Oil life indicator

[Fla_dogman]

My new F250 has an information screen that tells the % of oil life remaining. My question is how accurate is this. I'm at 4500 miles with 43% oil life left. Can I trust the sensor to be accurate?

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[SuperCab]

My truck has the same think and I've wondered the same thing... Personally I plan on sticking to normal intervals but I'm curious to see what the consensus is

[DNFXDLI]

As far as I know they work on an algorithm of temperature, revs etc. I also think the old adage of an oil change every 3000 miles is outdated.

OL's car has it, I sent one sample off for a check and it had a lot of life left in it.

[Sparky83]

like duncan said... its not so much a sensor.. but the computer doing guesstimate math based off your driving habits to determine oil life... some of the earlier vehicles just had a light that came on after so many miles.. the newer ones with the more sophisticated computers are "allowed" to float the intervals based on more parameters...

[Lorddurock]

i sure its also based of the the fact that the oil and filter got changed with the ones that meets the OE spec.
side note/ two cents
i normally say 5000 miles on a change is good for any of today oils, that way the oil gets changed 2 maybe 3 times a year if you don't drive a lot (moisture, deposits etc get flushed out). if you drive alot like i used to it seems that most good synthetics off the shelf (mobile 1,castrol, etc) will get 7-8000 with a filter change at at 4000. i was getting 8000 out of my gas vw on mobile 1 with wix filters, but at 2000 miles a month who wants to change oil ever other month

[CowboyBilly9Mile]

I'll bet ya that if you run a good synthetic such as Penz Platinum, Valvoline, (Napa synthetic = Valvoline Syngard, FYI) and a few others and use a Motorcraft oil filter, and if you drive a normal routine meaning you get it fully warmed up and drive it a bit to drive off any condensation or take it for a 1X a week joyride to do this if you putt around town during the week, I'd bet that if you sent a test sample of your oil off to Blackstone Labs at 10K along with $25 for the test, that would find you could have left it in there quite a bit longer. This assumes normal driving, not excess dust, etc etc, no prolong extremities.

Remember, it's the additives in the oil that are prolonging the life; the lubricating properties of the oil itself, they don't "go away", the go on indefinitely. If you want a really good crash course on oil, go do some reading over on bobistheoilguy.com. IMO, I'd bet your "sensor" will be sure to error on the conservative side.

[O'Rattlecan]

I agree with Bill mostly about the thing being conservative. Usually burn-off is a bigger issue than oil deterioration.

And yes, it's simply the computer tracking your driving habits.

Ryan

[mrxlh]

Simply it takes the guesswork out of the criteria in your owners manual as to which service category you fall under. Most vehicles have a 7500 mile interval for the easier miles as stated earlier in this thread.

[mrxlh]

If an oil sample was cheaper than $25 or you were changing more than 6 quarts, it would probably make sense to oil sample. The biggest thing is that GP III oils are now considered synthetic, many brands conventional oils use GP III base stocks, with a shade less add pack. This is the primary driver for the extended service intervals on todays newer vehicles.