1st Oil Change

[digifoss]

So I was in town yesterday and stopped by Walmart to get my first oil change in my new-to-me Explorer since the oil change sticker on the windshield showed less than 100 miles until it was due. I was going to get conventional oil and continue on every 3k miles as the PO had done since buying it new. Then I saw they had the Mobil 1 oil change discounted pretty good so I got the M1 5w-30 change instead and will probably stay on that and continue changing it every 3k miles. The lube tech that did the change said the old oil had a nice golden almost new look to it.

 

[Rcflyer330]

Thats interesting that the oil was a golden color.
In my car after 2k miles the oil is dark and after 5k its very dark brown. Its always been that way though. The only car that i have seen a golden oil after being run was a 2006 hyundai sonata looked basicly new that was around 11k miles oci.
Thats in the 4.0l right?

 

[07EddyB]

I was going to say that the manual calls for 5K mile oil changes but I couldn't find it in my manual. Not sure where I read that? Anyhow - if you are running a full synthetic as opposed to the semi-synthetic Ford oil then you should be good to at the very least 5K. Most people run those oils to at least 10K. I use Mobil 1 at a 5K interval and that is probably overkill but it's hard to let go of the 3K change I grew up with.

 

[MotorCityFats13]

yeah! every oil change ive done on every engine since my first time back in 1994 the oil would be black after a few days.... you cant flush it all out and the left over oil takes the color over quickly and i use the 15k mobile one and never change the oil in less than 10k... and I finally used forscan and changed my cluster notification to 10k so no more constant resets until im ready

back like 4 years ago I did an oil change on my GF's trailblazer 7qts of amsoil pretty sucky..... 7 x $12.99 then less than a week later she had a wheel bearing changed at a shop and they told her that her oil was over due and showed her a black dip stick and she let them do a drain and fill with regular dinosaur oil... I was floored that 1. she fell for the black oil lie 2. she thought I lied to her about doing a $100 oil change 3. she paid them $1300 for $150 worth of work and got pissed at me for *****ing out the shop that ripped her off

 

[digifoss]

A fresh oil change in my Suburban will turn black in the first 50 miles, but then it's a diesel so expected. Ford makes really good quality fluids for their vehicles but I've always thought syn-blend oil is kind of a waste. It is usually priced closer to full synthetic than conventional and going full synthetic doesn't cost much more. Even if I continue using M1 Ill probably stay with 3k to 4k OCI. From what I have read here about the 4.0 engine, frequent oil changes is the key to long engine life and avoiding issues with the timing cassetts. We don't put many miles on our vehicles so 1 to 2 oil changes a year is pretty cheap for what I will likely get in return. IMO