight highway. My slight drop is partly due to bigger 20 inch wheels. A 2 wheel drive 2003 5.4 should bump to 14-15 city. Either way your not going to pass emissions. Did your Dealer smog your Suv? If so how did it pass burning that rich. Habbibie is the only other member with a 7 mpg wonder. Looks like you have another item to fix!

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If in fact the rattle is coming from the fuel tank, its possible that some gravel got passed through the fuel filler, and got sucked into the pump. The chances are slim, as your pump has a screen to keep items out. Again you'll need to pinpoint area where you hear noise.

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A local shop in my area, does oil changes and light work. I saw a mechanic fill a jug, from a 55 gal drum. Curious, I looked at the label. It was conventional 10W30 and vehicle was a newer Ford Taurus. I said, doesn't that car, call for synthetic blend 5w20, like most new Fords, The mechanic said we use this(10w30) in everything. You engine should have 5w20 or 5w30. Thick/heavy oil, is bad, especially at start up. Small shops, also use el-cheapo filters. Beware! The good news is the 1st gen 5.4l/4.6l is a practically indestructible motor. It does not have cam phasers. Keep it full and use 5w30(insist shop uses it).

My old friend Carl and I were kicking around oil filters and drain back valves. He said and I concurred due to the fact that the filter is mounted at 90 degrees, and only holds 1/2 quart of oil, what's the big deal. You've got 5 1/2 quarts of oil in an oil pan at cold start up, and the remaining 1/2 in the filter. Very little oil can leak out of filter after shutdown. On top of that at cold startup the pump starts pumping immediately. Oil clings to cylinder walls, and other critical items like cam lobes overnight. More critical than to drain back valve or not to drain back, is to have the proper amount, and proper viscosity. Too thick of an oil will cause a flow problem in colder weather, below 40 degrees. As far as why most if not all manufactures use or recommend semi or full synthetic oil, is longer duration oil changes. Heck Jaguar recommends 15k with semi synthetic. Regular non synthetic would probably work fine, but would have to changed every 3 k. What kills me is except for paid maintenance, dealers and shops make their money on service, why wouldn't they drop, not raise their intervals. When I ran a Motorcycle dealer about 20 years back, Suzuki had a valve clearance check at 600 miles, along with oil change. That was a very pricey first service, but was required for warranty to be in effect.

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I have LOF (lube, oil, filter) service done every 3-4K miles. I use Pennzoil 5W-30 High Mileage and a Fram filter. Cheap and easy way to treat the old girl nice.

Place I had oil changed was a Midas, one of the bigger shops in area. Their paperwork said they used 5W20 which is per the owners manual and on the car oil cap, so I am pretty sure that's what I have.

The "clatter" is hard to find as its intermittent. Can't seem to find any pattern to it. Sometimes when I stop at ignition (not go directly to start) I hear it, sometimes not. When I go directly to start same intermittency (Is that a word?) Question; when I just go to ignition, I see it takes a few seconds for the fuel quantity to come up and the fuel low light to go out, and again sometimes I hear a low short "clunk" when they do go out. Is that a clue, of some sort?

The pump and the fuel sending unit are mounted right next to each other, and unfortunately in the tank. Best advice for now is put up with it. But somewhere down the road, your going to have to replace them. Don't cheap out though, buy the Ford unit, as sure as heck you don't want to repeat that job twice. Nothing will ruin your day like 10 or more gallons sloshing around, and spills on you.

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Manufacturers are under marketing pressure to increase their oil change intervals. There are untold legions of fools who shop for cars based on "recommended maintenance cost". They'll buy a crappy 4 cylinder import because Car and Driver says it has the lowest recommended maintenance cost.

Never mind that Toyotas give up piston rings at 80,000 miles.

It's like the lower income individual that buys the cheapest new car, because they could get financed even with horrible credit. The smarter moneys on buying a higher model that's say 2-4 years old and low mileage. But alas they don't, and those cheezy entry models take a dump at 80-100 k, compounded by the long service intervals, their doomed from the minute they roll off the lot.

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RE "the clatter" - I am originator of thread. As clatter got a bit longer (to 10 sec from about 5 sec, but still not on every start), wife insisted we take in to Ford dealer. They got the clatter and said its the rear-air-suspension system air compressor, located up on pax side forward in engine compartment under the coolant reservour .

I got a written estimate to replace the compressor "mounting bracket" for much money, and a verbal input from the Tech and Service Rep to just live with it as it was/is not a safety problem. That mounting bracket story sounded a bit hokey to me, but I appreciate they did not try to strong arm me into an expensive fix.

Found lots of threads on this forum which talk about the air suspension system and its parts. So got some knowledge. Lots of info about that compressor failing due to near continual operation for example, but I am not there now. As we are on volcanic island, car is often not parked "on the level", which I am led to believe that is one thing the air suspension tries to do. My overnight parking spot is on a slight slope. Also have found there are many places to order/get a replacement air compressor.

Having said all that, does what they (the Ford dealership people) said ring true with you guys with experience? Looking forward to some feedback.