Stick to Maintenance Schedule or Get Serviced Early?

[rghoosier]

Hey all,

The maintenance schedule through FordPass is telling me the first service visit is at 10,000 miles (2021 Badlands). I'm currently at 4,000 and planning a ~1k mile trip up into the Smokey Mountains. Should I wait and follow the listed schedule or would y'all recommend getting the car serviced prior to the trip? I've always changed oil at 5k on previous vehicles so this struck me as a little strange. Advice is appreciated. Thanks!

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[daddycreswell]

At 6k miles my oil life was 40%, so with that thinking I could have gone another 4-5K miles before the oil change. So that would have put me at 10-11k, but I want to rotate my tires every 6k miles, so instead of just making an appointment for my tires I decided to do the oil at 6k with the tires. I went full synthetic, over kill probably yes but it's just easier that way for me. So from now on every 6k miles I'll get oil change and tires rotated.

 

[Mainerunr]

Ultimately, your call. I've always done 5k oil changes on my F150 (146k miles now) even though the oil life indicator was never below 50% and plan on doing the same when I get my Bronco. Oddly enough, the interval the computer is telling me has gotten shorter, now by 5k miles, I'm down around 35-40% life.

 

[chtucker]

Annual or every 6 months is my dilemma- we put less than 5k miles a year on all 3 of our vehicles (2x6G, 1xFJ)

 

[daddycreswell]

Annual or every 6 months is my dilemma- we put less than 5k miles a year on all 3 of our vehicles (2x6G, 1xFJ)

My 13 Raptor gets 8k miles a year on it (68k miles on it) I change oil in it roughly once a year.

 

[rghoosier]

Annual or every 6 months is my dilemma- we put less than 5k miles a year on all 3 of our vehicles (2x6G, 1xFJ)

that's part of it for me too. I got the Bronco last November, so I'm well past the 6 month mark as well.

 

[JT58Bronc]

Annual or every 6 months is my dilemma- we put less than 5k miles a year on all 3 of our vehicles (2x6G, 1xFJ)

Same dilemma on my Bronco. 4 months and only 1K miles. Should I change it at 6 months with only like 1400 miles? Seems too soon? I don't drive it much as I drive my economy car for work over 100 miles a day. I plan to drive the Bronco more when I retire in about 2 years- so it won't be driven much until then.

 

[ChrisB351]

Modern automobiles have 10,000 mile oil change intervals. The oil is better, the oil filters are better, and the oil system in the engine is better, all designed for long drain intervals.

While this is true majority of shops/mechanics will tell you to change it sooner. If you go past the factory intervals it can void your warranty. Itll never hurt to change it sooner.

 

[rayhil67]

chtucker said:
Annual or every 6 months is my dilemma- we put less than 5k miles a year on all 3 of our vehicles (2x6G, 1xFJ)

My 13 Raptor gets 8k miles a year on it (68k miles on it) I change oil in it roughly once a year.

I am defiantly doing something wrong in life, Last year I put 14,000 on the JK and another 5,000 on the H3 . Wife does lease BMW so we have to watch that ( still she put 9k on it last year)

 

[F OR D]

imo i do the first oil change early (2-3k) and follow standards maintenance and vehicle oil life reporting. never had an issue, and had vehicles over 150k.

anything above is an improvement but also more unneeded expense. just my 2c.

 

[daddycreswell]

My 13 Raptor gets 8k miles a year on it (68k miles on it) I change oil in it roughly once a year.

I am defiantly doing something wrong in life, Last year I put 14,000 on the JK and another 5,000 on the H3 . Wife does lease BMW so we have to watch that ( still she put 9k on it last year)

I only drive the Raptor to work and around town when needed, if we go somewhere we've always driven the wife's car, which now is the Bronco. So it will average 12-13k miles a year I assume. Back when both boys were in high school we had an Armada, I think we put 80k on it in almost 5 years,

 

[Tricky Dick]

Ford's synthetic blend is pretty good for a blend. I still did my first one at 2500 and switched to a full synthetic. Doing so now would only be beneficial to you. Waiting until you get back will still be fine.

 

[GToddC5]

Modern automobiles have 10,000 mile oil change intervals. The oil is better, the oil filters are better, and the oil system in the engine is better, all designed for long drain intervals.

My issue is that I'm trending to only put 7000 miles/year on the Bronco, so I'm planning to change the oil every 6 months with tire rotation - so more of a time than mileage interval.

 

[Mainerunr]

My 13 Raptor gets 8k miles a year on it (68k miles on it) I change oil in it roughly once a year.

I am defiantly doing something wrong in life, Last year I put 14,000 on the JK and another 5,000 on the H3 . Wife does lease BMW so we have to watch that ( still she put 9k on it last year)

Yup, Cannot remember the last year I put less than 20k on my truck. It was baseball/softball games (HS) and travel ball, now it's hiking trips, etc (only about 200 miles a week to/from work but that's about 10k/year right there).

Oil changes at 5k, rotate the tires every time (and I replace tires every 2 years because they're generally worn enough that I don't want to go through a 3rd winter with them).

 

[abe]

If I ever get mine, I'll do my first oil change early right after I pass the 1k mile break-in. After that, I'll follow Ford's recommended interval.

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