I'm using semi synthetic oil (Pennzoil) in my '17 Ford Edge. It's got 41k miles and the percentage is 14%. Will the oil be in worse condition if I wait until it's at 0%? I know oil wears down as the miles add up, but I just want to make sure that if I go by the monitor, and wait until 0%, I'll be able to get to 100k miles on the engine.
Oil life monitor and percentages
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How many miles and how many months on this current run of oil?
I can't speak for Ford but Honda recommends an oil change between 5% and 15%. You are first notified that you should consider changing the oil when it gets to 15%, when it gets down to 5% it is expected that you will or at least should change it as soon as possible. If you get all the way down to 0% you then received a warning that does not go away until the oil is changed.
Oil is cheap and much cheaper than a new engine or engine repairs that may result from poor maintenance practices. Just change the oil
Oil is cheap and much cheaper than a new engine or engine repairs that may result from poor maintenance practices. Just change the oil
This. The question is incomplete without this pertinent information.
I don't know if oil breaks down linearly. My guess is that it does not. I'd change it the next convenient chance I had once below 15%. That said, 100k isn't many miles and changing at 0% should easily be good enough to get to 100k miles on the engine.
"... the percentage is 14%. Will the oil be in worse condition if I wait until it's at 0%?"
You're joking, right?
Also, it's not 1930 anymore, you should expect WAY MORE than 100K from today's engines.
You're joking, right?
Also, it's not 1930 anymore, you should expect WAY MORE than 100K from today's engines.
It sounds like you have 41k miles on the oil, the OLM is currently at 14%, and are hoping to get 100k miles out of the oil before the OLM reaches 0%.
8,000
Yes, you can wait until it gets to zero with no problem
Oil is cheap, Engines are expensive.
It is obviously causing you some angst trying to decide if you should wait another 1200+ miles to change your oil because the OLM still says 14%. Change the oil. It is probably fine, but the only way to know is to have an analysis done.
I personally change my oil every 5k miles. That is essentially twice a year for my cars. I've been doing that for a couple of decades for all of my vehicles. If I really hated changing the oil, I'm sure I could push it out to 10k oil changes without any issues since I usually use synthetic oils (that I have gotten on sale). But I have found that changing the oil at 5k intervals keeps me "informed" with what my vehicles are doing. It's also easy for the various drivers to let Dad know when the car is hitting a maintenance threshold every 5k miles.
IMO Fresh fluids = long life. YMMV.
It is obviously causing you some angst trying to decide if you should wait another 1200+ miles to change your oil because the OLM still says 14%. Change the oil. It is probably fine, but the only way to know is to have an analysis done.
I personally change my oil every 5k miles. That is essentially twice a year for my cars. I've been doing that for a couple of decades for all of my vehicles. If I really hated changing the oil, I'm sure I could push it out to 10k oil changes without any issues since I usually use synthetic oils (that I have gotten on sale). But I have found that changing the oil at 5k intervals keeps me "informed" with what my vehicles are doing. It's also easy for the various drivers to let Dad know when the car is hitting a maintenance threshold every 5k miles.
IMO Fresh fluids = long life. YMMV.
The Ford OLM will say something like "Oil Change Required" when the OLM goes to zero. If you don't trust Ford's OLM, then change it before it goes to zero, but if the car hasn't been short tripped the whole time then trust the OLM.
Is this a turbo DI engine? If so, I'd be inclined to change it soon, considering that you're not using full synthetic oil.
Driving patterns also do play into this decision. Steady hwy driving is easy on the engine/oil. Short tripping is not.
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The OLM in my 15 F150 is heavily skewed toward time. I currently have 4500 miles on 5-30 ST synthetic oil and my OLM is at 14%. Why? Because my last oil change was September 1 2020. This truck gets 85% + highway mileage.
If your OLM is similar to mine; rather useless IMHO.
If your OLM is similar to mine; rather useless IMHO.
If you're fairly confident in your OLM try running it until it tells you to change the oil and get a UOA. That will tell you how accurate or inaccurate your OLM is. Then you can establish an OCI based on miles or go by the OLM. I found my OLM to be useless, maybe yours is better.
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This thread is like pulling teeth.
Which engine is in your Edge?
How many miles a year is it driven?
How many city miles? How many highway miles?
These questions are important. If you are driving 1000 a week then 10k could be doable on a synthetic. On the other hand a lot of start and stop city driving plus short trips will give a totally different answer.
Which engine is in your Edge?
How many miles a year is it driven?
How many city miles? How many highway miles?
These questions are important. If you are driving 1000 a week then 10k could be doable on a synthetic. On the other hand a lot of start and stop city driving plus short trips will give a totally different answer.
Honest question: What reason do you have to wait until it reaches 0% before changing it ? You can wait, of course, and your engine isn't going to explode either (you can be certain these monitors have safety factors built-in so 0% remaining really isn't 0%).
As for is the oil "worse" at 0% compared to 14% ? Sure it is. It's worse at 14% than it was at 20% too.
It factors both time and use. If you keep track of the % remaining, I'll bet you saw it start dropping much faster than normal as the algorithm determined that, if your driving remains similar, you're likely to reach 12 months before you reach "X" miles that it would normally track for.
My bad.
2.0 engine
About 8k miles a year, but two trips of about 1k miles each, so 2k highway and 6k city (about 20 miles on the days I do drive, which is usually once or twice a week.
I hope that helps.
It actually did start dropping much faster in the past month, when before it was slow and steady.
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I've followed mine for many an oil change since I bought the truck new in 2015. I stand by the heavy time bias of what is in my vehicle. I find it to be unreliable in use. The OLM in my 08 BMW was, IMHO a far better system.