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Oil Schedule


Burgundy17

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I have been changing my oil in the Edge and the previous Focus every 5000 miles. This seemed to be the recommendation of the owners manual and the dealer. I am changing my mind and am now going to change the oil every 3000 miles like I use to do. Has anyone else made this change to their maintenance schedule? I just find it easier to keep track of miles instead of hours like they do with planes.

 

In my Focus I used regular Motorcraft oil. I use the Quick Lane at the dealership. I like them to have the maintenance records because then they can not try to weasel out of warranty coverage if I need it by claiming improper maintenance. At 60,000 miles the engine on the Focus was beginning to get noisy like engines do when they have a lot of miles on them. I wondered at that time if I should be doing 3000 mile oil changes. Maybe the 5000 miles guideline was more for sales inducement then optimum maintenance. For the Edge I began using FULL synthetic Motorcraft. The car runs quietly but around 4000 miles post change it begins to get noisier.

 

I have a 3.5 engine and I have just changed the oil at 15,000 miles. Just prior to the last oil change I had an intermittent tapping sound that seemed to occur in first 30 minutes of driving the Edge. Because It was intermittent I could not reliably demonstrate it. I changed the oil, still using full synthetic, and the engine now runs quiet from startup and there is no tapping.

 

At service I heard speculation to the cause of the tapping as loose leaves under the hood to full synthetic oil making the engine work harder and throwing off the timing of the fuel injectors. This tapping reminded me of the sound of valve lifters. But I have heard that sound around 50,000 miles on previous engines ( using regular oil ). I never did anything about it and the engines lasted until I traded in the vehicle at 12+ years and 150,000+ miles. So I don't think it is a real serious problem but surprised if this is showing up on an engine so young.

 

So does anyone think this tapping noise was valves? fuel injectors? leaves? Can full synthetic oil be TOO efficient and cause an engine to work TOO hard? The owners manual calls FULL synthetic an alternate oil. Could semisynthetic be the preferred oil? I think increasing the frequency of my oil changes will help. Maybe 5000 miles is too optimistic an interval.

 

I am trying to make the water pump last as long as possible and am using full synthetic to help to that end. I am thinking of changing the coolant every 2 years or 30,000 miles.

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The 3.5 is a noisy little bugger, and so are the ecoboost engines in their own way. That said, for gen 1.5, there was a tsb issued to address noise appearing to come from the valve cover area, MAY apply to your Gen 2 in a similar vein. Especially since you feel that the engine begins to get noisier 4K into the OCI. It should sound about the same throughout, UNLESS you are driving a LOT of hard miles like idling, WOT, or stopngo.

 

I assume you are using not only the Motorcraft oil of the correct weight (5w20) but also the filter (FL500S)? Definitely stick with full synthetic when in doubt. You could try different brands, as they will have different effects from a subjective viewpoint at least. Oil is not Oil :)

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Yes I am using Motorcraft oil and filter at each oil change. Once I am past the powertrain warranty I will consider other oils. I do 12,000 miles a year and use the Edge in a well rounded manner. It is not all the time idling or wot or all stop and go city driving. I also do not tow. I did see a survey once that showed a lot of owners still follow the 3000 mile schedule. I can understand owners in the sited circumstances would do that. I want to know if any other owners under normal use have found it helpful to follow the 3000 mile change guideline.

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Engines, engine oils and filters have come a LONG way since 3K mile changes were normal. Ford recommends somewhere between 5K and 10K using the IOLM recommendation. 3K is 1/3 of the recommended interval. The only reason dealers still recommend it is $$$$$$. ‘

 

If you want to find out for sure, send off a sample for oil testing. I think 5K is plenty safe even with most conventional oils.

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Use engine hours and an initial oil analysis to see when to change your oil at an optimal interval. Engine hours can be tracked via trip meters built into the instrument cluster. Recommendations are 200 hours all highway, 100 hours all city/stopngo, and 150 for mixed conditions. The oil analysis will help you refine it further. If you do choose to get the used oil analyzed, please post the results here :)

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I don't trust Ford's Intelligent Oil life Monitor because I am leery of automation as it is. No Reminder has popped up. By changing oil every 5000 miles I don't expect it to. I would rather change the oil on my own rather then wait for the Edge to remind me. I don't track hours because I don't write a target hour on tape attached to dashboard to know when the hours are reached. The dealer places a nice sticky on the window with the mileage when next oil change is due. I sometimes play with the trip meters and the hours would get screwed up anyway even if I did have the tape. I will think about sending in an oil sample for testing if the problem shows up again. Thanks for the suggestion. Also thanks for the TSB heads up on the 1.5 gen. That would definitely be something to talk to the dealer about. The engine is nice and quite now with new oil and filter. I guess it is possible something was just loose.

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If I have to explain why using a full synthetic is much better than using a synthetic blend, then by all means keep changing your oil every 5000 or 3000 miles or whatever.

But you didn’t say that a full synthetic was better than a synthetic blend. You just said that Motorcraft synthetic blend wasn’t good.

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But you didn’t say that a full synthetic was better than a synthetic blend. You just said that Motorcraft synthetic blend wasn’t good.

 

No, I said:

 

Actually Ford recommends 10,000 miles or one year. Dealers recommend more often to lighten your wallet.

 

Motorcraft filter - good.

Motorcraft Synthetic Blend - not good. Use a full synthetic like Mobil 1.

 

No explanation needed.

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Well, I certainly think both points are represented with validity and it certainly warrants further study by the committee. :dance:

 

That said, at 5k intervals if you're using a reasonable quality filter and either a full synth or a blend (whatever brand) you're probably OK.

Edited by chefduane
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The “oil wars” are always good reading. Basically the less quality oil you use (that’s still SE or whatever rated) like pure dyno oil, the lower your change interval should be, down as low (often) as every 3K.  Caveats are of course winter starting, WOT, idling and stop/go (severe usage). 

Personally I use the synthetic blend Motocraft that goes on their service specials. I won’t go past 5K with a blend (or 7,500 with pure synthetic) because “why”?  At the price of a replacement long block, I don’t pinch fluid change pennies. I don’t really care if I am contributing to climate depletion/change or whatever, I do care that my engine starts, runs and stays well lubricated. 

I understand about Blackstone Labs and oil analysis, even in my military service career the army was using oil analysis (in the 90’s) and it saved them a gazillion gallons of fluids and labor I’m sure. I just don’t care about stretching out the intervals, period. Course I’m the guy who wants to buy a used car from “me” as far as service goes, and I never get to... sigh

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