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Was having a discussion with a technician at my dealer about oil change frequency. My 2008 FEH FWD manual recommends 5,000 oil change intervals, and my service advisor has me on 3,000 mile intervals. Seems like he mentioned so many hours of run time on the ICE between oil changes. I am running approximately 80% highway/20% city, but I do run in EV mode some on the highway during congested commutes. Otherwise just doing basic algebra, if doing 3000 miles on an ICE 100% in between oil changes, than running ICE 80% of the time, I figured I could use a factor of 1.25 (100/80). So my math is telling me that 3000 * 1.25 = 3,750 miles in between oil changes. Ford must be using a 60% highway/40% city mixture, to come up with a factor of 1.67, which worked out would be 3000 * 1.67 = 5,000 miles oil change interval. Would be curious to hear what other folks are doing on oil change intervals.

Thanks,
Bruce

Hi Bruce,

My '06 MMH owner's manual says max oil change interval is 12 months or 10000 miles or 200 hours of engine runtime. I think the conservative choice would use the 200 hours runtime. Let's say one averages 30MPH for the 200 hours, that's 6000 miles. The closer your average is to highway speeds, the greater that distance would be at 200 hours. I choose a compromise distance of about 7500 miles, or when the oil change indicator says to do it.

Oh yes, my local Mercury service people put a 3000 mile sticker on my windshield, too. I think this shop knows little about the hybrids. Luckily, I have found a qualified hybrid service shop less than a mile from my house.

cheers,
Bill

p.s. the '04 Solara has an engine run time function
within the driving computer, so I would expect other
cars to have it, but I just haven't looked to see whether
the SGII can pull that info...

p.p.s. I can only find "run time since engine start" ...

Bill, could you PM me the location? Is it an independent service shop? I'm looking for dealer alternatives to broaden my choices.

Hi Bill,

I figure I'm about a 80% highway (mostly ICE)/20% city (mostly EV), so I am thinking that if I use the time setting from my tanks, and do the math, I'm probably at around 7500 miles intervals. Roughly I run 10 hours for about 300 miles, and if the ICE is running 80% of the time, then I am really only running about 8 hours on ICE per tank, and 2 hours in EV. So I should be able to run 25 8-hours on ICE tanks (25 * 300) or about 7500 miles. Seems like we came to the same conclusion:) Sure would like to know what the 2008 FEH Oil Life display is based on (% of oil life remaining). Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bruce