After just buying a new 03 extended cab with the 5.4 two months ago, I am perplexed by the fact that Ford service schedule is done in 5000 mile increments. I had to go on a trip and ended up changing the oil at 5000 mile, but this goes against everything that was taught to me by my father, autoshop teacher, and all the manufacturer hoopla through the years. I am reluctant to follow the recommened oil change schedule that ford says to follow. What are people thought on that???????? Does anybody follow this schedule or do people do it 3000 miles????

 

Using proper oils its perfectly fine to change oil at 5000 mile intervals.

But you can still do oil changes at 3k miles if you want

I have a '97 and I use dino oil, so I do 3000 miles.

Quite a few people here run synthetic oils and change at 5000 miles.

 

The 3000 mile oil change is "old school". This number came out when all vehicles were carburated and got a lot of raw fuel into the engine oil.

 

Yeah but sometimes the oil looks like crap at 3,000 miles. Regardless of schedules, you can usually tell if the car needs it's oil changed. Recommend you look at your oil and see if it smells burnt and how dirty it is. Your driving habits and environment may dictate that you change your oil at 3,000 miles vice the recommended 5,000. I drive my Expedition on lots of road trips in high temps and I flog my Lightning pretty hard too. They both get an oil change every 3,000.
Common sense prevails everytime.

 

I have not gone to synthetic yet. I wanted the engine broke in with regular oil. I think that i will convert after the next oil change. At my last oil change, the oil was very clean still. I will have to check it out as I go and see how it looks at 3000.

The benefits of synthetic are great. I have a rice rocket motorcycle that used synthetic, but I change that oil at 3000 miles. It gets rode alot harder than my truck is driven.