My 2005 Ford F150 with Triton 5.4L V*, now at 17,000 miles is using about 1 quart of oil per 2000 miles. Oil 5W -20
I think this is excessive but the ford dealer says it is not. If I look in my service manual it says nothing, but has suggested oil chagne at 5000 miles. This would be 2.5 quarts low at each oil change. I have never had this on older F150’s what is the real story here? I do not trust Ford’s opinion that only 3.5 quarts or more is excessive.
Note, most of the driving is city commuting and occasional local trailer pulling.
Auto manufacturers consider 1 qt of oil/1,000 miles as normal consumption. And you have to go by what they say because they’re the ones that made the engine. So, that’s their spec.
All this means is you have to check the oil between oil changes. Which you should be doing anyway.
Tester
Unfortunately, many car makers consider even a quart every 1000 miles normal. I don’t subscribe to that theory and my opinion, for what it’s worth, is that any oil consumption problems could be due to that certain number of vehicles coming down the line that may have had improperly honed cylinders, improperly installed piston rings, etc., or even improper break-in techniques. All of that is very hard to prove.
A million trucks X 8 cylinders = 8 million cylinders and odds are that a certain % are not quite right. It only takes one of the 8 to cause a problem.
My Lincoln (4.6) has a shade over 215k miles on it and uses about a 1/5 of a quart between changes. You might consider asking others on various forums who own similar trucks if they also go through this. Also ask other people you meet with similar trucks if they’re going through it also.
If it’s “normal” then everyone should be using oil at the same rate.
I have 2 V8 Fords. One uses a quart (of 10/30) every 800 miles and the other every 1500 miles. I don’t worry about either one of them.
In my experience, very few cars use less than a quart every 2000 miles…
While 5w-20 may be fine for winter driving, I would CERTAINLY switch to 10/30 for towing and summer driving, regardless of what Ford recommends.
I’ve never had much of an oil consumption problem with any of my cars. Even my old 87 Mercury was only going through a quart every 600 miles and that was with 420k miles on the clock. Most of that was leakage from the rear main and since it was a beater toward the end I just did not want to mess with it.
My son’s Camaro (280k miles) was only using about a 1/4 of a quart every 3500 miles; at least until it got whacked a few weeks ago.
Guess I’m just baffled with the complaints about new, or relatively new, vehicles going through oil at that rate. At 17k miles any oil useage should not even be noticeable IMHO, even if the factory thinks otherwise.
I also have a F150 5.4 triton with OIl Consumption, about 3/4 qt to 1000 miles or less depends on how I drive it. Stops and starts consume more oil than straight driving or driving with Towing on distances. It’s more than disconcerting given my Avalon doesn’t use any oil at 133000 miles with 5000 miles between changes using synthetic oil I like the truck otherwise but it’s certainly not likely the dealer will do anything about it.
Agree that 1qt/1000 miles is excessive. At that 17,000 miles I would expect 1 qt/3000-4000 in normal driving. The 5W20 may have something to do with it. I would switch to a 5W30 for one oil change and see if it is better. For winter driving I would personally go with a 5W30 synthetic, such as Mobil 1.