I'm a GM oil life monitor believer

Originally Posted by Whimsey
Originally Posted by metroplex
Can't speak for GM (other than my Cobalt SS Turbo) but on my 2018 Explorer XLT, I had changed the oil in the spring and reset the OLM, and basically parked it for the summer. When I went to drive it in the fall, it said my oil life was 0% even though I never started it or turned it on (had a maintainer on the battery). This is the first time I've seen this happen before on a Ford. Normally they are consistent, with 7500-9000 mile intervals on my SHO, which seems high to me given that GTDI can be hard on the oil.


Our 2017 Explorer XLT counts down 10% for every 1,000 miles driven, no matter the season or type of driving. It's been doing this since new. The last UOA was at 8,200 miles, 5 months, and came back great on Mobil 1 5W-30, the iOLM was at 20%.

Whimsey


That's good consistency! It was just this one time on my Explorer where the OLM went to 0% just sitting in the garage for the spring/summer/fall.
 
Originally Posted by metroplex
Originally Posted by Whimsey
Originally Posted by metroplex
Can't speak for GM (other than my Cobalt SS Turbo) but on my 2018 Explorer XLT, I had changed the oil in the spring and reset the OLM, and basically parked it for the summer. When I went to drive it in the fall, it said my oil life was 0% even though I never started it or turned it on (had a maintainer on the battery). This is the first time I've seen this happen before on a Ford. Normally they are consistent, with 7500-9000 mile intervals on my SHO, which seems high to me given that GTDI can be hard on the oil.


Our 2017 Explorer XLT counts down 10% for every 1,000 miles driven, no matter the season or type of driving. It's been doing this since new. The last UOA was at 8,200 miles, 5 months, and came back great on Mobil 1 5W-30, the iOLM was at 20%.

Whimsey


That's good consistency! It was just this one time on my Explorer where the OLM went to 0% just sitting in the garage for the spring/summer/fall.
Be interesting if Ford elaborate on that. I just reset it and move on.
 
None of these systems monitors anything having to do with actual oil that is in your engine. There are no sensors directly measuring the quality or remaining life of engine oil. Subaru does not even bother with it they just have their own reminder in the infotainment system that you can set by mileage or date, and the factory default is 6,000,miles.

I would love to used oil analysis of oil that is changed when the OLM reads 5% and see how much the testing lab says is still left in the oil.
 
Originally Posted by wdn
None of these systems monitors anything having to do with actual oil that is in your engine. There are no sensors directly measuring the quality or remaining life of engine oil. Subaru does not even bother with it they just have their own reminder in the infotainment system that you can set by mileage or date, and the factory default is 6,000,miles.

I would love to used oil analysis of oil that is changed when the OLM reads 5% and see how much the testing lab says is still left in the oil.


+1 on the UOA. I have a Pontiac G8 (only sold in 08 and 09). A lot of owners were scratching their heads over believing the OLM as under non-severe driving conditions it was taking us out to 10k miles for an oil change. There were quite a few UOA done for the V8s which showed the oil was still good at 10k miles, even conventional oil. Now the V8s had 8 qt oil sumps so that factors into it. But the UOAs were available to convince me to believe the OLM for this particular make and model.

If I got another vehicle with OLM would I believe it? Ehh, I'd like to see some UOAs first.
 
Originally Posted by BlueOvalFitter
If I owned a vehicle with the OLM on the dash I would invest in a roll of black tape to put pieces of tape over it.


Are you saying you'd leave the oil in even longer than the olm thinks you can go?
 
OLM changes are for folks that get their oil changed and not subject to seeing the OLM flashing on the dash when it's either 20 degrees outside or five inches of snow.

Otherwise, screw that OLM and find a OCI interval with decent weather. For years my OCIs were April and October....every 5-6k. Now we drive less miles and I'm comfortable doing 4-5K OCIs. With a GDI engine, I'm not stretching the oil to 9 or 10K, when the OLM starts flashing..... no sirree. I'm not crawling under the vehicle in subpar weather. I have disregarded my Colorado OLM for 16 years now.
 
Guess it depends. BiL came over yesterday. 5 year old F150 3.5L eB. It has been 100% trouble free.
Asked about oil. Using M1 vanilla but did not know how many miles it had + been a while on short trips.
We checked OLM = 10%.
Sold him 4 jugs of M1 T&SUV (TSC $14.99) and gave him a couple XG10575 filters.
He's changing it today. I'll remind him to reset that OLM - seems like he needs it.
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
OLM changes are for folks that get their oil changed and not subject to seeing the OLM flashing on the dash when it's either 20 degrees outside or five inches of snow.

Otherwise, screw that OLM and find a OCI interval with decent weather. For years my OCIs were April and October....every 5-6k. Now we drive less miles and I'm comfortable doing 4-5K OCIs. With a GDI engine, I'm not stretching the oil to 9 or 10K, when the OLM starts flashing..... no sirree. I'm not crawling under the vehicle in subpar weather. I have disregarded my Colorado OLM for 16 years now.


I like it as a guide. Depending on what the olm says is left, season (winter coming etc), what does the oil look like...then I would make a decision. I never had a vehicle with an olm until I got the 2005 Silverado from my employer. It doesn't show the percentage left on the dash but now I can check it with my torque pro app. It's down to 19% remaining now at 2500 miles and 5 months. Lots of short trips and some idle time in the cold. Oil still looks reasonable but starting to get a bit dark. I've always found the olm way optimistic. In this case it's not too far off.

In the summer the same truck used to go closer to 5k miles before "change engine oil" would come up. (didn't reset it once just to see how far it would go). We always changed it by 3-3.5k miles.
 
I have a 2020 equinox 1.5t I am about 2200 into run since oil change 6 months ago and I have 73% left. I do about 80/20 hwy city. I’m trying to get to less than 5% left than change. I’ll probably get to 1 yr than change. But.... dealer told me to change every 5,000 miles or 6 months. Money maker for them. I’ll never bring it to a dealer for an oil change, I do them myself.
 
I wouldn’t trust the OLM on a Traverse, Acadia or any GM turbo equipped vehicle. I saw brothers 11’ Enclave with 4K OCIS and it was decent
 
I have 2 Fords that the OLM is set to 10k. I change the oil every 5k. Makes me sleep better at night.
Are those on the older Fords in you signature? I know any Ford 2015 or newer will count down the OLM from 100% to 0% even if the engine is never started.
 
Lately I've been a little worried that my OLM is dropping faster than usual. However, I see that the 1600 miles/34% used figure I mentioned above in March of 2020, 1% used in 47 miles, matches exactly what I'm seeing now 1 year later. Same driving conditions, same foul weather.

I plan to change at 5-6 months/ ca. 4500 miles anyway, but it's nice to see the device is consistent.
 
I am not a believer. A couple of times I forgot to reset the OLM. Each and and every time it maxed out at 7500 miles. Did not matter if it was all highway or all gridlock.

With that said I change out every 5K miles with 0w20 Mobil1 or 0w20 AC Delco.
 
I followed the OLM religiously until I found out they recalibrated for 7500 max interval. My sisters 2012 Cruze used to routinely go out to 9k or so. Since the recalibration in 2013 to max out at 7500 (her car has never been recalibrated) I do it with 25% remaining. Has 150k on it. Part of the issue might have been that back in those days ACDelco Dexos was a syn blend. I’ve always used Mobil 1, so maybe that saved things (little Turbo 1.4). With the DI 1.5 start/stop in my new Equinox I’m inclined to do 5000-6000 max. Basically, once the OLM were found to be trashing some engines I lost trust.
 
Are those on the older Fords in you signature? I know any Ford 2015 or newer will count down the OLM from 100% to 0% even if the engine is never started.

I've seen the OLM do the same thing in a 2019 GM vehicle I maintain that's infrequently driven.
 
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