Originally Posted by Chris L.
For those owners that put very few miles on their cars, have you figured out the time between oil change recommendation of the FSS? Wilma (born 12/10/07) had her first oil change on June 23, 2009 (2,600 miles on the odometer) & has had < 3,000 miles put on her since. Or does the FSS let you go the same # of miles as a frequently driven XF? The FSS allows Fred to go >8,000 miles.
My Xfire falls into your low mileage driven category. I changed the oil initially on 10/10/09 with 6100 showing. (Note: The FSS is initially set to 7000 miles at factory.) The FSS had already started its warning mode for oil change when I did this service, which was a year after I bought it with 1500 showing.
Right now the FSS is showing 6000 until next oil change. And I've driven approx 1000 miles since I changed the oil & reset FSS. Since the FSS monitors driving conditions of the car to determine service interval, apparently I'm not stressing the engine to warrant changing from the 7000 mile default setting. Does the FSS really reduce the interval based on driving conditions? I haven't driven the car hard enough to know that it does. Maybe others have seen this.
Based on my driving habits, I'll probably do the oil change every 2 years unless the FSS indicates to perform service prior. Since I'm running the Mobil 1 0w40 recommended syn oil, the 2-yr interval isn't really a major risk regarding engine wear from lubricant breakdown.