Truker

Hello, everyone!! I know that this question has been posted before but i will like anyone to share their opinions with me. So I was under the impression that I could do my oil changes on my 2013 F150 V6 3.7 every 7500-10,000 miles according to the manual. My truck currently has 6,300 miles and the Oil monitor showed its life at 40%. I took my truck to the dealership to get a rear camera installed and they insisted that i have to do the oil changes every 5000 miles. I drive mostly at night for work and the usual during the day for groceries/errands etc. I am from Texas. Can i have my oil changes every 7500-10,000 miles without voiding my warranty and most importantly without any damaged to the engine. They say that put synthetic blend oil. Thanks any response will be really appreciate it.

KILOFINAL

I would follow what your owners manual says for change frequencies.

chef-j

If your owner's manual says 7500~10000, they can't void warranty if you follow up (i don't have V6, so noidea what says on your mnaual.).
If you want to push that far, use quality oil and you have to keep your eyes on oil level every 3k milies or less.


It is just me, i don't like pushing oil that far even with quality full syn motor oil.
I will stick around at 5k or less with regular oil or semi syn motor oil.

lathost

Hey Truker,


I am contemplating the same things right now myself. New 2013 F150 STX 5.0. I'm doing my first oil change at 3k miles. IOLM says 77 % oil life but I think the first couple oil changes should be early. I'll do my next one at 7.5k(4.5k miles from this one) and then follow recommended from there. I'm also going to stick with the synthetic blend to allow better break-in. I have been running the **** out of my truck so I don't want to take any chances. I installed a K&N CAI and a super-40 flowmaster muffler so I've been having a hard time driving it slow lol.

digitaltrucker

Oil and Filter changes are cheap, even on these trucks with more oil.

Having said that, I change mine every 5K and ignore the manual and my on dash life is always indicating about 40 percent of life or better.

As far as what the Dealer says: They are in business to make money. The dealer where I bought mine has a whole wall dedicated to the service intervals. At the bottom are additional items not found in the manual, bolded in red, for those same mileage intervals. Such as: 3rd party fuel additives, transmission flushes. power steering oil change and treatment and so on.

So no, look in the book and follow it because that is what Ford will use should a warranty issue arise. You dealer is in business to make money and your service person to make a commission.

shazam

Anything different from the manual is horsefeathers from a warranty standpoint, of course.

The oil life monitor is conservative. I know, because I tested it with my 3.7L at 5K and again at 8.3K when the monitor went off. Everyhing was still well within specs. Merely, my short-haul driving habits were beginning to cause the acid levels to creep up. The add packs on the oil need a certain amount of heat and I suppose, motion to fully activate. If You don't drive long distances, the acids will eventually outrun the add pack even if you have a lot of "powder dry" in the form of unused additives, so to speak.

I came to the conclusion that there are better things to do for my maintenance time and money than obsessively change the engine oil. So I bought an oil change for the diff the last time I was in instead.

With the enormous sump on the 5.0, I can't imagine how this could be an issue for anyone who was semi-conscientious about oil changes. The margin of error on that engine must just be huge. The Motorcraft oil and filters are top notch. No reason to do anything special.

For what it's worth, though, 5K is sort of the default oil change interval for the trucks. I think I counted 11 explicit or implied intervals when I read the manual carefully. 5K corresponds to the expected interval for Ford's pre-paid maintenance program for example. If your IOLM breaks, you are supposed to get it changed at 5K also.

ZBoater

You'll be fine if you follow the manual. I do it more often than the manual says. That's fine too. Less frequently tons the manual says, that I wouldn't recommend.