Article: Coolant temp rise can predict engine oil life

[CharlieBauer]

Quote

We show that the rate of engine coolant temperature rise, readily obtainable through the OBD suite, can serve as a proxy to indicate the remaining engine oil life. We demonstrate consistent results for one vehicle under similar environmental and unloaded engine operating conditions. We also examine the validity of this approach under varying environmental and engine loading conditions with tests on a second vehicle

https://www.researchgate.net/public...sing_On-Board_Diagnostic_OBD_sensor_data

 

[JHZR2]

I believe I read that BMW cars with no dipstick somehow estimate oil levels through temperature rise rates. So they must have mapped it pretty well vs ambient conditions for that. Doesn't seem like a far stretch to then, with statistically significant data, map the changes in these rates vs ambient and oil life. I'm not entirely sure it makes sense to me from a phenomena perspective, like how the chemical composition would change so much to have a vastly different heating rate, but I'm thinking it more from the data point of view. Very interesting.

 

[oldhp]

All that time and money to replace a dipstick. Doesn't make sense to me.

 

[MolaKule]

Since the research was done over 5 years ago I would think this information would have been incorporated into OLM's as an enhanced OLM algorithm by now.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted by MolaKule

Since the research was done over 5 years ago I would think this information would have been incorporated into OLM's as an enhanced OLM algorithm by now.

Well look who did it - MIT and IBM. Probably as much a play on big data and analytics as it was to do something useful to implement industrially.

 

[FCD]

Originally Posted by oldhp

All that time and money to replace a dipstick. Doesn't make sense to me.

True, i still can't see what is wrong with a dipstick.

 

[MrMoody]

How does a dipstick measure oil life? As oil wears out and/or becomes more contaminated, engine friction increases. More friction, more heat. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

 

[Superflan]

Makes sense to me, essentially after hard towing on WVO, my coolant temps turns hotter (especially when going uphill, but also cruising at high speeds) until I change engine oil.

 

[MolaKule]

If I am interpreting the graph correctly under <span style="font-weight: bold">V. Results</span> (no intermediate tick marks), the graph shows an average temp differential of about 19.8F between new and old oils. I would say that is significant.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted by FordCapriDriver

Originally Posted by oldhp

All that time and money to replace a dipstick. Doesn't make sense to me.

True, i still can't see what is wrong with a dipstick.

Me either. It's cheaper, better if you use it, and probably will never break. I think somehow people are becoming conditioned not to check things, and rely on technology to monitor everything, so these systems are becoming a must. And when they break bad things happen and fixing them is big $$.