[jmperlik]

@Knifeman and I have been PMing about oil change intervals, as neither of us got anywhere near the engine design goal of 10,000 mile oil change intervals with our vehicles.

I took delivery on my '18 Platinum F150 PS Diesel on 09/22/18 and I had my factory oil changed on 02/08/19 with my Oil Minder hitting 0% oil life remaining the previous day = 139 days

With a month and 800 miles on this current oil change, my calculations from the Oil Minder is that I won't make 5,000 miles on this oil change either.

Other owners are this forum seem to be tracking spot-on to this 10K mark:

I am at 49% oil life remaining at ~5,000 miles, so my truck seems to be tracking to the 10K oil change intervals.

@Knifeman and I are trying to figure out if there is something in our owning/driving habits (daily commute, engine idling/warming up, etc) that could be causing our shorter oil life.

As many of us are coming up on the first oil change, I think we have enough of a ownership base here in the forums to take an informal survey -- please post back with your:

• Mileage at 1st oil change
• Oil Minder "% Oil Life remaining" at 1st oil change
• Days since taking delivery of your vehicle
• Driving behavior (Daily commute, highway vs city, towing, etc.)

You can find the "% Oil Life remaining" in the Vehicle Details section in the FordPass app or you can find it buried in one of the on-board cluster displays.
If your dealership is handling your oil changes, you can find the date and mileage in the Service History section under Vehicle Details in the FordPass app.

I am willing to aggregate everyone's response into a spreadsheet and attempt to see if there are any correlation amongst those owners with low mileage oil change intervals.

Thanks in advance

 

[jmperlik]

Mileage: 4936 miles
% Oil life remaining: 0%
Days since last change: 139
Driving behavior: 15 min x 2 for weekday (city driving) commute

 

[Knifeman]

Had my 2nd oil changed at 7425 miles. Was heading to Florida from Pittsburgh and was at 33% knew it wasn’t going to make it to 10000 mile change. Trip was canceled. I’m at 10035 miles now with 51% on oil life. Looks like it will make it to 5000. I’ll keep everyone posted.

 

[wreedsvt]

I am at 2500 miles on this change and down to 46%. Certainly moving fast. I will just do it manually. Not really too worried about it.

 

[kdjasper]

Okay, here is my update as of this morning...

Mileage: 5783 miles
% Oil life remaining: 45% (= 12,851 total mileage at 0%)
Days since last change: 110 days of ownership so far without an oil change
Driving behavior: 15 min x 2 for weekday (city driving) commute -- my city commute is 45-55 mph as I live in a south suburb of St. Paul with posted speed limits of 45-55mph depending on the road I am on

Besides the daily commute, I weekly get in about 80-150 miles of interstate driving.

In this first 5783 miles, I can state that I have done a lot of remote start warm ups, sometimes for the full 15 minute timeout period. I have also done some long idling warm ups, especially when I was parked outside in the elements at -14F.

One other thing I focus on, although should not impact oil life (?), is that I try to plan my usage so that when DPF Filter % Full is approaching a regen cycle I try to be on one of my longer highway runs and I let the regen complete all the way down to 0% Full before I think about parking and shutting down the truck.

I also have been using 16 oz. of Power Service white additive to every fuel up since taking ownership --> https://powerservice.com/psp_product/diesel-fuel-supplement-cetane-boost/. I can't see how this would impact oil life, but just wanted to let everyone know how I have been operating my truck.

I have noticed that my short daily commute is not long enough for the truck to get up to full operating temps (FORScan mod to Show Temps Above Gauges), and that to get the best fuel economy out of the truck it seems happiest to do so when it is fully warmed up. I have also noticed the best fuel economy happens with the cruise control set at 50mph (tranny in 10th gear).

I am planning to do my first oil change at 7,500 miles now, and probably change every 7,500 miles. When the snow and ice melts down up here I will be towing my boat around a lot for fishing and expect doing so will shorten down my oil life. So far I have not done any towing, which some of you may be doing already causing shortened oil life. I am likely going to have the 26 gallon OEM fuel tank swapped out for the 48 gallon Titan tank (https://www.dieself150forum.com/forum/426-towing/1796-titan-fuel-tank.html) at the same time I go in for my first oil change which should be mid-April at the rate I have been going.

 

[jmperlik]

Lucky if I make 3000 miles on 2nd Oil change?

Things seem to be getting worse on my 2nd oil change: (as of 04/07/19)

Current Oil Minder %:_____________________40%
Current miles on Odometer:_______________6813
Last Oil change Odometer:______________- 4936
________________________________________-----
Miles since last change:_________________1877
Divide by % used: (100% - 40% = 60%)___/__60%
________________________________________-----
Estimated total miles for this change:___3128
Miles since last change:_______________- 1877
________________________________________-----
Estimated miles left on this change:_____1251
Current miles on Odometer:_____________+ 6813
________________________________________-----
Estimated next change Odometer:__________8064

I've been relaying my "faster than expected" Oil Minder %s to my Service Manager the last three (3) times I have talked to him.

So much for a 10K Oil Change interval...

I think I'm going to send my oil out for analysis on my next Oil change to ensure that everything is OK.

 

[kdjasper]

Okay, here is my update as of now...

Mileage: 7401 miles
% Oil life remaining: 29% (= 10,423 total mileage at 0%--previously I was tracking to 12,851)
Days since last change: 137 days of ownership so far without an oil change
Driving behavior: 15 min x 2 for weekday (city driving) commute -- my city commute is 45-55 mph as I live in a south suburb of St. Paul with posted speed limits of 45-55mph depending on the road I am on

My truck is still tracking to the 10K change intervals. I was going to change it at 7500, but now I think I am going to do it at 8000 for the first change.

I am wondering if our trucks are that finicky with getting the specific oil put in them on the oil change to maintain the 10K change intervals? I know there is a specific OEM Motorcraft oil specifically formulated for our trucks, but from other posts it doesn't seem like many are using that specific oil, so I am wondering if that may have anything to do with the reduced oil life--however, that would mean that everyone would have the factory oil change interval experience of my truck and that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[BriGuy]

I just hit 2000 miles and my oil life is at 43%. I have been doing a lot of short trips, and idling, so I suspect that is part of the problem.

 

[kdjasper]

My daily commute to work is 8.7 miles each direction, and I have done tons of idling over the cold winter up here in Minnesota (remote start warm ups), so I do not think short trips and idling are the root cause of the oil life issue.

 

[jmperlik]

@kdjasper - I think your first estimate at 5738 miles was mis-calculated -- I calculate 10,515 miles at 0% (= 5783 / 0.55), so you are tracking a little better than 10K...

Mileage: 5783 miles
% Oil life remaining: 45% (= 12,851 total mileage at 0%)
Days since last change: 110 days of ownership so far without an oil change
Driving behavior: 15 min x 2 for weekday (city driving) commute -- my city commute is 45-55 mph as I live in a south suburb of St. Paul with posted speed limits of 45-55mph depending on the road I am on.

I'm still scratching my head on a 3x delta between my 3K 2nd change estimate and your & others 10K first change interval....

 

[kdjasper]

@jmperlik thanks for catching my math error...makes me feel better that there is not a big gap in those 2 calculations.

In further response to @BriGuy post above, my Engine Information within Truck Info display is telling me I have 212 Engine Hours with 32 Engine Idle Hours, so if my math is correct my truck has been idling 15% of its engine hours. See the attached photo below. I'd be curious to see what others are seeing on these stats. By sharing this, I am trying to rule out engine idling as a cause for those with shorter oil life--unless of course you have a lot more idle hours than I do.

 

[Rhawkins52!]

If this has been asked or answered previously, my apologies. Does anyone know just how the ecm is calculating the oil life status?

 

[BriGuy]

@jmperlik thanks for catching my math error...makes me feel better that there is not a big gap in those 2 calculations.

In further response to @BriGuy post above, my Engine Information within Truck Info display is telling me I have 212 Engine Hours with 32 Engine Idle Hours, so if my math is correct my truck has been idling 15% of its engine hours. See the attached photo below. I'd be curious to see what others are seeing on these stats. By sharing this, I am trying to rule out engine idling as a cause for those with shorter oil life--unless of course you have a lot more idle hours than I do.

I am at 88 Engine hours with 22 Engine Idle Hours, so 25%. I spend a lot of time in rink parking lots!

I don't know if this is the reason for the short oil life, but it probably factors into it

 

[Johng]

I change my oil every 5k to 6k miles and have just completed my second oil change. I do this on every vehicle I own and don't really worry about % left.

 

[Meek One]

I’ve had my truck 1 month. It has 1,200 miles, mostly city as Atlanta traffic is terrible. This traffic has caused me to only get 20 mpg. I’m at 78% oil life which should put me at 5,000 for the first oil change.

 

[kdjasper]

In some recent research I have done, it does appear that spending a lot of time driving in terrible traffic ( @Meek One ) or having > 15% engine idle hours ( @BriGuy ) would cause a reduction in oil life. I know that @jmperlik has a short < 10 mile commute to work, as do I, not sure how his commute is, but mine is 55 mph with only a few stop lights or stop signs to get me there. Also, I have not yet taken any drastic measures with respect to ASS, so when I do have to stop on my short commute to work I welcome the engine shutting off for the 2 minutes I have to wait for a light to change (= less idle time on the engine).

https://4wdlife.com/best-oil-for-powerstroke-6-0 "Long-term or frequent idling: according to this guide (Powerstroke Engine Oil Rquirements - Superdutypsd.com), frequent idling equates to 10 minutes per hour of regular driving. So, if your engine is idling more than 15% of your driving time, you should change the oil more frequently."

Most of the conditions above might be considered as 'severe duty' use from what I have found, and for that our Owners Manual recommends SAE 5W-40 API CK-4 oil. That oil spec is also recommended for bio-fuel blends, and here in MN fuel stations are required to dispense 5-20% Biodiesel. For these two reasons, my first oil change this Saturday will be going with SAE 5W-40 API CK-4 oil. I'm not sure what oil came in my truck from the factory--I may even have SAE 5W-40 API CK-4 oil right now since the truck was bought off the lot in MN and according to OEM specs my truck should be running SAE 5W-40 API CK-4 oil so for all I know I have that oil already and that is why my truck is tracking to 10K oil change interval whereas many of yours are not.

At any rate, I now have about 8,050 miles with ~23% oil life remaining (see below attached photo that I took a couple days ago). It will be interesting how my oil life tracks when I have the dealer do my oil change on Saturday with the Rotella T6 SAE 5W-40 API CK-4 oil that I bring along for them to use. I will keep the forum updated on how my oil life goes with the Rotella T6.

 

[mascrappo]

Just to be sure, the oil canister is 32mm?

 

[fharrison]

Just to be sure, the oil canister is 32mm?

1 1/4 or 32mm. Basically the same.

 

[Knifeman]

I have 4850 miles on the last oil change with 15% on the meter. Heading in Tuesday for a oil change. 12400 miles on the odometer. I’ll be changing every 5000 miles. Sticking with Ford oil for now.

 

[wreedsvt]

I did my first change at 1700 miles and today I was at 5419 miles. I went 3719 miles and was at 22% oil life.