500k

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by zarpie

Ford Man: What kind of oil do you use in that car?

10w40 dino most of it's life. Over the life of the car I've used several different brands, because when I catch oil on sale regardless of brand I usually buy several cases. Currently I'm using Pennzoil 20w20 that I bought at a flee market from a man who had about 10-12 cases he was selling cheap and have probably been using it for about the last 100-150K miles. I've got enough Pennzoil for I think about 5-6 more changes then I'll have to use something else I have on hand (about 25-30 cases), either Citgo, Mobil or Shell. I've also never used a high mileage formulation just regular old oil. The car currently uses a quart of oil about every 1000-1200 miles. I also use a bottle of STP oil treatment or something similar to it at every oil change and also use Lube Control Distributors and have been for about the last 30K miles and letting the oil changes go their recommended 10K mile interval and haven't seen any negative effects. I thought a car with 500K miles on it was a good one to test new products on to see if they work or not. If there's no problem I'll try them in my better cars, if they don't then at least I haven't ruined one on my better cars. I've had many people say 10w40 was too heavy of oil to use since the recommended weight was 5w30, but that's what I've always used in all my cars for the past 33 years. I even use it in my '97 and '02 Escorts that the recommended weight is 5w20 and haven't had any oil related issues. Maybe I'll consider using high mileage oil in it one day, but only if they run it on sale. lol

[Ford Man]

505,000

[Nerys]

Incredible man. I am curious though. Is this no longer your primary vehicle? the miles seem to be accruing slowly. OR have you had this car a very very long time?

[beatr911]

If the car uses a quart every 1000-1200 miles why do you change the oil at all? Even with a 5 quart capacity, you're changing the oil within the recommended change range.

Is it burning the oil or leaking it, or both? If it leaks would fixing the leaks reduce consumption significantly?

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by Nerys

Incredible man. I am curious though. Is this no longer your primary vehicle? the miles seem to be accruing slowly. OR have you had this car a very very long time?

The reason the car doesn't accumilate as many miles as it use to is because I had an accident about 10 years ago that left me disabled, so where I was once driving to work on construction sites usually anywhere from 80-125 miles a day to work and back plus other driving, now it only gets about 250-300 miles a week and where I use to drive it on longer trips of 1000+ miles round trip about the longest trip it sees now is about 400-500 miles round trip.

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by beatr911

If the car uses a quart every 1000-1200 miles why do you change the oil at all? Even with a 5 quart capacity, you're changing the oil within the recommended change range.

Is it burning the oil or leaking it, or both? If it leaks would fixing the leaks reduce consumption significantly?

I know the car is basically changing it's own oil, but the filter has to be changed occasionally so if the car is already a quart low by the time some leaks out while changing the filter and what is in the filter it's going to need about 2 quarts added to it anyway so I'd rather just do a complete oil change and know everything in clean.

As for the burning/leaking question, it's doing some of both, but even though the car smokes very little I think that most of it is being burned, because I've replaced the valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, crankshaft seal, and camshaft seal all in the past few years.

[Ford Man]

506,000

[bhazard]

I bet a simple valve job would do that thing wonders for oil consumption. Do some bottom end seals on the next clutch job.

And get on here

Mega-mileage drivers: News & Videos about Mega-mileage drivers - CNN iReport

[Ford Man]

I found out the other day that Wayne Gerdes (site owner) and a few of the members over at CleanMPG, An authoritative source on fuel economy and hypermiling have been contacting Ford Motor Company trying to persuade them into giving me a new Ford Fiesta since I've been able to drive a Ford beyond the half million mile point. It would also be appreciated if anyone on this side would also contact them. Maybe the more people that put the word out to Ford will make them curious about this car. Personally I think it would be good advertising for Ford, plus good for customer relations.

[Christ]

If someone gets me a phone number of anyone who matters at Ford, I'd be more than happy to relay the URL to this page, as well as your user information to them, at your request.

I don't think it would do any bit of good to talk to some Dick at a dealer, though.