I recently bought a '10 Focus SES and I'm wondering on when to get my oil changed. I've heard of the "3 month/3000 mile rule", then I read my manual and it says the max time for oil change is 6 months/7500 miles. I don't plan on waiting that long, but I'm a little over 3500 miles now. What's a good interval to get it changed? Thanks!

 

I still use the 3,000 mile interval on my '97 Escort, but all my other cars I let go up to 5K miles between changes except for my '88 Escort Pony that I use this product in (http://lubecontrol.com/lube.htm) and am trying to see if their claims of 10K mile oil changes really are OK without doing any significant engine damage. The only reason I'm trying it in my '88 Pony is because the car has 502K miles, so if it does ruin something it's not a lot gone, but if it does work out OK I'll start using it in my other cars and increase the change interval. Thus far I've been using it for almost 30K miles and haven't noticed any bad effects from it. I've heard of people using synthetic oil leaving it in as high as 25K miles between changes, but if I was using synthetic I'd probably change it at least every 10K miles. My take on oil changes has always been that oil is cheaper than engine parts!!!

 

Back when I worked at a Ford dealer, the intervals were 5k and at that point you can do the tire rotation as well.