So I had to move my car today due to the management at my apartment complex. They are remodeling some apartments and needed the parking spaces for dumpsters.

Anyway, I checked my oil life monitor and it read 55%! So it went down 2% in a week which jives with my calculations (1.92% per week).

What we learned: The oil life monitor will go down by roughly 2% per week when sitting. The car battery has to be present for the OLM to even work. If the battery is taken out, the OLM will read the same percentage when you put the battery back in. It will not take into account the time elapsed while the battery was out. Obviously this is only valid for when you are leaving the car sit and not driving it.

Hope this helps everybody!

 

Thanks bro, so what you're saying is, the oil life monitor system is not accurate when monitoring the actual good oil life left. Ha ha ha. Its counting down by time pass rather than an autual analysis of the oil.

 

Yes, 2011 Kona Blue, you are correct. The oil life monitoring system does not appear to analyze the oil and provide real time results.

I don't believe Ford has represented that the IOLM does so, nor do I believe that anyone on the forum has asserted that it does.

Dave07's results confirm that the IOLM counts time elapsed while the car is sitting, assuming the battery is connected. No one has confirmed what the IOLM does while the car is driving.

 

This. Why some guys buy cars from a car company they clearly cannot trust to do anything right is beyond me.

 

What doesn't he trust

 

Not worth typing. You and I aren't going to agree on this one.

 

Well I was going to reply in this lively discussion but then I looked back at the original post and realized the question had now been answered and all this other debate is tangential. For reference:

Looks like the answer (thanks to dave07's experiment) is 1) If you leave the battery connected the IOLM will count down time commensurate with a yearly oil change, and 2) If you disconnected the battery it would hold memory.

 

Well last year I removed my battery for the Winter and the OLM did count down.

 

LOL, so we now know nothing for certain.

 

It would be awesome if my 2011 pony was equipped with a mini Blackstone laboratory built in the PCM to anyalize the good oil life left.

Unfortunately, my OLM system doesn't analyze crap about my oil. I trust the OLM to notify me about changing my oil based on me approaching the 10k mile mark. Which is what Fords recommended oil change interval is. I fully trust the OLM to count the miles once the reset is done. I fully trust the OLM to count the days from the time I reset for an annual oil change should occur prior to hitting the 10k mile mark.

The OLM is great for people who don't pay attention to their miles and time when it comes to changing the oil and filter. It keeps people from going 15, 20, 25k miles in between oil changes.

I'm certainly not going to trust my OLM to read the actual oil life left when every oil I have used in the past shows the same percentage left around a certain time and millage period.

I have used Motorcraft 50/50 blend, Super Tech fully synthetic and even a top tier Mobil 1 extended performance (base IV synthetic) and the OLM has read the same or near close percentage life. So basically my OLM is telling me that my Mobil 1 extended performance oil has the same good oil life left at 7500 miles and the same good oil life left using Motorcraft 50/50 blend at the same 7500 miles.

Ahhh, heck no.

 

I thought synthetic 'blend' was 50/50 until i started reading about it for 'days and days' on the internet . Most synthetic blend motor oil has 'less than an ounce' of 'full' synthetic oil mixed in the quart of regular motor oil that is sold as 'synthetic blend' Thats why i don't use 'synthetic blend' anymore Just saying.............................

 

While that may be true, Ford has said it's blend is good for 10,000 miles in these engines. What evidence is there to say that it's not true?

 

That's interesting! I guess if someone really wants a sure way of knowing their getting a true 50/50 blend, they can use 4 quarts conventional oil and 4 quarts synthetic oil. There is the blend. Ha ha ha.

I'm guessing that Ford's 50/50 blend is exactly that. If Ford is advertising it being 50% synthetic oil and it was found out there was only say 1% synthetic oil that could easily be a huge lawsuit. I'm assuming an oil analysis could give some insight to this claim you speak of.

 

None of the OLMs are going to analyze the actual oil. They are just going to take all of the parameters that have been discussed in this thread to make a determination when to change the oil.

If you go to bobistheoilguy.com and go to the oil analysis section, there are plenty of examples of people who have used the OLM in whatever vehicle they own that has one and has had an oil analysis done on the oil. In most of the posts that I have read where people actually use the OLM to change their oil by, it has been very accurate including Ford 5.0.

Most OLMs are developed around the type of oil the manufacturer recommends so using an oil other than the recommended type does not mean for instance that a synthetic oil will last longer than a conventional or semi-synthetic according to the OLM.

The bottom line is everyone has to do what makes them feel comfortable and if using the OLM makes you feel uncomfortable, than use whatever method you like.

Wayne

 

I think the OLM is really good for what it is. Its desinged to remind people there approaching 10k miles traveled and thats what Ford recommends as the oil change interval. It will also remind someone that 365 days are approaching since the OLM reset had been completed and the anual oil change is needed.

The system is set to work based on Motorcrafts 50/50 blend and a motorcraft oil filter. The system can not determine whether someone is using convnential oil or synthetic oil. The OLM is NOT reliable to determine how much good oil life is actual left. One could use an oil that gives you good oil life for 20k miles and the OLM will still go off at 10k miles. It doesn't matter.

OLM's are great for people who otherwise would be forgetful and unconscience of their traveled miles and when oil changes are do. Having your electric devices light up when driving about change oil needed, people don't forget that.

I am currently 5,000 miles traveled since my last oil change along with a OLM reset and my OLM claims I have 50% oil life left. Exactly half way to the 10k mile oil change and I'm at 50% good oil left and I used fully synthetic oil on top. If I used convential oil my OLM would still read 50%.

 

2011 Kona Blue, while your experience may consistently point to a 10k / 365 day reminder, your experience has by no means been proven to be universal.

I would like to see more data from others who have unusual driving patterns, such as a lot of idling, a lot of highway, a lot of bumper-to-bumper, etc. These people are most likely to show variations in the estimations provided by the oil life monitor.

 

All I can say is my oil was changed before I put my car away in late October and the other day the weather was nice so I took her out for some hot driving and I swear that OlM has counted down faster sitting then me driving during the summer months. The OLM was reading like 75% left and that was with fresh oil and less then 100 miles on the oil.

 

By the way this is with the battery hooked up and on a tender still connected to the car.

 

Maybe my OLM is broken and need to have Ford look at it but I can only go on my experience with the equipment my 2011 has and how effective it is. The OLM equipped in my pony is great for 10k mile approaching warnings. That's it. If anyone's here actually does a oil analysis for them, that's awesome. I'm not so lucky.

 

I think the simplest explanation is that you likely use your car in a consistent manner and the oil life monitor consistently calculates an oil life of 10000 miles.

If you take it on a road trip or track it, I am guessing that during that time period you will see (perhaps slightly) different behavior from the oil life monitor.

And I'm not sure if you're trolling or not, but I'd like to mention again that no one expects the oil life monitor to perform an oil analysis.

The whole "problem" with using the odometer to predict oil life is that the number of revolutions of the tire is only loosely related to engine operation. Since every driver is different, and every mile is different for each driver, the engineers would have to do a lot of assuming to come up with a recommended oil change interval based on miles. They do that, and come up with a number like 5000. Then they say "but in severe conditions it's 3000." Monitoring these conditions are what the oil life monitor is supposed to help with.

Measuring how far the pistons travel though, or the number of revolutions of the crankshaft, that's far more indicative of how much work the oil is doing. Since the engine is controlled by the same computer network that calculates oil life, I don't think it's such an outrageous idea that Ford doesn't deserve some benefit of the doubt on their claim. In my opinion, we have not seen evidence yet that the oil monitor does not perform as advertised.

You have made an excellent point in the past though, which is going to be difficult to answer. If you use an oil that wears slower than the oil that the OLM thinks you have, the OLM will over-calculate the oil wear. How can you use the OLM if you use an oil that is superior to the recommended oil?