OCI by gallons used

[meborder]

I tried searching for this but came up with nothing.

Anyone tracking fuel consumption to trigger an oci?

How many gallons are you using for an oci?

I think I've figured out an easy way to track fuel used on my old plow truck which never sees the road, but not sure what a reasonable number of gallons used might be.

I'm thinking in the 100-300 gallons used range, but that's trying to back into a mile based oci from mpg. I'm targeting the equivalent to a 3000 mile oci since it never goes down the road.

Anyone doing it?

 

[raytseng]

This comes up all the time whenever a discussion gets into short vs long trip, surprised you didn't find discussions.

The issue is a bit moot, as new cars went 1 step further to have Oil Life Monitors that will use multiple variables to calculate oil life. But I agree that if you need to dumb it down to the best single variable correlation to oil life that is easiest to track; fuel consumed is better than miles.


However, your queries are in the same as someone asking what OCI they should do (in miles ).

You can only go with the manufacturer's suggestion by backtracking the mileage suggestions by MPG like you said. So if the owners or service manual says OCI is 7500miles for normal driving. And it rates the normal MPG is 25mpg; then 7500/25=300gallons.
Perhaps you can get better data points if someone has the EXACT CAR AND OIL that you are using and has done oil analysis.

But, Unless you do an Oil Analysis for YOUR oil, you are just getting random numbers and suggestions that shouldn't be taken as the right numbers for your car.

 

[OneEyeJack]

It's the only way the farmers around here do it. Their equipment has to last and they fix everything themselves. They go closer to 200 gallons for equipment that lives a tough life and 300-400 gallons for equipment that sees paved roads and otherwise lives an easier life.

With the financial hardships caused by government "help" they have to make ever dollar spent count if they're going to survive.

 

[Number_35]

It's an interesting question. I wondered something similar - whether oil changes could be based on hours of running time. My work truck ('13 Chevy 3/4 ton w/ 6.0 gas) takes approximately 10,000 km & 200 hours to get down to an indicated remaining oil life of 10%. That's with a mixture of short trips & highway, with highly-varying temperatures over the OC interval. The last OC on my own vehicle occurred with only half the hours on the clock. No way to know for sure without an analysis.

 

[Greasymechtech]

I've tracked engine hours and gallons consumed... but so much easier just to change oil in fleet yearly or 9 months or 6 months... depending on driving style.

Gallons consumed needs to take into account sump size and engine size.

You can use UOA data, with TBN/TAN..., to determine best oil change interval for your fuel consumed for your engine.

Odometers are obsolete. OLM's are pretty good. But, it just seems too easy and simple to track hours or gallons. Engineers don't care for 'easy'.

 

[Pontual]

Eye ball calculation, like this:
http://www.brianschreurs.org/neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/interval.html

Once I did 65 gallons per quart of oil in the sump in a car with 4L pan. About 273 gallons run, in a DDriven, mostly (70%+) city driven. About 6,300 miles.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: meborder
Anyone tracking fuel consumption to trigger an oci?

My car is.

Quote:
How many gallons are you using for an oci?

Full OCI is 2,375 liters (627 gallons), but I usually don't wait that long. With how little I drive, it would take me 6-7 years to burn through this much gas.

 

[SR5]

Quattro Pete,

You are running top quality oil, but not doing high miles.

I agree 6-7 years is too long, but do you go longer than a year?

I only ask because I'm sort of in the same boat. I don't drive much, so I always hit the OM time limit 12 mts, before I hit the distance limit 15,000 KM.

I thinking of running a full synthetic A3/B4 and extending time, but not sure how long. I do about 8,000 gentle KM per year

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: SR5
but do you go longer than a year?

I did go two winters on same oil once, majority of it short trips, with no chance to get the engine/oil fully warmed up. Got a used oil analysis done and did not like what I saw (TAN was exceeding TBN). While it wasn't exactly horrible, I just decided to do annual oil changes from then on.

 

[SR5]

Thanks Quattro Pete,

Good to know. I'm still not too sure what I'm going to do, but I'm not too worried, just thinking it over.

The winters here are quite mild, and the car gets a longer run every second weekend, so I feel the oil gets warmed up regularly. Traffic is pretty light too.

I'm thinking of using a full synthetic A3/B4, BMW LL-01, MB 229.5 oil, and changing every 18 months, which will probably be 15,000KM or less.

Is going 2 years / 20,000KM too much ?

I just do annual OCI now, which is my fall back position.