2009 Ford 350 V-10

I am looking for information regarding our F-350 V-10. Specifically how does the truck determine when an oil change is due? Ours seems to need changing more often than it should for the amount of use that it gets. Can someone tell me is it based on miles? Or does it sample the oil and determine like my 08 Chevy does?

I tried looking in the book and that was not helpful as to how it determines when an oil change is due and the net was not very friendly either,

Thanks
HFDINSTR

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Originally Posted by HFDINSTR

I am looking for information regarding our F-350 V-10. Specifically how does the truck determine when an oil change is due? Ours seems to need changing more often than it should for the amount of use that it gets. Can someone tell me is it based on miles? Or does it sample the oil and determine like my 08 Chevy does?

I tried looking in the book and that was not helpful as to how it determines when an oil change is due and the net was not very friendly either,

Thanks
HFDINSTR

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The computer will tell you when it is time by mileage (that you can see), or by the "USE" (what you can't see), but that isn't all. The OCL (oil change light) works off the computer and the various sensors, as well as other parameters the computer sees. Ford came out with a system similar to what GM did in the late 1980's, in 2007/08. And that was to see what the engine was doing. Sensors are able to see crankcase temp, moisture, combustion chamber events, load on engine, idle time, etc. All of these effect the life of the oil.

If your OCL is coming on, get it changed. If you are questioning the time interval, take it to the dealer and have them run it on a scanner for possible faults of a sensor or monitor.

Hard to say if you have a problem or not, since you didn't include the mileage between the oil changes.

FM1

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Originally Posted by FIREMECH1

The computer will tell you when it is time by mileage (that you can see), or by the "USE" (what you can't see), but that isn't all. The OCL (oil change light) works off the computer and the various sensors, as well as other parameters the computer sees. Ford came out with a system similar to what GM did in the late 1980's, in 2007/08. And that was to see what the engine was doing. Sensors are able to see crankcase temp, moisture, combustion chamber events, load on engine, idle time, etc. All of these effect the life of the oil.

If your OCL is coming on, get it changed. If you are questioning the time interval, take it to the dealer and have them run it on a scanner for possible faults of a sensor or monitor.

Hard to say if you have a problem or not, since you didn't include the mileage between the oil changes.

FM1

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The mileage is about 1200 miles since the change. It was changed in december 09 to a synthetic. We are really questioning so much as trying to understand how it works so we can figure if we need to budget the truck for 2 oil changes a year. We understand that could be based on mileage or on hours.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HFDINSTR

The mileage is about 1200 miles since the change. It was changed in december 09 to a synthetic. We are really questioning so much as trying to understand how it works so we can figure if we need to budget the truck for 2 oil changes a year. We understand that could be based on mileage or on hours.

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With the switch to synthetic, I would recommend every 6 months/twice a year. This saying that you are putting about 10-20,000 miles a year on it. I prefer biannual oil changes in the spring and fall. This is because of the seasonal temp changes more than anything else.

FM1

We have a 2010 F-450 crew cab with V-10 engine. As to your oil change question, you need to reset your oil change information every time you change oil in the computer. You can set it to factory settings which I believe is 12 months or 7500 miles. Or you can set it the computer to a percentage of the 7500 mileage. You need to push in the knob where you switch through the various modes for miles per gallon, trip miles ect. and hold the knob it in for a few seconds, you should see some information come up as to oil change settings. If you had the diesel model you could set it to hours, but not on the gas model. It's kinda annoying, but we are changing our oil spring and fall and using synthetic oil. We log the oil changes, if we are a few weeks early or late for the oil change we still are changing the oil much more often that Ford would recommend even under extreme conditions. Hope this helps.
Ed....