Still trying to understand Ford IOLM

[Klutch9]

I posted a few months ago after a drive to Florida that the 'percentage remaining' on the IOLM didn't budge for over 1,000 miles during the drive. After some thoughtful posts here by other members, I understood why. The IOLM had adapted to the light highway driving style. All good, right? Well, now I'm still trying to understand it.

After that 1,000 or so miles of not budging, it then started consistently dropping 1% for every 100 miles driven. This was for the highway driving. This part makes sense. But now we have been back from our trip for a month and a half, and the car has resumed it's short and semi-short trip driving pattern, and the IOLM still only drops 1% for every 100 miles driven. Why? Before the trip, it dropped at a faster rate than this for the same weekly commute. I'm not saying the IOLM system is faulty, I just don't understand it!

I mean, even for highway driving, it kind of confuses me that I dropped 1% EXACTLY every 100 miles. My highway driving commute on that trip wasn't that consistent. We changed speeds, drivers, and traffic conditions the whole way through. Unless the IOLM has a maximum OCI and we were at a level that was keeping the IOLM percentage decrease at the minimum rate.

 

[Artem]

Why are you scratching your head trying to understand it? The engine parameters that it takes into account in order to give you an accurate result is complicated stuff and not worth the headache trying to comprehend it.

If you're following the OLM, just wait until it triggers and call it a day. Stop following it 1% at a time.

 

[Klutch9]

I know that trying to understand it isn't necessarily worthwhile, but trying to understand lots of things about oil is also relatively trivial and unimportant, and we all still do it! This is BITOG after all, and we are all somewhat crazy

 

[dakotasport94]

It take in count all of the info that the sensors throughout the engine put out and determine the approx life expectancy of the oil.
when the engine is at operating temperature for a very long time period it will stay at the same percentage longer. then when it sees it going through the ups and downs of the heating and cooling it lowers the percentages quicker.

just use it as a guide. don't rely on it as Gospel.

 

[Loobed]

Which car were you driving: the one with 16k or 38k?

Ford might have put in a parameter were the oil gets changed more if your engine has under a certain number of miles (15k?). Bombardier snowmobiles use to have a computer controlled 2 stroke oil injection system that injected twice as much oil for the first few hundred hours. This was done to protect the engine during break-in. Maybe Ford wanted people to change their oil sooner, or bring it back to the dealer sooner, so they could check for faults

 

[ahoier]

It's a very intelligent system; we all know highway miles are easier on a vehicle than stop and go city driving....if you're "puzzled" - probably wouldn't to get an oil analysis or 2

Would be kind of neat how "accurate" the Ford engine oil life monitor is....to an actual lab-tested oil sample

If the lab points out that the oil is bad....then we got problems

 

[Klutch9]

The IOLM in question is in our Fusion. My Focus has no such technology.

 

[mechtech2]

Yes...it is a complicated set of instructions from all the sensors and processing of the data.

But who says the end result is right anyways?
It is a reasonable guide, but not law or Gospel.
Fuhget about it!

 

[greystone]

I know this is an old post. I just purchased a 2011 Ford Fusion and confirmed it does NOT have the IOLM system. It uses the standard 1 year or 10,000 interval calculation.

You can lower the start value this way.

1. Press and release the SETUP control to display OIL LIFE.
2. Press and hold the RESET control for 2 seconds and release.
Oil life is set to 100% and OIL LIFE SET TO 100% is displayed.
3. While OIL LIFE SET TO 100% is displayed, if a lower oil life start value is desired, press and release the RESET control to reduce the start value. Each press of the RESET control reduces the value by 10%.