TrackMeisterWannabe
Well-Known Member
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- #1
We've all heard the claim. Now here's a bit of proof.
On a recent road trip, a fellow member of this forum, who for the time being shall remain nameless, rented a 2015 Mustang GT PP with MT from a private owner about 400 miles from me. His trip included a layover at my place after which he was going on a 1400 mile sales circuit. It was at this layover that we discovered the potentiality of a pending catastrophic failure.
Being a bender of wrenches on various machines including my current M1 for over 50 years, I am rather anal about fluid levels. While I heard no concerning noises when he pulled up I still asked the obligatory question "Did you check the oil before you left?" during casual conversation later in the weekend. I was assured that the owner of the rental had done just that prior to him picking it up. Nevertheless, I have learned that seeing is believing when it comes to checking fluid levels. The following left me in a state of disbelief and a new found appreciation of our coyote powerplants.
First, a bit of history about the car as I know it. The current owner purchased this car in early '22 with around 78k miles. He is the 6th owner. There were around 105K on it when I first saw the car last weekend (10/2023). The car has had at least some mods done to it including an aftermarket intake. Tune status is unknown. The oil monitor at the time indicated 55% oil life remaining. It presents well and is a favorite rental toy for my friend as he has rented it 4 or 5 times in the last year. The car presents well but has obviously been treated like the proverbial "rented mule" as witnessed by the fact that the owner had to replace two rear Michelin PS4 AS tires with only a couple thousand miles on them after some yahoo thought it would be fun to see how many burnouts he could do during his rental period. Some people...
When I checked the oil after it sat overnight there was no oil on the dipstick. Really? I checked again. Same result. I added a quart and tried again. Same result. I wondered if perhaps someone had replaced the original dipstick. After doing some research I determined it was the proper dipstick. It was at this time I advised my buddy to call the owner to see what he wanted to do about this potential time bomb. The owner confessed that he had not checked the oil for at least the last couple of rentals. I advised him that we needed to change the oil which we did the next morning.
To my disbelief, there were only about 3&1/2 quarts in the sump. That is after I added a quart. My friend had driven over 400 miles on 2&1/2 quarts of the blackest nasty oil I have seen! The manual calls for 8. I added 8 quarts. The dipstick confirmed that this beast of burden was now properly serviced.
Only time will tell if any permanent damage has been done. I did have an extra Blackstone sample kit that I placed a sample in for the owner. Whether he will send it in is unknown. I may just send in a sample myself just for S&Gs to see if it shows anything. BTW, my buddy completed the remaining 1300 miles of his trip without any further oil consumption/loss without incident.
On a side note, my first 302 was back in ’86 when I got my first GT. I put 140K on it with a lot of spirited driving during the 7 years I had it. Never had a problem with it other than a lifter tick that was caused by the wrong lifters being installed at the factory that was fixed at 5K miles.
Looks like to me the engineers have kept the tradition going with our Coyotes. Really glad I got my M1 to ride into the sunset with before they put them out to pasture...
On a recent road trip, a fellow member of this forum, who for the time being shall remain nameless, rented a 2015 Mustang GT PP with MT from a private owner about 400 miles from me. His trip included a layover at my place after which he was going on a 1400 mile sales circuit. It was at this layover that we discovered the potentiality of a pending catastrophic failure.
Being a bender of wrenches on various machines including my current M1 for over 50 years, I am rather anal about fluid levels. While I heard no concerning noises when he pulled up I still asked the obligatory question "Did you check the oil before you left?" during casual conversation later in the weekend. I was assured that the owner of the rental had done just that prior to him picking it up. Nevertheless, I have learned that seeing is believing when it comes to checking fluid levels. The following left me in a state of disbelief and a new found appreciation of our coyote powerplants.
First, a bit of history about the car as I know it. The current owner purchased this car in early '22 with around 78k miles. He is the 6th owner. There were around 105K on it when I first saw the car last weekend (10/2023). The car has had at least some mods done to it including an aftermarket intake. Tune status is unknown. The oil monitor at the time indicated 55% oil life remaining. It presents well and is a favorite rental toy for my friend as he has rented it 4 or 5 times in the last year. The car presents well but has obviously been treated like the proverbial "rented mule" as witnessed by the fact that the owner had to replace two rear Michelin PS4 AS tires with only a couple thousand miles on them after some yahoo thought it would be fun to see how many burnouts he could do during his rental period. Some people...
When I checked the oil after it sat overnight there was no oil on the dipstick. Really? I checked again. Same result. I added a quart and tried again. Same result. I wondered if perhaps someone had replaced the original dipstick. After doing some research I determined it was the proper dipstick. It was at this time I advised my buddy to call the owner to see what he wanted to do about this potential time bomb. The owner confessed that he had not checked the oil for at least the last couple of rentals. I advised him that we needed to change the oil which we did the next morning.
To my disbelief, there were only about 3&1/2 quarts in the sump. That is after I added a quart. My friend had driven over 400 miles on 2&1/2 quarts of the blackest nasty oil I have seen! The manual calls for 8. I added 8 quarts. The dipstick confirmed that this beast of burden was now properly serviced.
Only time will tell if any permanent damage has been done. I did have an extra Blackstone sample kit that I placed a sample in for the owner. Whether he will send it in is unknown. I may just send in a sample myself just for S&Gs to see if it shows anything. BTW, my buddy completed the remaining 1300 miles of his trip without any further oil consumption/loss without incident.
On a side note, my first 302 was back in ’86 when I got my first GT. I put 140K on it with a lot of spirited driving during the 7 years I had it. Never had a problem with it other than a lifter tick that was caused by the wrong lifters being installed at the factory that was fixed at 5K miles.
Looks like to me the engineers have kept the tradition going with our Coyotes. Really glad I got my M1 to ride into the sunset with before they put them out to pasture...
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