Tarheel

When Synthetics first came out there was a big difference between them and Dino oil. The motors were very hard on oils, air filtration was awful and a 3000 mile change out was needed to get 100,000 miles out of an engine before needing a rebuild. These days there are very few Dino oils not up to the same specs as the synthetics and the current internal combustion motors are much, much easier on the oil than previous engines. If you research it you will find that Dino/Syn blends give you the best of both worlds. Dino oil has properties that are more beneficial than synthetics (film thickness at operating viscosity, polar attraction to ferrous metals, etc) and syns have better performance at high temperature. As I said earlier in this thread, it's the additive pack the oil company uses which really makes a difference in the performance/longevity of the oils. Spend $25 on an oil analysis from Blackstone Labs at the point you think the oil should be changed. The results will give you a measure of how much longer you have before you need to change it and how accurate the oil change monitor is.

If the doors are locked, the first kick unlocks. The second kick activates the lift. As my Grandpa said: "You just gotta old your mouth right sometimes".

This explains why it takes more than one kick sometimes and one kick other times.

A very good way to know which oil and what frequency to change the oil is to have a used oil analysis performed at the point you change the oil. The analysis will tell you some very important details about the state of the oil and the state of your engine wear. http://www.blackstone-labs.com/standard-analysis.php is a popular service used by consumers and fleet owners. Their standard analysis costs $25 and one test will save you many times that over the life of the engine by allowing you to extend oil change frequency. You can also go to: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=3&page=1 (an excellent source of information related to oil and other maintenance issues) and see a database of hundreds of virgin and used oil analyses on many different autos and types of oil. Be sure to contribute your data there if you have an analysis performed. Dig a little and you will be surprised at how well Motorcraft synthetic blend performs next to full synthetics. It's not the type of oil as much as it is the type and amount of additives included in the oil. Our little internal combustion engines are very easy on oil. If it makes you feel better, by all means do it as often as you think it needs to be done. Changing earlier than 7500 miles is wasteful.

Hi folks! We recently bought a C-Max SEL and so far so good except for lower than expected average MPG (~37) and one episode of a weird display which cleared up after a re-start. Over the last 2 weeks we drove it from Charlotte to New Orleans, Houston and returned to NC...about 2200 miles round trip. We'll be scouring the posts here and hopefully will be contributors. Mark and Mary Ann