2005 Focus 1 year, ~14k miles OCI

[thr_wedge]

Haven't posted in a while, but completed what I thought would be a real disaster of an oil change yesterday. Turned out it was not!

2005 Ford Focus 2.0L, 5 speed, 4 door.

Car is my sister's, hadn't had the oil changed since last February and had "average" miles put on it. Motorcraft Semi Synthetic 5W20 and Motorcraft Filter were what I had used last year. Even after warning that she should just go somewhere and spend $30 on an oil change, it never happened so on Christmas I bought some oil, filter and MMO for her car and changed it yesterday.

- Car is idling pretty rough but it's running.

- Check the current oil level and it isn't down, that's interesting.

- Pull the drain plug and it's dark but not black and flowing fine, not sludgy or nasty.

- Pull the filter, oil that comes out isn't bad. Cut the can open, no sludge and the oil is a nice dark amber.

- Peaked in the valve cover through the fill hole and it didn't look bad, but hard to really tell without pulling the cover.

I was amazed. That MC oil and filter was great. Car had no maintenance for a year.

I had already planned on doing an MMO run this time. Refill was 80% Castrol GTX and 20% MMO. Plan to run for only a couple months and then switch back to the MC oil and filter since it at least visually performed so well under terrible conditions. Only reason I went with the Castrol is I got it cheap at O'Reilly (oil and filter for $13) and I knew the car was only going to go about 2000 before the next OC.

Hope is that the MMO will smooth out the idle a little.

 

[Turk]

Whew.

 

[SLCraig]

I am sure you could leave the GTX in that long if the MC was left in that long.
Would be neat to see actual UOA on that fill for 14K.

 

[charbaby]

Other than a few tweeks that Mazda did differently than Ford, my daughters '06 Mazda3 has the same 2.0L engine as your Focus(I beleive). I do ~ 5K mile OCI's(sometimes earlier out of convience)with good oil held in high regard here at Bob's and Puro Classic filters.

Each time I change the oil/filter, the oil always look pretty good and only seem as though she could have gone further. IIRC, the calls for 3750 miles OCI's.

If this is the only 14K mile OCI your sisters car has ever had, there is probably no issue with the acception of "Don't Do It Again!"

Maybe a couple2tree(as my dad would say) early(er) 3K mile OCI's is now in order(w or w/o MMO, it doesn't matter) and then onto something more normal such as 5K, along with some easy driving and the engine will still outlast the rest of the car. Well, maybe not outlast the rest of the car in TX! But, you get my point?

Others will chime in with their own particular way of doing things and, that's all fine. You and your sister pick what is right for her car.

When my daughter bought her '06 Mazda3 in late Aug, 2009 w/50K, I did a similar thing(not knowing the maintenance history). I did some ~3K mile OCI's till I was happy. The whole car has been great thus far(PTL). She has put on 40K miles in almost 2.5 yrs. doing about 5K mile OCI...Sometimes earlier just out of convienence(when I can get to it!)

 

[thr_wedge]

SLCraig, you are probably right but with the MMO in there cleaning out any potential gunk (though I didn't see any looking through the filler hole in the valve cover) I figured it would be prudent to swap it out early.

I thought about a used oil analysis after I drained everything into my nasty catch pan :-/ Oh well.

 

[LeakySeals]

How the oil came out does not necessarily tell you anything. If the suspension was bad, you changed it cold, etc. the sludge could have been left behind in the engine and not poured out with the oil. But thats speculation. If the new oil gets dark fast that may be a clue as to why its running so bad, among other things.

 

[SatinSilver]

Does the car idle better after the oil change?

 

[steve20]

What a nice bro-give yourself a pat on the back !!!

 

[thr_wedge]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
How the oil came out does not necessarily tell you anything. If the suspension was bad, you changed it cold, etc. the sludge could have been left behind in the engine and not poured out with the oil. But thats speculation. If the new oil gets dark fast that may be a clue as to why its running so bad, among other things.


Those are some very good points.

Car was not cold, she had to drive over for the change and then I took it for a spin to get an idea of how it was running, then I let it sit and idle as I got everything together in the garage. I'd say it was running for close to 40 minutes before the change. The oil really flowed out well!

I didn't pull the pan, that would have been the most telling in addition to the valve cover.

At the next checkup in a couple weeks, I'll see if the oil has gone from light to dark.

Originally Posted By: satinsilver
Does the car idle better after the oil change?


Another good question, I didn't notice any improvement immediately post oil change, hope to see in a couple weeks if it is idling better too.

 

[LeakySeals]

How many miles in 14 months? was there any top off oil?

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Unless the engine had an issue, I would not have added any MMO..... especially that much (20%) using thin 5W-20.

 

[JOD]

I don't think it's really that big a deal. While it may not be ideal, I really doubt there was much harm done either. The big problem with 14K OCI's is oil level, not the depletion of the oil. If the sump remained full, that engine is tolerant of long OCI's. The problems set in when you're driving around with 2 qts of oil in the sump.

I'd be careful with that much MMO in the sump. In my experience, it burns off quickly, so you'll want to check the oil level pretty frequently. And honestly, I don't think it's necessary--a short OCI with any SM or SN-rated oil probably would have been fine. But I'd have planned on doing the same (a short OCI) after a run like that.

Given her maintenance habits, maybe it would be worth it to go with PP Ultra or Mobil 1 Extended Performance and just plan on yearly OCI's. I doubt she'll change her maintenance habits.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: JOD
I don't think it's really that big a deal. While it may not be ideal, I really doubt there was much harm done either. The big problem with 14K OCI's is oil level, not the depletion of the oil. If the sump remained full, that engine is tolerant of long OCI's. The problems set in when you're driving around with 2 qts of oil in the sump.

I'd be careful with that much MMO in the sump. In my experience, it burns off quickly, so you'll want to check the oil level pretty frequently. And honestly, I don't think it's necessary--a short OCI with any SM or SN-rated oil probably would have been fine. But I'd have planned on doing the same (a short OCI) after a run like that.

Given her maintenance habits, maybe it would be worth it to go with PP Ultra or Mobil 1 Extended Performance and just plan on yearly OCI's. I doubt she'll change her maintenance habits.


+1

 

[thr_wedge]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
How many miles in 14 months? was there any top off oil?


~14,000 miles in 11 months. No top offs that I know of.

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Unless the engine had an issue, I would not have added any MMO..... especially that much (20%) using thin 5W-20.


Engine really sounds awful at idle, higher RPM is okay. Will be a very short OCI. I may have her stop by to check the oil again pretty soon to make sure levels are still okay. Plan is still the short OCI. I think there is a bit more to the idle though (needs a PCV, need to check some of the vacuum lines, and clean out usual suspects like MAF, IAC but that's a little more time than I had).

Originally Posted By: JOD
Given her maintenance habits, maybe it would be worth it to go with PP Ultra or Mobil 1 Extended Performance and just plan on yearly OCI's. I doubt she'll change her maintenance habits.


Great point, and I have thought of Mobil 1 Extended Performance for her vehicle at the next change. Sorry snipped most of your post, but I agree and I went back and forth with the amount of MMO I used.

The engine seems to be pretty service friendly from what I have done on the car. I know she wants to sell, but the car itself seems to be pretty solid. It isn't fancy at all, but I shudder to think what would have happened to a "nicer" VW or Toyota engine with this sort of treatment...

 

[charbaby]

Some time ago(early 90's) a friend of mine once went 20K miles OCI on an '89 Nissan Sentra. He stated that the little oil that came out when changing the oil was black as coal. He never really maintained this car very well as a BITOG'er.

Over time, that Sentra engine with a 150K+ miles was smoother and the suspensipon was tighter feeling than his new at the time '97 Dodge Neon but, the rest of the Sentra was falling apart though. Believe me, I drove both side one after the other as he was complaining that the new car(Neon) didn't feel as good as the old car(Sentra). He wasn't kidding! Other than having rust everywhere and smelled inside the car, the Sentra was a smoother/tighter feeling car!

 

[thr_wedge]

I used to own a 1988 Nissan Sentra, 4 speed manual trans, manual steering when I lived in Rochester NY (no joke!) I don't think you could kill that little 1.6L if you tried! Super easy to change the oil or service as well. Great in the snow too. Unfortunately the whole car was falling apart (massive rust) and it was time to say goodbye...

No Focus updates yet.

 

[fpracha]

Originally Posted By: thr_wedge
Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Unless the engine had an issue, I would not have added any MMO..... especially that much (20%) using thin 5W-20.

Engine really sounds awful at idle, higher RPM is okay. Will be a very short OCI. I may have her stop by to check the oil again pretty soon to make sure levels are still okay. Plan is still the short OCI. I think there is a bit more to the idle though (needs a PCV, need to check some of the vacuum lines, and clean out usual suspects like MAF, IAC but that's a little more time than I had).
+1.
note that the rough idle appears to be not oil related at this juncture, as you have added 20% MMO (upper limit really) with the fresh engine oil.
Perhaps it will not hurt to try either MMO (if you are sold on MMO "magic") or another high-performance fuel supplement just for 1 or 2 tank fulls. Sometimes rough idle noise is more an upper cylinder area issue than oil related. If you are going this route, just remember to use the minimum dose into the fuel. Hope you can get to the bootom of this soon!

 

[oilstudent24]

What kind of noise at idle? I had a 2.0 Ford that was the same engine. The vehicle was within a couple years of your and it sounded like it had a knock at idle but sounded fine slightly above that. I thought it was set a little too low about 750 RPMs. In winter it sounded worse.

 

[thr_wedge]

The engine used to sound almost diesel like at idle. Check up today, oil still clear,barely down from Max, sounded great at idle. Will check again in a month or whenever I see her again.