How offten do you change oil?

Do you keep track of how often you pull your RV to change the oil in a

7.3 ? . Or should you change every 3000 miles to make sure you are doing it as you should ?. The cost seems to be high for an oil change. Fox.

I'm changing every 3000 miles. The maintenance cost is higher, but offset somewhat by the fuel cost.

Doug Wilson Mountain Home, NC

1999 Ford F-350 Crew Cab 4x4 diesel 2001 Hi Lo 240 D 1

Remove my pants to reply.....

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I keep track of my towing mileage (I tow a 11,000 5th wheel) and always change the oil at 3,000 when towing. If I don't tow, I change it between 3,000 and

4,000. Some will argue this is excessive but I'd rather spend a little now than a lot in repair bills later. BTW, I have about 94k miles on the truck right now.

Mike

Do not reply to the e-mail address above - too much SPAM! Post replies to the group!

I don't worry about it. My trailer only weighs in at about 4,000, though. I change every 5k and that was confirmed to be fine even with some towing according to a couple of oil analyses I had done.

1) I'm not particularly savy about auto maintenance, which is why I usually just lurk. 2) The following quote isn't specifically about RV's:

(From Car Talk) "Tom: Any recommended oil-change interval is just an estimate anyway. The idea is to change the oil before it loses its ability to properly lubricate the engine and hold contaminants in suspension. And most car manufacturers think oil can perform those duties for at least 7,500 miles. Ray: We happen to recommend an oil and filter change every 5,000 miles (or about every six months). "

Comments?

It seems to me that people throw a lot of money away on oil changes (and unnecessary high octane gas).

-- Josh

Ok - I'm gonna jump into the middle of this - and admit I didn't see the original question and possibly some followups - and risk the (perhaps deserved) flame I'm gonna get - but here goes....

I have been a firm believer in synthetic oil since it first came out - yes - way back then. I normally change the oil in my cars (which obviously don't tow trailers) every 20,000 miles. (BTW, so far, I've stuck to Mobil 1). I just sold a Mazda 626 (1987) (surplus car is the only reason I sold it). It had 350,000 miles on it - the mechanics told me it had less internal noise (wrist pin, etc) than some new engines he has heard. Didn't use or leak a drop. Granted it was a Rice-burner engine.

On the trucks, I change my Isuzu Trooper every 20k also (can't tow a whole bunch with 120 ponies). Engine still like brand new at 100k.

I'm changing the oil in my F150 at 10k intervals since I tow a Hi-Lo with it - I'd guess about 5,000 # on the hoof - of course without the wind drag. The F150 has the 3.55 rear end so it has to pull and shift a lot - granted - (BTW - see question below). It has only 40k on it but so far, quiet and solid. Hope it stays that way.

I had an old Mercury Capri that I tore the engine apart at 215k to rebuilt after running Mobil 1 in it the whole time. (The only reason I went ahead and rebuilt it was I had to take it out of the car cause I had the car lowered (4" clear - handled nice though) and ripped the engine mount screws out of the block on railroad tracks - yes it was a young and stupid time). When I took it to the machine shop, they wouldn't believe it had those miles on it and kept insisting I must mean 15k. (this includes cam, cylinders, etc).

Maybe my experience is unique but I'm sold. I've had really good luck with the synthetic and would recommend it to anyone - whether towing or not. And no, I'm not a distributer, salesman, etc, etc, etc. Just sharing my experience.

Now to my question: I can't seem to find an answer on: On towing with the F150 (5.4L). It does a lot of downshifting from 4-OD to 3rd on each grade while towing. Would you recommend disabling the overdrive to make it stay in 3rd (with the inherent higher revs) or let it shift? I get different answers from every dealer, mechanic, friend, foe, etc.

Thanks, Papa Don

So what, the rest of the vehicle had had everything replaced at least once, right? I wouldn't extend oil change intervals while the engine is under warranty, biproducts of combustion aren't removed by the filter, they are removed by the oil change, and on a diesel (which was the original subject here) there are a lot of biproducts.

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 17:04:50 -0700, Don rearranged some electrons to form:

Everybody I have talked to says eventually you will burn up the OD by towing with it, but I have done it too, and nothing bad has happened. yet! :-/

I agree with you up to a point. I also tow most of the time with my truck and change oil every 5,000 miles. The reason I change at 5,000 miles is, I have a

100,000 mile extended warranty from Ford, and it states that the warranty is void if the oil is not changed every 5,000 miles and makes no mention of towing, so I don't change at 3,000. I usually get another truck at around 100,000 miles anyway, because by then, all the accessory parts are failing and becoming hard to find.

Tom J

I've changed oil even more frequently than 3K miles when my wife was commuting less than 2 miles to work each day. The problem is that the engine never quite got up to actual running/operating temperature, which caused sludge to begin forming from accumulation of water condensing in the crankcase oil. It was also MURDER on my muffler, which dripped water long after the engine was shut off. Synthetic oil helped by not being as susceptible to this as conventional oils. My humble experience. Summary: How often you change oil should be dictated by the type of driving you do, how frequently you can afford it and your own personal convictions on what works best for you/yours. I choose to "over"-maintain my Broncos. I figure the peace of mind and longevity are the payback.... Even using synthetic oil, I change/drain the crankcase at 3k or less. Trans fluid (convertor drain too) and filter at 25K or less (also synthetic). Transfercase (syn ATF) @ 10K or less. YMMV

Randy

Don, When I tow, I leave it in 3rd, only allowing it into OD on straight flat ground. I figure all that downshifting is taking useful life off the clutchpacks. MHO

Randy