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Oil Change Interval and Oil Type Questions

4K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Daniel Henry 
#1 ·
I bought my Mustang new in April 2014, and I currently have 6800 miles on it (I drive a "company car" as my daily driver). My Mustang had it's first oil change at 3000 miles, and then again at 5000 miles. It's last oil change was back sometime in 2014. I can't remember exactly when. It was some time back though. I was daily driving the car for the first 4000 miles or so.


Both oil changes were with Motorcraft synthetic blend and Motorcraft filter. I'm also running the FRPP TracKey with "Track Idle" (ghost cam) and a JLT oil separator.


So, Ford recommends oil changes every 5000 miles. I'm not seeing a lot of mileage on my car, and I'm wondering if I should be considering oil change intervals based on time instead of miles. Also, should I be concerned about a synthetic blend oil breaking down over time as opposed to a full synthetic?


Basically, I'm not up on oil. I have no clue about it but want to make sure I'm protecting my motor properly for the amount of use it gets.


Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
I too have let mine go longer time intervals on oil changes, since I too have a company car. I have not been concerned too much regarding the longer time, and don't forget our cars have an oil monitor that will tell you when it needs changed. My monitor went on telling me I needed an oil change, I would have to double check, but almost positive it was not at the 5000 mile mark. I have had my car just over 3 years, and not at 12k miles yet.
 
#4 ·
That's what I would do as well.
 
#6 ·
IMHO it doesn't really matter. You are throwing away oil that is near new, but in this case, it is cheap insurance.

In many collectible cars the crankcase is open to the atmosphere. Rarely running a car motor leads to many cool downs and that attracts moisture. Modern cars are not vented in any way save intake and exhaust, to the atmosphere and that lessens the moisture problem.

If and when you run your stored late model car, make sure it get's to operating temperature for at least an hour. The heat will evaporate any moisture and the MOISTURE is the only real source of oil contamination one needs to worry about on a properly tuned modern motor.

All my opinion of course...
 
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#7 ·
If you read your owner's manual, oil change intervals are to go by the OLM or do not exceed one year or 10,000 miles. There is nothing in there about doing 5,000 mile changes. That might be a dealer's suggested interval but not Ford's. You can do one year oil changes with the blend as long as you don't go over 10,000 miles.

I did my first oil change on my 14 when the car was a year old and had 4,600 miles on it. It had sat on the lot for 6 months before I bought it new. I change the oil the second time a year after I had last changed it and that change had 6,600 miles on it. I also use Motorcraft blend and Motorcraft filters.

I will say that on the last time I changed it, my OLM was at 2% and the "change oil soon" message came on so the OLM knew it had been almost a year since I had reset it.

Wayne
 
#9 ·
I will also say that on the 6,600 mile oil run, the oil on the dipstick still looked almost like new and shining a light down into the oil fill hole, everything looked perfectly clean. If you go to the bobistheoilguy.com website and search for oil analysis results for the Motorcraft blend and the 5.0, you will see that this oil can do 10,000 miles pretty easy. Remember that the oil sump capacity is 8 quarts so you have a lot of oil there which helps get you the longer oil change intervals.

Wayne
 
#10 ·
I think for peace of mind, I may just make sure I get one oil change a year if I'm not putting a lot of miles on the car. If I wait until 10000 miles comes around, I can see not needing an oil change until towards the end of 2016! It's not that I don't like driving the car or that I'm trying to save it, but I only drive the car on weekends, and it's just not seeing a lot of mileage.

Thanks for the info and good opinions guys!
 
#11 ·
I'm pretty sure the oil life monitor will remind you based on passage of time and/or miles and operating conditions, whichever comes first.

So bottom line is: use a good synthetic or blend, and follow the monitor, and you should be fine.
 
#12 ·
Like a lot of owners here my Mustang is my "fun" car and I only put ~3k miles on it per year. I changed it yearly, usually in late November before putting it away. My recipe is a motorcraft FL820s filter (larger than 500s) and an M1 extended performance 5w-20 oil. Both can be had at walmart. I buy good extended life oil as an insurance policy.
 
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#13 ·
The recommendation in the manual is 10000 miles or 1 year. The Dealer will put somewhere between 3000 and 5000 on your suggested change because they want to squeeze your for another 80+ bucks as soon as possible. Every independent oil change shop will still put 3k miles or 3 months on any car that gets changed even though almost all new cars are 6k+ miles between changes.

As long as you reset your oil life meter whenever you change it, it will let you know when its time to change the oil based on how much time or miles have passed.

I drove mine 4k miles last year, and about a week before the 1 year mark, my car started telling me to change the oil.

Now after saying all that, depending on how hard you drive your car i'd start thinking about changing it once you get in the 7500+ mile mark.
 
#14 ·
Change oil in every 5k miles

I don't prefer time based oil change intervals. I personally advise you to get oil change once in every 5k miles. However many dealers will tell you to do this on every 3k miles. This is not required especially for new vehicles. But you should assure the quality and quantity of the oil that they use. According to me I am getting oil changes for my car in every 5000 miles from Service plus car care centre (Oil, Lube and Filter Services Etobicoke | Service Plus Car Care Centre ). They are offering me the option to choose oil from a variety of brands.
 
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