Changing my oil and filter

[Expensedition]

2026 Expedition Tremor, first Oil Change at 1948 miles. My typical oil change on a new vehicle is typically around the first 500 miles, since all of the wear material from break-in is suspended in the oil or collected in the filter. It is best to get any engine wear material cleared out as soon as possible so it is not embedded in the softer bearing surfaces. Unfortunately, I did not have the option to change it before my first road trip.

I used 6 quarts of Mobil one Extended Performance 5-30W and a Fram XG10575 Ultra Synthetic Oil Filter.

I did not have great luck finding out any of the details in the new Ford Expedition Owners manual, but a little research and actual validation got me here.

In two of the five skid plates they put an access cover, one for the filter and one for the oil pan drain plug. I was able to unscrew the filter by hand.

I collected two oil samples for analysis.

V/r

SM

 

[BigOleFordFan]

OK, so you did your new truck right by changing out the factory oil & filter asap, congrats, well done

But was there another reason for your post ? some hidden warning or cautionary tale perhaps (like the skid plate thing) ?

And how the hell did Ford supposedly NOT put the oil change procedure & specs in the manual ? This I definitely don't understand...

I'm not condemning your post or trying to be a smartass, just genuinely curious....

 

[Expensedition]

But was there another reason for your post ? some hidden warning or cautionary tale perhaps (like the skid plate thing) ?

The skid plates are great, they cover all of the tender parts and keep the flying debris out of the mechanical areas. The forward Skid plate is Raptor quality, or something that you would find on a true off road vehicle. It is thick aluminum with a flat powder coat that I expect to get scratched up over time. The other plates are painted steel, looks like 18 gauge, but don't quote me, I did not caliper it to find out yet.

And how the hell did Ford supposedly NOT put the oil change procedure & specs in the manual ? This I definitely don't understand...

I remember owners manuals that included all sorts of useful and useless information, highly detailed manuals with information on options that you don't have. This manual is an electronic copy, filled with all sorts of useless information that an AI entity wrote so nicely for us dumb humans. I will have to go to my truck and get a screen grab but it more or less says that my oil change interval is not scheduled yet. I will have to scan through it when I find some time to see if I missed something under "Maintenance".

By the way, in my last post, I was cut short by my wife telling me to get off the computer and come help her! Like she is doing right now.
It is Valentines day, so I gotta go.

More later,

SM

 

[BigOleFordFan]

This manual is an electronic copy, filled with all sorts of useless information that an AI entity wrote

Yea well, as someone once said:

"AI is as AI does"

I find this just utterly friggin ridiculous that an "owners manual" doesn't give you any info on the type of oil & the part numbers for the filter...

wtf has this world come to ? (see line 2 for the answer!)

 

[Expensedition]

In the spirit of helping and to bring truth to what I say, my previous post was written without me doing further research (For me, research is an endless event).

It is true that I could not find what I needed in the manual that is found on the vehicle center display. I looked at the manual that is included with the Ford App on my phone. There are two options as you can see on pg.1. One manual is the "most recent' which is a live manual that they update in real time, so I can't be sure when they added the details. The other manual is a PDF that is not updated.

I went with updated (HTML) manual and looked up Maintenance (pg.2) -Engine Oil-Engine Oil Capacity and Specification and found pg.3.

The details of the oil are there but little else. I find it funny that they show how to read the dipstick but do not show you where the drain plug is or any details on the filter. By the way your choice of filter can make a huge difference on the life of your engine, especially your turbos which may continue to spin after an oil pump stops.

The "Intelligent Oil Life Monitor" is another word for idiot light no matter how much you dress it up. Unless they added a continuous oil analysis device with a miniature mass spectrometer (not practical) or a miniature viscometer (possible but not likely) or maybe they have something that measures dielectric change with known profiles (possible and practical). However, my best guess (Until research proves otherwise) is it is just another fancy idiot light.

The truth about oil is you can never change it enough, it is all about your budget for oil changes.

A note about Ford: I chose the company for quality over the big three, and I still believe they are superior, but these are tough times in the world of competition, and where the parts are made is questionable, and also, the "Smart" engineer that designs a vehicle to [make life easier?].... I don't want to open a rabbit hole but we choose what we buy, and we should own it, understand it and if you care, pick up where the maker left off.

I look forward some responses here.

V/r

SM

 

[GlennSullivan]

Since Ford has now been selling "maintenance contracts" in addition to extended warranty contracts, I would imagine that they want to make it as inconvenient / difficult for people to do their own maintenance. That and my observations say there are less and less people interested in doing thir own maintenance.

 

[34bwood]

My 25 Tremor is my first vehicle that didn't include a printed Owner's Manual. I'm not sure when they started making them digital only, but it's somewhere between my 2007 Explorer and 2025 Expedition. What's changed in the included information is that it tries not to be specific to a particular Ford model for as much as it can. They don't show things like pictures of rows of buttons (like below the center display) in the manual. Those buttons are arranged differently on different vehicles. It took me a long time to figure out what one of the buttons in the row was. It was the one that has this symbol "|P|" (not to be confused with "(P)", parking brake). To find it you have to know it's in the Parking Assist section of the manual (I went page by page to find it). They need a button layout image and tell which section to find it, but that would require much more work and couldn't be reused between different Ford models. I also wanted to know how to interpret the small display of information and buttons above the review mirror on the ceiling. I know it's for the moon roof, reading lights and airbag information, but I'd like to see a picture of all the buttons together labeled with their function instead of searching each single button throughout the manual.

As far as maintenance goes, I always bought the official Ford Factory Service Manuals for my vehicles. They've been indispensable for diagnosing and fixing anything on it. Pretty much every fastener has the correct torque spec. They don't print those either, but I've found two options. There's a subscription service that has all the detailed information and I believe it's the same as the service department at Ford uses. You can pay for short periods of time to fix whatever you need. I went with option two, a digital download of the manual (1.15 GB of data). It seems just as thorough as the old printed ones I had and it's formatted in a very similar manor. I like that you can search for terms you looking for, but it usually returns so many items that it still takes a while to find the correct reference.

 

[Expensedition]

Hi 34bwood,

I can relate to your first paragraph. And I just miss all technical manuals in print, they are pieces of history, but that is where we are and hopefully Ford is reading this and updating the electronic versions for the end user.

Photos of each specific control panel with details on each button or indicator lamp would be great.

I have the factory service tech pub for my 2014 on my garage laptop. That was found as a bootleg on eBay and was indispensable in keeping my Expedition in primo shape. At some point I will consider registering at motorcraftservice.com/ for my 26 Expedition Tremor.

The 5th generation is still young, although the engine should be well documented by now. The mysterious part is the software and that is another day.

V/r

SM