Never changed the oil.

[Al2024]

I'm thinking of buying a used 2012 motorhome with 5000 miles on the Ford E450 engine that has never had the oil changed.
If I purchase it I plan on getting the engine flushed & new oil added.
My question is has no oil changes degraded the engine? Has it been badly damaged or should it be OK?
Thank you,

[donfrump]

I have always in my 40+ years of automobile and rv repair replaced most all stuff based on mileage with the exception of the odd person whom does not know better and starts their stored MV or MH for 20 minutes every 2 weeks or month to so called exercise.When one does this u can get serious condensation internally. the only thing that should be started and exercised monthly are gas fired generaters

[J-Rooster]

Bumpyroad wrote:
no problem
bumpy

X-2, I change oil every 7,500 miles and my coach is 12 years old.

[Two_Jayhawks]

I was in nearly the same situation with my last coach. It was for sale by a private party, three years young, and very few miles. First thing I asked to look at available maintenance records and his reply was "it's just now due" he had done nothing. My thoughts were it should have been serviced based on time but I gambled and purchased anyway. I owned it for the next ten years trouble free and now someone else is enjoying it.

[Al2024]

When I added my follow-up I didn't realize that I had at first asked about an RV that I did not buy. However I did, soon after, buy an older RV (2006) that the question still applied to. So, yes I put in synthetic oil when I got it and it never had any leaks. There was no loss of oil when I just recently changed the oil again.
I learned that I had to drive under 60mph to get 8 mpg; over that got me 6.4 mpg. So, since I am retired and was on vacation, I just took my time & we thoroughly enjoyed the trip.
Thanks for all the answers. Al

[11178adm]

on gas engines that have sat for extended amount of time don't forget to change the fuel filter IMO if the gas still smells like gas run the tank to near empty and then change the fuel filter if the gas smells stale have it drained and disposed of properly and safely. also on the subject of synthetic oil I have changed over 4 gas engines and have never had any oil leaks. currently run 15k oil change with 5k filter change on my gas engine vehicles in all cases oil consumption has decrease, also run synthetic in my 6CT8.3 cummins with 10k oil and filter

[donfrump]

Al2024 wrote:
I'm thinking of buying a used 2012 motorhome with 5000 miles on the Ford E450 engine that has never had the oil changed.
If I purchase it I plan on getting the engine flushed & new oil added.
My question is has no oil changes degraded the engine? Has it been badly damaged or should it be OK?
Thank you,

delete as old op post

[time2roll]

5000 miles? Top it off and drive another 5000 before you change it.

For the real paranoid send in a sample for testing.

[mpierce]

Would not worry about it.

I might change the oil and filters, go for a 100 mile run, and change them again right away HOT.

Then, I think you are golden.

[Mr_Mark1]

Al2024 wrote:
I am the originator of this posting. It is now 16 months since I bought the motorhome in Aug 2014(2006, 32' Four Winds Hurricane with ~4000 miles in 2014). I had the 6 tires changed, the coach aligned (It had been grossly out of alignment since it was purchased in 2006, did not handle properly and had to have big blocks added), a stabilizing bar added and the oil & filter replaced with synthetic oil. I then went on a 10200 mile trip from FL to Maine, Canada, Montana, SD and back to FL. Never had the slightest problem. Except for the rattling and wind noise we had a fantastic trip. When I got back in Sept 2015 I had the oil changed again with synthetic oil.
And thanks to all who answered my original cry for help.

I see that you ended up buying a different coach than originally posted. So you found a 2006 with 4,000 miles vs. a 2012 with 5,000 miles.

Glad that you had success!

MM.

[GTN_and_Catz]

OP,
Thanks for the follow-up posting. Too often we're left hanging and don't know the final outcome of an issue and/or solution :?

So, it looks like the majority of opinions were correct and the "change the oil & filters and go" solution worked best. Interesting that you went with synthetic. No issues with oil leaks due to the sythetic oil?

Have fun, welcome to the forum (again) and keep on contributing. 🙂

[W5CI]

I wouldnt worry about it, My new 2015 RAM with Cummins Diesel says 1 year or 15,000 miles

[Al2024]

I am the originator of this posting. It is now 16 months since I bought the motorhome in Aug 2014(2006, 32' Four Winds Hurricane with ~4000 miles in 2014). I had the 6 tires changed, the coach aligned (It had been grossly out of alignment since it was purchased in 2006, did not handle properly and had to have big blocks added), a stabilizing bar added and the oil & filter replaced with synthetic oil. I then went on a 10200 mile trip from FL to Maine, Canada, Montana, SD and back to FL. Never had the slightest problem. Except for the rattling and wind noise we had a fantastic trip. When I got back in Sept 2015 I had the oil changed again with synthetic oil.
And thanks to all who answered my original cry for help.

[Gonzo42]

The filter case cap is to be tightened to 5.5 ft-lb and I can definitely feel the filter resisting against the cap. I have the oil filter cap wrench.

14-flat wrench

[hipower]

Gonzo42 wrote:
In my case, the old Fram CH10323 filter I took out appeared to have been crushed and bent in the middle as if it were too long for the application.

I can't say that it actually failed, but it didn't engender confidence.

That's interesting. What would cause a filter housing to collapse?

In my feeble thinking it would seem that the only way for that to happen would be an extreme vaccum in a pressurized system, highly unlikely, or external pressure, like someone using a large pair of pliers to tighten the filter.