I changed my oil last 7000 miles ago... I used fully synthetic Valvoline... It recommended every 10000 miles... My timing chain is loud as crap now and i'm at 7,000 miles and the truck is a 2002 with 42k miles. I am changing to Royal Purple tomorrow to see if it helps and calling Ford monday. If this puppy isn't covered, bye bye ranger... It runs like ****, check engine lights, you name it. Yet the Oil is relatively clean and almost above the full line. WTF!!!!!

 

No idea, but good luck. Go get yourself an F-150 if you get rid of the Ranger.

 

Sorry but gas is killing right now... I have two jobs and im driving 30 miles a day, I will be looking at a 4 cyl. Ranger or taco....

 

5.0 swap?

 

hate to say this, but with the recession, and your truck having over 36,000 miles, i doubt ford is going to fix your timing chain for free. hell, my lower ball joint went out at 36,901 miles and they told me my warranty expired 901 miles ago.

 

 

Ive never seen a SOHC 4.0 take a liking to full synthetic oil. I would change oil in it and put Motorcraft 5W30 in it and a Motorcraft filter and give that a try. Going 7000 miles on an oil change, especially with an overhead cam motor, regardless of what oil is in it, doesnt seem wise either.

my standpoint on oil is no matter what the manufacturer claims, oil will still go through viscosity breakdown

 

didnt you jsut post abotu getting a lvl2? now a 4 cylinder taco/ranger? keep the ranger ben lol

 

Mine runs great on Mobil 1 0w-30

 

Dude Ben man make up your mind. Just trade it already and get something else. With all this talk of trade your obviously not happy with your ranger.

 

No kidding.

 

no more posts for you about different vehicles i cant keep track and its hurting my head

 

I'm not selling it... Got a new DPFE sensor for my CEL... Also changed the oil with 5w30 Royal Purple motor oil and a motorcraft filter. No more timing chain noise... Runs amazing. I'm very happy! Patience and a Ford CPU reading does a lot of good

 

Nice hopefully this will help. I never liked Valvoline, I always used Castrol Synthetic in my other car with 160xxx miles and it ran very good. For my ranger Motocraft 5w-20 has been really good. I check it every so often and change my oil and filter every 3xxx miles.

 

I have run Valvoline Synthetic oil since the first oil change. I also use a bypass, micron oil filter along with a regular Motorcraft oil filter. With that combination, I change the oil every 20,000 miles. I have almost 99,000 miles on my 4.0 SOHC engine and have had zero problems with the engine and it runs as as quite and smooth as can be.

My goal is to run it for 300,000 miles and see if there is anything else that appeals to me to replace it.

 

the oil change reminder on new Mercedes are like a 10k interval..

I dont care what who says, 7 or 10k miles is way too far.. ESPECIALLY if you never change the filter+top it off in the middle.

 

I let it go to 7500 miles with Amsoil and I check the level every time I fill up. So every four days. I really have to check now that the front crank seal is going.

 

gald you got it running right now get rid of it.

 

wow i do mine every 3,000 miles am i just wasting time and money?

 

i change mine every 3,000 miles too, i dont care what anyone says, i have all my maintenance records on this truck, and it has never went more than 3200 miles on an oil change

 

me too but it might be a little under 3000 or a little over it but it always close to 3000. as long as they make oil for me to buy im buying anytime i want too.

 

5k at most.

 

I would definitely agree with Toreador4x4 about the interval for oil changes and viscosity breakdown.

I change my oil and filter regularly at 5,000 km/3,000 mile intervals (about every month on average with the mileage I pile on) regardless of whether I'm running synthetic or conventional oil. I find that synthetic seems to run better in winter conditions/cold starts - so I put that in for the most part, but I have interchanged with conventional oil when I was too lazy to look for bargain sales of synthetic.

Toreador 4x4: If you are still on this thread, could you clarify your statement about the 4.0 litre OHC engine not taking a liking to full synthetic oil? Not questioning your assessment, just looking for further clarification of your statement, since for most of the life of my vehicle, I've run full synthetic.

On my 2003, I'm just about at 325,000 km (a little over 200,000 miles or thereabouts) - maybe I've just been lucky, but no major engine problems so far - and I've never encountered the infamous timing chain rattle (I believe that problem was addressed before my truck was manufactured).

Oh, and by the way Ben, stick with the Ranger - yes, you'll always encounter those unavoidable problems that will drive you crazy (just as you will with any vehicle out there), but really, it's the only honest compact truck left out there.

 

the only reason i say they dont take a liking to full synthetic is because it seems that the ones i work on with full synthetic have more cam chain noise because i assume the chain tensioner seal does not hold the smaller synthetic oil molecules as well, but it seems to be working for you so i may be incorrect on this

 

You give some food for thought - that could be a valid reason.

The other thing is that it could be related to the extended interval schedule of oil changes that most users of synthetic oil stick to (that usually being the main reason that they go with synthetic).

I may have avoided that increased cam chain noise you are referring to because my change intervals with synthetic are no different than with conventional (since my reason for going with synthetic has more to do with better winter drivablity, better cold starts, etc. - reasons that don't result in extended change intervals).

In any case, that too would lend support to your statement about oil breakdown with extended use (regardless if the oil is synthetic or not).