engineers and let the idiot light tell me what to do. Ok, message. Might as well use the technology we are paying for. But I will jump on it at the 10% warning.
Oil Change Intervals
New User
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
The point of the new design and technology on diesel motors is to extend oil change intervals without causing premature engine life or degradation in fuel economy etc... the Detroit Diesel DD5 (5) liter 4 cylinder motor in a medium duty Freightliner calls for 45k oil change intervals- that's a real savings over time without affecting performance or life - I plan on changing the oil when the system advises without any reservation - at that rate in 100k miles the savings will be approx 1,500 bananas - any more is excessive and only benefits whom ever is getting paid for materials and labor. My 2 cents
Senior User
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 306
Likes: 2
From: Maine
I have a 6.2. I have changed my oil twice, and am at 12,500 miles. I changed the first time at about 4500 after a run to Albuquerque towing, and accidentally put synthetic blend in again, changed to full synthetic last time, and changed early as I took a 3500 mile trip and it was going to hit 7500 about 2500 miles into it. If I don't put it through anything severe, I'll let it run 7500 on full synthetic, but I'll change it early if I pull heavy long or get carried away in the dirt and dust. My old man always used the oil change light as a clue that he should consider changing the oil in the next couple thousand miles, and his trucks have always made at least 300,000 miles before something gave up, and it was never oil related. I don't follow the same logic, but I also think I probably change it more than needed, I have no qualms running till it asks for oil. There are plenty of people who keep running well past that to keep the Ford techs occupied.
Hotshot
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 10,118
Likes: 650
From: NH
Do you reset the oil life system when you change at 5K or do you wait until it says its due and just reset it then knowing that you are changing on your own schedule?
Trying to figure out if resetting at the 5K oil change would have any pros/cons over just waiting to reset when the oil life monitor gives you the alert. Thoughts?
Trying to figure out if resetting at the 5K oil change would have any pros/cons over just waiting to reset when the oil life monitor gives you the alert. Thoughts?
Gas trucks have a basic type of oil minder system: it counts days and miles since the last reset and figure it that way.
Diesel trucks include other factors. I'm not aware of where all parameters have been listed, but they might include idling hours vs driving hours, oil temps, number of regens, average speed, ambient temps, whether a trailer was plugged in, etc.
Chances are, using the factory oil reminder system will not harm your engine and absolutely maximize the life of your oil, which in turn reduces environmental impact and impact on your wallet.
Nevertheless, I like 5k miles using the Ford SynBlend oil.
Elder User
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 571
Likes: 3
I change my 13 when it tells me. Been hovering around 10k miles. At 41k now and only been told to do the fuel filter once. I have new one in the box waiting. No point in wasting stuff when it isn't needed yet. I'll trust what they recommend, they don't want to be replacing engines due to lack of maintenance.
Brett
Brett
More Turbo
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 618
Likes: 69
Trusting an idiot light without relying on some common sense is not what I'll be doing. Ford also has an incentive for you to wear out your vehicle at some point. If they never wore out, you'd never need to buy a replacement.
I do oil changes at the 5K mark. If I were to drive 200,000 miles, I'd put in around $40,000 in fuel (15 mpg and $3.00 per gallon) over that span. An extra 20 oil changes (5K interval vs. 10K interval) over that same 200k miles will run me around $2000 in extra oil change expense (I do my own) assuming I'm changing oil too frequently.
I look at clean fresh oil as being cheap insurance toward maintaining a healthy engine. My 3 current vehicles have 230K, 275K and 280K, and they all still run awesome with zero engine mechanical failures. I think a great maintenance regimen is partially responsible for keeping these engines running so well and for so long.
Just my $.02.
Adam
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Posting Guru
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 1,237
Likes: 3
I change my 13 when it tells me. Been hovering around 10k miles. At 41k now and only been told to do the fuel filter once. I have new one in the box waiting. No point in wasting stuff when it isn't needed yet. I'll trust what they recommend, they don't want to be replacing engines due to lack of maintenance.
Brett
Brett
Senior User
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 481
Likes: 1
I used the oil life monitor for my changes. 5500 miles and it hasn't come on yet. Did this with my 2014 as well and it would come on between 5k and 7.5k miles a usually, depending on what kind of hauling I had been doings.
Senior User
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 481
Likes: 1
I'm going by the intelligent oil life monitor and motor craft oils .. I haven't seen a bad oil analysis on motorcraft yet .. the 6.7's seem to be much easier on oils than the 6.0 and 6.4 .. I'm at 8100 miles and still haven't seen the change oil soon screen .. I'll do fuel filters every other oil change
5500 miles here and no notification yet. Changing the oil just to make myself feel warm and fuzzy is much worse then waiting for the engineered light to come on...
Senior User
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 105
Likes: 0
I've seen oil analysis done by black stone labs that was done at when the computer said, everything in the sample looked good and they actually encouraged the owner he could go farther on the oil change .. you can't argue with analysis, if the oil is still good it's good
Its Comin Right for us!
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 12,149
Likes: 2,633
From: GA
never mind, oil analysis are good thing to do. everyone has their own opinions and fords lack of concrete info in manual creates alot of confusion due to conflict with traditional set in stone OCI's
Senior User
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 220
Likes: 0
I plan on doing it when the computer tells me to for now. I also plan on sending in analysis at every oil change. I will let the oil analysis tell me how accurate the computer guided oil change intervals are. As of now, I see no reason to change the oil more frequently than the manual or truck calls for.
Junior User
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
I've seen oil analysis done by black stone labs that was done at when the computer said, everything in the sample looked good and they actually encouraged the owner he could go farther on the oil change .. you can't argue with analysis, if the oil is still good it's good