Is a 10,000 mile oil change interval ideal for the 2.3L?

[JoeC]

If you're planning on selling or trading in, then yes...save your money...I'm keeping mine for the long run so I change around 5,000 miles...

Yup, that's what I'd think.
Keep the oil fresh, your engine will be happy.
Due to the plague, I've only put 9000 miles on mine since 2019, and changed the oil 3 times, due to time, not miles!
So, I guess, what do I know?
Other than it's pretty inexpensive, so why not?

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[Msfitoy]

Yup, that's what I'd think.
Keep the oil fresh, your engine will be happy.
Due to the plague, I've only put 9000 miles on mine since 2019, and changed the oil 3 times, due to time, not miles!
So, I guess, what do I know?
Other than it's pretty inexpensive, so why not?

Due to the plague, I did nothing but drive...almost 100,000 miles...

 

[dtech]

My 2005 Saab 9-3, 5sp is about the only car that I truly regret selling. Its a shame that GM did them dirty, what an absolute dream that car was to drive - it was much better than my Ranger in snow (both with winter tires). I'm hopeful to own another one someday soon - parts are just now beginning to become hard to find.

Saabs were better cars than most people knew, I had 4 , including a 1986 9000T that went ~ 280k, GM did invest in them but their mgmt was fully committed , Saab was rolling out new models inc SUVs but too late, those yrs around your 2005 were arguably the best yrs, not sure if GM hadn't bought them they would have lasted as long as they did, I liked them because they were fun to drive (turbos), safe, got good mpg and had poor resale, I picked up a 2004 9-5 arc with 6k miles for $24k, it listed for $41k which was a big part of Saab's problem - cost structure. I sold my 9-5 a year back when I moved, it was well maintained and the new owner writes me occasionally about how well he like it, but I do miss it.

 

[ntechnic]

I use Blackstone, see original post. Only have a few hundred miles on the Ranger so haven't taken a sample yet, but why is it that the reports seem to get "better" the longer you drive on the oil? I know the Ford and GM motors are different, but my 1,500 and 3,700 mile runs on the GMC depleted the additives greater than a 5,300 mile run. Also, Blackstone is telling me to exceed the OLM by a good amount on the GMC 6.2L.

Basically - should I go by Blackstone's recommends for this Ranger 2.3L engine? They are telling me to exceed the OLM on the GMC by a good amount, last run had plenty of TBN and additives???

If you're under warranty I would not exceed the OLM. Come to think of it, I wouldn't exceed the OLM miles at any time. Can't to speak oil appearing to get "better," I've never seen that in my histories.

 

[Rhino]

for this truck i kinda shoot in the middle of 5k-10k since i drive a decent amount from work to camping to just random stuff. hell my truck is already at 8500 miles and i got it back in june with like 7? on it so doing every 5k would be a bit overkill for me since i dont tow often or do anything hard with my truck but drive it.

now my tacoma i let it go to 10k synthetic but that old 4.0 was a tank just slow lol, but i did change it over time period as well since it sat more then it drove back then

 

[SigOris]

I do 5K for the simple math as a reminder

too often is better than too infrequent if the wallet can take it

please spare the lecture about more opportunities to damage threads on filter and oil pan………

 

[D Fresh]

Oil life monitoring monitors nothing other than time and mileage. It doesn't take driving conditions into account.


Pick a mileage and go with that. And don't switch to synthetic too soon. That's all you need to do.

 

[WingShot]

Saabs were better cars than most people knew, I had 4 , including a 1986 9000T that went ~ 280k, GM did invest in them but their mgmt was fully committed , Saab was rolling out new models inc SUVs but too late, those yrs around your 2005 were arguably the best yrs, not sure if GM hadn't bought them they would have lasted as long as they did, I liked them because they were fun to drive (turbos), safe, got good mpg and had poor resale, I picked up a 2004 9-5 arc with 6k miles for $24k, it listed for $41k which was a big part of Saab's problem - cost structure. I sold my 9-5 a year back when I moved, it was well maintained and the new owner writes me occasionally about how well he like it, but I do miss it.

Back in the day, that Saab Turbo was one of the fastest accelerating cars I’d ever driven. It would pin your head against the headrest!

On the subject of oil in the Ranger…I’m shooting for every 5,000 miles, full synthetic. But recently I was driving to MT, and life happened, so I couldn’t get it changed ahead of time. The oil life warning started pretty soon on the way there. I’m not too worried.

 

[Joeiconic]

I’m going to wait until we get to 10 pages before l chime in.

 

[yamahaSHO]

For those of your referencing "fully synthetic", what group are you talking about?

 

[ccasanova22]

If you're under warranty I would not exceed the OLM. Come to think of it, I wouldn't exceed the OLM miles at any time. Can't to speak oil appearing to get "better," I've never seen that in my histories.

See first post, my 5,200+ mile run resulted in a higher TBN than a 1,500 or 3,700 mile run (presumbly due to more highway miles that are boiling the acids out of the oil). But that's a guess, I'm not an oil expert, and am wondering if highway miles will bring "life" back to old oil by getting above boiling temp?

 

[puckdodger]

around 5000 miles I start thinking about getting all the stuff together, an OEM filter and full synthetic top tier blah blah blah oil, and some of the finest rags and shop towels because this is a FFR after all.

usually get around to changing it between 6000 and 7000 miles. still usually about 35-40% on the OLM.

so far so good.

 

[puckdodger]

See first post, my 5,200+ mile run resulted in a higher TBN than a 1,500 or 3,700 mile run (presumbly due to more highway miles that are boiling the acids out of the oil). But that's a guess, I'm not an oil expert, and am wondering if highway miles will bring "life" back to old oil by getting above boiling temp?

I was wondering something similar myself, but more to do with fuel build up in the oil. My usual driving is in town and not very far at that so ol' Ferd rarely get up to full temp.

This week I got to take a long highway trip to pick up my daughter from the airport so before leaving I had parked in the garage all afternoon nice and level and checked the oil, twice, and it was just a whisker below the top dot both times. I went on my trip and parked in the same spot and checked in the morning and the level was significantly lower, almost to the hash mark.

I know that isn't a very scientific bit of research but I know what I saw with my own eyes, which also seem to see the oil is quite dark already with 83% on the OLM.

 

[BS67]

I’m going to wait until we get to 10 pages before l chime in.

LOL........thinking there's a design flaw with the bed sitting too high?? Haaaaaa!

 

[ccasanova22]

There is only one way to know for sure what is happening with your engine oil, test the oil with every change. I have used Blackstone Laboratories and pay a few bucks extra for TBN analysis in addition to basic analysis. I owned an NHRA drag race team for many years and was also the crew chief. When your blown race car engine needs 8 quarts of racing oil (~$160) you want to know for sure whether it needs to be changed daily at the races or can make it a whole weekend you need hard data, not opinion or speculation. And having the history with Blackstone gave me confidence on what shape my engine was in without doing a teardown. For my street cars and trucks, I always send a sample for analysis with every change. Here's what 10+ years of testing my vehicles has shown me:

1. I only use fully synthetic oil, never blended. Synthetic will still be there for you when are racing or towing/hauling on a scorching summer day with high oil temps.
2. Changing oil in a brand new vehicle at 5,000 miles from new is perfectly OK. No need for old school 500 mile "break in" change. On more than ten new vehicles I've never seen a 5,000 mile analysis that was anything less than perfectly OK to keep going.
3. No matter the mileage, always change oil if it's a year old. Oxidation happens over time as well as miles.
4. If you don't trust your oil monitor you can try gradually increasing beyond 5,000 miles, get the analysis and see if you can go further.
5. Changing oil needlessly early is not good from so many angles. Waste of a precious resource, creates unnecessary waste to recycle, and of course wastes money. Again, if you were paying thousands of dollars a year in oil costs you would want to save what you can. And the only way to balance cost with benefit (i.e., not blowing up an engine) is with data derived from testing.
6. Lastly, I've found that the oil monitors on modern vehicles are pretty damn accurate. Once I have a handle on a vehicle with a few analyses of history built up, I've always been comfortable with going until the monitor says 15% life remaining. When I do 15% changes, I've never seen anything in the analysis which told me I pushed the oil too far.

Please note that I am not affiliated with Blackstone in any manner other than as a customer.

I appreciate the informative post. Think I will switch to synthetic once the dealer's free oil changes are over, and sample regularly. Blackstone says I can practically double my OCI on other vehicles I've owned but the OLM on them hard limits at 7.5k, so to keep warranty, guess the OLM is going to take precedence for now.

For those who are changing every 3.5k, I'm guessing that's a lot of short trip mileage. My own oil reports showed 1,530 local miles put more wear on the oil than 5,200+ mixed city/highway miles even though the 1,530 did have some highway operation (just less than 15-20 miles at a time).

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