Oil change light between regular maintenance?

[buckingup]

I have a 24 bd sas. Got a maintenance call at 6 months, although I only had 6000 miles. Now I’m 5 months in, at 12000 miles and I’m getting an oil change light? Shouldn’t the oil last 10000 miles? Could the dealer not have changed my oil? Is the oil change light actually judging the oil, or just going by mileage?

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[Brian_B]

The oil change light goes off more than just straight miles. It has a timer (one year I think), it looks at cold starts, idle time, and a few other things.

6000 miles does seem a bit short for it, but not impossible. Also possible they forgot to reset the counter for the first oil change.

 

[dgorsett]

The oil change light goes off more than just straight miles. It has a timer (one year I think), it looks at cold starts, idle time, and a few other things.

6000 miles does seem a bit short for it, but not impossible. Also possible they forgot to reset the counter for the first oil change.
6000 miles is probably a good number for moderate usage. I do 5000 just because the math is easy, if divisible by 5000, change it.

 

[Brian_B]

You can reset to 100, 90, 80 etc, maybe they chose 60% to get you back in.

I honestly didn't know you could do that

 

[CarbonSteel]

I honestly didn't know you could do that

Must be something the dealer can do via the computer--unless I am blind, I have never seen a setting that allows for multiple percentages.

 

[dgorsett]

I honestly didn't know you could do that

Apparently I imagined this, just went out and checked.

 

[Brian_B]

Apparently I imagined this, just went out and checked.

Happens to me all the time

 

[Smocaine]

I had mine pop at approximately 6000 miles from the previous change on a long road trip. I think they're just putting in the warning early, as my oil life was still the standard 40% at this time.
For what it's worth, I like a 5000 mile interval, I just didn't have much chance to change it on my trip.

 

[LSW]

The oil change light goes off more than just straight miles. It has a timer (one year I think), it looks at cold starts, idle time, and a few other things.

6000 miles does seem a bit short for it, but not impossible. Also possible they forgot to reset the counter for the first oil change.

Do you think it actually looks at cold starts and idle time?

I think it is just 10,000 miles or 1 year in Bronco. If you drive 100 miles or wait about 4 days it drops oil life remaining 1%. I have varied the amount of idling and cold starts quite a bit between oil changes and the oil life indicator never seems to budge from this formula.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I do 5k oil change intervals on all of my cars.
As mentioned above, easy math ... change the oil on the 5's and zeros.

I'd have to really do some research before I'd ever think about 10k oil change intervals.
Especially after the engines get some time on them. The oil starts looking dirty after 5k on a 120k+ mile motor.

 

[Brian_B]

Do you think it actually looks at cold starts and idle time?

I think it is just 10,000 miles or 1 year in Bronco. If you drive 100 miles or wait about 4 days it drops oil life remaining 1%. I have varied the amount of idling and cold starts quite a bit between oil changes and the oil life indicator never seems to budge from this formula.

I change the oil early in my Bronco, but in work F150s in our fleet I’ve seen anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000

 

[23OBX2.7]

I do 3000 miles because I'm severe duty by definition which is stop and go short trips probably overkill

 

[Brian_B]

I change the oil early in my Bronco, but in work F150s in our fleet I’ve seen anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000

There was also an article around here somewhere where one of the Ford engineers talked about what went into the programming of that light. It was pretty sophisticated and my caveman explanation didn’t do it justice. If I can find it again I’ll link to it

 

[KABQ]

Do you think it actually looks at cold starts and idle time?

I think it is just 10,000 miles or 1 year in Bronco. If you drive 100 miles or wait about 4 days it drops oil life remaining 1%. I have varied the amount of idling and cold starts quite a bit between oil changes and the oil life indicator never seems to budge from this formula.

Mine seems to drop faster in the winter. Could be due to a few factors: oil doesn't get as warm on short trips, relative humidity is higher so it's more likely to collect water, I'm more likely to drive a shorter distance because I don't want to walk in the cold, it doesn't heat soak as badly so I'm more likely to hammer on it once it warms up, etc. I can't remember where I saw it, but I've heard the oil life algorithm is actually pretty sophisticated.

 

[SeptuagenarianSasquatch]

We have to be careful with these oil threads. First, they can get awfully intense--such an interesting thing to arouse strong passions. Second, there's been so many threads on oil.

That said, I didn't know the oil indicator was set for 1 year/10K miles. Now I hear it also monitors the oil's chemical status. So which is? Quantity (time + mileage) or quality (analysis) or both?

Also, any difference between regular oils and synthetic in the oil change display?

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