2002 Continental Owner Checking In

[holptj]

Hello LvCers. I posted in the Welcome forum last week, but figured I'd check in here, as well. I've had a chance to put a few miles on the car in the last week and I love it. No major issues or problems, yet (knock on wood).

We live in SW Georgia and are headed to Ohio next week for vacation, so that ought to put her through a good work out.

I did notice a slight valve train noise at start up, but it goes away after a second or two. The dealer did a oil change ~1000 miles ago and who knows what oil they put in. I assume a MC filter, but haven't looked.

Are most of you running 5W20? I'm thinking of going with xW30 in this GA heat. I have a case of Mobil 5000 lying in wait. The car will see fewer than 3k miles/year, so I'm shying away from synthetic, for cost purposes.

Well, that's all for me until I have questions.

 

[bradyelich]

Hi,
Do not shy away from synthetic oils they are so much better. If you had synthetic oil in right now you would not hear your tappets. 5w30 would be better way down south. One way to cut costs is do the oil change yourself. Another is to change the oil filter every other time. Plan ahead and buy the oil on sale. Another way is to put in one quart of synthetic during the oil change. The oils are mixable and you get the benefits.

 

[holptj]

Thanks for the thoughts. Although I usually use standard Purolator oil filters, I have been thinking about switching to their PureOne or to Mobil1 Extended filters and leaving the filter on for two changes.

I'm going to leave the dealer oil in for our trip and then change it when we get back. I have a 5 quart jug of Valvoline SynPower I can put in when we get back, instead of the 5000.

 

[GMAN]

I use the Ford Motorcraft synthetic blend.