Hours on oil vs miles

If a person is _only_ going to watch _one_ thing to base OCIs on, gallons of fuel used is the best of the incomplete single things to watch. I don’t know whether the old threads and data on this topic can still be dug up on this forum or not, but if you can find them it’s worth reading.

Does the Fiat OLM not calculate oil life from the myriad parameters that GM’s (to name one good example) does? If it _does_ use a decent multi-variable decay algorithm, why would you try to do better with an odometer and an hour meter? I can understand choosing a _different_ change point than they use, but I frankly can’t understand thinking that a one- or two-input hack is a better choice for making the degradation estimates.

They do, I’ve had mine come on in 3,000 miles or as long as 8,000.
 
Manual states 4k for severe duty not more than 350 hours but use OLM for other drives at that is the reason for hour meter.

Hmm... To me that suggests a fairly incomplete OLM from Fiat on this vehicle.

They do, I’ve had mine come on in 3,000 miles or as long as 8,000.

This, on the other hand, seems a bit different.

I don’t know whether or how much I’d trust Fiat’s OLM, given the above combo.
 
Hmm... To me that suggests a fairly incomplete OLM from Fiat on this vehicle.



This, on the other hand, seems a bit different.

I don’t know whether or how much I’d trust Fiat’s OLM, given the above combo.

Sounds like he should do some oil sampling and find out!
 
Sounds like he should do some oil sampling and find out!
Here is straight from manual. It does say follow OLM but then this.
1. I will install hour meter. It probably will not change my mind about 5k with Synthetic.
2. Will see what kind of hours I get then go 200 hours.

"NOTE: Under no circumstances should oil change inter-
vals exceed 10,000 miles (16,000 km), twelve months or 350
hours of engine run time, whichever comes first. The 350
hours of engine run or idle time is generally only a concern
for fleet customers.
Severe Duty All Models
Change engine oil at 4,000 miles (6,500 km) if the vehicle is
operated in a dusty and off road environment or is
operated predominately at idle or only very low engine
RPM’s. This type of vehicle use is considered Severe Duty"
 
Last edited:
If a person is _only_ going to watch _one_ thing to base OCIs on, gallons of fuel used is the best of the incomplete single things to watch.

Oh, good point!

The REAL metric would be piston swept volume per hour, which includes variable RPM in the equation... one would need a real-time computer on the OBD or engine to calculate that... but fuel consumed would track that closely.
 
Here is straight from manual. It does say follow OLM but then this.

"NOTE: Under no circumstances should oil change inter-
vals exceed 10,000 miles (16,000 km), [or] twelve months or 350
hours of engine run time, whichever comes first. The 350
hours of engine run or idle time is generally only a concern
for fleet customers.
Severe Duty All Models
Change engine oil at 4,000 miles (6,500 km) if the vehicle is
operated in a dusty and off road environment or is
operated predominately at idle or only very low engine
RPM’s. This type of vehicle use is considered Severe Duty"
 
I fully respect your level of detail in this regard but I think you are overthinking it - The OLM takes into consideration a lot of variables to calculate a safe oil change time. I am sure hours are involved in the formula. Just use good oil and filters and drive safely until the light tells you to change it.
 
I won't hit 10k in a year so that is 2 down so I will make sure not to hit 350 hours in a year. I seen people follow OLM and have rocker problem so I am hoping to prevent it with proper OCI.
 
I fully respect your level of detail in this regard but I think you are overthinking it - The OLM takes into consideration a lot of variables to calculate a safe oil change time. I am sure hours are involved in the formula. Just use good oil and filters and drive safely until the light tells you to change it.
Why give them an out under warranty. I have 7 year warranty.
 
You mean OLMs don't calculate piston swept volume over engine run time? I just know it's going to grenade today! :p
 
What do you mean - changing the oil when the light comes on fully covers you and the warranty.
This determines if OLM is accurate. To many I have read that is going right at 10k regardless of driving conditions. Been some rocker failures so I will make sure hours are not exceeded. I have never seen light come on in 2 years which I reset once a year with over 7k with lots of short trips as well as full throttle runs getting on interstate. Read some come on at 3k with little idle time and mine gets idle time regularly as yesterday it was 30 minutes. So I will see if monitor takes hours into count. A sludge motor or motor damage may or not be covered if you don't follow manual. Maybe 😏 just follow severe duty at 4k.
 
Hopefully this will clear up my reasonings. I installed the hour meter today with oil change then reset OLM. I went on my usual run of 24 miles which confirmed my thought of hours of engine. (The meter is showing just over 2 hours.) I will continue to monitor but with this simple test I would be pushing more than 350 hours if I went a year and oil change light doesn't come on. I will know more as the year goes on. Looks like I correct in running severe duty at 4k for last 2 years. (Was trying 5 or 6k to do tire rotations at same time.)
 
I did a thread on this a little while back. Let me try to dig it up for ya.

The short is 100 hour oil changes for conventional. 200 hour oil changes for full synthetic. At the 200 hour mark you will be somewhere in the 6-8K miles range but I don't even pay attention to miles to be blunt. I go off my hour meter.
Ford F250
121 hours total
I assume Ford uses 5w30 ss oil
OLM says 76% left
Actual miles 2730 push rod motor
Im not changing it anytime soon.
 
Ford F250
121 hours total
I assume Ford uses 5w30 ss oil
OLM says 76% left
Actual miles 2730 push rod motor
Im not changing it anytime soon.
That is what I am looking at. 200 hours puts me half way there so tire rotation will still be 6k. Not worry about doing it at same time.
 
When I worked at a ski area the Mercedes-powered groomers said change every 500 hours, roughly the whole season, sometimes running for weeks at a time.
 
I've noticed on my Versa with an Ultra Gauge in it and most of my driving on rural roads in the 40-55 MPH range my average speed on nearly every tank of gas I run is somewhere between 34-40 MPH. Average speed drops pretty quickly when you figure in starting, stopping, stop lights, stop signs, slowing down for turns and other traffic. Years ago when I lived in NC and came to KY to visit my parents I'd often drive 70-85 MPH on the open road but, when figuring in time lost in city traffic, etc. on the interstate my average would usually drop to somewhere around 50-55 MPH. I've always used mileage as my basis for OCI's except on small engines. I use conventional oil and using these numbers my OCI would be somewhere between 175-225 hours.
 
Last edited:
I would agree that quantity of fuel consumed is more likely than either distance or run time to correlate well with the degree of oil degradation. None of those is perfect.
Not trying to be argumentative but how do you determine a good baseline when there's so much variation from one car to the other in fuel mileage? My Versa is EPA rated at 31 city, 39 highway, and 34 combined. With my driving habits since I bought the car in Feb. 2019 my overall average has been 48.6 MPG. In 14,475.9 miles tracked I've used 297.841 gallons.
 
how do you determine a good baseline when there's so much variation from one car to the other in fuel mileage?
I would go with fuel used in 7,500 miles of pure highway driving.
So your Versa for example could be 40 mpg and 187.5 gallons.
In the case of city driving & 31 mpg OCI would be shortened to 5800 miles.

My Tucson gets 30 mpg highway. So 7500 miles is 250 gallons.
If I only made my 2 mile weekly round trip to the grocery store (thanks COVID!) at about 15mpg it would call for 3750 mile OCI.
 
FWIW, my truck's OLM has me on track for a 10K oil change interval. This is the HEMI that specs MS-6395 5W-20. Based on my current usage, it will take me around 7K to reach 200 hours.
 
Back
Top Bottom