What are the Pros vs Cons of an oil change early?

[MyATV]

Sponsored

 

[M7 23]

It’s a judgment call you’ll need to make for yourself based on your use case and how long you intend to own the vehicle.
OEMs battle with each other or match the other trying to 1-up…in this case 10k PM’s lower total cost of ownership from a maintenance expense. Is the engine that much better? Maybe, or not. But the intervals went up with the use of synthetic oils, so we are pushing the limits of the oil, thus the increased interval.
For me, the Motorcraft blend is a sweet spot…it is OEM recommended, not as pricey as full synthetic, and I change every 5k (after 1st at 1k). My decision is based on my use case, and my intention of owning this vehicle for a Very long time.
As for filter, always OEM (Motorcraft in this case).
As for the post that changes their filter every 2500 miles and oil every 5000…I’d love to see a video of how that would work on my side mounted 2.3

 

[RoLyMa27]

It’s an old wive’s tale to change the oil at 1K or 2K miles and has been so for over 25 years. But, habits die hard in America based on the sour memories of auto quality of the 60’s - early 90’s.

Basically, there’s nothing bad with doing it. Yet, there’s nothing good in early oil changes either.

Modern auto engineering is at its peak and the efficiency of these engines should be without question, but many have debated this here in many threads.

Only thing I’ll say about oil is that your/my Bronco came with a synthetic blend; I’d recommend full synthetic and Motorcraft is very good oil, period. If doing your own, may as well go with Amsoil which is basically nectar from the Gods!

Imagine if you will, 3 different people leading ordinary lives driving the exact same vehicle over 10 years. Each person trades in their car with 250,000 miles on the odometer. They each get $2,500 trade-in. Person A is a member of an online automotive forum and is an automotive enthusiast. He changes his oil religiously every 3,000 miles @$50 for a total cost of $4,166. Person B loves his car and follows the manufacturers recommended oil change schedule of 10,000 miles @$50 for a total of $1,250. Person C only sees his vehicle as a way to get from point A to B and only changes his oil when he thinks about it for a total of 12 times @$50 for a total cost of $600.
Now, before you discount my little thought experiment this morning; I'll bet we all know a few person C's with cars with high miles. You scratch your head and ask yourself, how in the hell is that car still running down the road?
Now mind you, I'm in the 5,000 mile group. So Ray, we have to ask ourselves who are the idiots here?

 

[MadMan4BamaNATL]

Imagine if you will, 3 different people leading ordinary lives driving the exact same vehicle over 10 years. Each person trades in their car with 250,000 miles on the odometer. They each get $2,500 trade-in. Person A is a member of an online automotive forum and is an automotive enthusiast. He changes his oil religiously every 3,000 miles @$50 for a total cost of $4,166. Person B loves his car and follows the manufacturers recommended oil change schedule of 10,000 miles @$50 for a total of $1,250. Person C only sees his vehicle as a way to get from point A to B and only changes his oil when he thinks about it for a total of 12 times @$50 for a total cost of $600.
Now, before you discount my little thought experiment this morning; I'll bet we all know a few person C's with cars with high miles. You scratch your head and ask yourself, how in the hell is that car still running down the road?
Now mind you, I'm in the 5,000 mile group. So Ray, we have to ask ourselves who are the idiots here?

That my friend, is about the best way I’ve ever seen this put. That‘s a winning analogy if I’ve ever seen one.

I”m going to keep up with the schedule and use full synthetic, but the above is a true cautionary tale of actually doing the math, rather than trying far to hard to “look like” a “car guy” and getting all philosophical about engine care and maintenance.

By the time you burn all that money on extra oil changes, you could have purchased a rebuilt engine or have a decent down payment on the next obsession…. err, ride.

But hey, it’s only money right and you know that stuff does grow on trees they say…….

 

[AZ_Liberty]

I'm in the "your vehicle is equipped with a smart oil monitoring system" do what it says.

Getting my first oil change on Saturday. I have Ford Pass points might as well use them. I'm guessing it's going to be $80-100 or something stupid.

 

[Dorf2point0]

3-5 whether you're running full syn or syn blend. I know some will disagree but this is Ford's opinion, not my own. We're asking more of our lubricants now that these engines are turbo charged and direct injected. Oil lubes the turbo bearings as well as all of the other internal moving parts. Want to kill your timing chain tensioners and VCTs faster? Don't keep up on your maintenance. The filter cartridges on these can only remove so much "crap" so once that happens you're either bypassing or the stuff going through the filter won't be as clean. Since conventional oil pretty much phased out of use by Ford, the filter has become the limiting factor to extending intervals (my opinion).

Let me put this is perspective. The eco engines are high compression with turbo charger(s).. The cartridge ecos have very limited filtering capacity.. Rule 20 years ago with turbo engines was 3000 miles max.. Yes, engine designs have “improved” and so has synthetic oil (even Amsoil) but high compression and turbo charging blows combustion products by even these modern piston rings.. Those “products” contaminate your oil then get circulated through the engine.. I put bypass oil filters on every vehicle I own.. Get the <20 micron garbage that best “filters” can’t capture.. I have a 2.3L (bronco) and a 3.0L twin turbo (Explorer ST) with a old Frantz filter.. Both have 3000 miles.. ST gets run hard.. Bronco oil is black, ST oil is only now get dirty ( see photo).. Frantz take oil down to 1 Micro.. That’s how clean oil circulating in your engine SHOULD be.. Been doing these comparisons for ten years. All the different engines I applied bypass to are still running.. Amsoil makes a 2 micro filter, and the current Frantz “toliet paper” Elements are advertised at 2 microns .. Amsoil is a screw on canister, Frantz is a dirty change anyway you look at it.. Picture is 3500 miles on Eco 3.0L with Frantz..

 

[flip]

Let me put this is perspective. The eco engines are high compression with turbo charger(s).. The cartridge ecos have very limited filtering capacity.. Rule 20 years ago with turbo engines was 3000 miles max.. Yes, engine designs have “improved” and so has synthetic oil (even Amsoil) but high compression and turbo charging blows combustion products by even these modern piston rings.. Those “products” contaminate your oil then get circulated through the engine.. I put bypass oil filters on every vehicle I own.. Get the <20 micron garbage that best “filters” can’t capture.. I have a 2.3L (bronco) and a 3.0L twin turbo (Explorer ST) with a old Frantz filter.. Both have 3000 miles.. ST gets run hard.. Bronco oil is black, ST oil is only now get dirty ( see photo).. Frantz take oil down to 1 Micro.. That’s how clean oil circulating in your engine SHOULD be.. Been doing these comparisons for ten years. All the different engines I applied bypass to are still running.. Amsoil makes a 2 micro filter, and the current Frantz “toliet paper” Elements are advertised at 2 microns .. Amsoil is a screw on canister, Frantz is a dirty change anyway you look at it.. Picture is 3500 miles on Eco 3.0L with Frantz..

That's much better than I would've expected for 3500. I guess moral of the story is trying to stretch or go 7500 like Ford claims in their maintenance guide is great for cost of ownership stats but not optimal for everyone. I do a bunch of short tripping so it may be 6 months or more before I get 3000 so I try to do them in the 3000-4000 range. Me along with most of my techs feel doing them on the low side of the range is better long term than what little money you save by trying to push them out past 5000.

We currently have a '19 Escape (1.5L, 77,300mi) in the shop for a driveability concern and after replacing the PCM because oil was coming out of it (yes, I said that correctly) it still had an issue that we finally traced back to the tappet that drives the HP fuel pump off the cam was destroyed and had a hole worn in it. Customer stated they changed oil every 3K, evidence inside the engine says otherwise. At a minimum the cam and tappet are trashed, really needs an engine to guarantee any hope of long term reliability. If I had to guess, the oil was probably changed 5-7 times.

 

[SHANUT]

Is it worthwhile to get an oil change at the first 2k or wait till the 7k mark?

The only downside would be the cost of the oil change. I’ve driven my vehicles for a couple million miles and I’ve never had a mechanical failure or needed repair and I’ve always changed my oil early and often. My dealership does them for 55 bucks including everything so it’s almost free compared to the cost of engine issues in the future.

 

[Chaddy]

Anyone who says that the cars are made so much better now than they used to make me laugh. They are disposable now. Everything is plastic, made to make it past the manufactures warranty period. Lifetime fluids are a joke. They are the same fluids basically that they used to recommend 30k mile intervals and now they can go 150k. After the warranty period they don’t care, they don’t want it to last. I’ve been in the auto industry for 25 years. Anyone who works on cars knows this. Take care of your car and it’ll take care of you.

 

[Callelk]

I know these are not the engines of the 50's, 60's, 70's 80's or even 90's as they run hotter and cleaner. However, I've built too many high compression, supercharged engines and seen plenty of oil analysis to know that break in lube and other contaminants justify a 1,000 mile first oil change. I have 2 cars that I drive less than 3,000 miles a year on (ea) and do 2 oil changes per year. I will change the dif and "T" case fluids at 3,000, 9,000 and every 12,000 there after. My trans will see fluid changes every 25,000 miles.

I won't live long enough to see 250,000 miles but while I'm still around I don't expect to see failures due to lack of fluid maintenance.

 

[CarbonSteel]

Here are some data points from the UOA that I did on the first oil change in my Wildtrak. This was 1,000 miles--ALL highway and not hammering it. I drive very conservatively for the first 1K miles to allow for a proper break-in.

In 1,000 miles the viscosity had dropped from a 5W-30 to an xW-20. Fuel dilution was already at 2.5% under operating conditions that should have seen the LEAST amount of fuel dilution.

Imagine what the viscosity had been if I had done (as most do) and wait until the iOLM said to change the oil. Do you really want a high-output twin turbocharged engine running on xW-20 oil?

I say change fluids early and often in the first 10K miles of a vehicles life to get the wear metals out and limit viscosity issues.

 

[Callelk]

Here are some data points from the UOA that I did on the first oil change in my Wildtrak. This was 1,000 miles--ALL highway and not hammering it. I drive very conservatively for the first 1K miles to allow for a proper break-in.

In 1,000 miles the viscosity had dropped from a 5W-30 to an xW-20. Fuel dilution was already at 2.5% under operating conditions that should have seen the LEAST amount of fuel dilution.

Imagine what the viscosity had been if I had done (as most do) and wait until the iOLM said to change the oil. Do you really want a high-output twin turbocharged engine running on xW-20 oil?

I say change fluids early and often in the first 10K miles of a vehicles life to get the wear metals out and limit viscosity issues.

You will get some fuel dilution until the rings seat and with a turbo you always see heavier fuel dilution for the first few thousand miles than you would with a normally asperated engine.

 

[CarbonSteel]

You will get some fuel dilution until the rings seat and with a turbo you always see heavier fuel dilution for the first few thousand miles than you would with a normally asperated engine.

Agree to a point, but Ecoboost engines are Direct Injected so they are going to suffer from fuel dilution regardless and it will "always" be an issue. With that said, it also does not help the situation when a new owner waits 5K miles (or longer) to change the oil for the first time.

What would the viscosity have been in 5K miles and how much additional wear would have occurred as a result of running a viscosity that is too low? Oil is cheap...

 

[RedSoloCup]

Here are some data points from the UOA that I did on the first oil change in my Wildtrak. This was 1,000 miles--ALL highway and not hammering it. I drive very conservatively for the first 1K miles to allow for a proper break-in.

In 1,000 miles the viscosity had dropped from a 5W-30 to an xW-20. Fuel dilution was already at 2.5% under operating conditions that should have seen the LEAST amount of fuel dilution.

Imagine what the viscosity had been if I had done (as most do) and wait until the iOLM said to change the oil. Do you really want a high-output twin turbocharged engine running on xW-20 oil?

I say change fluids early and often in the first 10K miles of a vehicles life to get the wear metals out and limit viscosity issues.

thanks for that data. I changed mine at 1368 miles. I was waiting for my UPR plug to come in. But I’ll do an oil analysis on the next change at 5k. Put QS Ultimate Durability 5w-30 in. I used Supertech Full syn on my 2.7 F150 and the oil analysis on that was good at 5k but wouldn’t have pushed it past 6k. I’m hoping this oil is a tad better but if it’s good at 5k I’m fine with that. But even on my 2.7 with over 35k miles there was definitely a good amount of Fuel in the oil. So it’s not that it was breaking in like mentioned below your post when the data.

 

[Callelk]

Agree to a point, but Ecoboost engines are Direct Injected so they are going to suffer from fuel dilution regardless and it will "always" be an issue.

True that, pouring fuel into a cylinder is not the best for the oil covering the cylinder walls as opposed to an atomized air/fuel mixture entering the via the port.

I was actually trying to just generalize why changing oil is important early regardless of the engine type but as you point out, it is especially important in a GDI engine.

Sponsored