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Oil Change Interval

7179 Views 21 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  PeteK, 
J
What kind of oil change intervals are you guys getting? Might dash is telling me I need to change the oil soon and it's been 2400 miles. I do easy city driving and the only "extended idling" has been about 5 minutes worth of warm up on 30 degree mornings. This is the first time I've paid attention to the mileage number but that's ridiculous. The owners manual says that's less mileage than the "extreme" category and I would say my driving conditions are maybe between normal and severe.

So much for being "intelligent" I think I'll go back to the old method of tracking mileage.
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S
10,000 mile intervals, no problem. I haven't done any towing, and I would call me driving "normal"

I'm just coming onto 20k and the oil life indicator is right on the money for another 10k interval.
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Dunrollin
My oil monitor went bad in my 2010 Grand Marquis, was giving me a change oil soon message in about one third of the normal time. I had to ignore it and go back to mileage counting. Also my 2013 F150 is my back up truck and time is causing the change oil soon message so I am ignoring it as well.
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jmperlik
@Jdbronco - there have been a few threads on this previously (see: Survey: First oil change mileage/% Oil Life remaining) and I too was initially concerned that I was only seeing about 2500-3000 mile interval for my first two (2) oil changes. I am now in the group that struggles to reach the 5K oil change intervals that I bought as part of my ESP (Extended Service Plan) but only because I have taken corrective action to ensure that I meet that 5K interval. Let me explain a bit....

My driving is what I call primarily "city" driving, as I don't take an interstate to work, but the roads I take vary between 40 MPH to 55MPH, so I can get up to highway speeds on my commute. I have maybe a half dozen traffic lights on the drive, so it is definitely not stop-and-go but those can slow me down. My commute is roughly 20 miles round trip and I find that my truck is just getting to ideal operating conditions (engine oil @ 200F and EGTs @ 600F) before I need to shut off the engine after arriving at my destination. My belief is that my daily commute is what contributes to what I consider more frequent oil change intervals.

I think your simple description of "easy city driving" could explain for your 2500 mile oil change interval, as these engines prefer long runs of highway mileage with the engine operating at optimal conditions (described above) so that you get "Passive" regeneration; i.e. the engine is running hot enough that it is producing very little soot to fill the DPF. If your driving style/habit is lots of short commutes (15 minutes or less) where the engine never gets to the operating conditions where passive regeneration can occur, then your DPF fills quicker as it is trapping any unburnt fuel, which is primarily what soot is...

I am going to fathom a guess that you have not enabled the DPF % Full view in your IPC via FORScan programming. Couple your "easy city driving" driving style (with very little if any passive regeneration) with no monitoring of DPF % Full, I am going to guess again you are in what I have termed the "DPF death spiral" where you DPF "active" regens never fully clean the DPF Filter down to 0% full (empty) and your DPF is always in a near full state. If your DPF is operating in a near full state, you are putting more exhaust back pressure on the engine, forcing more of the dirty intake air (due to the EGR system that recycles the exhaust back into the intake) past the rings and into the engine oil. The Oil Minder is taking into account average driving distances, average time your truck is in a state for passive regens, and average mileage in between active regens to come up with the oil change interval recommendation.

To combat the DPF death spiral, I monitor my DPF % Full in my IPC and take my truck on a 20 minute/20 mile DPF "blow-out" run when I hit DPF 100% Full where I ensure any active regens get me back down to 0% Full. Using this technique in addition to my normal commute along with an occasional highway trip > 100 miles has extended my oil change intervals to 5000 miles and above. Altering your driving schedule for the sake of diesel ownership is not something I intended when purchasing my F150 PS Diesel, but it has become a necessary evil if I want to track to a 5K oil change interval.

There is another set of owners here that will tell you they are tracking to the 10K oil change interval and others are in between 5K and 10K intervals, so longer intervals are possible, and I believe we concluded that driving patterns (stretches of uninterrupted driving at higher speeds for longer durations) and biodiesel are the biggest contributors to longer oil change intervals.

All of the above is not something that was common knowledge or something I knew from prior diesel ownership or before purchasing my F150 PS Diesel, but rather what we here as a group collectively determined over a period of time via close FORScan monitoring, which you can see evolving in the following thread: Stuck in regen??? I strongly suggest you read thru this thread in its entirety to explain what I have tried to summarize (albeit poorly) above and come back here with any questions that you might have.
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J
Thanks for the detailed response. I had remembered reading some posts about lower oil change intervals but I thought I had remembered closer to 5000 miles. Your driving profile sounds very similar to mine. I do have DPF% enabled and I generally only get it down to about 50% at a time so that is probably not helping. The title of that post is deceiving, I would've never know oil life was discussed. I'll go back an read it.
I was just shocked to see that the owners manual mentions nothing about that in their driving categories. Although they do go to the detail of telling you if the monitor is accidentally reset or not work to change at 5000 miles... Go figure.
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Ladiesman217
Jdbronco said:
What kind of oil change intervals are you guys getting? Might dash is telling me I need to change the oil soon and it's been 2400 miles. I do easy city driving and the only "extended idling" has been about 5 minutes worth of warm up on 30 degree mornings. This is the first time I've paid attention to the mileage number but that's ridiculous. The owners manual says that's less mileage than the "extreme" category and I would say my driving conditions are maybe between normal and severe.

So much for being "intelligent" I think I'll go back to the old method of tracking mileage.
Click to expand...
I change mine every 10000 miles. I asked the dealer if I needed to come in every 8k they said no I don't. Just need to get it changed every 10k to maintain the warranty. Most of my miles are highway miles and I don't drive my truck hard. I'm at 40k on my 2019 XLT 4x4 PS
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Smokewagun
Ladiesman217 said:
I change mine every 10000 miles. I asked the dealer if I needed to come in every 8k they said no I don't. Just need to get it changed every 10k to maintain the warranty. Most of my miles are highway miles and I don't drive my truck hard. I'm at 40k on my 2019 XLT 4x4 PS
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To each his own. After driving diesel trucks for over 23 years, 10k intervals are too long in my book. Pull the dipstick after 50 miles on the change. It’s black. Not that the oil it isn’t lubricating, but the carbon is there. At 10k, it’s more abrasive and dirty. Oil changes are cheap insurance, and 5k is where mine gets dropped.
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Ladiesman217
Smokewagun said:
To each his own. After driving diesel trucks for over 23 years, 10k intervals are too long in my book. Pull the dipstick after 50 miles on the change. It’s black. Not that the oil it isn’t lubricating, but the carbon is there. At 10k, it’s more abrasive and dirty. Oil changes are cheap insurance, and 5k is where mine gets dropped.
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Thanks for the advice. I am going to reevaluate my oil change schedule.
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L
Smokewagun said:
To each his own. After driving diesel trucks for over 23 years, 10k intervals are too long in my book. Pull the dipstick after 50 miles on the change. It’s black. Not that the oil it isn’t lubricating, but the carbon is there. At 10k, it’s more abrasive and dirty. Oil changes are cheap insurance, and 5k is where mine gets dropped.
Click to expand...
I do mine every 5K miles too (8000 kms) and will continue with that as long as my emission system is intact. when that's gone I may extend that slightly, but the carbon still gets in there regardless from blowby. The filter will take the big pieces out, but earlier changes is a good way to know that your oil viscosity will be in the optimal range.
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A
jmperlik said:
@Jdbronco - there have been a few threads on this previously (see: Survey: First oil change mileage/% Oil Life remaining) and I too was initially concerned that I was only seeing about 2500-3000 mile interval for my first two (2) oil changes. I am now in the group that struggles to reach the 5K oil change intervals that I bought as part of my ESP (Extended Service Plan) but only because I have taken corrective action to ensure that I meet that 5K interval. Let me explain a bit....

My driving is what I call primarily "city" driving, as I don't take an interstate to work, but the roads I take vary between 40 MPH to 55MPH, so I can get up to highway speeds on my commute. I have maybe a half dozen traffic lights on the drive, so it is definitely not stop-and-go but those can slow me down. My commute is roughly 20 miles round trip and I find that my truck is just getting to ideal operating conditions (engine oil @ 200F and EGTs @ 600F) before I need to shut off the engine after arriving at my destination. My belief is that my daily commute is what contributes to what I consider more frequent oil change intervals.

I think your simple description of "easy city driving" could explain for your 2500 mile oil change interval, as these engines prefer long runs of highway mileage with the engine operating at optimal conditions (described above) so that you get "Passive" regeneration; i.e. the engine is running hot enough that it is producing very little soot to fill the DPF. If your driving style/habit is lots of short commutes (15 minutes or less) where the engine never gets to the operating conditions where passive regeneration can occur, then your DPF fills quicker as it is trapping any unburnt fuel, which is primarily what soot is...

I am going to fathom a guess that you have not enabled the DPF % Full view in your IPC via FORScan programming. Couple your "easy city driving" driving style (with very little if any passive regeneration) with no monitoring of DPF % Full, I am going to guess again you are in what I have termed the "DPF death spiral" where you DPF "active" regens never fully clean the DPF Filter down to 0% full (empty) and your DPF is always in a near full state. If your DPF is operating in a near full state, you are putting more exhaust back pressure on the engine, forcing more of the dirty intake air (due to the EGR system that recycles the exhaust back into the intake) past the rings and into the engine oil. The Oil Minder is taking into account average driving distances, average time your truck is in a state for passive regens, and average mileage in between active regens to come up with the oil change interval recommendation.

To combat the DPF death spiral, I monitor my DPF % Full in my IPC and take my truck on a 20 minute/20 mile DPF "blow-out" run when I hit DPF 100% Full where I ensure any active regens get me back down to 0% Full. Using this technique in addition to my normal commute along with an occasional highway trip > 100 miles has extended my oil change intervals to 5000 miles and above. Altering your driving schedule for the sake of diesel ownership is not something I intended when purchasing my F150 PS Diesel, but it has become a necessary evil if I want to track to a 5K oil change interval.

There is another set of owners here that will tell you they are tracking to the 10K oil change interval and others are in between 5K and 10K intervals, so longer intervals are possible, and I believe we concluded that driving patterns (stretches of uninterrupted driving at higher speeds for longer durations) and biodiesel are the biggest contributors to longer oil change intervals.

All of the above is not something that was common knowledge or something I knew from prior diesel ownership or before purchasing my F150 PS Diesel, but rather what we here as a group collectively determined over a period of time via close FORScan monitoring, which you can see evolving in the following thread: Stuck in regen??? I strongly suggest you read thru this thread in its entirety to explain what I have tried to summarize (albeit poorly) above and come back here with any questions that you might have.
Click to expand...
My commute to work is around 10 miles one way (all highway). Once I get to work I have to make short commutes to various buildings (1-3 miles stop & go). I too have noticed my oil % hardly makes it to 5K mile before it reaches zero. I still change my oil every 5K miles not matter what using Rotella T6 5W-40. I can usually get my DPF % down to 50% - 75% during a re-gen before I have to put it in park. I occasionally can get it down to 0% during a highway run.

Is there a way to verify if you are at full operating temperature? I don't have aftermarket gauges, but I did do the Forscan mod where I have temp above the coolant and trans gauges. My coolant is getting to 190F+ shortly before I arrive at work every time.
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jmperlik
@Aaron - I think your driving routine is similar to mine, maybe a little worse because even shorter distances.

I see you quoting DPF Full %s and coolant temps above the gauges, so you are FORScan enabled = good!

From my experiences here in the Northeast, my truck seems to be at optimal operating temperature right around coolant temps of 200F (fluctuates between 199F and 201F) and will jump to 203F or 205F when an Active Regen is in progress.

If you are reaching 190F as you arrive at work, your truck is just getting into optimal operating range when an Active Regen could occur, so you need 20+ minutes at 195F or above to complete a full Active Regen cycle back down to 0%. Without the extra driving to complete a full Active Regen down to 0%, you are most likely aborting an Active Regen early causing a Partial Regen to something between 100% Full and 0% Full. When you drive you truck next, you have noticed that instead of starting at 0%, you are starting some % already full = this is what I believe leads to the shorter oil change interval, as I am able to achieve longer intervals with more highway driving and actively managing Active Regens.

As I mentioned in the post you quoted, this was all information we as owners derived by FORScan monitoring before/during/after Active Regen cycles. Altering your driving schedule for the sake of diesel ownership is not something I intended when purchasing my F150 PS Diesel, but it has become a necessary evil if I want to track to a 5K oil change interval.
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W
I am the second owner of my 2019 F150 PS. The oil was changed the week I bought it in late July. The odometer is just past 20,000 miles. I have only driven 2,500 miles and my Ford Pass app is telling me it's time for an oil change. I have a 6 mile commute to work each day with very little highway miles. Once a month I go 60 miles on the highway. Do we think the time frame of 6 months since last oil change is playing into the intelligent oil life monitor?
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jmperlik
@Watchmaker - welcome to the low mileage owner club! When I first challenged my Service Manager on the low mileage oil change interval, I do remember him saying there is time expiration that the Oil Minder will use: 12 months

We thought early on this might have been the reason for my first oil change at 3500 miles, but when I wasn't tracking any better on my 2nd oil change, I threw out the 12 month time interval as the reason for the Oil Life Monitor telling it was time to change the oil.

For this engine, the Rule-Of-Thumb he gave me was: 12 months or 10,000 miles max (which ever comes first)

Based on my light-duty primarily city-driving, I opted for 5K Full synthetic oil change intervals in the FordProtect Premium Maintenance ESP that I purchased in Jan 2019.
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Smokewagun
Frankly, I run a scan gauge. There is really no direct correlation between EGT’s in one of the four probes in the exhaust, and engine temp... especially when the truck in passive regeneration. I recommend spending the peanuts on the scan gauge, and watching the EGT’s in the exhaust. It’s definitely telling you what the truck is doing ALWAYS, and when a passive regen is actually doing something by watching the soot load go down.
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A
Smokewagun said:
Frankly, I run a scan gauge. There is really no direct correlation between EGT’s in one of the four probes in the exhaust, and engine temp... especially when the truck in passive regeneration. I recommend spending the peanuts on the scan gauge, and watching the EGT’s in the exhaust. It’s definitely telling you what the truck is doing ALWAYS, and when a passive regen is actually doing something by watching the soot load go down.
Click to expand...
Which X-Gauges are you using on your Scan Gauge? Also, for EGT... Which of the 4 sensors are you using to determine the actual EGT?
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jmperlik
2
Aaron said:
Which X-Gauges are you using on your Scan Gauge? Also, for EGT... Which of the 4 sensors are you using to determine the actual EGT?
Click to expand...
EGT11-14 (from Page 12 of the 3.0L Coffee Table Book)
1986

which can be monitored via FORScan also; e.g. EGT11-14 during Active Regen
1987
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M
Mine seems to be around 3000, which is OK because that's about when I change oil. Walmart sells T6 cheap enough, RockAuto send me a Mann filter for $5, a quick and low cost oil change. (y)
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A
My oil change light came on a couple days ago, I was thinking it wasn't to long ago I had it changed. I checked my records today and I have gone about 2,000 miles since the last oil change. The last change was done by ford. Most of my commute is short runs 4 or so miles each direction with a couple 3 or 400 mile runs at hwy speed.

Anyone else see short interval change requirements. At $129.00 a Shot its a little expensive ( yes I can change my own oil but after 3 major back operations I will let someone else do it

Al
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cheetah4570
Another good reason to do the oil and fuel filter changes yourself: I got lazy today and took my 2018 F-150 KR to the dealer for oil, oil filter, and fuel filter changes. $192 for parts, $222 for labor for a total bill of $425. Ouch. Lesson learned.
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B
For those of you looking for oil and avoiding stealership prices to DIY. I recently found a seller on ebay who has a large supply of Motorcraft F150 5w30 Diesel Engine Oil XO5W30FA. His ebay sellers name is "mav0518", I was able to purchase a large order (30 qts), between shipping, tax etc. My per quart expense was approx $7.50. That seemed to be a good price along with Dieselfiltersonline.com Motorcraft oil filters @$6.00, my oil change expense will be under $60.00. I think that is pretty **** good!
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