This will never happen to my tractors

37chief · Jul 11, 2012

I am ashamed to say, I checked the wife's 08 Ford Edge and it is way over the due date on the oil change by over twice the recommended milage. She really stacks up the miles. I would never let that happen to my tractors. Probably change the oil too soon. I'll bet I am not the only one that has done that. Tell the truth now. Stan

John_PA · Jul 11, 2012

Guy that used to sell Ford tractors has a brand new 1976 Ford LTD. The engine blew up at 32,000 miles, because, if you don't check or change your oil, that is exactly how long it takes for the oil from mile 1 on the odometer to completely burn out of a brand new engine.

I use a 7000 mile schedule. Some of these new oils really hold up nicely.

I used to go 3000 for the oil and 6000 for the filter. Now I just do both at 7000. Ford calls 7500 miles a "schedule B" oil change.

Ray · Jul 11, 2012

Bet he had some other problem,old oil won't blow up an engine.He probably ran it out of oil.

Unruh · Jul 11, 2012

Can we trust the electronic "oil anylizers" on our cars? Mine says 67% remaining at 3,000 miles. I change my tractor at about 100 hrs, which at an auto running an average of 50 mph would be 5,000 miles.

hintocw · Jul 11, 2012

I'm on a 12,000 mile change schedule with my vehicles, except for my truck which is only changed every twelve months regardless of mileage. (the truck is driven less than 3,000 miles/year). I use Amesoil in all my vehicles since each vehicle was new. In case you're wondering, my vehicles are 1) 2006 Ford Taurus, 80800 miles; 2) 2001 Ford Focus, 125000 miles, and 3) 1994 Chevy C2500 pickup, 137000 miles. The heads, pans, etc. have never been off any of these vehicles. I figure some of y'all are probably recoiling in horror, but it works for me.

Jim in Ma. · Jul 11, 2012

A few years ago I bought a new chevy sedan 305 cid with automatic. Put just over 265,000 miles on it and never changed the oil. Changed the oil filter every 6 months and added oil when ever needed. Junked the car when the trans went out. Motor only had tuneup perhaps twice.
Always ran reconditioned oil (15-40).

RodinNS · Jul 11, 2012

I generally don't even think about changing the oil in my Ranger until it's about twice the recomendation. All of my driving is highway miles. Now... when it gets to be three, four or five times the recomendation.... it's getting a bit nasty looking then. 5000 miles is way too soon to change oil in a modern engine that's doing mostly highway driving. If it was putzing around town in winter time and never getting warm... that would be an entirely different case.
Tractors get changed more or less on recomended sced here. 100 hours on a couple. 3-400 on the others or annually. Oil is usually starting to degrade at or near those hourly figures as well...

Rod

fixerupper · Jul 11, 2012

A lot of the older engines could take a fair amount of abuse as far as oil changes go, unless they are hot rodded.

Back in the late 90's Chrysler's 2.7 was a bad one for seizing up at 70,000 miles from poor oil change intervals. We had one from new and from what I read on a website aimed especailly at the 2.7, the oil pan was a quart too small and the oil was over-used. The sludge buildup on top of the heads eventually plugged the drains and all of the oil ended up in the heads and none in the pan. This was an oil starvation problem, not a wear problem from lack of oil changes.

Ours was an 06 and we changed oil religiously every 2000 miles but I cot cold feet and traded it off at 35000 miles.

My granddaughter bought a pontiac with the 3800 in it and 214000 miles on the clock. Doesn't seem to burn oil and there are no extra nioses. When my son went to drain her oil for her he had to stick a screwdriver up in the hole to get it to drain, so that tells us how often the oil was drained by the previous owner. So there's a comparison between one of the most fragile engines built and one of the toughest. I'm not saying you should run oil in a 3800 till it turns to molasses but some engines can live with old oil longer than others can under the same driving circumstances. Jim

scotc · Jul 11, 2012

They don't actually analyze your oil. They record your driving habits and tell you to change the oil based on that.

That said, I change the oil in my truck twice a year. Then again, it holds 3 gallons, I run good filters and Valvoline premium blue oil. And the rear main leaks enough that I probably add two fresh gallons in six months.

showcrop · Jul 11, 2012

Four of mine get changed about every 15 hours and three at about 100 hours.

John M · Jul 11, 2012

I run my car, trucks and van on a 5000 mile change. Well, my wifes car gets changed when her "Change Oil" light comes on, which is about 8000 - 10000 miles. (She finally gets tired of looking at it.) Her previous car had over 300000 on it and it is still going. (Sold it, fuel pump cost more than the car was worth, but guy is still driving it, with a new pump or course.) NEVER, not EVER did I put one single drop of synthetic oil in the engine on it, nor have I ever fell for the hype created by one certain company about how great synthetic oil is, especially theirs. My tractors, well, I dont think Ive changed oil in any of them in a few years now, they just dont see that much action anymore. Proabaly should change a couple, but as long as it aint black, Ill probably let it go another year.

pete black · Jul 11, 2012

Fixerupper has it right. Moisture and dirt combines with the oil to create sludge. Sludge is deposited in oil ports snd passages which restricts oil flow to those affected areas. Its this restricted oil flow that hastens the demise of an engine. I agree with others on the recommendations of 5k miles.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 11, 2012

Oil and filter every 3000 miles. Cheap insurance.

Mike (WA) · Jul 11, 2012

Bought an '80 Buick station wagon in about '83- Great deal- only 39,000 miles! Within a week of getting it, it spun a bearing. Turns out the seller had never changed the oil, it was like molasses.

Some days you just can't make a cent.

Walt Davies · Jul 11, 2012

Changed my oil once year or so about every 15,000 miles on my Saab Sonett went 300,000 before I overhauled it.
On my 97 Ranger I try to get it twice a year but it goes over sometime it 82,000 now and in 10 or so years I when it hits 100,000 I wil get its first tuneup.
Walt

ShadetreeRet · Jul 11, 2012

Some years ago we bought a clean 1987 Chrysler New Yorker with the 2.5L engine. Already had 135,000 miles on it. After a few months I decided to change the oil and discovered that the pan had been cracked and brazed. Problem was, they brazed the drain plug too. After thinking about it for about two beers, I said, what the heck, I removed the filter, started the engine and led it idle until the oil almost quit pumping out the filter passages. Installed new filter, filled it with fresh oil and down the road we go. I guess we put another hundred thousand on that car and that's how I always changed the oil in it.

steve n carol · Jul 12, 2012

Since we are all lieing to each other... I don't change oil at all! Fact is, I used a qt of Slick 50 about 10 years ago. After the next oil change, I forgot to put the new oil back in!!!! 9-1/2 years ago!!! TRUE STORY!!! It doesn't leak either!!

:twisted:
NOT

The Honda dealer told me not to dump the engine oil until the computer told me to.....11,000 miles. he said that it had an additive in it from the factory, (in Tennessee)...sl

RLA · Jul 12, 2012

Listen , I"ve worked at a New Car Sales garage
for the last 37 years.. And to this day I can
see the difference in oil changes verse"s No
oil Changes. If you drive a Car with all these
Overhead Cam engines with Timing chains/guides
& tensioners, your playing with fire by Not
changing engine & filter. I don"t care What Make
it is... END OF STORY.

dhermesc · Jul 12, 2012

Chrysler's 2.7 wasn't bad in just the 1990s - its entire life it was a failure - resulting in over 5 class action suits. I think they finally dropped it in 2010.

The engine ran too hot, small oil passages; a cheap water pump that leaked coolant into the oil and the killer was it was an interference engine.

The water pump was a huge culprit; it was driven by the timing chain and was extremely cheap - including the replacements. When the engine had some wear the water pump would seep coolant into the oil, the high heat combined with the coolant turned the oil to sludge. The timing chain tensioners were driven by oil pressure - with sludgy oil pressure would be lost or go very low (in itself a bad enough event) the timing chain would become loose and fail, or the sprocket on the water pump would fail or the engine would jumped time - any or all of which would cause the valves to hit the pistons destroying the engine. Thousands of Dodge Intrepids, Stratuses, 300s, and Chargers have been parked/junked because of this kind of failure.

JRSutton · Jul 12, 2012

had a Nissan Maxima with the v6.

Bought it with 17k miles on it.

Put 300,000 more on it, only changing the oil MAYBE once every 30 or 40k miles. Usually much longer between changes.

Not that I was doing that to save money, but if you think about it - I did less than 10 oil changes - call it $200 vs. every 3000 miles - which would have been 100 changes. call that $2000

So - I saved $1800 and the car ran just as good as the day I bought it.

In fact, I let my brother have it when he moved to Mexico. He didn't want to bother shipping it home so he just gave it to a poor mexican family.

I'm willing to bet that thing's still purring like a kitten.

JRSutton · Jul 12, 2012

not condoning that mind you. I don't think there's any argument that it's not BETTER to change oil regularly and often.

dhermesc · Jul 12, 2012

Agreed.

While oils have improved a great deal in the last 20 years - the engines using the oil put many more stresses and demands on the oil.

Ford's old 300 I6 could run for decades on 10 PSI of pressure and would do well as long as the oil was somewhat liquid. Currently Ford's 3.7 V6 with 24 valves and twin independant camshafts intake and exhaust valve timing and highly polished, mirror-finish, direct-acting bucket tappets you are risking an expensive repair skimping on a $20 oil change.

dhermesc · Jul 12, 2012

From GM's website:

The GM Oil Life Monitor System is not a mileage counter. It is actually a computer
based software algorithm that determines when to change oil based on engine operating
conditions. There is no actual oil condition sensor. Rather, the computer continuously
monitors engine-operating conditions to determine when to change oil. Over the years,
millions of test miles have been accumulated to calibrate the system for a variety of
vehicles. The system was first introduced in 1988 and is now on more than 10 million
GM vehicles.

I still change mine when the indicator hits 60% - usually between 3000 and 4000 miles on my little HHR.

RodinNS · Jul 12, 2012

I'll make the arguement....
I look at folk who spend big dollars for synthetic oil. They change it at 3-5000 miles the same as they would for regular oil. Often times it's 50-60 bucks just for the oil/filter never mind your time or the labor you pay someone if you have it done for you. When you add up the cost of the oil changes vs the cost of a reman engine today... the saving in 'neglected' oil changes would pretty well pay for the engine.
I'm not advocating that anyone do that... but seriously, there is more of a medium there than most people like to believe.
My old Ranger has 360000 km on it. The oil pan leaks and has for some time.... and it's been run nearly completly out of oil now on several occasions... seemly without any serious harm. No doubt it's caused some wear... but to what end? The rest of thetruck is basically worn out, frame cracked, etc. There's a lot of people who could double their oil change interval, save that money, save having to dispose of used oil and do their vehicle absolutely no harm. A simple visual observation of the oil on the dipstick is a close enough guess on when it needs changing.
Again, the biggest factor in when a change is required IS the type of driving that's done...

Rod

Gary from Muleshoe · Jul 12, 2012

Most manufacturers claim you only need to change ever 5,000 miles these days. I have been doing that with my 99 F150 since I got it with 13,000 miles on it and it now has 250,000 on it and still only uses a half a quart between changes.

D-C-741 · Jul 12, 2012

We had a Milk Hauler[ had several Trucks ]Changed the oil at 80000=100000 miles/ Good thing they were Detroit Motors/ We Est that =5500-7500 Hours Running time= Ouch !!!The Hill going north out of Walkins Glen,NY [Rt 14 ]the best the Autocar[ 12.7 Detroit ,435 Hp ] wood do was 35 MP/ Change the oil wood do 45 MP This was a tractor trailor / Then dumped the Waste oil in his large Fuel tank .I dont know how the trucks ever kept running .This Guy was out of LODI,NY Retired out of truck.

dhermesc · Jul 12, 2012

Try filing a warranty claim following that advisement - Dodge and ducked thousands - Toyota has too. Most owners manuals will list a "normal" and a "severe duty" or "extreme duty" service interval. If you read the details on the two you will learn basically if you car is being driven in North America it is subject to the "extreme duty" maintenance advisement.

showcrop · Jul 12, 2012

(quoted from post at 04:49:05 07/12/12) Listen , I"ve worked at a New Car Sales garage
for the last 37 years.. And to this day I can
see the difference in oil changes verse"s No
oil Changes. If you drive a Car with all these
Overhead Cam engines with Timing chains/guides
& tensioners, your playing with fire by Not
changing engine & filter. I don"t care What Make
it is... END OF STORY.

And it was such a good story while it lasted.

jose bagge · Jul 12, 2012

MAn, I dunno...it"s "the cobller"s kids have no shoes" thing with me. I"ve worked in auto repair shops my whole life, and my stuff never got worked on until it was too broke to run. I bought a new Honda Civic in 96 and drove it 0ver 300,000 miles and i"ll bet I only changed the oil 8 times- gave it to my son at that point ( prbably had never had a fanny in the back seat at that point in it"s life, either). I drive company trucks now, all maintenance paid for, and I still don"t manage to get in for oil changes but for about every 20K- the mileage comes so fast, and I"ve got so much running around to do! Last truck ( 09 f-150) went 297K when I turned it in, trying to do better with the "12 they gave me

Jon Hagen · Jul 12, 2012

Some newer rigs like my 2010 Toyota Prius say change oil every 10,000 miles. Really amazing how the 0-20 synthetic Toyota oil still looks almost new at 10,000 miles. just dark enough so it is easier to see on the dipstick. The thing holds only 4 qts.

This will never happen to my tractors

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads