Longest oil change interval I have ever done

Life, work and weather have really taken their toll on my schedule over the last year and forced me to go for the longest oil change interval i have ever done on any car i have ever owned.

The last Time i changed my Oil was August 28 2016, At that time I had 28918 kms or around 17972.65 miles

I filled her up with RP HPS 10w40 and Splurged on a Royal Purple oil filter knowing I was going to go a bit longer on this change. I also went ahead and did my gearbox oil while there. I like to document this stuff meticulously for warranty purposes since I do all of my own maintenance.



I went all the way to this Sunday, May 7th 2017,my car now has 41665 kms (25894 miles) basically 9 months and 12747kms (7922 miles)
Oil Life monitor was still showing 21%


Filled her up with the same stuff though this time I went with a slightly less expensive Fram XG3614 filter. Cutting an old one open , next to a motorcraft and RP one revealed pretty much the same filtration media, The RP having a slight advantage in filtration area and media quality to the eye. I wasn't about to pay what a shop wanted to do testing on the old filters sorry.


The old oil wasn't terrible but I wouldn't want to do another 2000 miles on it as the oil life percentage indicated it wanted.

Finally I have been collecting my catch can contents in a Gatorade bottle for this cycle. My drive to work is about 3 miles through the city , with a bit of stop and go traffic (5 minutes on a good day, 20 on a bad) so worst conditions possible for the oil.
Here's what it caught after letting it sit and separate a few days,

I do not like the thought of the entire contents of this bottle flowing though my intake manifold or into my combustion chambers.

So far the extra maintenance people were claiming turbo engines require has been proven to be the myth that it was. My only issue was a back up camera that was replaced under warranty. Everything else has been buzzing along nicely. Even the tiny oil weep from the front timing cover, common to these engines, seems to have resolved itself. I cleaned it and it never came back.



Anyone else do 8k or more between oil changes?. I don't ever want to go that long again but I'd be interested in your thoughts about it and how long the recommended oil change interval is.

I did my 2nd oil change with Pennzoil synthetic "made from natural gas" with the Ford Racing oil filter which holds an additional 1/2 qt. of oil, 8 1/2 qts capacity will go further and I will check oil life near 11,500 miles on the odometer. I don't care for RP products but have used their ICE coolant additive. I use 10w 30w 8qts. and 1/2 qt Lucas stabilizer.

Coyote Red said:

I did my 2nd oil change with Pennzoil synthetic "made from natural gas" with the Ford Racing oil filter which holds an additional 1/2 qt. of oil, 8 1/2 qts capacity will go further and I will check oil life near 11,500 miles on the odometer. I don't care for RP products but have used their ICE coolant additive. I use 10w 30w 8qts. and 1/2 qt Lucas stabilizer.

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What mileage are you at now? doing a change at 11500 would mean ~3800 miles between changes for you which is a nice short interval for a modern engine, I'd be willing to stretch the interval a bit more on an N/A engine like the Coyote, especially with the measures you are taking.

I've posted before about how important zinc and phosphorus are to turbo engines over all, but research showing the LSPI inhibiting effects of both those additives makes it even more effective on a gdti engine like the Ecoboost. being on military Installations overseas, Royal purple HPS is the best option we have readily available on base and I have had nothing but good results from it for years. if it were available, some of the Amsoil products look promising, but for now I'll stick with what I know and can pop on down to the store and get if I need to top up.

thats under 8000 miles, should be fine. BMW did 15k on their engines when they had to pay for the oil changes, later they quietly moved it to 10k. Only oil analysis will tell the tale. I run most of my cars to 10k on full synthetics

Many manufacturers are moving towards the full synthetic 10k mile oil change nowadays.

I've gone over 20,000 miles on my daily drivers using Amsoil.

2015 Silver GT said:

I've gone over 20,000 miles on my daily drivers using Amsoil.

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Really? What cars were they and how did the oil look and feel afterwards?

Glenn G said:

Really? What cars were they and how did the oil look and feel afterwards?

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All Fords. An Explorer, a Fusion, and a Taurus. I sent out samples to Blackstone labs periodically and they always came back good. I sold the Taurus with 250,000 miles on it and the buyer was shocked how quiet the engine was.

I sent a sample into BSL at 8900 miles / oil had 7317 miles. They came back saying every 7k miles should be fine, but they thought 8-9k was feasable too based on the results.

Car is a year round DD that sees 400 miles a week ... see attached report.

Changed it again at 16766 miles (7866 on oil) and will change it next at 24k then every 8k after that is my plan.

Doug

I have a base V6. My last interval was 9400 miles. I'll go 9k-10k typically. Mostly highway miles for me. I check it every couple of fillups; it's never used enough to tell. I'm about to turn 36,000 miles in the next week or two.

I do about 6-7K on my GT, twice per year around Oct and then Apr/May and last week when I changed it I still had 30% on the oil life.

What is the basis for the car's oil life gage estimate?

69mach1-395 said:

What is the basis for the car's oil life gage estimate?

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Time and millage whichever comes first.
Time is 12 months and millage is 10000 miles.

.

jasonstang said:

Time and millage whichever comes first.
Time is 12 months and millage is 10000 miles.

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Nope. How you drive is factored in as well.

It may give you guidance on how to adjust your oil change intervals, but the oil monitor is based on mileage only. Look at the above: 10000 - 7922 = 2088 (21%). I changed my oil 7400 miles ago and reset my oil monitor. It currently sits at 26%. This is my third batch of oil, and like clockwork, it decreases 1% for every 100 miles driven.

Obviously, the type of driving you do impacts your oil life, but the monitor is not smart enough to compensate.

JR

jacknifetoaswan said:

It may give you guidance on how to adjust your oil change intervals, but the oil monitor is based on mileage only. Look at the above: 10000 - 7922 = 2088 (21%). I changed my oil 7400 miles ago and reset my oil monitor. It currently sits at 26%. This is my third batch of oil, and like clockwork, it decreases 1% for every 100 miles driven.

Obviously, the type of driving you do impacts your oil life, but the monitor is not smart enough to compensate.

JR

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My car gets parked a lot. I am currently at 3000 miles but I am about 2 months till a full year and mine says about 20%.