Oil Change Frequency-V10

Dean,

I do mine, a 2004 V-10 about every 5,000 with new filter. Depends somewhat on the type of driving you do etc., but with a good quality oil and filter 5,000 seems good.

Hope this helps.

My MH is my 3rd V10. Sold 02 PU 150K miles Still own a 08 PU 50K miles & MH 8K miles. I change oil & filter about every 3K mile plus or minus a few miles. I use Ford oil & Ford filter. No noticeable oil consumption on any of my V10s. Oil is cheap. JMHO

I vote every 5K miles. I use the Mobil 1 EP for a bit of extra margin, although I doubt it is necessary. These engines have demonstrated 150,000 mile plus life in motorhomes. I'm typical owner about 5K per year average. The engine oil lubed moving parts will be the last surviving pieces in the motorhome in excellent shape-long after the box and electrical system has seen better days.

Let's see the person wanting to make money off your oil-changes wants it done every 3000 miles....

What does the manual say? Ever seen a good reason to ignore the factory manual?

Motorhomes that are not driven many miles per year do not need to follow mileage oriented oil and filter change schedules. Contact your local
Ford truck dealer and explain your usage, get "official word" on oil and filter changes to comply with warranty requirements.

I have owned 3 RVs with the V10 {still have one with 89K miles} I change mine at 3K miles or so. I use C Oil 5/20. No oil usage in between changes. IMHO the V10 eng is the best gas eng that I have ever owned which goes back to the 50s

Yearly is a good number - change it at the end of the camping season; you'll be good as new again.
If you exceed 5K in a year but not by much, no big deal - modern non-synthetic oils hold up well up to 7500 miles. If you run full synthetic, you can run up to 15K miles.
The reasoning behind changing it yearly is to displace moisture.

There's always so much hype and anecdotal stories about the oil change duration - most of it exists to sell you product. If the oil is clear or has a little carmel color at 3K, don't change it. There's a lot of life left in it.

As n7bsn stated - look at your owners manual. It is the best guide.
If you don't have the paper guides that came with your unit,
Ford has PDF versions
and they say 5000 miles (in my 2000 year manual) under normal operating conditions. Yours may vary - look it up.

samsontdog wrote:
I have owned 3 RVs with the V10 {still have one with 89K miles} I change mine at 3K miles or so. I use C Oil 5/20. No oil usage in between changes. IMHO the V10 eng is the best gas eng that I have ever owned which goes back to the 50s

They are great engines. Unfortunately they don't put them in PUs anymore. I've done a lot of towing with my 08 V10 PU with 410 rear axle. I'm keeping it although I get offers to buy it quite often.

I'm in the auto parts business and I get asked this question a lot and I always tell customers:

"The people who sell oil say 'every 3000 miles' and the people who sell cars/trucks say 'every 7500 miles' so somewhere between those two extremes is probably the best interval for an oil change."

As for me, I usually change mine in the neighborhood of 5000 miles.

And for those of you just looking for something to flame me on, I know...I know that there are applications that call for longer than 7500 miles, but it used to be that that was the recommendation in a lot of owners manuals. So flame on!

One thing I'm fully convinced of is excessive changes of the oil filter are counterproductive. The next stop from the oil filter is the main bearings and any dust introduced, any production debris has a nice ride right to them. The filters are cheaply produced and not hermetically sealed in the package (in general). I particularly dislike the insert type oil filters such as on my Toyota because that introduces even more chances for dirt via poor install practices. I always change my own.

If I were to come across a lovingly serviced used vehicle with 2K oil and filter services I'd look at that as a negative vs. the standard interval. More opportunity for dirt introduction. Especially if these services were performed by a third party.

Once a filter is installed and operational, I think it is best to use it for it's full rated life.