bubbabud

If you were down to 21% at 3k miles you must be working the truck pretty hard or the moniter wasnt reset to 100% last oil change. Bubbabud.

10 F150 STX MOD

Well it was 3k miles.of city driving, long idles, and I did get on it a lil bit cuz I got a programmer. But now I have almost 2,000 miles and Im still in the 80s. But what's a good.percent to change the oil?

Phyer Phyter

A couple of points here...
As everyone knows - not all oils are created equally. A little tid bit here... For an oil to claim to be semi-synthetic all it needs is ONE DROP of something synthetic to qualify and legally make that claim. There are brands on the market that are just this. There are some that are a full 50% semi-synthetic and anything in between. I am a territory manager for a company that sells/distributes a globally made and recognized oil - however I am not here to shill for that company. Just some straight up info.

I did some research on the oil required for my new F150 with 5.0L engine. Ford has a new spec for the 5W/20 oil. Off the top of my head it has "930" in the ford spec number. Anyway in my research I found that to meet this spec the oils that I found that did meet it are at a minimum semi-synthetic. The Ford dealers that I visited showed me the oil that they were using and according to the label did not meet that spec- however new inventory that had the same part number showed to meet the new required spec.
I suspect this is due to the dual over head cam shafts. Back when I pulled wrenches for a living I had on an almost daily basis (when the temp hit -10*F) Dodge/Eagle products come in with a no start condition. The camshaft had siezed in the head due to lack of lubrication.

Now as far as longer oil change intervals... I was surprised to see that my new Ford (first truck since my '77 Dodge Warlock) takes almost 8 litres of oil. In my day 5 liters was the norm. (My Grand Prix takes only 3.8Liters of oil) Also now that semi to full synthetic is the spec plus larger sump size and an added engine oil cooler I suspect is how they are going to the longer change intervals. Anyone would be safe to follow their truck oil life monitor and replace as recommended or your service schedule as shown in your owners manual. Also Ford has to be able to show that the failure was a direct result of the oil - they will never do it. However they can show lack of maintenance to deny a warranty claim - but they have to show again that that the failure is a result of the lack of maintenance. I once did a warranty engine on an Astro van with 90,000 kms on it. It still had the oem factory filter on. Customer claimed he thought his new vehicle was maintenance free.

Anyway I find it interesting how people will spend 30-40-50-60K for a new vehicle and then try to cheap out on the oil to save 50-100$ Oh well...

AS a side note here I have for the last 10 yrs gone 10,000 kms between oil changes and never had a problem.

stormsearch

If you have a '10 given by your id your oil life monitor is based on miles or time, nothing else. It doesn't check how long you idle, how fast, what engine temp. Mileage or time, that is it. I believe the '10 MY starts at 7500 miles or 6 months, but have a '09 so don't know for sure.

The smarter oil monitors were not released until the '11MY trucks (which I believe have a up to a 10K mile service interval).

For the Canadian dude, I believe Ford recommends to follow the severe duty service in that region, hence the lower oil change interval times. Very likely due to lower operating temeperature conditions which would be 5K miles (or close to 8K km's).

10 F150 STX MOD

Well the time thing would make sense. It was about 4 months when I changed it and it said it was at 21%

shanec

When you change your oil, do you have to tell the computer about it somehow? Or is that message center actually monitoring a sensor that measures oil quality somehow? I don't know how that works.

bubbabud

The oil moniter on2011 trucks use a program that moniters time, distance,temps.fuel used and your driving habits trip length and other things to calculate expected oil life and displys it in % remaining it does not test or check the oil in any way if you are uncomfertable with the extended intervle you can reset it to a lower % [60 70 80 etc]and it will warn you sooner but it must be reset at each oil change Bubbabud 2011 XLT SC ecoboost