So just how does the oil life status work......

[grizzlyls]

Curious, since March 1st (4 months) I have put on 875 miles and within the first couple of weeks I had the dealer do all the fluids change so its likely a little less than that for the status reset. Today I looked and my status reads 52% oil life. While I am not concerned about this since I drive so little, and would never let my oil go over a year in car, I was curious why it might be ticking off so fast.

Anyone know if the system does an adjustment for days, number of starts, speed of car or whatever else instead of flat mileage? Is there a sensor in the pan that might check for anomalies in the oil - which would mean Lincoln skimped on me?

At this point I wont even get to 2k miles and be at zero percent life.

 

[joegr]

There is no oil quality sensor.
It's just a simple time and miles sensor. Time ticks it down, so even if you only go 100 miles, it should say to change it after about six months. Otherwise, you can get about 5K miles or so before changes.

AFAIK, no car has any kind of oil quality sensor. There just isn't an economical way to make one that actually works. The better systems are mainly based on how much fuel you burn. There is a pretty reasonable correlation between fuel burned and oil life. Others do try to factor in number of cold starts and so on.

 

[grizzlyls]

Thanks Joe, figured at the least it had to track the clock some. I dont think I would let it go over a year without a change anyhow.

 

[joegr]

Yeah, I've never ran out the oil change indicator on my 325i. I just go ahead and change it every December anyway.

 

[Deaconblue]

My '04 V8 Sport counts down pretty regularly and works out to about 5.0K to 5.5K miles. So I change it every 5K miles.

Unlike the Lincoln LS, some of the late model vehicles have an algorithm that looks at all kinds of things from; % time at idle, % time in cold enrichment, average speed, typical run time, load factors, air inlet temps, coolant temps, etc... The crazy one in my wife's car with an GM 2.0L turbo Ecotech cranks out way too long of intervals - I understand GM has since altered the algorithm due to oil related warranty issues. But I just ignore it and change it every 5K and use the recommended Dexos approved oils. I consider it cheap insurance.