And another 9 year old thread gets resurrected.................

 

I go 5K or six month intervals what ever first comes. During Plowing season I go sooner with lots of idle time. Always a quality Synthetic!

 

I've been averaging 2500 miles for my truck's oil changes intervals.
Also, I've been using Ford's recommended filter and synthetic oil.

 

With 7 3/4 quarts of oil, a 5K oil change interval is not as bad as it used to be. That being said years of 3K changes took a while to get used to extending it out. Full synthetics and better quality oils help. An earlier poster remarked about normal driving. There is no such thing as "Normal" either. There is too much traffic, side of the road idle time while on phone, short tripping, etc. that makes it "Severe."
5K makes it easy to remember the rotations at the same time.

 

I have a Subaru with somewhere around 170k on the OD that received regular 10k mile oil changes since I purchased it at ~30k ish. Always done by me, always full synthetic either Mobil 1 or redline. This car was driven hard very often, but it's just a naturally aspirated 2.5ltr so it's FAR FAR from being a race car.
Next I bought a Toyota brand new with a puny little 1.8ltr engine. First oil change at 5k, second at 10k, and then every 10k after that for the first 150k or so. Again always full synthetic, usually Mobil 1. It's got well over 200k miles now, my wife is driving it and it gets standard crappy quick oil changes every 5k.
There is nothing wrong with going extended oil changes depending on what you are comfortable with. I heard a story from an ASE tech I believe. Redline first claimed 100k mile oil changes on their oil so long as you still changed your FILTER at normally recommended intervals. Something happened (lawsuit?) so they revised their number to 50k, regular oil filter changes still necessary. I think this is when the big 3 sued them and redline revised their number down to 25k. Even Mobil 1 currently is saying their FULL synthetic can go 15k miles between oil changes. Of course your oil filter will likely be chocked full at that point so I settled on 10k and I've had 0 problems so far. My truck (2006 f150 5.4) has been getting regular 5k mile oil changes only because of all the horror stories I've read about how finicky these engines are. Of course right now it's a giant paper weight because the ECM went kapoot and I'm waiting on a new one.

 

I've been doing 5K oil changes with MC filters and syn blend oil on my modular Fords a long time now, I will go as far as 5K on my others, but time sometimes catches up and I just change it early miles wise.

 

I change my oil every 3k with motorcraft 5w20 and an MC FL400S filter. I know I can go longer, but I rotate my tires every 6k and it just works out doing them every other change. Also giving the bjs, tierods, end links, etc a pump of grease every oil change.

Sure I can go to 5k, but I do it myself and have done it this way since I bought the truck new. It's not necessary, more of a habit. I can get everything at Walmart for under $25.

My next truck will stick to whatever the manual says.

 

Your next truck will probably have an oil life monitor. The manuals no longer have specific intervals.

 

The oil life monitor on my 13 F150 does not consider how the truck is driven IMO... It's calibrated for 10k mile changes no matter how you drive it.. At least from what I've seen in the last 30,000 miles of owning this vehicle from when it only had 54 miles on it when I signed the papers on it..

When I set it for 100% after an oil change it goes down 10% for every 1000 miles driven, regardless of it being all hwy miles for over a 2000 mile, all hwy road trip, or stop and go traffic averaging only 20 mph or towing a #5000 TT over passes and in the heat of summer in the NW...

Since I've got the Ecoboost, I am on a 5k mile oil change routine just because of the fuel dilution issue with the DI part of it and that just seems right for me because of the time it takes me to get to 5k miles (about 4-5 months with no road trips) and the fact that my oil level does increase during this time... More in the winter than the summer, but it always INCREASES between changes..

I am using Pennzoil Platinum oil and a MC filter so will just wait and see..

Mitch

 

Put me down on the idiot list. I still change mine every 3000/3 months. I don't drive as much as I use to so it's usually 3 months. For all the more oil costs and as easy as it is to do I'd rather do it "too often" than not often enough.

 

My previous truck (08 GMC Canyon 4x4) had one and I never used it. I probably wouldn't on my next truck either, to be honest.

 

Old thread or not, it's still useful to hear what others do.
02 4.6L at 248000 miles and no signs of giving up.
The idle oil pressure is 25, running normal road speeds is 50 and will go upwards of 75 psi cold. I have had a gauge on this motor for about 180000 miles.
The truck has towed over 12,000 lbs. gross for several summers.
The oil has been changed an average of 5500 miles and has had additions now and then between changes.
820S Filter each time and 5w20 Mc Oil 99% of the time with Quaker State DEFY with added Zinc at times and no additives..
At this point I have either had a lot of luck and/or entitled to an opinion based on this performance and time interval.
A shorter change interval is like washing and waxing once a week just to see a clean shinny truck that does no good otherwise but satisfaction to the owner, for the effort.
On the European car oil change interval, do some investigation and you might find the liberal Europeans countries tell their people how often they may change oil and it's not at 3K, 5K or much less than 10k.
The mfgers have no choice but to spec it in the manuals that way.
Otherwise I don't care how often anyone changes oil.
I've proven it pays at 5 to 7k and do not need full Synthetic.
I can tell however, DO NOT use heavier oil than speced. There are reasons why.
Good luck.

 

I tow trailers & plow snow with my truck. That is why I bought it so I follow the severe schedule myself. I want 200K miles minimum out of this 2500 HD. The cost of pickup trucks is getting crazy expensive, even for a work truck equipped Tradesman like mine . Which is comparable to Fords XL trucks.

 

That is what happens in a good car forum. Someone has to do it.

 

Update.
See my post #42.
Now at 287000 +.
Nothing has changed but, shocks, tires, brake pads and mileage.