Ford Taurus - 1 year oil chg ... help!

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ericthepig

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For the last three years I have chged my mother's oil in her '98 Ford Taurus (or '99?) on my July trip to Oklahoma City. I assured her that she would be fine on this one OCI per year given her 8 to 10k mileage. I know zip about Fords (I do know hers is the low performance version of the engine (under 100k miles on engine - 15 mile trip average)). I have always used M1 10w30 (used EP last year) w/ M1 & Pure1 filters. I have kept my fingers crossed that all is well (never done an OCI).

Any concerns here given the age of the engine? (she bought it about 30k ago, have no idea of previous maint.) Is M1 EP 10w30 a good choice for this engine at 1 yr OCI?
 
My mom is on the scattered brained end of the spectrum. My chging once/year with full Synth likely trumps her own OCIs. Plus, I pay for all the supplies, plus it saves her from having to mess with it (assuming she would mess with it). I only make it there 3x/yr - and OCs take away from family time (plus the expense) - so I really want 1x/yr. The trip is coming up, so just wanted to chk this w/ BITOG.
 
My Dads last 2 oil changes were 19k and 27k.

This was with Amsoil and a EAO filter for the 19k change.
Other was with Amsoil and a Fram tough gard filter for the 27k change.

I am in the same boat maintaining my Fathers car. I did not mean for my Dad to go that long. It just happened.

I was living in California at the time. His engine had a slight lifter tick after the 27k change. I just remember looking at my maintenance record for his Plymouth Voyager van and going Oh Sh****t.

I just looked at it recently and it has about 11k on this change and the tick is gone. So all is good.
He is coming up on 60k on the Amsoil auto trans fluid. I will have to decide how long to run that.
laugh.gif
 
Quote:

I only make it there 3x/yr - and OCs take away from family time (plus the expense) - so I really want 1x/yr.

Click to expand...


There are two things wrong here (in my opinion)

1) You only change your Mom's oil once in 8-10,000 miles.

2) You only visit your Mom three times a year.
frown.gif
 
You're on to me Merkava. However, she makes some extended trips here as well - so it's not (quite) as bad as it sounds. Got inlaws in one geography and my family in another - but I do plan to start putting in one more trip per year to Okla. City. I've got three kids (8 & under) - got to get them to those g-parents.
 
On a (slightly) related note - I'm read often on here about engines that are "easy" on oil. Apparently the 98 Taurus is one. I can smell that oil after one full year, and it has the normal dull smell of oil. I smell my 98 Sienna's oil after one month, and it's all skanked up.
 
I think you are fine with what you are doing.

I currently have my mom's car (2005 4cyl camry) on a 15K interval (about 15 months) with 5w-30 M1 EP and the mobil EP oil filter. She NEVER makes short trips and NEVER drives hard. Her driving is about 90% highway and 10% city.

Every 15k miles I change the oil, oil filter, air filter, cabin air filter, and rotate the tires.

The oil change interval is not ideal but I am certain her car will see 200K if she keeps it that long.

My mom maintains the car like most people. She doesn't. At least this way it gets routine care.
 
BTW - the brooding I've done on this to date - I'm likely going with M1 0w40 - due to the age of the engine and to slow consumption (though she only needs about 2.5 qts/yr). If this is uncool, feel free to chime in.
 
You know PP kind've lost me with their marketing scheme (I'm not arguing that it's not a great oil though) - but looking at their web page they go all into that high level chem. talk of "our smart molecules divide, rebuild, etc based on engine internals, etc". I'm have a physics background, so I'm not afraid of chem. talk - but I get this feeling of overcomplication and "will all this dividing, rebuilding, etc, be correctly tuned to my own (or my mom's) engines issues". For now I'll probably shy away from oil that is that "smart".
smile.gif
Thanks for the recommendation though!
 
Quote:

For the last three years I have chged my mother's oil in her '98 Ford Taurus (or '99?) on my July trip to Oklahoma City. I assured her that she would be fine on this one OCI per year given her 8 to 10k mileage. I know zip about Fords (I do know hers is the low performance version of the engine (under 100k miles on engine - 15 mile trip average)). I have always used M1 10w30 (used EP last year) w/ M1 & Pure1 filters. I have kept my fingers crossed that all is well (never done an OCI).

Any concerns here given the age of the engine? (she bought it about 30k ago, have no idea of previous maint.) Is M1 EP 10w30 a good choice for this engine at 1 yr OCI?

Click to expand...


I agree with other people , I think that you will be fine.

Only question is what is her oil level? Does she use oil, or have someone to check level and top off?

Amsoil and the Eao filters might be even better for this service.
 
She uses close to 3 qts in the year. I keep it topped off between my other trips and her trips here.

I've really been coveting the Amsoil filters for a while now. It's just the price, plus shipping gets me. May still make that choice for my van though. (War story - Few years back I was in Dallas Tx and thought I could buy a bunch of Amsoil at the dist. ctr and not pay shipping - left the inlaws house at about 3:00 pm to make the 30 mile trip to the ctr - turns out the ctr is right between Six Flags and Ranger stadium and it was the season opener for the Rangers that day - took about two hours to get there - already closed. It was a sign to stick with M1.
smile.gif
)
 
I was just stating my opinion previously, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm right. I'm thinking since the sump on that Taurus is only 4-5 quarts, that the oil should be changed out twice a year at least. If your Mom had an 8 quart sump on that Taurus, then she could probably go the whole year on Mobil 1 without any problems. I wish these car manufactures would put larger oil pans on their cars.
 
I have a similar car ('01 Taurus)... I wouldn't have a problem with the 10K change, however, with that much consumption I would change to a synthetic High Mileage oil. If you can find it, I think the Maxlife synthetic would be your best bet. It's a little difficult to find around here, so maybe the Mobil 1 HM would work as well.
 
Thanks for all the input. I'm actually fuzzy on the consumption - the oil chks and top offs all kind've blur - may be closer to 2 qts. The sump is 5 qts. Any problems w/ going M1 0w40 to slow what consumption there is, and since it should be very capable of 1 yr. I'm just not sure at what engine age you can stop going by the OEM recommendation (5w30) and go thicker - is there somewhere a 40wt couldn't get in that engine?
 
M1's 0w-40 would probably work just fine, but with an average trip mileage of 15 miles, I ponder loss in MPG??? I suppose you'll just have to try it, or a HM type as others have mentioned.

Take care.
 
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