Oil life % meter

Hi all,

I recently sold my 2009 CR-V - it had this system called "maintenance minder" which constantly kept track of how you drove and basically told you when you had to get your oil changed.

This maintenance minder had me freaking out - when I had 5,000km on the truck it said oil life was still 70% - I'm the kind of guy who always did changes at 5,000km so this freaked me out like you wouldn't belive. It didn't end up needing an oil change until 16,500 km - which is foreign to me - then again it was my first foreign car...

Now that I've switched over to a 2007 Expedition I've noticed that it too has an oil life % meter - it's going down much faster but still, it had an oil change 4,500km ago and is now saying its at 49% oil life.

What I'm wondering is, how accurate is this meter?

It's got standard oil in it at the moment - not sure on brand - the fellow I bought the truck from had his Ford dealership do an oil change before I picked it up so it's probably middle of the road stuff.

Of the 4,500 km I've put on it about 1,200 are towing - also I baby my vehicles and don't drive them hard very often - should I stick with the 5,000 km rule or trust this meter and ride it out to 15% or so?

I've never trusted those things. Don't they end up being just a combo of miles/days till manufacturer recommneded oil change interval?

Depending on the oil I put in, I try to change between 3000-5000 miles, with earlier being non-full-synthetic stuff, and 5000 miles being full syntehetic.

I know some cars that claim to have 10000 mile oil change intervals end up having oil sludge problems because they end up "pushing" the oil too far. If you're towing, or doing a lot of short trips (not enough time to full warm up engine), I'd stick to 3k-4k miles, or a couple thousand more if you're using synthetic.

Also, make sure to use a decent quality filter. The Motorcraft one is of pretty good quality, especially for the money (not sure how it is up in Canada).

Remember, evertyime you sit at a stop light, wait for the kids to get out of school, wait the the wife to just run in for a few things at the store or wait for a trian you have idle time. This THING in the computer has no idea what is really going on, I change every 3000 to 3500 no matter what the oil looks like. My opinion cheap insurance. Just me...