my Ford mechanic tells me to change my oil at 5000 mile intervals but my owners manual says to let the cars computer tell me when to change it. I don’t like changing my oil when the computer says I have 47% of life left on my oil it seems I’m throwing away a lot of oil thats still good. He’s adamant about changing it on a scheduled basis (realizing his job is to sell oil changes) should I tell him to “stuff it” and do it on my computers say so I like going to the Ford garage as opposed to a “quickie” oil change store.Stymied
Maybe your mechanic ( how do you afford your own mechanic ) thinks you are in the severe service category . You did not say how many miles you drive a year but I change every 12 months even though I don’t reach 5000 miles a year on one of our vehicles.
Your Ford mechanic is telling you that Ford’s own oil change algorithm is not right? Ridiculous. I’d report that to Ford.
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Report the mechanic to Ford ? We don’t know if this is a mechanic employed by a Ford dealer , I don’t think so. Also don’t know how many miles a year this person drives .
I have never seen my monitor tell me to change my oil. Better too often than not often enough. If it is a financial burden to change the oil every 5k miles, you can go with the mfg recommendation, or oil life monitor.
No need to tell anyone to stuff it. Change oil when you decide to. The carmaker’s computer is giving good valid advice but it’s your decision when you get it changed and who does it.
By the way… stay FAR, FAR, away from the quickie oil change places. There are many, many horror stories about blown engines after these shops forget to fill the car, forget the oil plug, don’t tighten the filters and more.
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Your owner’s manual may give you guidance on how to interpret the Oil Life Monitor (OLM). My Honda manual says to start thinking about changing at 20% and be sure to change it ASAP if it gets to 10%. Maybe your Ford manual has similar information. I also think that the OLM takes your driving into account. If you drive in a severe environment, the OLM will reduce the change interval.
Yeah, I throw away $30 a year too on my $45,000 car by changing at 5000 miles. Seems like a decent trade off. My oil monitor usually says 50% when I change. I do the same with my lawn mower. I change it at 25 hours instead of 50 with synthetic. Geez, I’ve got 700 hours on it now and uses no oil and good compression. So up to you.
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I followed Honda’s recommended change practice on my 2005 Accord V6 and didn’t burn oil after 175,000 miles. The same thing for our 2003 Silhouette at about the same mileage.
I change mine every 5000 miles 
The 2006 Chevrolet Uplander I owned had an oil life monitor. I changed the oil when the oil life was about 15%. My son now has the Uplander and follows the same routine. The Uplander has over 200,000 miles on the odometer. I did notice that in stop and start winter driving the mileage between oil changes was less than in the summer months when I did a lot of long distance highway travel. This is how it should be. I followed a similar schedule before the days of oil life indicators. I might go 1500 miles between oil changes in the winter and go about 4000 between changes in the summer. This was in the carburetor days. With fuel injection and electronic ignition, and improved engine oils, the distance between changes is longer. Also, in the old days, I used 10 weight in the winter, ,20 weight in the spring and fall and 30 weight in the summer.
I was surprised that neither my 2011 Toyota Sienna I used to own nor my 2017 Sienna have oil life indicators. The manual just calls for an oil change at 10,000 miles.
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The mechanic may be in the business of selling oil changes, but Ford is in the business of selling cars, right? Ford’s thinking may be you might need to buy a new car sooner with the longer oil change intervals. As a practical matter I think anything beyond 5-6,000 miles or one year is getting too long between changes; I’m with the mechanic.
I have only had one car with an oil life monitor and it had no readout for life, jut a light saying change oil. It was a 98 Olds Intrigue and in the summer it came on about 7000 miles and in the winter about 3000 miles.
My dealership is just the opposite. If I request a service earlier than specified, the response is it’s not necessary, but it’s your truck, do what you want.
I have the same OLM on my Mustang. While I’m sure that it’s accurate and that the 10k mile OCI is fine. I tend to change the oil every ~6k miles or thereabouts. I have it changed in late June/early July, and again in late December (typically when I have a few days off from work.) It works out well.
I would not go a quicky-lube place.
same here.