Hi all,

My dealer gives me a free first oil change. Right now it's scheduled for next week and I'm only at 1600 miles. I've done mostly bumper to bumper no load stuff, a little highway and two short pulls of my 5'er.

Should I go for it or reschedule for a later date?

It's my first diesel truck:

17 F350 DRW.

Thanks!
Joe

 

Depends, some people like to do the first oil change relatively earlier to get rid of possible break in debris. I personally dont think its necessary and just change every 5k. Be careful with the dealer oil change, people just dont care about things that arent theirs. Make sure it is filled to correct level etc before you leave to avoid any headaches.

 

Oh boy. Enjoy your can of worms!

There are varying opinions regarding oil changes. Some say 5,000, some say 10,000, some say let the truck tell you. Some say change it at the first 1,000, then a variation of the former 3.

Without doing much research, I will personally probably change my oil around 1,000, and then let the truck tell me. I doubt I'll let it go past 12,000 without a change though. I'm coming from changing every 5,000 on my f150.... very different feeling.

Good luck! The short answer is whatever you want. Haha.

 

I am not sure why people try to over think what is written in the manual. Ford engineering writes that document. Why are 100+ opinions on a message board more credible than that? I agree with the above as long as the interval in the manual is not exceeded, additionally, if you own a diesel the interval is calculated, a message is generated and displayed when due, including the very first oil change.

 

My first oil change will happen at 5k miles. I will be doing it myself with all Motorcraft supplies. The Parts department at my dealership sells me all the liquids, filters, etc. for the same price they sell to the service department, so I have a good record of the exact supplies I'm using through my account in the parts department, and I don't have to turn my truck over to a "lube tech". I've had several bad experiences over the years with oil changes at dealerships and won't ever allow them to touch my oil drain plug again. They offered me a free one as well, and I declined. The service department puts 10w30 syn blend in up here in Alaska, which is the wrong oil to run in these diesels in a cold climate. I'll be paying substantially less to do it myself and I will be putting 5W40 full syn motorcraft oil in.

 

Doesn't matter too much. I did my first oil change at 3700 miles, following a 2400 mile roadtrip, the first half of which was heavy towing. Many opinions on oil, but in my experience, if you change your oil at all, you're doing better than many owners and if you do it regularly, you shouldn't have issues. I agree with following the manual and double-checking the dealer's work.

 

It's just "my opinion" but I have my first oil change scheduled this week at a little past 5k miles. That is what I have always done with my 6.7L trucks....5k intervals.

 

We will do our first oil change at 5000 miles. We are still researching which brand oil and filter to use as this is our first diesel. With our gassers we use Mobil 1 full synthetic and Mobil 1 filters. Usually, we send a oil sample to Blackstone Labs for analysis starting with the second oil change, then every 3rd or 4th oil change after that. However, due to our truck being within the FSA for oil pressure and not tested before delivery, we are going to send a sample from the first oil change for peace of mind.

Does anyone know how scientific the oil life monitoring is on these trucks? We have had them on previous vehicles, but they were primitive and had little to no science behind them, so we used Blackstone's recommendation or the system, whichever was lower mileage, until the vehicles were out of power-train warranty and then we switched to only using Blackstone's recommendation.

 

The oil-life minder in the gas trucks is strictly a "timer" system: miles and days since the last reset.

The trucks with diesel engines, even base models, use an intelligent version. It includes miles and days, but also includes idling hours, number of regens, how many cycles the oil is reaching full temp and for how long, etc. It is much more accurate than the simple system.

Even with that, I choose a simple 5k schedule.

 

I do my oil change at about 100 hours in a new truck and then every 250 hours after that I never go by mileage because where I work I drive lots of in town and low speed situations with decent idle time. All my pickups get the 250 hr treatment and all my semi's and large equipment get a 500 hr service.

 

Are you certain of this for the gassers? Just asking because my F-150 uses the intelligent oil minder system. I believe it only factors in idle hrs, running hrs, and mileage though.

 

On the Super Duty, I'm sure. The F-150's might be different, because the Eco-Boost engines are direct-injected and turbocharged...so they might be a little more sensitive to oil change frequency.

 

Not only Ford but other dealers of cars we have or had said 5,000 except Mercedes. Theirs is 10,000 and you must use Mobil 1 syn.

 

I read the same thing.

 

I've always done every 5k unless I made a cross country trip and put the truck to good use towing a load, then I'd change it at the end of the trip basically.