how Low on the OLM can YOU go...

[earlyre]

...Without getting "the Itch".

This is My First Full OCI on an OLM equipped vehicle.
2009 Mercury Sable.
when I bought it, either the Dealer hadn't changed the oil (though they said they did), or they just didn't reset the OLM(Bought from Honda/Toyota Dealer), and it was popping up "10% remaining, change oil Soon" with a week of Purchase. It was subzero outside, and the dealer said they did, so I just reset it.
03/10(70,700mi), had a warm and Dry day off, went ahead and did an OC.
Today, 7/4 (72,692mi) the OLM is back down to 33%
(only 4.5 mi to work, Drive-thru idle @ lunch, 4.5 mi home. if i'm running late it's often hammer down on the Morning Commute, don't take it out for a stretch as much as i should..., so a 6mo/3k OCI isn't too crazy)

and the lower the % gets, the more I just wanna change it! (I don't like letting my phone getting under 50% either...)

 

[901Memphis]

15% unless syn, then 0%.

 

[tommygunn]

Under warranty, whatever it says in the manual. For example, Honda says 15%. Out of warranty, I'd do it at zero, but I'd buy the oil at 5% or possibly 15% if there's a really good sale.

Out of warranty, and with synthetic, you can go negative and still be OK

No really, Honda's MM actually shows negative miles if you're past-due according to their algorithms!

Do Ford and GM OLM's show negative if you wait too long?

With something like M1 or Castrol EP, the 15k oils, I'd even consider doing 2x OLM suggestions, resetting at 15%. But only out-of-warranty.

 

[Merkava_4]

I can go down to 48% and that's it.

 

[Falcon_LS]

I'm conservative. I run Mobil 1 ESP Formula 5W-30 with Euro V gas (10 ppm sulfur content). I let the OLM run to 50% before I do a simple drain and refill without changing the synthetic media filter. Then I run it to ~2-3% before I change the oil, filter and air filter.

 

[fdcg27]

When the '12 Accord gets to 15% MM, a little wrench illuminates on the dash.
This first happened at around 8700 miles.
My wife was driving the car and she called me to tell me that the little wrench had appeared. I told her that just meant that the oil had hit 15% MM and it was nothing to worry about. Press the mileage reset once and it'll go away.
I drained the FF that weekend, 6/22/13.
The little wrench returned when we were on our way to the airport in December, at around 15.2K. I hoped for a warm, dry day upon our return.
12/22/13 proved to be such a day, so I changed the oil.
Most recently, the little wrench appeared on 6/15/14 at around 22K while we were on our way to Cincinnati to see a play.
I changed the oil the following Sunday, 6/22/14 at about 22.4K.
The 15% gives you plenty of time and miles to plan a convenient change as well as to lay in some oil and a filter if you don't have a stash.
Since an IOLM is usually set up to be pretty conservative, I have no problems with allowing it to guide me in how long the oil should be run.
If I've done three changes in 22.4K, that's an average OCI very close to the 7.5K OCIs Honda used to recommend.

 

[sciphi]

25% on one car and whenever the wife tells me to on the other.

 

[Bamaro]

0%

 

[Deamos]

When I had my 2002 Grand Prix, I generally ran down to ~10%.

Depending on scheduling it might get changed at 15% (pending road trip, busy spot in schedule, etc) or it might get changed at 5-8%. Rarely ran down to 0, but while doing a lot of highway driving that was somewhere around 7000 miles.

Only started really following the MM after coming here to read about them, before that it was every 3-5k miles like a good consumer, regardless of the MM.

This one of the very few features that my Sorento doesn't have that I wish it did.

 

[ARB1977]

At 20-30% the CRV is at 9-10K. That's when I change it or every six months.

 

[TiredTrucker]

My comfort level is 10% left on the OLM on my gasser pickup, then I change it. My comfort level on my diesels is more. 50% over the OEM recommended drain interval.

 

[Cutehumor]

I have 17% on my cobalt now, about 7k on the oil. I ran down to about 10% usually. so I will try to go to 0% unless my work schedule/family stuff/weather decides to do it earlier.

 

[sir1900]

Anywhere between 0-10%