SeeManRun

Does anyone really buy into the idea that you should change your oil at 8000 km (or whatever interval you are comfortable with) OR 1 year? If you drive your truck but don't put a ton of miles on it, it seems silly to me to change the oil after a year if you only have 4000 km on it, especially an expensive synthetic.

If truck is in storage and fluid never gets exercised that is different and it should be changed, but with regular use it seems to me it should be fine to go longer than a year.

Looking for feedback on this.
Thanks

Craddosk

The 8000km thing is for Canadian trucks only.....my oil life monitor usually shows around 50% at that time.

Unfortunately, I do it because I don't want to risk having warranty issues with the drivetrain should something happen. I would rather run longer, but the preventative maintenance doesn't hurt anything but the pocketbook. I think it's part of Ford Canada's way to gain extra money for potentially worse weather conditions we get (except BC's lower mainland, which is always warm).

stormsearch

Even while the vehicle is sitting it is prone to condensation. The '09 trucks are at 6 month time limit and have it hit twice. For around $30 and 30 minutes of my time, it was just a no brainer. Crad brings up a good point though, for nothing else, it will meet your service/warranty requirements.

Platinum_Sean

My Platinum reminds me of an impending oil-change. 5% till required, 4 %, ... I have logged this in excel, it is measured on 180 days, period, regardless of mileage.

I have another car, that I drive little, and store in the winter. I have gone 14 months between oil changes (5,000 kms/ 3,000 miles), that is how little I drive it. I have not had a problem with condensation, or any oil related injury. When I changed it last, the put some oil in a mason jar and let it sit a couple weeks to see if there was any water in it. none.

Like Storm said, learn to do your own changes, for the cost of 7L of oil and a Fram filter, git-er done, jsut do it, livestrong, ... <insert cliche here>

SeeManRun

The cost of me doing it is only slightly more than having the dealer do it. They seem to get synthetic a bit cheaper than I can. But last time they didn't screw up the guard properly, and it was hanging down from my truck until I took it back to them. Very unimpressed.

EcoFX4d

I'm not a believer of 10,000mile oil change intervals, yet... Time and oil analysis will tell.

BobbyC

iTrader: (1)

I've been doing 8-10k mile OCI since 2000 on my M3, then my 4runner and now will be doing the same for my F150. 3k oil changes were back in the day when they only had dino oil. I did the Blackstone analysis with my M3 and that's what convinced me.

Putting oil in a jar is not the same as sitting in your oil pan/engine. The possibilities are there but if you run the engine for 10 mins, the condensation will evaporate but it could cause surface rust on the inside metals. Basically comes down to how paranoid you want to be.


**edit**
My M3 took 8qts of oil, 4runner took 7qts. The blackstone results showed I could've gone to 15k with the oil in my M3 but that was too much. I did change the filter @ 5k miles but ran the 4runner 10k miles before changing the oil and filter because the filter is like on the 5.4, underneath and not in a canister on top of the motor.