First oil change - non-recreational?

Just because you CAN go to 8000 KM does not mean you MUST.

Regardless what ANYBODY on this group says, changing the oil in your new Fusion at 5000KM intervals will never do any harm.

DON"T do the first oil change at 1000Km like used to be standard procedure though.

The surface finishes on the moving parts of todays engines are FAR more uniform than they used to be, so there is a lot less actual "break-in" going on, and precious little "metal bits" deposited in that first oil dump.

In spite of what anybody else tells you, the only way for manufacturers to make rings seat in cylinders is to leave them a little rough.

So change your oil and filter at 500 miles the first time, look at all the metal crap in your oil, be glad it isnt going through your motor every

I bought a new 08 and believe me, there is still lots of metal in the oil at 500 or 600 miles.

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Actually, 1000 km was exactly what I had in mind for an initial change... Why do you recommend against that and when would you recommend the initial oil change take place?

W.

I'd say 2000km or 2 months for the "break-in oil", then 5000-8000 km or 4 months thereafter - depending on temperature and other conditions.

Wrong: It wastes resources (oil and filter), time, money and makes a small risk that the person doing the oil change will do something stupid, like leaving the oil plug out, using the wrong filter or putting it on wrong, putting in too little oil, messing up the drain plug (e.g., cross-threading it).

And it wastes bandwidth with stupid comments.

Jeff

I cut the filter open on one of my new cars and there was nothing on it. Certainly not a bunch of metal bits. And if there were any metal bits, the filter would have caught them, that's what a filter does.

There is NO reason to change the oil any sooner then the normal oil change interval for the first change other then to feel good. If it makes some one feel good then by all means do it, it's your money, but you are wasting your money.

YOU just go ahead and do whatever thick-skulled thing you want, I am not suggesting that YOU should do this, I am suggesting that the original poster, who may be capable of reasoning, change his.

You just go ahead and do whatever you want, feel free to ignore my posts.

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It's not you my comments are addressed to, it's others who your comments might cause to think their new engines and filters are full of crap. It just isn't so. If there is metal particles they will be filtered out the first time they get sucked up by the oil pump and sent to the filter. If it was a realistic concern the car makers would require you to change the oil every 500 miles for the first 1500 miles to protect themselves from damage during the warranty. They don't do that because it's not a problem even when they provide a warranty for 60K to 100K or even a lifetime warranty on the engine.

If anyone wants to change their oil before they need to, have at it... Sadly, some owners may choose to finance this kind of waste by purchasing lower quality products. There is no compelling reason for changing oil more often that the "severe service" recommendations...

Not even the first change.

Isn't it odd that so many advise regarding mileage... but so few observe elapsed time recommendations.

There is no longer any such thing as "break in oil"...

However, on reflection, one consideration for the first oil change might be the elapsed time from when the car was built until the first oil change. During this time, the car is subject to very short periods of running as it is loaded, unloaded, marshalled around freightyards, shipped to the dealer, moved around his lot... currently, all new Ford gas engines ship with a "high idle" strategy in the PCM to reduce the possibility of spark plug fouling...

Perhaps an early first change may not be a bad thing... but not for the reasons imagined...

Interesting... Does this idle strategy time out or is something done during PDI to lower the idle?

Either or... it can be programmed out or it will time out...(IIRC, something like 5 miles of consecutive driving).

The high idle strategy has been with us for a few years now and shouldn't be confused with an even newer accessory delay strategy that times out after 50 miles if it isn't "turned off".

I also read that the 3000 mile oil change was invented by every quick lube place on the planet, and most of us only have to change oil every 5000 miles.

how's this for a variation:

have had my '06 'stang GT for 4 yrs, 2 months now......and it has accumulated all of 1800 miles. in other words, around 400 miles a year.

discussed my intended use with the friendly local dealer.....who insisted that I had to change the oil & filter every 6 months or the warranty would be voided. so it was changed every 200 miles or so for the first year and a half until I decided there was nothing wrong with the car that would need warranty work .... and that the oil changes were probably doing more harm than good.

Thanks Jim. Reminds me of the early 80s Oldsmobiles that came with a jumper plug in the ALDL, same reason, to help keep the spark plugs from fouling as the cars were jockeyed around the storage lots and dealerships.

i have another question... how many new car mfgs are recomending intervals for synthetic oils?

All of them.... they recommend the same interval as for conventional oils....

The insidious part about failures related to lubricants.... you can't tell that there will be a failure until after it happens...

You change your oil according to your schedule... your engine still runs.... I could tell you about what I have seen.... but YOUR engine still runs ... I have seen many engines that ran up until they wouldn't run anymore... Yours still runs. You can do anything you want to... but when they ask for oil change records.....

FWIW... you appear to expect the "wrong" oil to give an instant catastrophic failure... ain't gonna happen... You could (if you were an idiot) fill your crankcase with water and be amazed as to how far you could go before the thing blew up..

The only person you are fooling is you....

Not so sure of that. Most of the new cars all use synthetic or "blended" oils that probably add to the long periods between oil changes. The synthetics and blends are also cost effective if you don't change oil as often as you do with standard oil.