The FEH is coming up on it's annual oil change this month. I got one of the free test kits from http://www.blackstone-labs.com/ and thought I would have an analysis done just out of curiosity.

Question is, I'm going to the Ford dealer for the oil change (Motocraft full synthetic) and tire rotation, and I'm wondering if I can trust their shop to collect the oil sample for me? I have this image of them just scooping some old oil from the recycling container instead of from my vehicle. What do you think? Would you trust any mechanic out of your sight to collect an oil sample for you?

 

Got my oil sample and sent it off to Blackstone. The Ford tech said they routinely collect engine oil samples, usually from diesels, for analysis.

I had the dealer rotate the tires with the oil change, which proved to be a mistake. Started getting "Tire Sensor" fault on the message center within 30 minutes of leaving the dealer. From past experience this has always indicated the TPMS needed to be retrained after changing a tire location. Went back to the dealer today and the tech insisted that one of my tire sensors must have just gone bad, and that this vehicle does not require retraining of the system following tire rotation. I insisted that he just do it, required or not, and all is well now. Sorry to vent, but it's so discouraging to experience a Ford dealership that can't even rotate the tires in a competent manner. What if I really had a problem that required some technical expertise?

 

I have a '09 FE but having had my tires rotated and all my 17" chrome-clad rims replaced for corrosion in three stages, the TPMS were retrained every time.

 

That's odd, my '09 FEH has had 2 new tires, all the tires and rims exchanged from my '05 FEH, and then put back on my '09. The TPMS has never been retrained. When I had the '05 tires and rims on my '09, I did get a warning because there is no sensors or system on the '05 FEH. The '06 - '08 used the band TPMS system and our '09 changed to the valve stem sensors. I don't think the '09 and newer TPMS need to be retrained as long as the rims are rotating. In other words, if the sensor is on the spare and not rotating, we will get a warning like I did when I used the spare once.

GaryG

 

I just read the paperwork but maybe they didn't need to be retrained. Do you know for sure that it wasn't done?

Just read a paper that stated that TPMS retraining isn't required after a tire rotation, so maybe I'm not remembering correctly. You can buy a Ford TPMS tool(P/N 8C2Z-1A203-A) for less that $20.

 

I'm sure Bill, as I said, my spare had no sensor because when I bought an original Limited rim and new Michelin tire for a full size spare, I didn't buy an extra sensor for it. I bought one new tire for the front and used the new spare to have two new tires on the front. I got a tire warning light every time I drove for about 8-10 miles until I put the spare new tire on the original rim with the sensor. The '09 FEH TPMS does not need to retrained because it clears itself overnight. When I took the '09 set of rims and put them back on my '09 FEH, no warning since then with out retraining any of them.

Here is a photo of my OD when I had the '05 rims and tires on my '09 FEH. You can see the tire warning light also in that photo: http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/showp.../500/ppuser/36

GaryG

 

I had to buy two new tires at Costco, which they mounted on the same rims. When I drove off the TPMS light was on. The Costgo guy said it would go out within a few miles, and it did. No trouble since then.

 

Steve, if the rims stay in the same wheel position on the vehicle then the TPMS doesn't need to be retrained. But on my '07 with TPMS bands on the rims, if any rim is moved to another location (i.e. tire rotation) then the TPMS alerts will never clear until the system is retrained. They use a garage door remote sized device at each wheel to retrain the system.

 

Interesting in that the wheels can be rotated without triggering the alarm but if the tires are changed out on the rims, then the alarm is triggered..

 

Got my oil analysis back from Blackstone today. Not completely sure how to read the report yet, but I have attached it if anyone is curious.

This was from a 12 month change, 8500 miles, Motocraft 5W-20 full synthetic.