Was this a FORD ESP (service plan) or a third party one?

 

Ford ESP....but it was a dealer incentive on the 'free tires for life'. They have all sorts of gimmicks like this. Sometimes it is free fuel for a year, sometimes a trip to Hawaii, or a cruise.
I know they figure MOST people won't ever take advantage of this offer, as most people don't keep their vehicles as long as I do.

 

what the heck are you guys talking about? these engines are run on a line and oil changed before they are dropped in the chassis.


the service manual specifically says to change the oil and rotate the tires at 7500 mile service intervals or every six months unless driving under harsh conditions.

why are you guys wasting your money changing oil at 1500 and 3000 miles?

 

Because they have more money than brains maybe?

 

Your proof on the engines being "broken in several hundred miles" please.
These are high-volume production engines, built on site and not put on a dyno or anything like this prior to installation, to the best of my knowledge anyway.

 

Why does the owner's manual recommend to try not driving continuously at the same speed for the first 1,000 miles and to vary your speed frequently to give the moving parts a chance to break in?

Why does the owners manual recommend not towing in the first 1,000 miles?

Why do they recommend not adding any oil additives that will prevent piston ring seating if the engines are already broken in as you say?

 

Engines are dynoed when the truck goes into the "rolls". Anybody who works at an assembly plant knows what I mean. This is what they do: guy jumps into the truck, starts truck, drives into the rolls, connects OBD II to tester, floors it till about 5500 rpm's, if passes then drives it to the inspection/water ingestion line. That is right, the first 30 seconds of a truck's life is already at over 5000 rpm's.

Engines are hot tested at the engine assembly plant before being shipped to vehicle assembly plant.

Regarding oil changes, how many people know of an engine failure due to the oil not being changed per maintenance schedule? Ford is currently in the process of fleet testng at 20K mile oil intervals. Knowing all this, I changed mine at 1500, then at 5K and every 5 at that. Mainly because it works out roughly 4 changes per year and is easier for me to remember.

 

changing oil at 3k is like buying new tires when the old ones only have 15k miles on them. you can do it to be extra safe but it is not money well spent.

 

I was told flat out by the service manager to only use the ford oil filter. He said if I get the oil changed just pic up our oil filter because it helps with oil preassure and it keeps levels where they should be. I did like what he said and then stumbled upon this. Don't mean to spook you but.

 

Just got an e-mail from my co-worker who sets up engine testing procedures:

" Testing varies from plant to plant, line to line. For example, the Ford Triton engine is hot-tested at the Essex plant for about 4 minutes while at the Winsor plant no hot-testing is done. The Cleveland Engine Plant #1 does not hot-test any more because of improved inspection and quality control measures. The Ford Dagenham plant does do hot-testing. The Chevy LS7 engine in the Corvette is hot-tested for 20 minutes. However, much hot-testing is being eliminated by other types of testing like ultrasonics, which keeps the number of hot-test failures (which are expensive) down."