Short oil life?

[chuck s]

Oil color hasn't been a determinate of oil life since the appearance of detergent oils -- maybe 50 years ago. If the oil is doing it's job and picking up contaminates is should darken normally. It's the oil filter's job to clean out the particles but the color remains.

Oil life computers can be as simple as counting miles and time. Not sure what (if any) stresses are in the algorithm. I can't tell with my Expedition as time is the main determinate as I drive less than 10,000 miles with the truck annually. The mileage or percent oil life is settable in the computer. There are reports of oil-changers such as dealers, jiffy lube shops, and guys here who love dumping good oil, setting the oil life to something less than 100% when they change the oil so you come back for another (unnecessary) oil change.

-- Chuck

 

[bobmbx]

Well 5 months & 20 days later the (Change Engine Oil Soon) light came on! I did the math and it's been 3,295 miles, since changed.

I'm thinking of biting the bullet and taking it to dealer for this oil change. And if it only goes another 3k miles before needed they will have record of a issue.

We don't tow with the truck or abuse it, seldom sees 3k rpms. Mostly city driving, but we have taken a couple trips out of state, and some across the state.

Do yourself a favor. Just follow what the owners manual says and sleep well at night.

 

[mquick5]

My oil level is full, but a little dark, can still see through it. Truck does its share of curb idling, especially with the added remote start. Curb idling never shorten the oil life on my Suburban. I drive a 16 turbo cruise for work and it always goes 7500 miles or so b4 needing oil changes. I do lots of stop and go and idling with it daily.

Idk I may change the oil myself one more time and monitor it again. I am getting about 1oz. Per thousand miles out of the oil catch can. Oil in the can is black, but seams to have no lubricant left to it? Most pics I've seen on here, the oil looks milky in the can?

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[mquick5]

Do yourself a favor. Just follow what the owners manual says and sleep well at night.

Idk if I can ignore the display telling me to change it soon! I'm not sure I could sleep well, by just resetting the reminder, and waiting it out. I talked to my local dealer and they offer what they call the works oil change for $44.95 with a $5 rebate. Oil and filter alone would cost me around $30. I don't mine paying extra especially for tire rotation, but If I go this route I hope I'm not tied up there half a day.

Tire Rotation and Pressure Check
• Brake Inspection
• Vehicle Checkup
• Fluid Top-Off
• Battery Test
• Filter Check
• Belts and Hoses Check

 

[chuck s]

I'd not ignore the oil change. Watch how this oil lasts 'cuz I'm still thinking oil life wasn't set to 100% last time and I doubt the readout is smart enough to detect super severe driving. If you're really curious get a Blackstone Labs oil analysis. I'm going to do this at my next oil change (I do it for my little Honda S2000). They sell a little vacuum pump to draw the sample from the oil dipstick directly into their sample bottle. They have a large sample of our engines and will note in the narrative if you can extend the change interval.

The service you describe has taken no more than 60 -90 minutes both times I've had it done at the Ford dealer. Some dealers can do it quicker as they have jiffy lube style setups tacked onto their shop. Some may take half a day.

A little more expensive with pure synthetic oil.

-- Chuck

 

[cmiles97]

Idk if I can ignore the display telling me to change it soon! I'm not sure I could sleep well, by just resetting the reminder, and waiting it out. I talked to my local dealer and they offer what they call the works oil change for $44.95 with a $5 rebate. Oil and filter alone would cost me around $30. I don't mine paying extra especially for tire rotation, but If I go this route I hope I'm not tied up there half a day.

Tire Rotation and Pressure Check
• Brake Inspection
• Vehicle Checkup
• Fluid Top-Off
• Battery Test
• Filter Check
• Belts and Hoses Check

This is it. Worth the price just not to have to rotate my own tires. It's not as easy as it used to be for me. Anyway I always schedule it for their earliest slot on a Saturday morning and take a stroll to one of the nearby restaurants for breakfast. There is a great diner about a mile away. My current dealer has a dunkin donuts right across the street if I'm feeling lazy that morning or it's winter. It's usually done by the time I get back, around 45 minutes. For this price I don't mind going with partial synthetic and 5,000 mile intervals.

 

[bobmbx]

Idk if I can ignore the display telling me to change it soon! I'm not sure I could sleep well, by just resetting the reminder, and waiting it out. I talked to my local dealer and they offer what they call the works oil change for $44.95 with a $5 rebate. Oil and filter alone would cost me around $30. I don't mine paying extra especially for tire rotation, but If I go this route I hope I'm not tied up there half a day.

Tire Rotation and Pressure Check
• Brake Inspection
• Vehicle Checkup
• Fluid Top-Off
• Battery Test
• Filter Check
• Belts and Hoses Check

What I meant was 'do what the system tells you to do'. If the display tells you to change the oil, change it. Just make sure the oil life monitor is reset to 100%. If you hit 10000 miles before the display complains, change the oil. Now, if you change the oil and reset the monitor to 100% and then 3 weeks later the monitor tells you you're down to 50%, yeah, thats an issue and is most likely in the monitor system, not an issue with your engine.

 

[mquick5]

I assure you all the mileage was reset to 100% And as far as I could tell that was the only option, press in the button and wait for the reset. Nothing like chose 40-60-80-100%. Same as my old 05 Suburban. Reset to 100% or not at all.

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[chuck s]

Apparently the system is smarter than I suspected. And there doesn't appear a way to set it to anything other than 100% that I can see.

When to expect the message prompting you to change your oil
Interval Vehicle use and example
Normal
7500-10000 miles
(12000-16000 km)
Normal commuting with highway driving
No, or moderate, load or towing
Flat to moderately hilly roads
No extended idling

Severe
5000-7499 miles
(8000-11999 km)
Moderate to heavy load or towing
Mountainous or off-road conditions
Extended idling
Extended hot or cold operation

Extreme
3000-4999 miles
(4800-7999 km) Maximum load or towing
Extreme hot or cold operation

-- Chuck

 

[Plati]

That's whats funny and almost always true about the plethora of conspiracy theories

"There are reports of oil-changers such as dealers, jiffy lube shops, and guys here who love dumping good oil, setting the oil life to something less than 100% when they change the oil so you come back for another (unnecessary) oil change"

They are usually so bogus that nobody should believe them, of course people do!
Partly because they keep getting repeated so often IT MUST BE TRUE

 

[coolzzy]

I have the dealer do "the works" oil change and tire rotation every 5k miles or less. I tow throughout the summer, and lots of short trips during the winter (wife works 2 miles away from home). The turbo motors put more stress on the oil and the combination of direct injection and boost also has greater potential for diluting the oil with fuel. Dealer uses 5w30 Motorcraft synthetic blend and rotates tires, checks brakes, tops off fluids, and even runs it through a car wash. For roughly $50 out the door, it's worth it and only needed every 6 months. Also I won't have to worry about them denying me a powertrain warranty claim if something oil lubricated goes bang, service history is all there at the dealer and shows on a carfax for when I sell it.

 

[mquick5]

So in July I took truck to dealer for there works oil change, truck had 53,633 miles on it. The change oil warning appeared today at 56,988. This just seams way to early for me, but yet I cant ignore it.

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[chuck s]

Was the "change oil" indicator showing on the dash before that change in July? Did the dealer reset the oil life indicator?

10,000 miles since the change before the July change or the "or 12 months" criteria may have triggered regardless of mileage if it wasn't reset.

Changing the oil before it's necessary and not resetting the system will produce needless warnings.

-- Chuck

 

[JExpedition07]

Is it possible the oil life monitoring system is set to 50% or something low? Pretty sure you can change the value up to 50% lower on my 2007 via message center.

 

[chuck s]

I found it interesting that my '07 5.4V8 had a 5000 mile oil change interval and the '08 5.4V8 (exact same engine) had a 7500. Dealer, or anyone doing the reset, can set it to whatever mileage they want as I recall.

 

[LokiWolf]

So in July I took truck to dealer for there works oil change, truck had 53,633 miles on it. The change oil warning appeared today at 56,988. This just seams way to early for me, but yet I cant ignore it.

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What is your Oil Life Percentage at in the MFD?


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[mquick5]

What is your Oil Life Percentage at in the MFD?


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It was reset to 100% and now at 5%. When I bought the truck it was around 90% and 3 to 4k miles later I changed it, and reset it to 100% Again for others I see no option to reset to anything other than 100% and I assure you this was done each time. Then a few thousand miles later I took it to dealer to have them change it, since I thought something might be up. My wife drives this truck the same way she did the 05 Suburban, and I never experienced anything like this with the other truck. The Chevy always went around 5k before going to 10%. This Ford barely gets 3k, while I read about others going 7500 to 10k?

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[mquick5]

I found it interesting that my '07 5.4V8 had a 5000 mile oil change interval and the '08 5.4V8 (exact same engine) had a 7500. Dealer, or anyone doing the reset, can set it to whatever mileage they want as I recall.

I would like to know where that setting is. All I see is oil life %. And when you reset it, it will display 100%. No milage option or no other options at all.

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[chuck s]

I think (on my '07 for sure) I could ***** the reset and set the percent 10% increments. Not attempted it in the '17. Holding the reset down took it to 100% and (maybe) it could be decremented from there. Procedure is vague in the manual but notes:

Note: Oil Life Start Value of 100% equals 5,000 miles (8,000 km) or
180 days. For example, setting Oil Life Start Value to 60% sets the Oil
Life Start Value to 3,000 miles (4,828 km) and 120 days.

-- Chuck

 

[Plati]

my 2014EL 5.4 always goes to around 6500 or so mile before oil life goes to zero

my owners manual says you can change by 10% increments as follows