Oil life monitor..

[PJR202]

I've read thse monitors are pretty accurate, which is great. BUT..they're just based on driving hours, RPM, and temperature type stuff, correct?

Like..If a guy such as myself is running Mobil 1 instead of traditional motor oil, would my oil be in better condition at x percentage than the traditional stuff?

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[new302]

They do monitor certain parameters as you mentioned. Do note though, there is no way for the system to know what oil you are using. Therefore if you run a top synthetic oil you "should" have oil life left when the monitor says 0. ( this presuming ford calculated the oil life monitor off of the standard semi synthetic oil.)

Personally, I have always used pure synthetic oil in the coyote engines I've had and changed it according to the oil life monitor. Overkill? Probably.

A quality filter and any decent oil should suffice for 95% of applications, especially group 3 and or 4 base stock synthetics. ( mobile, amsoil, etc)

If you really want to know the oil condition, check out some of the oil testing companies, Blackstone labs is a notable one, many use. You can take a sample, send it to them for analysis and get a report that will detail condition, particulates and many other parameters.

 

[PJR202]

Thanks. I'm at like 25% right now and want to change it myself but the combination of weather and opportunity continues to elude me. Even have a brand new low profIle jack in the trunk I'm excited to try out. I'm not driving it much right now anyway. I'll check out that testing company.

 

[King_V]

I discovered relatively that time passage is also counted.

That is, once I was approaching the 1-year mark for my car (it's a garage queen), the oil life indicator dropped rapidly.

So, it looks like (and another thread where I'd inquired confirms this) that, regardless of driving, it will tell you to change the oil after a year.

 

[u980029]

Where the oil life indicator and does a S550 have a maintenance light? I can see the oil life reset option, but cant figure out how to see oil life and don't see any maintenance light on the panel.

 

[AmericanLegend]

.....cant figure out how to see oil life and don't see any maintenance light on the panel.

Ford could of done a little better job of making the 'Oil Monitor' indication a bit more intuitive.

- When you get to the 'Oil Monitor Reset' indication, just select the "right arrow" (Don't press "OK") and it will display your current percentage remaining on the oil.

 

[jacknifetoaswan]

Guys, the oil life monitor is based on mileage alone. It's set to use 10,000 mile change intervals as its range. How do I know this? I changed my oil at 6,000 miles. My oil life indicator showed 40% life. I changed my oil again right at 16,000 miles. My oil life indicator perfectly followed the mileage - at 2500 miles, I was at 75%, 5000 miles, 50%, 6500 miles, 65%, etc. I'm now at about 19000 miles, and my oil life has gone down by about 30%.

JR

 

[Stripler]

Guys, the oil life monitor is based on mileage alone. It's set to use 10,000 mile change intervals as its range. How do I know this? I changed my oil at 6,000 miles. My oil life indicator showed 40% life. I changed my oil again right at 16,000 miles. My oil life indicator perfectly followed the mileage - at 2500 miles, I was at 75%, 5000 miles, 50%, 6500 miles, 65%, etc. I'm now at about 19000 miles, and my oil life has gone down by about 30%.

JR

What he said. When I reset mine, it is a countdown to 10,000 miles by percentage. When I'm at 7000 miles, it says I have 30% oil life remaining, etc. It doesn't matter where or how I drive (city, highway, idling, etc). And I have a manual transmission. I have almost 27,000 miles on my car and every time I've changed oil, the monitor has functioned the same - completely based on mileage.

 

[RNstanger]

I don't know, I'm at 6,200 miles and my oil life indicator reads 10%.

 

[Monopoly]

It's definitely not calculated by time. I currently have 2400kms (not miles) and my oil life is showing 55%.

I checked the dipstick and it's really clean. Barely has a darker tinge to it and really far from black.

 

[Earlsays]

Doing my regular 50 mile per day back and fourth commute to work in moderate traffic, my oil life monitor uses the 10,000 mile calculation, with percentages to match.

Back in December, I took a long multi-state road trip, up into the Smokey mountains...The oil life monitor slowed down as a result, and stretched the interval out farther than it normally would for the miles driven, so, long stretches of cruise control @ 70 (hundreds of miles, full to empty, no stopping) have an effect on the calculation as well.

 

[Lonmon]

I can say it is not only based on mileage only. My car has 7300 miles on it and I just had the warning for 0% oil life. I forgot to reset it when I changed the oil about 4 or 5 months ago. It does take mileage and time at the very least into consideration.

 

[Blk2015GT]

Definitely based on time as well (and certainly driving patterns etc). I only put on 1500 miles or so the 1st year and it went down to 0 with 1500 miles on the odometer in somewhere like 10--12 months range.

 

[Stripler]

I can say it is not only based on mileage only. My car has 7300 miles on it and I just had the warning for 0% oil life. I forgot to reset it when I changed the oil about 4 or 5 months ago. It does take mileage and time at the very least into consideration.

I thought the first one was supposed to be at 7000? Then subsequent every 10000. Might be why yours hit zero at 7.

 

[Art_Boy]

At a few days short of 1 year since my last oil change and 3,891 miles, my oil life monitor showed 3%.

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