VIDEO: The Right Oil and Change Interval for 2.0 EcoBoost

[MaverickTopGun]

6 months or 7,500 mile oil changes on the Ecoboost Mavs probably works best, which is actually about what GM has gone to on all their many DI-turbo engines.

Or, another method that is sound, is to change oil when the Oil Life Monitor gets to 25% (not down to zero). I like this method best since it uses the OLM:

Oil Life Monitors (OLM) use an algorithm that keeps track of how severe the engine is being used, automatically doing that for you.
Except we'll be conservative and change at 25%, not at zero%.

I have the Hybrid, but if I had the Ecoboost, I'd be using oil that has German engine ratings (VW, Porsche, BMW, or Mercedes) in the 5w-30 or 0w-30 weights, since they handle DI-Turbo soot and fuel dilution better than the lower-tier, lesser-quality ILSAC oils do.

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[Skyline]

My Maverick's first oil change was at close to 1 K miles. I drive 3 - 4K miles per year and change the oil once a year with Mobile 1 Annual Protection. It is really not that much more cost than the Mobile 1 synthetic oil, that would also last for a year for me. If I hit 5K miles in less than a year, I'll just do an oil change earlier. Oil is cheap and can't go wrong with changing it frequently. Maybe not at every seven miles, right @Montana?

 

[Mabcim]

What I don’t understand, with evidence that sooner oil changes are helpful, is why the manual (and computer) has the range it has?
Ford doesn’t lose anything if they put in a shorter range. They don’t give out free oil changes during the warranty period, so it would not cost them money to use a shorter range.
And I don’t see people buying a vehicle based on oil change interval, so no negative they’re either.
They would actually make money because people would visit QuickLane more often.

So for me, it is hard to know if the videos of the bad motors are more of a rare event or not. But even if they are ‘rare’, you would not know if it would happen to you. So just like paying for insurance, do it more often to be safe.

Of course, I grew up with the 6months/6000mile rule, so I‘m just old school and do not wait to long.

With all that said, I am also a person that will no longer keep my vehicle past the 5/60 powertrain warranty; usually trade somewhere between 3/36 and 5/60. Too much can go wrong, not dealing with extended warranties, and just want a new car. This means, I just don’t worry about all of this. I take it in when it fits my schedule, in the 6 to 8 month range; WELL before hitting 0%, don’t recall it being below 30% (unless waiting for the next new one to come in and not going to pay of an oil change on car going away).

 

[pa-outdoorsman]

What I don’t understand, with evidence that sooner oil changes are helpful, is why the manual (and computer) has the range it has?
Ford doesn’t lose anything if they put in a shorter range. They don’t give out free oil changes during the warranty period, so it would not cost them money to use a shorter range.
And I don’t see people buying a vehicle based on oil change interval, so no negative they’re either.
They would actually make money because people would visit QuickLane more often.

So for me, it is hard to know if the videos of the bad motors are more of a rare event or not. But even if they are ‘rare’, you would not know if it would happen to you. So just like paying for insurance, do it more often to be safe.

Of course, I grew up with the 6months/6000mile rule, so I‘m just old school and do not wait to long.

With all that said, I am also a person that will no longer keep my vehicle past the 5/60 powertrain warranty; usually trade somewhere between 3/36 and 5/60. Too much can go wrong, not dealing with extended warranties, and just want a new car. This means, I just don’t worry about all of this. I take it in when it fits my schedule, in the 6 to 8 month range; WELL before hitting 0%, don’t recall it being below 30% (unless waiting for the next new one to come in and not going to pay of an oil change on car going away).

Honestly if you're trading every 3-4 years it'll never impact you. But I'm sure those who own your prior vehicles appreciate your diligence!

 

[RedRider]

Fuel dilution around 2% sounds like you're never getting the engine up to temperature and burning off the fuel load. I'd bet that you do lots of extremely short trips that are hard on any gasoline engine. Either that or you have a pretty bad misfire. The other interesting numbers are maybe showing that Castrol Edge is not the best oil, and its breaking down more than it should.

 

[TheSEARCH]

What I don’t understand, with evidence that sooner oil changes are helpful, is why the manual (and computer) has the range it has?
Ford doesn’t lose anything if they put in a shorter range. They don’t give out free oil changes during the warranty period, so it would not cost them money to use a shorter range.
And I don’t see people buying a vehicle based on oil change interval, so no negative they’re either.
They would actually make money because people would visit QuickLane more often.

So for me, it is hard to know if the videos of the bad motors are more of a rare event or not. But even if they are ‘rare’, you would not know if it would happen to you. So just like paying for insurance, do it more often to be safe.

Of course, I grew up with the 6months/6000mile rule, so I‘m just old school and do not wait to long.

With all that said, I am also a person that will no longer keep my vehicle past the 5/60 powertrain warranty; usually trade somewhere between 3/36 and 5/60. Too much can go wrong, not dealing with extended warranties, and just want a new car. This means, I just don’t worry about all of this. I take it in when it fits my schedule, in the 6 to 8 month range; WELL before hitting 0%, don’t recall it being below 30% (unless waiting for the next new one to come in and not going to pay of an oil change on car going away).

Couple of reasons. Ford gets to say maintenance cost is this low when you buy a ford. Two they don't care after 3 /36K warranty. Three Ford dealers like it when you come it with a blown turbo as you will get if that video the OP linked to which showed the little filter on turbo gets clogged with 7k oil changes,.

Oil gets dirty from blow by. The latest greatest oils can ONLY hold so much dirt in suspension. The fact that newer engines do have tighter clearance only makes it worse not better.

As far as fuel dilution the direct injection motors have more of this according to a video that was posted in another thread he said that the fuel doesn't have time to dilute fully and gets parts inside chamber overly rich which don't burn fully causing suit but maybe fuel in the oil? . Sounds plausible.

But In have seen many engines suffer from long oil changes. Granted it was back in the late 80's through 2000. Seen many small passageways clogged.

 

[RRaynor2]

I see a lot of people saying "Ford doesn't care after 3yr/36k". I don't entirely agree with that. Brand perception is big part of vehicle design decisions. If every Ford vehicle had major mechanical issues after 4 years or around 40k miles, people would stop buying them. That being said, I'm sure they weighed reliability with maintenance cost/convenience to be on par with competitors.

For example, if the MM on your truck said to change your oil every 1k miles, you'd be fairly annoyed after a year or two even if it increased reliability over the long run. For the average person, a vehicle lasting 80k-100k without major issues is probably the sweet spot for them. I would imagine an interval of 7500-10k would get you there.

Some of us shoot for 150k+ on our vehicles, but I would venture a guess that we are in the minority.
I'm going for 5k intervals because I want to own it for a long time, and I happen to enjoy doing maintenace on my vehicles.

 

[shadowthrone]

Timely oil changes is an easy way to have 100k+ trouble-free miles. I can change my oil for about $35-40 running a pure synthetic top end oil. These new oils are good for 7500-15000 miles, and you can get a matching filter, but that will really "wear out" the oil. On a turbo, oil is even more important, so I am changing my oil every 3-5k miles - it's cheap enough and easy enough to do, and I get the piece of mind that my oil hasn't oxidized and my filter isn't full of crap. Is it overkill? Yeah. But I would rather spend on preventative maintenance and go the distance.

 

[TheSEARCH]

Well if you look at video OP linked to at 63K miles on engine with turbo and the little filter was clogged that feeds oil to turbo. Then you see the turbo was destroyed. 7K oil changes. Seen stuff just like that when I worked at chevy dealer. While oil is better it can only hold so much dirt in it. oil isn't magic. I think a new turbo runs about 2K to 3k installed. .

 

[Deleted member 14823]

I'm kind of disappointed in this community in that nobody thought of combining an oil change interval debate and an octane rating debate into one thread.

 

[billbillw]

What I don’t understand, with evidence that sooner oil changes are helpful, is why the manual (and computer) has the range it has?
Ford doesn’t lose anything if they put in a shorter range. They don’t give out free oil changes during the warranty period, so it would not cost them money to use a shorter range.
And I don’t see people buying a vehicle based on oil change interval, so no negative they’re either.
They would actually make money because people would visit QuickLane more often.

So for me, it is hard to know if the videos of the bad motors are more of a rare event or not. But even if they are ‘rare’, you would not know if it would happen to you. So just like paying for insurance, do it more often to be safe.

Of course, I grew up with the 6months/6000mile rule, so I‘m just old school and do not wait to long.

With all that said, I am also a person that will no longer keep my vehicle past the 5/60 powertrain warranty; usually trade somewhere between 3/36 and 5/60. Too much can go wrong, not dealing with extended warranties, and just want a new car. This means, I just don’t worry about all of this. I take it in when it fits my schedule, in the 6 to 8 month range; WELL before hitting 0%, don’t recall it being below 30% (unless waiting for the next new one to come in and not going to pay of an oil change on car going away).

They do all this because organizations like Consumer Reports and JD Power do a total cost of ownership calculation that includes service cost. If the service interval is too short, the total cost of ownership goes up and it looks bad compared to the other companies that either include free service (German cars) or have longer intervals. . The manufacturers play with this to ensure that their vehicles can a) make it past warranty period and b) last at 6-7 years and something like 100k without major issues. Beyond that, they would rather you buy a new vehicle than have it last 300K-600K like a Toyota.

BTW, 6month,6000 miles is not old school. Old school is 3 months/3K miles. That is what goes back to the days when cars had distributor caps, and really needed a "tune up" every 20k miles.

 

[NoVaJimmy]

What I don’t understand, with evidence that sooner oil changes are helpful, is why the manual (and computer) has the range it has?
Ford doesn’t lose anything if they put in a shorter range. They don’t give out free oil changes during the warranty period, so it would not cost them money to use a shorter range.
And I don’t see people buying a vehicle based on oil change interval, so no negative they’re either.
They would actually make money because people would visit QuickLane more often.

So for me, it is hard to know if the videos of the bad motors are more of a rare event or not. But even if they are ‘rare’, you would not know if it would happen to you. So just like paying for insurance, do it more often to be safe.

Of course, I grew up with the 6months/6000mile rule, so I‘m just old school and do not wait to long.

With all that said, I am also a person that will no longer keep my vehicle past the 5/60 powertrain warranty; usually trade somewhere between 3/36 and 5/60. Too much can go wrong, not dealing with extended warranties, and just want a new car. This means, I just don’t worry about all of this. I take it in when it fits my schedule, in the 6 to 8 month range; WELL before hitting 0%, don’t recall it being below 30% (unless waiting for the next new one to come in and not going to pay of an oil change on car going away).

They lose customers by offering shorter maintenance intervals. There's a battle to make longer maintenance intervals a selling point. Ford doesn't really care what happens after 5 years or 60k miles. They also don't care about service since dealers are independently owned and your dealer is going to recommend shorter intervals anyway, not because they care about longevity but because they care about profit. The post above talking about brand perception is irrelevant, Ford already has the perception of making an inferior product, even their CEO admits that reliability is a weak point for them. Ford has something called American brand loyalty which trumps brand perception. That plus offering niche products that nobody else can really compete with like the Maverick and Bronco.

 

[WNYEscapee]

As some have indicated, changing your oil more often is an investment.
I have worked in dealerships, not just Ford dealerships, and can tell you that extended oil changes are foolish. In fact, as one posted had shown, certain conditions mandate you follow maintenance schedules for extreme conditions. This is true for anyone in the northern half of the country, Canada, towing, or allowing for extended periods of idling.

You not only need to contend with oil breakdown -- and even synthetics will begin to do so, but you acquire combustion materials and condensation which are acidic and eat away at seals and gaskets. You also are more prone to developing varnish and sludge, both which can damage internal components which are manufactured with close tolerances.
Over the years I've seen numerous vehicles where the people only performed the free maintenance the manufactures provided. Later on, after these vehicles were out of warranty, they suffered from cam phaser units sticking, timing chain tensioners sticking and guides being excessively work, and chains stretched. This was a repair that cost in the neighborhood of $4-5000 dollars. Those customers changing their oil between the free scheduled maintenances didn't have this problem.
To replace a 2.0L Ecoboost at today's prices will cost you at least this much at MSRP prices, which most dealerships don't follow on customer pay work -- you'll likely pay more.
We also saw dozens of vehicles under warranty where gaskets began leaking, both upper and lower locations on the engines.
Our field engineer noted, this is what happens with extended oil changes, and not following the recommended schedule of maintenance for their conditions, climate and operating conditions; but nobody reads their manual.
I've also heard engineers tell people that; yes, we will honor warranty at our recommended maintenance schedule, but if you really want your engine to last, continue changing your oil every 3k miles.

Last, I've also got customers out of warranty repairs partially covered by the manufacturer and seen complete coverage for engines out of warranty simple because they either did all routine maintenance as recommended, or in the case of full coverage, did more than what was recommended. As stated many times here, the cost of a few additional oil changes isn't really that much and can be an investment -- it's cheaper than an extended warranty policy and can be a lot less convenient than having a vehicle sitting at the shop for weeks while the engine gets replaced!
I just hit 1,500 miles, my oil has already been changed to full synthetic which I plan to do at 3-4k intervals.

 

[Skyline]

You not only need to contend with oil breakdown -- and even synthetics will begin to do so, but you acquire combustion materials and condensation which are acidic and eat away at seals and gaskets. You also are more prone to developing varnish and sludge, both which can damage internal components which are manufactured with close tolerances.

Yes, oil does break down regardless of the brand. There is much more research going into developing oil that does not breakdown as much as your "grandpa's" oil. There are also established standards that oil companies required to comply with, such compliance is marked on the oil can. The process of the developing break down resistant oil is awesome:

 

[realshelby]

Finally ONE fact that you can build on was posted.
The Blackstone report found earlier was very informative. Yes, the fuel load and ( surprisingly) the insoluables were higher than average. Note that does NOT mean they are in a danger zone, just higher than average by a very, very small percentage.
I would think this MAY be an engine that is driven on short trips a lot. If so, I could certainly see an earlier oil change interval than I would normally go to.
These reports are to be used to base the owners oil life and how far they want to take each oil change interval....But they are also there to catch a failure before it becomes critical.
I noted that the oil change evangelists are now stating the UOA reports are analyzed by high school kids working evening jobs. Tell that to the fleets that depend on these reports and have proof of engines, transmissions, rear ends going for a LOT of miles. I won't even get into the aircraft industry.

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