OCI for truck not driven but about 150 mi per month

[AM500]

I have a 2003 F-150 FX4,5.4 V8 with 181,000 miles.
I’ve been using 5w-20 Valvoline High Mileage oil with a Wix filter.
I only drive about 150mi per month,half gravel roads half highway.
I’ve been changing my oil once in the fall and once in the spring.
Could I go with just doing a yearly oil change or should I stick with twice a year?
Not having any issues, just curious.
Thanks.

 

[JeffKeryk]

That's less than 2,000 per year. I would give it a year and a half, or whatever. Swap the filter every other service.
That's similar to my old Tundra.

 

[JHZR2]

Nothing wrong with going two years. I would change the oil and the filter. Can always do a uoa to see if fuel or water is an actual concern.

 

[spasm3]

I think the duration of the drive is what matters here. How long are most of your trips? IF not long, then i'd change more often due to fuel, and condensation. If you are getting the oil good and hot, 3 years with a good oil should be fine.

 

[WiskyBadger]

I have a 2003 F-150 FX4,5.4 V8 with 181,000 miles.
I’ve been using 5w-20 Valvoline High Mileage oil with a Wix filter.
I only drive about 150mi per month,half gravel roads half highway.
I’ve been changing my oil once in the fall and once in the spring.
Could I go with just doing a yearly oil change or should I stick with twice a year?
Not having any issues, just curious.
Thanks.

Roughly what my 82 does, I put a little more miles on then that. I change it spring and fall. Makes me feel better.

 

[twX]

I'd change it every 2-3 years.

 

[Lubener]

I would normally go every two years years but you mentioned gravel roads which would be a dirty environment. That thrown in , I would change once a year.

 

[Urshurak776]

I would do once a year, but going two years would probably be fine too.

 

[WobblyElvis]

I think the duration of the drive is what matters here. How long are most of your trips? IF not long, then i'd change more often due to fuel, and condensation. If you are getting the oil good and hot, 3 years with a good oil should be fine.

spasm3 has it right.

OP drives an average of 5 miles a day. If this is a trip of 1 mile to town twice a day, then you can't change oil only once a year. Extreme short tripping would destroy the oil in a month or two.

More detailed information is needed.

 

[Hohn]

I would normally go every two years years but you mentioned gravel roads which would be a dirty environment. That thrown in , I would change once a year.

If you find gravel roads to have relevance to oil change interval, you need to upgrade your air filtration.

 

[ka9mnx]

I put about 1,500 miles a year on my F-150. 256,000 on the engine. I did the OCI once a year. The last change was with Euro 5w-40. But that was three years ago!

The three year mark is this fall and it will get changed. Think I'll stick with three years.

 

[kballowe]

I'm curious. What does the oil look like on the drain ?
Just thinking about short trips and condensation.

My wife's new car went five miles to work every day. At two years exactly, the muffler rusted in half and fell off in the middle of the road. We changed the oil every 3k, and it looked just fine in the drain pan. It got traded off ten years later. No issues.

 

[Glenda W.]

I always liked the idea of a yearly oil change with high quality oil. It’s good to get under there to check things out.

 

[dnewton3]

Why guess when you can know? Get a UOA.

***************************

In the absence of that ...

There are plenty of other UOAs here on this site that show multi-year OCIs are perfectly safe. As are the filters that accompany them. The only reason to not run longer OCIs is if there were any indication of malfunctioning such as internal coolant leaks, fuel odor in the oil, etc. Assuming all the mechanical conditions are good, then 3-5 years is totally doable.

I'd do every 3-5 years. In fact, I do just that in my low use engines (Kubota tractors; OPE; 1966 Mustang 289; etc). I recently posted a picture of a Wix filter with over 5 years in service; totally fine. I've posted UOAs here years back with 3 years and 11k miles on my Dmax; totally fine.

 

[BrendanC]

i’d bump to a nice 5w-30. Valvoline EP HM and change it every spring. gives you a chance to get under it and look around.

 

[ka9mnx]

I'm curious. What does the oil look like on the drain ?
Just thinking about short trips and condensation.

My wife's new car went five miles to work every day. At two years exactly, the muffler rusted in half and fell off in the middle of the road. We changed the oil every 3k, and it looked just fine in the drain pan. It got traded off ten years later. No issues.

If you are speaking to me, oil on the dipstick looks new with no fuel smell.

 

[nwjones18]

I go 2 years on my old F-150. It does get a 45min highway run every once in a while though.

 

[JHZR2]

I would normally go every two years years but you mentioned gravel roads which would be a dirty environment. That thrown in , I would change once a year.

You need UOA to verify that this is anything more than speculation.

I go 2 years on my old F-150. It does get a 45min highway run every once in a while though.

A decent highway run definitely helps.

I'm curious. What does the oil look like on the drain ?
Just thinking about short trips and condensation.

My wife's new car went five miles to work every day. At two years exactly, the muffler rusted in half and fell off in the middle of the road. We changed the oil every 3k, and it looked just fine in the drain pan. It got traded off ten years later. No issues.

You’re not going to see fuel or condensation. Thus why UOA.

We got through this 20 years ago. My mother’s “commute” was five blocks four times a day. Occasionally about 150 miles of highway driving on a weekend. We could use the non-severe service interval and be totally fine using a quality oil.

spasm3 has it right.

OP drives an average of 5 miles a day. If this is a trip of 1 mile to town twice a day, then you can't change oil only once a year. Extreme short tripping would destroy the oil in a month or two.

More detailed information is needed.

See above. That’s definitely not the rule if you have objective evidence. It wasn’t even the case 20 years ago.

I think the duration of the drive is what matters here. How long are most of your trips? IF not long, then i'd change more often due to fuel, and condensation. If you are getting the oil good and hot, 3 years with a good oil should be fine.

I tend to agree. Short tripping we know isn’t great, but it’s not the boogeyman in all circumstances either. If the engine gets a decent drive now and again it can really do well.