OLM goes down with car sitting up?

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My buddies grandmaw passed away in July 2015, and he inherited her 2012 Ford Escape with only 15k miles. I changed the oil in it not long after he got it, reset the OLM to 100%, and in that time, hes put exactly 1 mile on it, by cranking it up to let the battery charge and driving it up and down the street. (hasnt put it on the road yet as he has another truck and doesnt want to put insurance on the escape right now). The thing that puzzles me is that the OLM has dropped to 65%. So it has me wondering, does Fords OLM take into account if the vehicles sits up for long periods of time? It gets started and run for at least 20 mins every other week.
 
My friend has a 2014 Focus SE that the olm told her to change the oil almost exactly at 6 month intervals. I changed it a few months ago when the light came on and the oil only had 1500 miles on it.
 
My 2011 Cruze did the exact same thing (the OLM dropped even when she sat)....it's normal.
 
You answered your own question. "It gets started and run at least 20 minutes every other week". I have read that the OLM counts all operating time and cold engine operation counts at a greatly multiplied rate. It would be much easier on the engine and motor oil if the battery was charged monthly with a charger and when the engine is started, if it could be driven for about an hour, minimum, to be thoroughly warmed-up. The condensed moisture needs to be evaporated out of the engine and the gasoline in the tank needs to be replaced about every 6 months.
 
In this case, it's not the time itself that's moving the OLM along, but the run time of the engine. Cranking it and running it for less than a mile each week is tremendously hard on the oil (it's probably suffering from a lot of fuel dilution). It would be better for him to change the oil (to put fresh in it) and just remove the battery if he's not going to drive it.
 
sounds like the OLM is really taking into consideration
short running times,
low temps,
VERY short drives


= moisture buildup in the oil= OLM drop
 
Ford's OLM is 1 year or 10,000 miles & adjusts to shorten accordingly to conditions. You could reset the OLM to 100% & leave the car set for a year & the OLM would be at 0%.
 
Which Ford goes to 10k for the OLM. My 2011 P71 is 6 months or 7500 miles to 0% and so is the wife's 2014 Focus. Idling in park or neutral accounts for 33 miles per hour of idling.
 
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The car is likely taking into account the exact driving habits which are very hard on oil. Excessive idling etc to go a sum of one mile.

OLM may be off in this case of condition but vast majority of owners don't drive vehicles in this odd way.

OLM's typically have no concept of time in terms of it elapsing between on and off. Just the cumulative time the engine has run over a period on OLM. Typically if you hit one year and have 80% on OLM they recommend you change the oil.
 
Originally Posted By: mobilaltima
My buddies grandmaw passed away in July 2015, and he inherited her 2012 Ford Escape with only 15k miles. I changed the oil in it not long after he got it, reset the OLM to 100%, and in that time, hes put exactly 1 mile on it, by cranking it up to let the battery charge and driving it up and down the street. (hasnt put it on the road yet as he has another truck and doesnt want to put insurance on the escape right now). The thing that puzzles me is that the OLM has dropped to 65%. So it has me wondering, does Fords OLM take into account if the vehicles sits up for long periods of time? It gets started and run for at least 20 mins every other week.


Yes. My F150 counts down when sitting, based on a 6 month interval. Once I had it parked at an airport for 2 weeks and it came down about 7%.
 
So, do only Fords have an internal clock?


I was agreeing with everyone until Branson's post.


It is about time, the computer accounts for every other possible thing imaginable, why not have a clock that works even when the battery is pulled?
 
Originally Posted By: 03cvpi
Which Ford goes to 10k for the OLM. My 2011 P71 is 6 months or 7500 miles to 0% and so is the wife's 2014 Focus. Idling in park or neutral accounts for 33 miles per hour of idling.



The baseline is 10,000 miles or 1 year. It adjusts accordingly to driving conditions. 7,500 miles or 6 months is the base line for the old OLM that isn't the same as the intelligent OLM. Your OLM is strictly based on 7.5K miles regardless of driving conditions.
 
Interesting. I didn't know that about OLM's. The oldest vehicle in my sig has it but the two newer ones don't.

Anyway, I changed the oil in my Explorer last week (Feb 2nd) and reset it. I can choose to reset from 30 to 100%. The owners manual says 100% is 7,500 mi so I set it at 70% eons ago to alert after 5,000 mi but I never paid attention to how fast it drops. I'm going to check it later today just to see where it's at since it only gets driven on the weekends now.
 
Fords old style oil life meter ( olm) is just a timer. It will count down 6 months or 7500 miles. Vehicle use has no bearing on the number displayed.

The newer intelligent oil life meter (iolm) will extend ocis out to 10,000 miles or 1 year based on the use of the vehicle.
 
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