15 focus oil choice

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Just wondering, the 15 focus I just bought. Should I follow the OLM or every 5K? Car see's 80-90% hwy and is getting 41mpg. Car has been serviced at the dealership since new per the car fax. Car currently had MC 5w20 in it.
 
The issues with the Focus cars of that era are tranny related; the engines themselves are good units.
Being such a hwy car, OLM or 10k miles; which ever is the later.
Do UOAs if you feel uncomfortable about it.
 
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I have followed 10K OCIs in my Duratech engines with M1 20 oils for years and hundreds of thousands of miles.
 
You can follow the IOLM with no problem
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted by antonmnster
I've been doing M1 every 5k in the '14. It's blacker than black, blacker than my BMW. Maybe I should do a UOA.

Follow this Gabriel.
If your next oil change starts looking dirty and/or smelly by 5K, change it then.
Oil is cheap and there's plenty of service centers than can change lifetime trans fluid, using a transfer machine & hoses on the trans-lines.
 
Originally Posted by gabriel9766
Just wondering, the 15 focus I just bought. Should I follow the OLM or every 5K? Car see's 80-90% hwy and is getting 41mpg. Car has been serviced at the dealership since new per the car fax. Car currently had MC 5w20 in it.

I'd split the difference and do 7 to 8k if using synthetic (with so much highway usage). The Duratec in my 2014 Focus (with DI) definitely turns the oil blacker than the (non DI) Duratec in my 2016 Escape. Does yours have the 1.0T 3 cylinder?...41 mpg is awesome for the 2.0.
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted by antonmnster
I've been doing M1 every 5k in the '14. It's blacker than black, blacker than my BMW. Maybe I should do a UOA.

Follow this Gabriel.
If your next oil change starts looking dirty and/or smelly by 5K, change it then.
Oil is cheap and there's plenty of service centers than can change lifetime trans fluid, using a transfer machine & hoses on the trans-lines.



This advice is worthless. Do a UOA at 8K miles and you will discover there is plenty of life left in the oil.
 
Originally Posted by dave1251
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted by antonmnster
I've been doing M1 every 5k in the '14. It's blacker than black, blacker than my BMW. Maybe I should do a UOA.

Follow this Gabriel.
If your next oil change starts looking dirty and/or smelly by 5K, change it then.
Oil is cheap and there's plenty of service centers than can change lifetime trans fluid, using a transfer machine & hoses on the trans-lines.



This advice is worthless. Do a UOA at 8K miles and you will discover there is plenty of life left in the oil.

Your advice is worthless.
UOA tells you the life of the oil. But what's more important is knowing the future life of the engine.
 
Once again you have contradicted yourself. You said it UOA provides data the life of the oil. Not smell look or feel. It's called data not feelings.
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted by dave1251
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted by antonmnster
I've been doing M1 every 5k in the '14. It's blacker than black, blacker than my BMW. Maybe I should do a UOA.

Follow this Gabriel.
If your next oil change starts looking dirty and/or smelly by 5K, change it then.
Oil is cheap and there's plenty of service centers than can change lifetime trans fluid, using a transfer machine & hoses on the trans-lines.



This advice is worthless. Do a UOA at 8K miles and you will discover there is plenty of life left in the oil.

Your advice is worthless.
UOA tells you the life of the oil. But what's more important is knowing the future life of the engine.


UOA's are designed to gauge the useful life and condition of the lubricant so that you know how long you can safely run it in the unit in question so you can maximize the life of both the equipment and the lubricant. You look at the various levels of contamination as well as how much TBN is left in the lubricant, where TAN is, what fuel dilution is like....etc and then are able to determine, conclusively, whether the lubricant is suitable for continued use in the equipment and whether the engine itself has any impending health issues like a coolant leak or silicon ingress that need to be dealt with. This is in rather stark contrast to entirely unscientific methods like whether it smells like an Orang-utan's nether regions, feels like Aunt Bea's famous laundry soap or tastes like Chuck Norris's beard sweat.
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted by dave1251
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted by antonmnster
I've been doing M1 every 5k in the '14. It's blacker than black, blacker than my BMW. Maybe I should do a UOA.

Follow this Gabriel.
If your next oil change starts looking dirty and/or smelly by 5K, change it then.
Oil is cheap and there's plenty of service centers than can change lifetime trans fluid, using a transfer machine & hoses on the trans-lines.



This advice is worthless. Do a UOA at 8K miles and you will discover there is plenty of life left in the oil.

Your advice is worthless.
UOA tells you the life of the oil. But what's more important is knowing the future life of the engine.

How does blindly changing engine oil give you information on the future life of the engine?
 
Follow this Gabriel.
If your next oil change starts looking dirty and/or smelly by 5K, change it then.
Oil is cheap and there's plenty of service centers than can change lifetime trans fluid, using a transfer machine & hoses on the trans-lines.[/quote]


This advice is worthless. Do a UOA at 8K miles and you will discover there is plenty of life left in the oil. [/quote]
Your advice is worthless.
UOA tells you the life of the oil. But what's more important is knowing the future life of the engine.[/quote]
How does blindly changing engine oil give you information on the future life of the engine? [/quote]

Why is the oil turning black is the biggest question? That and why are you giving out wreckless, worthless advise?
 
Sorry it was Dave actually giving out the wreckless information. The oil is black at 5k, hmm something seems wrong. Should I change the oil? Nah I'm sure sure it's fine let's leave it to 8k even though something is wrong and making it look like garbage by 5k. [censored]
 
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Sorry it was Dave actually giving out the wreckless information. The oil is black at 5k, hmm something seems wrong. Should I change the oil? Nah I'm sure sure it's fine let's leave it to 8k even though something is wrong and making it look like garbage by 5k. [censored]


I dunno, there's all kinds of weird in this thread. For example Triple_Se7en's quote was from atonmmnster who spoke to the condition of HIS oil, but he (Triple_Se7en) spoke in reference to the OP, Gabriel. The OP never once mentioned the colour of his oil. Oil colour isn't an overly useful metric, but confounding things in this thread, it was never mentioned in the OP. He was just wondering if he should change at a standard interval or follow the OLM.

It sounds like atonmnster needs to do a UOA, but while he made mention of the colour of his lubricant, there was no mention of driving style, length of trips....etc. Whereas the OP did in fact indicate that his usage was almost all highway.
 
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Sorry it was Dave actually giving out the wreckless information. The oil is black at 5k, hmm something seems wrong. Should I change the oil? Nah I'm sure sure it's fine let's leave it to 8k even though something is wrong and making it look like garbage by 5k. [censored]



Please explain because this does not make sense.
 
Originally Posted by dave1251
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Sorry it was Dave actually giving out the wreckless information. The oil is black at 5k, hmm something seems wrong. Should I change the oil? Nah I'm sure sure it's fine let's leave it to 8k even though something is wrong and making it look like garbage by 5k. [censored]



Please explain because this does not make sense.


I've never seen a non GDI gas powered vehicle turn oil black under normal conditions unless there was a reason. Off the top of my head, my old 78 Chevy truck when I was a kid, the choke was so out of wack it would flood itself on warmup to the point of fouling the plugs, oil turned black. One year the fuel pump diaphragm dumped a bunch of gas into the oil. Level went way up and looked black. Same truck, now parked and gets ran once every few years. I changed the oil around 8 years ago and it looks like new still even after some run time and 8 years of sitting.

79 Chevy 305 had a bad camshaft, misfiring on one cylinder. Oil was always black.

Customers car coming though the Pennzoil, if they went way over their oil changes, oil is black, sludge in the valve cover, sometimes engine noise, as soon as you change it, it would turn black again. If we liked the person, sometimes we'd do a double oil change.

Anything well maintained, it stays relatively clean up until the point that it needs to be changed. I have no idea what healthy vehicles you've seen that turn oil black that quickly. I've been around a lot of cars and paid attention to oil, done a lot of oil changes. That has never been my experience.

It may look black once drained into the pan, but on the stick you should at least be able to see through it.
 
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Not fact based advice pure speculation with no evidence to support your claim and the Focus 1.5 is TGDI. Color of oil means almost nothing and definitely does not mean I'm giving bad advice.
 
We'll agree to disagree on that, sorry I didn't realize the focus went to direct injection by that year. That would be why it's black.

I will maintain that I have never seen a vehicle that was in good health and well maintained with nothing going wrong turn oil black quickly except for GDI or diesels.

That and uoa's are useful but they don't tell you everything. Just like when there are metal chunks going through the engine and the uoa looks good.
 
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