How long on initial oil fill in new car?

[wtd]

What is the concensus on how long to leave the factory fill oil in a new car. I bought a new 2014 Mustang GT back in August and the owner's manual does not say other than go by the oil minder which for this car can be up to 10,000 mile oil changes. Dealer told me to first change it at 3,000 miles and than every 6,000 miles after that.

Do you think it's necessary to change factory fill oil early in today's engines? Is this just a feel good measure for most people? I currently have 3,100 miles on the factory fill oil and it still looks good and I don't see any glitter or particles in it.

I want to see what peoples opinion is on the first oil change interval. Thanks.

Wayne

 

[StevieBoy]

IMO this is a good time to change it. Put a good synthetic in it.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

The filter is doing its job. I ran my initial fill on my last two Honda's to 5k and they have hundreds of thousands of miles on them.
If you're worried, change it. Otherwise leave until the monitor comes on.

 

[Kuato]

I think we all agree that there are assembly materials inside almost every new engine, but you likely won't find a consensus here; there are many threads on this already.

There are those that say the FF and filter are good for 10k.

Then there are others like myself that think both filter and oil should be changed early to remove materials left over from assembly.

Can't be sure about the different until two identical vehicles are purchased and some sort of test performed.

 

[285south]

Dealer wants your money and if I was a dealer I would have told you that you need to change your oil every 2500 miles for that horse. Leave it to 5k. Put a good synthetic in it: Schaeffer.

 

[simplistic]

I second Kuato. Change the ff now, then go buy the oil monitor.

 

[jaj]

Your GT rolled out of the factory with an oversized oil filter on it so that it can go the full Oil Life Monitor interval. There was a rumor of a special additive, but I doubt it - the UOA I did on my 2011 never indicated anything other than ordinary 5w-20 Motorcraft.

I ran mine until the OLM said about 10% and then changed it. Everything was fine and the engine sealed up really well. I supercharged it, and it ran really well and didn't seem to mind all the track days I did with it.

 

[bdcardinal]

I will probably do the first oil change on my 2014 Track Pack around 2500 miles, then the next at 5k and then every 5k after that. Even with teh 5W50 factory fill, I am not comfortable with leaving oil in there that long, I know science does not agree with me, but its a gut feeling. Plus it gives me a chance to do rotates every 5k.

 

[Mykl]

Change it when the engineer who wrote the maintenance manual tells you to. For me that was at 10k miles.

 

[wtd]

The factory FL500s oil filter is not that big. It looks smaller than the one for my fiancée's 07 GT with the 4.6L. I think it takes a FL820s or something like that. It does have an 8 quart pan and is why they say you can go 10,000 miles or 1 year between changes. I will probably be going the one year route since I doubt I will put 10,000 miles a year on it. It's a fair weather car only so during the winter it probably won't be driven that much.

I've decided I'm going to run the Motorcraft 5W-20 synthetic blend at least the first oil change I do on it and then go from there. To be honest I've never been a huge synthetic fan so unless a vehicle specifically says to use it, I usually don't.

Thanks for all of the input.

Wayne

 

[Lyman]

I'd change it now. Then 5-6k OCI in the future but Im sure others will disagree.

 

[whip]

Who knows more about your engine? The company that designs and builds it, or guys on the net with opinions or a dealer with a boat payment due? I'd follow the manual.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted By: whip
Who knows more about your engine? The company that designs and builds it, or guys on the net with opinions or a dealer with a boat payment due? I'd follow the manual.

That's a good question. Do you think the manufacturers have our best interests in mind when they remove the transmission dipstick and tell us the tranny fluid never needs to be changed?

I sometimes think that marketing overshadows what's best for the vehicle. The current trend is to market low maintenance. The owners manual is a starting point and a conscientious owner will adjust the maintenance to fit his particular circumstances (IMO).

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted By: whip
Who knows more about your engine? The company that designs and builds it, or guys on the net with opinions or a dealer with a boat payment due? I'd follow the manual.


Exactly right! The manufacturer of the engine knows exactly how much abuse it can tolerate without breaking down or becoming emissions non-compliant. The manufacturer, after all, is in the business of selling new cars.

But, that was not the essence of the question asked. It seems that the OP wanted information on best practices. We've gone way beyond the bare minimum necessary to keep an engine alive throughout the warranty period and for some time thereafter.

I'd suggest that here at BITOG, a number of us are actively involved in testing "real world" results. In fact, one very interesting group tracked oil change intervals and type of oil used in a particular engine, and came up with a "wear metals per mile" categorization of oils.

Guess what? The choice of oil and the oil change interval do play a major role in engine wear. Hard to believe, but true.

Wear metals trend downward after break in. Changing oil clearly drains out contaminates and renews the viability of certain additives. I'd change the oil now and choose a quality synthetic.

 

[Mykl]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
Originally Posted By: whip
Who knows more about your engine? The company that designs and builds it, or guys on the net with opinions or a dealer with a boat payment due? I'd follow the manual.


Exactly right! The manufacturer of the engine knows exactly how much abuse it can tolerate without breaking down or becoming emissions non-compliant. The manufacturer, after all, is in the business of selling new cars.


That (sarcastic) argument doesn't work. I like to think that the manufacturers are smart enough to know that people aren't going to be coming back to their dealerships if they build machines with engines and transmissions that routinely fail catastrophically in an unreasonable amount of time.

These days internal engine failure is the exception and not the rule. If you follow the manufacturer's recommended service intervals you're more likely to replace the vehicle because the rest of it fell apart around the drivetrain.

 

[wtd]

So my next question is whether or not anyone knows if Ford puts any type of break-in fluid or additive to the initial fill or is it just regular Motorcraft semi-synthetic?

Wayne

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: wtd
So my next question is whether or not anyone knows if Ford puts any type of break-in fluid or additive to the initial fill or is it just regular Motorcraft semi-synthetic?

Wayne


Unless it states in your owner's manual that a special assembly lube/additive is put in at the factory, I'd bet it is Ford's bulk oil for the initial fill.

 

[Durango]

Originally Posted By: wtd
What is the concensus on how long to leave the factory fill oil in a new car. I bought a new 2014 Mustang GT back in August and the owner's manual does not say other than go by the oil minder which for this car can be up to 10,000 mile oil changes. Dealer told me to first change it at 3,000 miles and than every 6,000 miles after that.

Do you think it's necessary to change factory fill oil early in today's engines? Is this just a feel good measure for most people? I currently have 3,100 miles on the factory fill oil and it still looks good and I don't see any glitter or particles in it.

I want to see what peoples opinion is on the first oil change interval. Thanks.

Wayne


Wayne,

I'd just go by your OLM and change it when it tells you too. After that use a good synthetic oil.


Durango

 

[CaspianM]

Manufacturer's recommendation is only general guideline. My Nissan says 3650 miles but I go further. You can get by it following thru. Is it necessary to change early? It depends on what you want to do with car. There are benefits by changing the first oil early but some don't care. Manufacturers also go thru all sort of recalls so who's to say they know exactly what they are doing.
If you are not sure take a sample out for analysis and see the contamination level. It only takes one week. 8 quarts is a lot of oil to dump. But it also negligible $ over the course of ownership. And if you don't believe in synthetic why then bother with semi.
My suggestion.. replace the oil with best quality synthetic you can afford at any time now.

 

[wtd]

The reason I don't really care for synthetic has to do with my experience years ago using Mobil 1 in my then fairly new 1998 Chevy truck with the 5.7L and my ex-wife's 98 Grand Prix GT with the 3800 V6. I used it for a couple of years and did regular oil analysis on both vehicles. My wear results in both vehicles were not what I thought they should be when I compared them to similar vehicles on this site that were using conventional oils. The engines in both vehicles were more noisy with the Mobil 1 as well as used more oil. I switched back to conventional in both vehicles and my wear numbers improved and the engines became more quiet and used less oil. I felt I wasn't getting my money's worth and never used a synthetic again. Granted this was in the early 2000's and I'm sure synthetic oil have also improved since then but I have been happy with the conventional oils I have used since and felt no need to go back.

The only reason I was going to use a semi-synthetic in the car now was because that is what they use from the factory. I may decide to eventually go to a full synthetic but I probably won't put enough miles a year on the car for it to be worth it to me and I've never seen any data that convinces me that a synthetic is going to give me that much more protection for the money spent. Thanks for all of the input.

Wayne