Oil Change

[plus 3 golfer]

I changed at about 600 miles and oil was also murky green, though no metal flakes were visible.  4,500 miles later the Mobil 1 is dark brown on a white rag and there's been no discernible consumption.

Did anyone address this "murky green" with the dealer?  Maybe Ford used oil that was murky green depending on build date.  If mine was murky green, I'd have given the service department a call.

[wab]

Why? I've never done one but have reviewed 100's.  

 

I can see doing a few UOAs for fine tuning the OCI but only if one operates their car in extreme conditions or wants to extend the OCI.  UOA will tell you the condition of the oil and then one can decide whether to increase / decrease the OCI.  My guess is that if one uses Mobil 1 (don't know enough about Ford oil), the OCI can be extended beyond 10 k miles.  But it costs about $25 to do a UOA, so one might as well just change the oil at 10k and for go the UOAs to "fine tune" the OCI.  

 

Secondly, (I believe this is why most want to do UOAs), is the worry about wear rates.  If one gets a higher than "normal" wear rate what is one going to do?   People will say that well they can monitor the wear rates, change oil trying to reduce wear rates, and preemptively take action  -- what does that mean - tear the engine apart?  How do wear rates correlate with the life of engine?  Blackstone doesn't know. 

 

UOAs are very beneficial to equipment that runs virtually continuously / lots of miles as once one has a history, one can optimize OCI and save $ since an OCI likely involve gallons of oil (not quarts) and equipment overhaul can be done perhaps before a catastrophic failure occurs.  

 

From an expert on BITOG:

 

I would think JAZ and Hatchamn would like to have their factory installed oil back, so they could send it to the lab.

 

They, their dealers and Ford would probably be very interested in the results!

Edited April 16, 2013 by wab

[zhackwyatt]

Why? I've never done one but have reviewed 100's.  

 

I can see doing a few UOAs for fine tuning the OCI but only if one operates their car in extreme conditions or wants to extend the OCI.  UOA will tell you the condition of the oil and then one can decide whether to increase / decrease the OCI.  My guess is that if one uses Mobil 1 (don't know enough about Ford oil), the OCI can be extended beyond 10 k miles.  But it costs about $25 to do a UOA, so one might as well just change the oil at 10k and for go the UOAs to "fine tune" the OCI.  

 

Secondly, (I believe this is why most want to do UOAs), is the worry about wear rates.  If one gets a higher than "normal" wear rate what is one going to do?   People will say that well they can monitor the wear rates, change oil trying to reduce wear rates, and preemptively take action  -- what does that mean - tear the engine apart?  How do wear rates correlate with the life of engine?  Blackstone doesn't know. 

 

UOAs are very beneficial to equipment that runs virtually continuously / lots of miles as once one has a history, one can optimize OCI and save $ since an OCI likely involve gallons of oil (not quarts) and equipment overhaul can be done perhaps before a catastrophic failure occurs.  

 

From an expert on BITOG:

Just for learning purposes.

[wab]

I'm thinking about sending some of mine into Blackstone for analysis.  Anyone else ever do this?

 

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

 

I bought a 1 yr old F250 6.0 with 18K on it.

The oil looked fine on the dip stick, but when I got it home and changed the oil

(I ALWAYS DO THIS FOR EVERY USED CAR)

it didn't look so good, light brown almost like butterscotch.

 

Sent a sample to Blackstone, was surprised when the report came back normal.

 

ALL future changes (Mobil 1) looked like good clean used oil, didn't send anymore.

 

Traded a couple of yrs ago with 120K on it.

 

I have no idea if the original owner had changed it :confused:  and if so then what he used???

 

It WAS well worth the $ for my peace of mind :dogwalk: !

[plus 3 golfer]

....Sent a sample to Blackstone, was surprised when the report came back normal.

 

I have no idea if the original owner had changed it :confused:  and if so then what he used???

 

It WAS well worth the $ for my peace of mind :dogwalk: !

Hard to argue against "peace of mind." I believe that is the reason most do it. They read forums and the anecdotal facts of others make them paranoid and fearful that their oil is about to lessen their engine life from 350 k miles to 50 k miles. Black stone perpetuates this by saying stuff like XX is not normal and suggest shortening the OCI to 9 k from 10k and we'll check again in 9k miles. Well, they dangled the bait and likely set the hook.

[JAZ]

I never considered contacting either the dealer or Blackstone.  I thought the color was unusual but I'm no petroleum engineer.  Far as I'm concerned, whatever came from the factory is what Ford specified and I'm okay with that.  I just change oil early 'cause it's in my DNA. 

I am new to the 10,000 mile oil change intervals and the special oils required for that, so I'll be paying attention to miles driven.  Since I prefer DIY oil changes, I'll do my best to not schedule one during  the sub-freezing Michigan winters even if that means changing early.

Somewhat off-topic:  once worked years ago with a brilliant metallurgist with no automobile experience.  He bought new a small pickup and misunderstood the 3 year warranty and was dismayed when the engine seized up at around 25,000 miles.  He had no idea that routine maintenance was required.  By the way, Ford denied his warranty claim (he tried saying he had changed oil) since the factory-installed oil filter was still attached to the engine (factory filter differs from aftermarket ones).

[C-MAXER]

Well I got metal shavings out on my first "early" oil change.  I guess I should go add some metal shavings back to my engine oil to make sure I don't shoot myself in the foot.

 

Since you paraphrase my "shoot ones self in the foot" reply,  maybe you might think I was referring to the first oil change but I wasn't.  As I said in post #8, I like to do the first one at 1k.  

 

No, I was referring to shortening the intervals from factory recommendations and I should further clarify: under normal conditions.   Over 150,000 miles, the difference between 3k and 10k interval synthetic oil changes ($55 around here) is nearly $2,000.   50 vs 15 changes.   Multiply that by hundreds of thousands, nay, millions of automobiles and you can easily see not only the massive waste but the incredible money involved.  

[ScooterS]

I did mine a week ago when I hit 5K.  I'm not sure if I will wait for a full additional 10K or will do it sooner. Texas heat can be brutal.   I did a full synthetic change.

 

Regardless of your oil change, don't forget to rotate your tires at 5K and then with those 10K oil changes.

[BIG ROCCO]

Page 375 of the manual says change oil every 5,000 miles if driven in very hot climates like North Africa and Middle East.  I think Phoenix in the Summer (~110 degrees for a high most days) might be in the same category - that plus driving up long steep grades to/from the AZ mountains on weekends means I will be using full Syn oil like all my recent cars - not sure yet on the change interval, but might go a little less than 10K, unless the light goes on sooner.  For what it's worth, the oil life monitor on my 2012 Buick LaCrosse with E-Assist indicates an oil life of ~15,000 miles under those same conditions.  I'm not sure how sophisticated the Ford system is, but the OLM on GM cars is pretty advanced and counts down from 100%, so you always know where you're at, and how much life remains.

[Paul Murray]

I saw this on another Cmax forum. Don't forget, you are using an electric motor also, so the total mileage is with EV and gas. Subtract the EV mileage from the total and that would be the gas motors mileage to go by engine changes. Now I have to find the EV mileage. Of course time is a factor also and oil should be changed at least once a year.