Why you should change your oil

[Diamondpilot]

So three days ago we were at the in-laws for Christmas. We drove over our BMW 335I and while out getting some last minute items some A-Hole hit our car and then left in a Hobby Lobby parking lot.

Long story short our car is now in a body shop in Cincinnati. My BIL offered us his 2009 F-150 FX4 with a 5.4L to drive homr so we did not have to rent a car.

Everything was fine for the 120 miles home but backing into the garage I hear some stange sounds. I check the oil and am horrified. Metal. The truck has 68,000 miles on it and I now realize according to the sticker its been 13 months and 18,136 miles since it was last changed.

I drain it and here is what I find. The pan was clean and all them specs are metal. This is just the pan for the filter in the attached pic. The air filter is probably the original and the worst I have ever seen.

I have never taken oil out of a running engine that was this nasty. Remember, I do axpox 100 oil changes per year and have been doing so for about 20 years.

A few hundred dollars in preventative maintenance is now going to cost him a new motor. Maybe $5000. Just stupid.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

By the way I plan to cut open the filter in the next few days. I will post a pic.

Chris

 

[Stimw]

Fords are disposable!
Chevy's have Oil Life warning system.

 

[Soundguy]

oil life warning doesn't do anything if the operator doesn't do anything about it.

DP.. man that's alot of metal! I've drained rears adn trannies of old farm tractors and not seenthat many chips!


I'm guessing it wasn't synthetic oil either. had it been.. it might not have been so bad..

yikes.

so.. it's hard to see on te phone.. but are those copper, as in into the bottom layers of the mains and rod shells?

 

[ncnurseryman]

Wow, he doesn't want to keep that truck long. My ranger has 207,000+ miles on it and keeps on running (knock on wood). I hope you set him straight.

 

[reggiejr]

What a shame.
18,000 on the oil why?
That's gonna be a tough call to make especially to someone so naive about vehicles.

 

[creekbend]

The cost of preventative maintenance is cheap compared to the possible alternative.

 

[Soundguy]

The cost of preventative maintenance is cheap compared to the possible alternative.

heck yeah.. he could have done 3 'walmart' oil changes a year for that 18km run ( 6k per ).. for 18-20$ or less a pop with one of those being an air filter included.. IE.. 60$ for 3 oil filters, 1 air filter, and a few 5qt jugs of 5w30 or whatever it drinks... and he'd be 5k$ ahead of the game..

 

[murphy1244]

Fords are disposable!
Chevy's have Oil Life warning system.

Ford had that system before GM.

 

[Buckgnarly]

Wow, never understood why some people do not take care of their stuff. I start get get antsy when I'm 100 miles over my intervals and have not found time to do the changes!

All my vehicles (89 7.3IDI F250, 02 Subaru Legacy, 04 Ranger, 05 Jeep Rubicon) have a "change oil" indicator......it's a printed spreadsheet that I hand write dates and mileage!:laughing:

 

[dodge man]

I'll give the opinion that one late oil change in that number of miles isn't the cause of all the metal. Its probably more the long term neglect that caused the problem. I had a co-worker that had a jeep and we had to push him in the parking lot one day. It turned out it he had bought it used, ran the thing for over 3 years and 40,000 miles and hadn't change the oil. That in itself was bad, but he also wasn't checking it so he ran it dry. This guy had a 4 year engineering degree, but no common sense. Of course the engine was toast. Some people just don't keep track of that kind of stuff and it has long term affects.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Fords are disposable!
Chevy's have Oil Life warning system.

So do Fords. Maybe you should get out and look at other brands for once. This is a pure fact of lack of maintenance. You can have all the monitoring systems and stickers in the world but if you don't do it whats the purpose.

Thanks for the nice complement though. Merry Christmas smalls.

Chris

 

[murphy1244]

What did your BIL say about the oil?

 

[Diamondpilot]

Ford had that system before GM.

Its like talking to a wall. These bow tie boys don't get out much.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

What did your BIL say about the oil?

Told me to change it and drive. It still runs fine, has plenty of power, and is averages 15.9mpg on this tank. About right for a 4x4 with 3.73 gears.

I put in 5W20 synthetic.

Chris

 

[murphy1244]

Told me to change it and drive. It still runs fine, has plenty of power, and is averages 15.9mpg on this tank. About right for a 4x4 with 3.73 gears.

I put in 5W20 synthetic.

Chris

I would of put back some 5w-30 run a thousand miles and dump it again or dump the truck too.

 

[94BULLITT]

It's sad people don't take care of their stuff. That truck is a good candidate for Variable Cam timing problems now.

 

[JD 4520]

What a shame.
18,000 on the oil why?
That's gonna be a tough call to make especially to someone so naive about vehicles.

I've seen it also and continues to be a good reminder of buying used vehicles and equipment without adequate documentation on maintenance. It always amazes me but there are a lot of people who don't care especially if its a leased vehicle.

 

[Markcuda]

Chris, don't you feel a little bit responsible here?
With all your knowledge and all, didn't you explain to your
brother in law the consequences of oil neglect?

 

[94BULLITT]

Did it have a cheap filter on it?