Vehicle break-in and oil change frequency

[sjwhiteley]

Just got my oil change results back from Blackstone Labs. 6627 miles and precisely 7 months (thought it was longer than that) at 37,059 miles. The vehicle meter was reading 33% 'life'. Using Mobil 1 and a Mobil 1 filter; always used them from the second oil change (first done at the dealer). This is the 6th oil change (7th with first dealer change). No changes/modifications/fixes done to the engine.

To me, I could go probably 7500 miles and change then, but another month of running isn't going to save much in the long run, so I'll likely stick to around 6k miles.

 

[chuck s]

Oil change schedule is every 7,500 to 10,000 miles and when the Oil Life Monitor says to change it. So 27,000 is right at 3 oil changes for normal driving. Right there in my (and your) owner's manual.

Full synthetics don't magically age-out and self-destruct after 12 months. Blackstone will confirm this for you. Pull your sample before dumping the oil that's in the engine and indicate you're interested in "extended" oil changes (or similar). They'll give you an estimate of how much life there is (or isn't ) left in the oil.

Oil is cheap but unnecessary oil changes are still wasteful.

-- Chuck

 

[SyndicateZ]

Oil change schedule is every 7,500 to 10,000 miles and when the Oil Life Monitor says to change it. So 27,000 is right at 3 oil changes for normal driving. Right there in my (and your) owner's manual.

Full synthetics don't magically age-out and self-destruct after 12 months. Blackstone will confirm this for you. Pull your sample before dumping the oil that's in the engine and indicate you're interested in "extended" oil changes (or similar). They'll give you an estimate of how much life there is (or isn't ) left in the oil.

Oil is cheap but unnecessary oil changes are still wasteful.

-- Chuck

Did you finance (or pay in full) or Lease your vehicle?

 

[JExpedition07]

Your first oil change is the most important. I’d say 1,000 miles for change #1 then follow the oil life monitor. That’s what I did for my 2023 5.0L. Really after that initial break in you are smooth sailing, use synthetic and have fun. Your oil life monitor is intelligent on the 4th gens and takes into account your driving style like the newer F-150’s. My OLM was dropping like a rock with cold short trips. By 1,000 miles I had lost about 30% oil life. I’m now at 2,000 miles and it’s at 88%.

 

[SyndicateZ]

Change your oil every 4-5000 miles at max (even with Full syn). Dont follow the oil life monitor. That feature is a selling point for these vehicles and doesnt really know the condition of the oil and level. Going 30,000 miles with only 3 oil changes is irresponsible with direct injected turbo vehicles. Anybody that knows engines would agree. Hell, I even have Ford techs saying the same if you want to keep the engine running good for a long time.

 

[gtr09]

Seems to me the best time to change your oil is at 1 mile, worst time is never again. Somewhere between 1 and infinity there is the optimum time to change your oil given the tradeoff between time+cost and engine protection. It is a surety that the manufacturer, dealers, and marketing are not recommending the optimum oil change cycle that is in YOUR best interest. Their best interest includes things such as:

What do our market competitors recommend? - If Chevy recommend the Suburban needed changes every 15,000, and Ford recommended the Expedition every 3,000, most midwits would conclude the Expedition has a crappy motor and the Suburban must have a much better motor since its oil can last much longer without a change.

For every 1000 miles less we recommend how does that increased burden affect our sales? - Related to the above statement but more of an evaluation on its own. People are lazy and would prefer to have a vehicle that never needed an oil change. Any # of changes more than 0 is worse.

What's the minimum number of changes required to make sure the increased warranty service due to lack of oil changes is less than the lack of sales due to customer perception that frequent changes = crappy motor? etc etc

I don't think anyone knows the exact optimum time given the tradeoffs. Blackstone reports that your oil is good enough after XXXX miles, but it still isn't as good as day 1. If you leased the car for 3 years and are going to trade it in is a different calculation than you bought a 10 year extended warranty and are going to drive it into the ground. For me, for now, 4k sounds about right. It's a boosted engine, I'm going to keep it for as long as I can, and I couldn't care less about "wasting" oil. If I add an intake, intercooler, and tune, probably 3k. Depends on how much fun it is after that and how much I drive like an ass. Why not? Or, if you change your oil more often than you take your wife out to dinner, you should probably take your wife out to dinner more.

 

[2018ExpyPlatinum]

Years ago, BMW started to include free maintenance on their new cars after paying tons of money to cover CPO warranty claims due to people who did three years leases and traded them in and never changed the oil. They found it was much cheaper. As we know, many manufacturers have also done the same, even now.

 

[chuck s]

Of interest (or trivia) my "other car" has the following notation in the owner's manual during the break in period for the car (when new).

Do not change the oil until the
scheduled maintenance time.

They do not want an early oil change at this stage.

My Expedition annual oil changes run about every 5,000 miles. Oil analysis shows the oil is fine with no reason to discard it but it's cheap.

-- Chuck

 

[SyndicateZ]

Another one explaining WHY you shouldnt follow the vehicles oil change indicator alert and keep oil changes at 5k or below for the ecoboosts

This is Why You Never Run Extended Oil Change Intervals on The Ford Ecoboost Engines!

In this video we show a perfect example of why you should maintain your Ford Ecoboost Engine. If you do, they will reward you back with many years of service...

youtu.be

 

[F150 Pat]

Never follow the oil life monitor. That insane. Always at 5K withe the eco.

This is Why You Never Run Extended Oil Change Intervals on The Ford Ecoboost Engines!

In this video we show a perfect example of why you should maintain your Ford Ecoboost Engine. If you do, they will reward you back with many years of service...

www.youtube.com

 

[Yupster Dog]

eco5k

This is Why You Never Run Extended Oil Change Intervals on The Ford Ecoboost Engines!

In this video we show a perfect example of why you should maintain your Ford Ecoboost Engine. If you do, they will reward you back with many years of service...

www.youtube.com

third time is the charm.

 

[rd618]

What would be great is if ford included reference materials that give the consumer an understanding of what the service intervals should be, so they don't need to guess!

I happened to find one.
On the page that says "Oil Change Reminder" it outlines 3 criteria of when you should listen to the oil life indicator, and when you might want to increase your service interval depending on your driving style. Never to exceed 1 year or 10,000 miles.
Go figure!

NORMAL = 7500-10000 miles, which they define as "normal commuting, highway driving, no or moderate loads and towing on flat roads, no extended idling"
Severe = 5000-7500 miles, moderate to heavy load, towing, mountainous or off-road conditions, extended hot or cold operation, extended idling
Extreme = 3000-5000 miles, max load or towing, extreme hot or cold operation

Most people probably fall between Normal and Severe. So 7500 miles or sooner is probably the sweet spot.

 

[Stsysar]

What would be great is if ford included reference materials that give the consumer an understanding of what the service intervals should be, so they don't need to guess!

I happened to find one.
On the page that says "Oil Change Reminder" it outlines 3 criteria of when you should listen to the oil life indicator, and when you might want to increase your service interval depending on your driving style. Never to exceed 1 year or 10,000 miles.
Go figure!

NORMAL = 7500-10000 miles, which they define as "normal commuting, highway driving, no or moderate loads and towing on flat roads, no extended idling"
Severe = 5000-7500 miles, moderate to heavy load, towing, mountainous or off-road conditions, extended hot or cold operation, extended idling
Extreme = 3000-5000 miles, max load or towing, extreme hot or cold operation

Most people probably fall between Normal and Severe. So 7500 miles or sooner is probably the sweet spot.

Very useful info. Just to keep in mind that these numbers reflect using full synthetic oil.

Being in Florida I would imagine that the vehicle would be subjected to higher operating temperatures and thus, require more frequent oil changes.

Falunnilu enough, reminder sticker from Ford states 10k miles to next oil change. It would have been nice to get this explanation from Ford service staff after you pick up a vehicle from service. I bet most people don't know any better and just follow the max millage for oil changes.

 

[MattG]

I've always stuck with the monitor directions; however, that was knowing I wasn't planning on keeping the vehicle more than 1-2 years.
This time around, I plan on holding onto both the Expedition and the 5.0 so I have been changing more regularly 5,000-7,500 and going with Pennzoil Ultra Platinum.