Define "severe driving conditions" please... and then define "normal driving conditions."

I'm not looking for a "Googled" reply; I'm after your definition/interpretation.

 

Good news - I have trouble counting by 3s anyway.

 

This is ridiculous, I'm not going to get into a lengthy debate over the merits of my post. If some of you want to take the "new" guidelines as gospel to save yourselves a few bucks on oil changes, be my guest. I for one, will continue to change my oil every 3000 miles. When were talking about an engine that's worth in the neighborhood of 5K+, a few extra $$ on oil changes throughout the year is money well spent in my opinion.

 

I'm with you. It never hurts to give your baby some extra clean oil in it's lifetime.

Besides, look at the 5.4l V8 for example... it puts out 300 hp at 365 ft/lbs. That is a lot of horsepower and that is a lot of gas being burnt at any given time. So the engine oil will get dirtier and more abused. Anyways that is what oil is for, it is meant for keeping the engine lubricated and holding the contaminated particals from hurting the engine. I would never go any more than 3k. I don't care what anyone else says.

 

I'll join the fray with my comments.

My last 2 vehicles I traded were a Ranger and a 2001 Supercrew with about 74,000 on the clock for each of them.

I drove both of them offroad, in the sand, dust and mud alot. I live in So Cal so there is a lot of stop/go traffic. My engine always looked like it crap because of this.

I changed my oil in 5-7K intervals with Mobil 1 full synthetic and a premium filter. No oil related problems whatsoever.

Both trucks showed a small weepage of oil around the valve covers. My brother is the used car prep mechanic at the dealership where I do business, for obvious reasons. He had to replace the valve cover gaskets on both trucks. Both times he commented on how extremly clean it was on the inside and the fact there was very little wear on those engines with that type of mileage.

He would tease me about my change intervals and the "pricey" oil and filters I used. Of course he had access to inexpensive oil and filters all the time and preached the 3K change interval. Now guess what he does....5-7K interval changes with Mobil 1. He has been a Ford mechanic for over 30 years and for him to switch would take some serious convincing. I never tried to convince him, he just switched because of the results he saw.

That's testimony enough for me because he's such a cheapskate.

 

I get lifetime free oil changes from my dealer so it's all good. They will cover every 5k for free for life. So 5k it is for me

 

There was no "lengthy debate" at risk. I couldn't care any less about the "merits" of your post, either.

It was a simple request that you seem to not want to address, for whatever reason you may have, or that you are incapable of addressing.

You made a statement and you were unable to back it up. Truly [admirably] fine debating skills. Kudos.

Whatever...

I'll leave it with this thought: You will NOT find one shred of credible evidence that would back your incongruous and tediously dull staement below -

 

Uh-Oh,
I smell the spellcheck police in the vicinity......

I think that whatever you believe the best course of maintenance, at least you are maintaining your hard earned investment.

It seems there are quite a few lawyer wannabes and naysayers about any subject you choose.

These are all subjective opinions in this thread. We all know what opinions are compared to and everyone has one.

 

I am testing oil right now and as of my last oil change everything was perfect. I am running M 1 EP (15k oil) and a wix filter, at 10k az dusty traffic miles my oil still had plenty of life left. My oil testing company said I easily could have taken it to the whole 15k (i changed oil and filter at 10k) This time same oil and filter I am going to go the whole 15k and see what happens. At best my oil will still show good or worst I will know 15k is too long. Either way I am selling my truck at 75K so I am not too worried about what little extra wear could happen by over using my oil a bit to see if 15k is possible. At work I have saved our company in the 20k dollar range a year just by doing 4$ oil tests over time and ended up extending our oil change interval out another 7k for local and 5k for our over the road trucks. Right now we are testing this interval out and looking to take our oil even further if possible and with 20+ test in it looks like we will jump another 2k interval here soon.

 

Somehow I knew you would say something like this. It's not that I can't support my statement, I have no desire to because I simply don't care whether you agree with what I said or not. Your attempting to make an issue out of a non issue and I refuse to give you the opportunity or satisfaction.

 

I'm not one known to start or continue worthless debates. But I have to side with Grubrunner, in that I don't think that you will find ANY real evidence that will support your claim that 95% of vehicles fall under the Severe Operating Conditions (as outlined by FoMoCo). Perhaps 95% of people in a certain GEOGRAPHIC AREA will fit into this situation (such as rural areas, where they drive in dusty conditions all the time; or places like NY City, where you literally spend more time idling than you do driving)... But 95% of people in general?? Sorry, but No Way!

 

Think about how silly what you said sounds. Last I heard, what 95% of the vehicles do would be NORMAL. What 5% of vehicles do would be SEVERE.

Normal is:

Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus - Cite This Source
Main Entry: medium
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: midway
Synonyms: average, common, commonplace, fair, fairish, intermediate, mean, medial, median, mediocre, middle, middling, moderate, neutral, normal, ordinary, par, passable, popular, run-of-the-mill*, so-so*, standard, tolerable

 

Textbook definitions are fine, but irrelevant in this context.

The OWNER's definition is what counts.

For me, that definition does not cover my short commute, gridlock, hill climbing, high-load useage, chebbie-pounding ( ), steeltown atmospheric contaminates, and plain peace-of-mind.

Add the fact that oils ain't what they used to be w.r.t basestocks & additive packages ( see the syth oil threads), and I'll do what is best for my situation.

 

OMG! Now there are 3 of you making an issue out of this!

To quote myself:
'Nuff said!

 

All my vehicles I've owned I ran them to 5,000 miles. And I've never had problems with motors. Changing oil more often is a waste of money and oil. I like to go as long as possible before changes. My 2 cents...