4 weeks and 3400 miles later, review

[Gandalf]

It does not differentiate oil types.

So does that mean the system may tell you to change your oil more often then needed if you are using synthetic? The assumption here is that synthetics can go longer than standard motor oils between changes. Is that correct?

 

[Bill #5 Explorer]

So does that mean the system may tell you to change your oil more often then needed if you are using synthetic? The assumption here is that synthetics can go longer than standard motor oils between changes. Is that correct?

What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to maximize the longevity of your engine or the longevity of your oil? They oppose each other, hard to do both. An oil change, in full synthetic, will be about $75. An engine change will be well north of $7,500.

Again, oil is cheap.

I plan to change my oil every 5-6,000 miles. Just like I did in my 2007 Eddie Bauer (traded in at 212,000 miles).

Most Owners actually operate their vehicles in "severe conditions", and don't even know it, like; short trips, city driving, idling, extreme cold, heat, humidity, just to name a few. This is murder on oil.

I do greater than 75% highway driving with very little stop & go.

 

[JustB_Rad]

What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to maximize the longevity of your engine or the longevity of your oil? They oppose each other, hard to do both. An oil change, in full synthetic, will be about $75. An engine change will be well north of $7,500.

Again, oil is cheap.

I plan to change my oil every 5-6,000 miles. Just like I did in my 2007 Eddie Bauer (traded in at 212,000 miles).

Most Owners actually operate their vehicles in "severe conditions", and don't even know it, like; short trips, city driving, idling, extreme cold, heat, humidity, just to name a few. This is murder on oil.

I do greater than 75% highway driving with very little stop & go.

So I drive about 15,000 miles a year. I'd say about 50/50 city/highway. If I switch to synthetic @1000 miles, would I be ok with changing my oil in the spring and in the fall?

 

[Bill #5 Explorer]

So I drive about 15,000 miles a year. I'd say about 50/50 city/highway. If I switch to synthetic @1000 miles, would I be ok with changing my oil in the spring and in the fall?

That seems reasonable. Unless, you oil monitoring systems asks you to change it prior to your approx. 7,500 mile interval.

 

[sm4astan]

What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to maximize the longevity of your engine or the longevity of your oil? They oppose each other, hard to do both. An oil change, in full synthetic, will be about $75. An engine change will be well north of $7,500.

Is the key selling point for Synthetic oil that lasts longer than normal oil, or that it provides better protection?

If only the former, looking to get longer life from a more expensive oil is NOT at odds with trying to get longer life out of it.

If the synthetic oil provides better protection, but only for the life of normal oil, then I understand what you're saying.

 

[JustB_Rad]

That seems reasonable. Unless, you oil monitoring systems asks you to change it prior to your approx. 7,500 mile interval.

I'm thinking strongly about considering this over conventional oil and changes...overall I think I'll come out to around the same cost...but I should be way better off in the long run.

 

[Gandalf]

Is the key selling point that Synthetic oil lasts longer than normal oil, or that it provides better protection?

If only the former, than looking longer life from the more expensive oil is not at odds with trying to get longer life out of it.

If the synthetic provides better protection, but only for the life of normal oil, then I understand what you're saying.

Exactly. What added value does synthetic give you over regular oil given its higher cost?

 

[Bill #5 Explorer]

Is the key selling point that Synthetic oil lasts longer than normal oil, or that it provides better protection?

If only the former, than looking longer life from the more expensive oil is not at odds with trying to get longer life out of it.

If the synthetic provides better protection, but only for the life of normal oil, then I understand what you're saying.

Please don't take this the wrong way, SM4astan, but I give a rats ass how much oil cost and how much longer full sythetic last over conventional oil. All I care about is protecting my engines. In the long run, my protected engine will cover my wallet.

I error on the side of using the best oil, and changing it a little sooner than required. the cost is not an issue, especially when compared to the potential cost of NOT doing it.

 

[JustB_Rad]

Please don't take this the wrong way, SM4astan, but I give a rats ass how much oil cost and how much longer full sythetic last over conventional oil. All I care about is protecting my engines. In the long run, my protected engine will cover my wallet.

I error on the side of using the best oil, and changing it a little sooner than required. the cost is not an issue, especially when compared to the potential cost of NOT doing it.

What are you using for a filter?

 

[sm4astan]

No offense taken, so I hope you don't take any, but if it's overkill for no good reason (which is why I was asking about the benefits of synthetic oil), than even if it makes you feel good, it may not be doing anything other than that.

I've never had a vehicle experience any type of engine problems but then I normally don't keep vehicles beyond 100,000 miles or so.

 

[Bill #5 Explorer]

Exactly. What added value does synthetic give you over regular oil given its higher cost?

My caviler attitude comes mainly from the ownership experience of having 2 Porsches. This conservative attitude about oil carries over to my Explorer, to it's benefit, IMHO. Those engine’s values exceed $40K. The least of my worries is how much oil costs. And I have UOA’s to back up my experience.

I'm not looking to maximize the life of my oil. I am looking to maximize the life of the motor.

 

[Bill #5 Explorer]

What are you using for a filter?

In the Porsches, only OEM.

In the Explorer, OEM and whatever the guys at places like Jiffy Lube use. About half the time, the dealership does the changes.

 

[Bill #5 Explorer]

No offense taken, so I hope you don't take any, but if it's overkill for no good reason (which is why I was asking about the benefits of synthetic oil), than even if it makes you feel good, it may not be doing anything other than that.

I've never had a vehicle experience any type of engine problems but then I normally don't keep vehicles beyond 100,000 miles or so.

We are good! No problem.

It is not just a "feel good experience". Remember, I am logging used oil analysis results & data.

Again, my attitude comes from owning high performance sports cars. They see RPMs that exceed 7,000, track time at speeds over 150 MPH, some are Turbos and even aircooled.

All this gained knowledge gets projected on the way I treat my company-car-Explorer.

 

[Bill #5 Explorer]

I am sorry, but, I think we hijacked poor TroyandCarol's post. Maybe someone can start a new post about oil.

But, from past experience, discussing oil on the internet is a lot like religion and politics.

 

[uniquename]

My caviler attitude comes mainly from the ownership experience of having 2 Porsches. This conservative attitude about oil carries over to my Explorer, to it's benefit, IMHO. Those engine’s values exceed $40K. The least of my worries is how much oil costs. And I have UOA’s to back up my experience.

I'm not looking to maximize the life of my oil. I am looking to maximize the life of the motor.

On a $40K motor, sure. But, in 100,000 miles with the explorer needing a change at $15 vs $75, and you doing it twice as often...the payout is less compared to the risk.

I will not be running the motor at 8K plus shift points, and it is simply designed to not need frequent changes. Your choice of course. I will chose not to change more than I need to.

 

[esandye]

I agree, talking about oil is like politics and religion, but here is a more unbiased evaluation I posted earlier.
www.edmunds.com/car-care/stop-changing-your-oil.html

 

[1995E]

Just because the oil is synthetic does not mean you should wait to change it at 20k miles. Oil gets diluted with fuel and debris and this means the oil won't work as well. Those cylinders have to be tightly packed together in order to operate correctly and if you have a wear more than a thousandth of an inch, you're going to have problems. It's not worth the risk. Don't rely on that computer alone, it just uses algorithms to calculate oil life and with the accuracy of sensors overtime, I wouldn't rely on it solely.

Use the dipstick. You can put your hand on the oil from the dipstick and feel it's lost most of its lubrication capabilities after about 4k miles and this was on my friend's Cadillac CTS which uses premium fuel along with synthetic only. The safest is to go with maximum 7k. My friend's Ford Expedition 1998 has 450k miles and the same engine running beautifully since he changed it ever 3k miles. Just my two cents.

 

[esandye]

I have kept my last 3 explorers 130-180K miles each and used standard non synthetic oil at 5000 mile intervals and none of them ever had a problem or even burned more than 1/4 qt of oil between changes. Most experts agree that 3000 mile changes are way too ofter for modern engines. That would be my 2 cents.

 

[troyandcarol]

Answers to the questions and a cool pic!

I'm back and no I have not changed the oil No plans to right now but that may change.

I also forgot to say one of the Bad or Good things depending on how you look at it, but we averaged 20.2 mpg on the way down and 20.7 on the way back. I was definitely hoping for more but didn't get it. I have included a Picture with the entire trip info. A very good perk

To answer a few questions:

CG13 that is an aftermarket DVD player in an aftermarket DVD holder. It was the most cost effective option for us at the time.

Holligl it is the CurtCargo Carrier, 500 lbs capacity. I paid $180.00 for it out the door assembled. I found them cheaper online but I didn't think the time I would have to wait and the price I would pay for shipping was worth it.

sm4astan we could not put the car seat behind the passenger seat because the passenger was 6'4" and he would have had to have the seat back even further than me. Like I said the backseat is doable it just should have been bigger. We sat in one that had the second row bucket seats but even though the seats move forward and back they didn't seem to move back any further than the ones that don't move, I could be wrong but that is the way it seemed to me.

gabella we had about 980 miles on the EX before we started the trip so I guess you could say we did break in the engine but we didn't do anything special just drove it around and didn't jump on it at all.

uniquename the iphone was plugged into the usb port and it would say indexing or something else but it never progressed from that. I was able to see the name of the songs after about 30 minutes and I could scroll through the playlists threw the MFT but it never completely finished and when I was trying to change the songs or playlists was not intuitive at all and was much more difficult than just doing it on the phone, it shouldn't be but it is.

 

[uniquename]

uniquename the iphone was plugged into the usb port and it would say indexing or something else but it never progressed from that. I was able to see the name of the songs after about 30 minutes and I could scroll through the playlists threw the MFT but it never completely finished and when I was trying to change the songs or playlists was not intuitive at all and was much more difficult than just doing it on the phone, it shouldn't be but it is.

First, I like the info it gives on the trip!

Second...looks like SYNC hasn't progressed in that way yet. Not sure how many songs you have on your iphone, but I have run into player issues with everything front a plain hard drive to a zune with large amounts of files in my 08. That sucks. As far as changing songs and playlists, I do that all by voice and it works wonderfully. It better be at least as good with MFT.