Advice for 3000 miles per year

[rjacket]

Looking for advice prior to the next oil change.

The car is a 2004 Taurus 3.0 Duratec with 60k miles. It now does 3000 miles a year as follows:

4 x 1 mile trips 5 times a week during school year = 800 miles a year
Other trips of 1 to 6 miles = 1000 miles a year
2 x 12 mile trips once a week on the freeway = 1200 miles a year

I have Pennzoil Platinum 5W-20 ready to go in and am considering running it for 9 to 12 months at which time it should reach 3000 miles.

The car is in California and is garaged so the coldest starting temp it sees in winter is say 45f. In summer, the temperature will get up to 90f with some days 100f and on a few days 110f.

My thinking is that severe service is 3k but does it need to be 3 months or could it be up to a year with synthetic?

Thoughts on viscosity and synthetic vs non synthetic are welcome. Right now the motorcraft 5w-20 has been in for 5 months and is reasonably clean looking but smells of fuel (the car hasn't seen the freeway driving mentioned above)

Thanks for the feedback

 

[crinkles]

because you are not freezing I would probably do 1 year 3000 mile changes.

My angel on my shoulder says you should just take the bike; the devil on the other one says cars are so much easier.

 

[rjacket]

Originally Posted By: crinkles
because you are not freezing I would probably do 1 year 3000 mile changes.

My angel on my shoulder says you should just take the bike; the devil on the other one says cars are so much easier.


Any oil recommendation for my case? Should I go with synthetic or save a few dollars and pick up conventional eg the new PG?

 

[GhostFlame]

Originally Posted By: rjacket
Originally Posted By: crinkles
because you are not freezing I would probably do 1 year 3000 mile changes.

My angel on my shoulder says you should just take the bike; the devil on the other one says cars are so much easier.


Any oil recommendation for my case? Should I go with synthetic or save a few dollars and pick up conventional eg the new PG?


Kendal or motorcraft semi synthetic the same oil whichever you can find cheaper... actually any semi synthetic should do the trick.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: rjacket
Looking for advice prior to the next oil change.

The car is a 2004 Taurus 3.0 Duratec with 60k miles. It now does 3000 miles a year as follows:

4 x 1 mile trips 5 times a week during school year = 800 miles a year
Other trips of 1 to 6 miles = 1000 miles a year
2 x 12 mile trips once a week on the freeway = 1200 miles a year

I have Pennzoil Platinum 5W-20 ready to go in and am considering running it for 9 to 12 months at which time it should reach 3000 miles.

The car is in California and is garaged so the coldest starting temp it sees in winter is say 45f. In summer, the temperature will get up to 90f with some days 100f and on a few days 110f.

My thinking is that severe service is 3k but does it need to be 3 months or could it be up to a year with synthetic?

Thoughts on viscosity and synthetic vs non synthetic are welcome. Right now the motorcraft 5w-20 has been in for 5 months and is reasonably clean looking but smells of fuel (the car hasn't seen the freeway driving mentioned above)

Thanks for the feedback


You have "Pennzoil Platinum 5W20 ready to go", I'd say look no further. I would consider a used oil analysis after 6 months to see how much of an effect fuel dilution is or isn't having. JMO

 

[Patman]

Regardless of what oil you choose, I'd recommend going out of your way at least once per week and making sure this car gets a good 15-20 mile run on the highway.

 

[zulu]

Since none of your driving is over 15 miles, I'd ditch the mileage mindset and change it once every 6 months. That's an awful lot of short trips and a VERY tough way to rack up 3000 miles engine-wise. Conventional will survive, but I may stick with syn because of your frequent starts/stops.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Short trips are oil absoilutely oil killers. I would do a min 2x 0ci/year. That plan has a better cost/benefit ratio than 1x/yr. And +1 on walking or a bike or a Moped or an electric RAZOR.

 

[CourierDriver]

Had an old 73 F100 ford trk, drove it 2000 miles in 6 years, same oil, finally sold it, ran great, it was 37 years old and never gave me any problems, so there u go, it dont matter, ps, it sat out side all the time, its still running , I see it every once in awhile. An old 360 v8, best truck I ever had.

 

[hate2work]

The type of oil is not what you should be concerned about, almost any modern oil will do what you ask. Fuel in the oil is not a good thing, you need to regularly burn it off with some long drives.

 

[ottotheclown]

I agree 2 oci a year with a good conventional will give you trouble free service. Syn can be very close to cost re. sales might consider that too. Know the feeling been

there.

 

[FL_Rob]

That engine is bulletproof, change the oil at above recommended schedule or as you spend more time on Bitog ,you'll more than likely come up with your own game plan.That transmission however will have to be looked after well,under those conditions (condensation).

 

[sangyup81]

Motorcraft 5w20 Synthetic Blend

 

[Kiwi_ME]

I drive a similar pattern in similar conditions and consider a full synthetic essential because of the very short trips. I've settled on 12 month oil changes which I think is conservative.

 

[hardcore302]

MC syn blend, Kendall GT-1, or even Pennzoil conventional..

 

[daves87rs]

My Cav sees around 5k a year. And I like to have fun with it.

So it gets two OCs a year with Napa synthetic. Works just fine.

 

[rjacket]

In TFOUT tests (by Amsoil), Motorcraft Synthetic Blend was top (behind Amsoil) and ahead of Mobil 1 Extended Performance with PP reaching half the minutes of Motorcraft and being amongst the worst in test.

This test seems to simulate the oil degradation from short trips since it looks at breakdown in oil contaminated with fuel and water.

Thoughts on this for my scenario? Does this indicate that Motorcraft synthetic blend would actually wear better than PP in a short trip scenario?

The one advantage that PP has over MC for my scenario is it's starting TBN of 10 vs 7.7. But apart from that, does the synthetic really have any advantages?

Here is the test in case you are interested

http://www.amsoil.com/performancetests/APIComparativeOilTest.aspx

 

[rjacket]

OK, one last question.

Sounds like another way to safely go to 1 year intervals is to get the car out on the freeway more often.

So if every two weeks I took it on a 90 mile roundtrip (which I currently do in another car) of which 70 of those miles are on the freeway, I would put 2300 miles on it on top of the 3000 miles that happen through mainly short trips.

So would approx 5300 miles a year with now 2300 miles of it being long trips (so something like 45% long trips / 55% short trips), then allow me to safely go a year between oil changes?

Also, would that one year interval be for synthetic only or would non synthetic also be ok?

 

[Boss302fan]

Once a year oil/filter change and use a good synthetic(Mobil 1, PP, Castrol Edge, P Ultra, etc... Synthetic is great for a once a year change.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

Stick to a full synthetic unless you don't mind some sludge buildup after a few years.