why did my Ford iolm go to 9% after 3k miles?

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No crazy cold or hot temps here in the Bay area so I'm curious why after 3k miles it's at 9% and telling me to change it.

I'm obviously not going to change it for a while I just want to know why the car thinks it needs to be changed.

My commute to my main job is 5 miles but I do a lot of other driving. Often long highway trips at high speed (lots of time with my foot in the floor of this underpowered turd) but I don't see why that would translate to such ridiculous OCIs.
 
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A lot people think the olm is generous with how long it says your oil is good for. With that being said i dont have experience with a car that has one but if it says 9% I'd probably change it and if it worries you get a uoa.
 
High RPM/load it took into account most likely. Since we moved and I have been doing more higher speed highway driving mine also goes down faster than it did before. Usually I'd be at 60-70% by now, it's currently at 50%.
 
Originally Posted by Skippy722
High RPM/load it took into account most likely. Since we moved and I have been doing more higher speed highway driving mine also goes down faster than it did before. Usually I'd be at 60-70% by now, it's currently at 50%.

Strange, you'd think that fully warmed up high load would still be easier than short trips. That's why I'm confused.
 
Originally Posted by Chesterr
U let it get to 9 pct? I imagine most of us would panicking at that point haha

It's going to 0% before I change it. And even then I'm in no hurry.
 
My Ford truck has a 6 month calendar in addition to the mile counter. It's 10,000 miles or 6 months, which ever comes first.

I change the oil on the 5's. 5000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 etc. Really easy to remember, seems to work out very well, as the last truck made 360,000 miles before the transmission went out and it was given away.
 
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That sure seems fast to me as well
My wifes Camry has 10K mile intervals on synthetic
It has Castrol Magnatec in it now
It will not see new oil for at least 8k miles
 
My Sierra has had really quick OLM readings after towing the boat in the summer months. Short trips without getting the engine temps up also creates shorter OLM readings on this truck as well.
 
Mine has gone to needing an OCI in well under 2K miles, properly reset, driving conditions exactly the same. I've ignored it since day one. Having said that maybe yours is working properly and conditions warranted a shorter OCI. A UOA would shed light on just how accurate/inaccurate your system is. All we can do here is guess at reasons why.
 
How long has it been in time ? Many Fords (cars ?) will dictate a 12-month oil change regardless of mileage. So over time if your mileage isn't keeping up (~10k miles typically) vs time, the monitor will start adjusting or dropping in percentage quicker.
 
Originally Posted by dogememe
I'm obviously not going to change it for a while I just want to know why the car thinks it needs to be changed.


Assuming that it was properly reset at the last oil change, I would change it. Your car might be telling you something. That perhaps it had a lot of cold starts, lots of idle time, perhaps the car thinks their is a lot of fuel dilution or some other reason to change.

Piece of mind says change it for $20, reset the oil life monitor, and then watch what the car does from then on out.
 
Originally Posted by Brybo86
I the highway driving done while the engine is still cold? Is your house 1 block from the freeway on ramp?


No but I don't exactly wait to push the car before it's warmed up sometimes.

And yes, I correctly reset it to 0% with the last oil change.
 
Ford computers in that era take time into account, either 6 months or 1 year. You are probably close to that, and not the mileage limit.
 
Is the car still rented out on Turo? Maybe one of the renters forgot to turn it off and left it running all day or night.
 
on my 2009 mercury, it wasn't an iolm, just an olm, I verified with forscan that it was set to 6 mos/5k mi( you could change the setting to 3mos/3k mi, 6 mos 5k mi, or 12 mos/7.5k mi). it still counted down 1% per day. it wanted me to change the oil every 100 days.

ran an oci out to single digits, sent in a sample to blackstone, they confirmed it was good to go at least another round through the olm countdown. I always did that car 6 mos/5k mi which ever was first. which for me is normally the time.

current car calls for 12mos/10k mi, bought last march @ 64k mi, dealer changed the oil. It happened to hit 70k in late august around my birthday, and I had it changed then just to get it "back on schedule", don't plan on changing it until either 80k mi, or my next birthday, whichever is first.(probably the time again...I think it's @ 72,xxx)
 
Originally Posted by dogememe
Originally Posted by Brybo86
I the highway driving done while the engine is still cold? Is your house 1 block from the freeway on ramp?


No but I don't exactly wait to push the car before it's warmed up sometimes.

And yes, I correctly reset it to 0% with the last oil change.


If it counts down are you not supposed to set it to 100% at oil change?
 
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