Oil Change Interval Question???

Man, I have a feeling this thread will go very long like many oil threads do...

Anyway, it sounds like you are putting very low miles on your car. One critical thing to consider is that if you are making many short trips and your car is never fully heating up the oil degrades MUCH FASTER. Is this the case with your driving?

If not I would change every 3000 miles. I use the stock oil which for my car is Motorcraft Synthetic Blend 5W-20. I recommend using the oil that Ford recommends and not spending excess money on synthetics.

How many total miles are on your car?

Have you considered using Sea Foam the next time you change your oil?

Actually frequent short trips do not cause the oil to break down more quickly, they prevent moisture and other contaminates from the combustion cycle from being completely burned off so they accumulate in the oil. These kinds of contaminates can be identified with an oil analysis. What I would do is when you change your oil next send off a sample of the used oil for analysis and see if there is excessive moisture or fuel contamination. If there aren't than your oil change interval is fine.

I use www.blackstone-labs.com

rjstaaf said:

Actually frequent short trips do not cause the oil to break down more quickly, they prevent moisture and other contaminates from the combustion cycle from being completely burned off so they accumulate in the oil. These kinds of contaminates can be identified with an oil analysis. What I would do is when you change your oil next send off a sample of the used oil for analysis and see if there is excessive moisture or fuel contaminates. If there aren't than your oil change interval is fine.

I use www.blackstone-labs.com

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Yes, that is what I said. Short trips cause the oil to degrade much more quickly.