Oil Life Monitors

[CharBaby]

Greetings.
This is mainly to HONDA owners however, everyone is welcome.

Vehicle in question is the '15 Civic LX sedan 1.8L in my signature.
The owner's manual recommends using the OLM and gives no mileage maximum for the OCI. I don't recall if the OM states bringing the OLM to a specific %

Car was purchased July 5, 2018 w/ 17700 miles(Yes, 17700 miles) at 3 yrs old with a fresh OCI. However, I changed it as noted below.

Current OCI is at 5200 miles w/60% oil life remaining. Engine total miles is 28800(Yes, 28800 miles).
This OCI is with QSUD syn 0W20 & Fram ULTRA 7317 and was performed on Dec/2018

I am not looking to change the oil yet but am trying to plan as to when I should do the next OCI...20%?, 10%?

 

[SteveSRT8]

Not even well broken in yet.

We typically use high quality oil and run ours out to about 10%. With our bizarre duty cycle that is about 4000 miles. I am not familiar with Honda's OLM programming, but no matter who built the car I would have difficulty going much past 6-8k miles, and even then only with top dog synth in there....

 

[ag_ghost]

FWIW, the Maintenance Minder notification lights at 15% on my wife's 2015 CR-V and daughter-in-law's 2015 Accord. Maximum OCI is stated in the owner's manual to be one year.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

I've heard of Honda's OLM not hitting 15% (which is when the OLM starts to remind you you'll need an oil change soon) for upwards of 12k miles if it's all easy highway travel, so showing only 60% after 5200 miles sounds about right. Do you do all highway driving?

I usually change my Accord's oil at about 20% just to get it off my to-do list. For my driving that's usually about 5500 miles or so.

 

[WyrTwister]

I am an old foggy . I change at 50% & 5% , with synthetic oil .

Or 3,000 miles for conventional oil . Which was the SOP for much of my life .

Oil / filter change is relatively cheap insurance . You change oil / filter to get rif of undesirable " products " . Same reason you flush a commode .

 

[StevieC]

My mother inlaw drives a 2009 CRV and we do yearly oil changes in hers. She usually makes it the entire year before the OLM will expire. 0 issues on 0w20 synthetic.

 

[Hall]

Quote
Starts to come on when the remaining engine oil life becomes 15 percent. It goes off when the display is switched.

The engine oil is approaching the end of its service life.


And at 5%

Quote
The engine oil has almost reached the end of its service life, and the maintenance items should be inspected and serviced as soon as possible.


For those handy with spreadsheets, you can graph the oil life to get a trend of when it will reach 0%. This will be truly a linear change though and not take into account any adjustments Honda may have built in. For example, Ford says to change the oil ~10k miles or 12 months, whichever comes first. By that, if you drive 100 miles a month, the Ford monitor will go down in % very slowly but as it reaches 9+ months, the % decrease will speed up because it's approaching 12 months which is their limit as well. Looking at a '15 Civic manual, they don't refer to a time or miles. Correction, it does say to change the oil every 12 months in cases where the minder doesn't reach 0%.

 

[CharBaby]

Originally Posted by Bottom_Feedder
Do you do all highway driving?


It's my daughters car and she travels some for her job as well as a distance to the office. As you can see, she's traveled >11000 miles in 9 months.

Actually, she'll be traveling home to NY today and may end up at ~5700 miles on this OCI and the OLM may drop to 50% by now. Who knows?

 

[NO2]

We use M1 EP 0w-20 and change the oil at 2x the OLM. That's about 12-14K. Run it to 5% twice when the OLM becomes annoying. It's an '07 V6 Accord, which is programmed for conventional 5w-20. I'd just follow the OLM since your OLM is designed for synthetic, and change it anytime between 5 and 15%. Time is not an issue with her higher annual mileage.

 

[LazyDog]

Doe any know if the monitor is actually reading a physical property of the oil such as acidity, clarity,conductivity, or something else???

 

[JeffKeryk]

I agree with the above posts; I generally service Honda Acura oil at the 20% level. Sometimes later.

 

[Duffyjr]

Originally Posted by LazyDog
Doe any know if the monitor is actually reading a physical property of the oil such as acidity, clarity,conductivity, or something else???


I've only really read up on GM's since my Lucerne is my first one that didn't go off at 3000 miles and I think it's all calculations of temp, time ran, rpm etc....

 

[maverickfhs]

With occasional highway runs and mostly short tripping and stop and go traffic, mine shows anywhere from 15-30%(mileage anywhere 4500-6000 miles), I try to change them around 5K mark.

 

[oil_film_movies]

Originally Posted by Duffyjr
Originally Posted by LazyDog
Doe any know if the monitor is actually reading a physical property of the oil such as acidity, clarity,conductivity, or something else???
I've only really read up on GM's since my Lucerne is my first one that didn't go off at 3000 miles and I think it's all calculations of temp, time ran, rpm etc....

No direct physical property is being measured in the oil itself in Hondas and most OLMs.
Most OLMs count revolutions, note high RPMs, take temperatures, time is factored in, etc., all in one big fat hairy algorithm.
BMW and Mercedes have direct in situ measurements, using electrical sensors submerged in the oil to heavily augment the usual OLM revolutions, RPM, time, and temperature.
Google bmw oil condition sensor
... and you'll get details. Mo' details at https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/392

 

[oil_film_movies]

Originally Posted by Char Baby
I am not looking to change the oil yet but am trying to plan as to when I should do the next OCI...20%?, 10%?
Zero% is what is meant by Honda. I'd do that. You're using a great oil filter, the Ultra, changed every other time, and good choice of oil too (QSUD). No problem going to 0%.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by oil_film_movies
Zero% is what is meant by Honda. I'd do that. You're using a great oil filter, the Ultra, changed every other time, and good choice of oil too (QSUD). No problem going to 0%.
If his daughter is like my wife, once it reaches 15%, it will flash at start-up and she has to "clear" it each time. It overrides the outside temperature or trip meter or something in the display. When it gets to 5% and below - or maybe 0% - you can't clear it until you reset it. This is how it worked on our '05 Odyssey and '06 Accord at least.

Anyway, she'll "remind" him that it needs taken care of. As for the filter, Honda specifically recommends changing the oil only and then the oil/filter on every other change. Personally, I'm already under the car and getting dirty, I change the filter anyway....

 

[dadto2]

I know you asked about OLM for Honda owners, but I'll give you my $0.02 anyway... I owned a 2005 Chevy Colorado, it was my first veicle with an OLM. It didn't tell me a "% used up", but would flash a "CHANGE OIL" message when it was time. I didn't trust it, so I changed oil every 7,500 miles using either SuperTech or Formula Shell (both in 5w30 syn varieties) for it's entire life. I bought it with 6,500 miles and sold to my BIL a year ago with 204,500 miles on it. It's still running like a champ. I've replaced it with a '16 Sierra, and it's OLM tells me the %, so I know when the oil life is getting short. I also know that the new OLM will never extend past 7,500 miles or a year, so I feel safe to follow it because that interval has been successful for me in the past.

My '99 Volvo, by the way, has gone 265,000 miles getting 6,000 miles on ST syn or more recently 4,000 mile changes on whatever conventional I get cheap or on sale. The engine is still fantastic, except the 2 qts I have to top up between changes. (Remember, it's 20 years old and has > 1/4 million miles)

I think if your daughter just changes her oil 2x per year regardless of the OLM, she'll keep her car well protected and not break the bank either.

 

[CharBaby]

Originally Posted by dadto2
I know you asked about OLM for Honda owners, but I'll give you my $0.02 anyway...


Originally Posted by Char Baby
Greetings.
This is mainly to HONDA owners however, everyone is welcome


^^^Welcome to my thread & thanks for sharing.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted by Char Baby
Greetings.
This is mainly to HONDA owners however, everyone is welcome.

Vehicle in question is the '15 Civic LX sedan 1.8L in my signature.
The owner's manual recommends using the OLM and gives no mileage maximum for the OCI. I don't recall if the OM states bringing the OLM to a specific %

Car was purchased July 5, 2018 w/ 17700 miles(Yes, 17700 miles) at 3 yrs old with a fresh OCI. However, I changed it as noted below.

Current OCI is at 5200 miles w/60% oil life remaining. Engine total miles is 28800(Yes, 28800 miles).
This OCI is with QSUD syn 0W20 & Fram ULTRA 7317 and was performed on Dec/2018

I am not looking to change the oil yet but am trying to plan as to when I should do the next OCI...20%?, 10%?


Change it every 5-6K. Disregard the OLM. It doesn't know the condition of your engine.

 

[UncleDave]

.

What I found when I started investigating the Honda OLM (that they use on the earth dreams line) was that its quite good and at 0% you are still buffered out comfortably as long as you run the rated oil.

All the UOA's Ive looked at for the 3.5's but one had oil life remaining at the end of the interval.

The one that was not had fuel dilution in the warning range and was a short tripped vehicle.

I get about 9K out of a possible 10 with my use.

Take look at the relevant uoas turned in by others and see where they are various intervals.

UD