Mileage or oil life indicator?

[TheWizard]

I will agree to disagree I have documented this and it does not work as you propose it does. It is nothing more than a mileage counter. I have factual and documented evidence with my monitoring. I have been tracking two Edges and it does not work as you propose. Sorry I completely disagree with you on this.

 

The description I posted was not an opinion - it was put together from Ford's own description of the workings of their IOLM along with some other sources. I have found that the mileage between oil changes in my Mustang changes depending on driving conditions. When I take it on long highway trips the change interval is longer than when it is used for mostly daily commuting. I have no idea whether it actually changed in the Edge because I didn't have it long enough to really notice. But I suggest that if yours seems to go strictly by mileage then it isn't working as intended and perhaps should be checked by a dealer.

[macbwt]

 

The description I posted was not an opinion - it was put together from Ford's own description of the workings of their IOLM along with some other sources. I have found that the mileage between oil changes in my Mustang changes depending on driving conditions. When I take it on long highway trips the change interval is longer than when it is used for mostly daily commuting. I have no idea whether it actually changed in the Edge because I didn't have it long enough to really notice. But I suggest that if yours seems to go strictly by mileage then it isn't working as intended and perhaps should be checked by a dealer.

They are not broke. Your theory is not correct.

[macbwt]

First two are my wife's Edge. Second are my Edge. I hit the reset on the trip #2 a little late forgot to do it but yes they are always the same mileage vs oil life percentage. Wife is all city heavy idle and mine is all highway. I did forget to reset her Trip #2 so it does not exactly match, but they always do.

Edited June 2, 2017 by macbwt

[TheWizard]

They are not broke. Your theory is not correct.

 

Not a theory... Ford's own description of the function. However, I just went to the Ford site to copy/paste the description and found that it doesn't apply to your 2011. It does apply to my 2013 so the IOLM must have been added between those model years. That means we're both right - yours is just mileage and mine is computed. Who'd have thunk it?

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

not to add fuel to the fire, or oxygen to the gasoline, but, direct quote from the 2011 owner's manual

 

For your convenience, your vehicle is equipped with a message center
which determines the proper oil change service interval. You should
perform the engine oil change as indicated by the message center. The
message center will display ENGINE OIL CHANGE SOON or OIL
CHANGE REQUIRED to indicate when an oil change is needed. The
engine oil change service needs to be completed within two weeks or
500 miles (800 km) after the OIL CHANGE REQUIRED message is
displayed. Your oil change service interval can be up to one year or
10,000 miles (16,000 km). Reset your Intelligent Oil Life Monitor™ after
each engine oil and filter change; refer to the Instrument Cluster
chapter.
If your message center is prematurely reset or becomes inoperative, you
should perform the oil change interval at six months or 5,000 miles
(8,000 km) from your last oil change. <---- Conservative approach

 

Of course it says nothing about HOW the IOLM actually works.

[Waldo]

Ford rolled in the IOLM in the 2011-2012 time periods. I think the 2011 Edge came out a bit early relative to other 2011s, so it probably wasn't included, but I believe the 2011 Fusion and the Explorer did get it.

But yes, macbwt, your perspective is only valid for the older models, Ford has developed a better monitor system that does exactly what you asked for. They did that 6 years ago.

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

So we are sure that 2012 MY (at least for the Edge) onwards, the IOLM does vary as per intention? the following sections seem to support that claim, since there is no mention of it in the 2011 MY OM.

 

2012 MY owners manual
Intelligent Oil Life Monitor™
Your vehicle is equipped with an Intelligent Oil Life Monitor™ that
determines when the engine oil should be changed based on how your
vehicles is used. By using several important factors in its calculations,
the monitor helps reduce the cost of owning your vehicle and reduce
environmental waste at the same time. This means you won’t have to
remember to change the oil on a mileage-based schedule; the vehicle lets
you know when an oil change is due by displaying ENGINE OIL
CHANGE DUE or OIL CHANGE REQUIRED in the message center. The
following table is intended to provide examples of vehicle use and its
impact on engine oil change intervals; it is provided as a guideline only.
Actual engine oil change intervals will depend on several factors and will
generally decrease with severity of use.
When to expect the OIL CHANGE

 

2013 MY owners manual

Intelligent Oil-Life Monitor®
Your vehicle is equipped with an Intelligent Oil-Life Monitor that
determines when the engine oil needs to be changed based on how your
vehicle is used. By using several important factors in its calculations, the
monitor helps reduce the cost of owning your vehicle and reduce
environmental waste at the same time. This means you won’t have to
remember to change the oil on a mileage-based schedule; the vehicle lets
you know when an oil change is due by displaying ENGINE OIL
CHANGE DUE or OIL CHANGE REQUIRED in the information display.
The following table is intended to provide examples of vehicle use and
its impact on engine oil change intervals; it is provided as a guideline
only. Actual engine oil change intervals depend on several factors and
generally decrease with severity of use.

 

2014 MY owners manual

Intelligent Oil Life Monitor™
Your vehicle is equipped with an Intelligent Oil Life Monitor™ that
determines when the engine oil should be changed based on how your
vehicles is used. By using several important factors in its calculations,
the monitor helps reduce the cost of owning your vehicle and reduce
environmental waste at the same time. This means you won’t have to
remember to change the oil on a mileage-based schedule; the vehicle lets
you know when an oil change is due by displaying ENGINE OIL
CHANGE DUE or OIL CHANGE REQUIRED in the message center. The
following table is intended to provide examples of vehicle use and its
impact on engine oil change intervals; it is provided as a guideline only.
Actual engine oil change intervals will depend on several factors and will
generally decrease with severity of use.

2015 MY owners manual

Intelligent Oil-Life Monitor®
Your vehicle is equipped with an Intelligent
Oil-Life Monitor that determines when you
should change the engine oil based on how
you use your vehicle. By using several
important factors in its calculations, the
monitor helps reduce the cost of owning
your vehicle and reduces environmental
waste at the same time.

 

This means you do not have to remember
to change the oil on a mileage-based
schedule. Your vehicle lets you know when
an oil change is due by displaying ENGINE
OIL CHANGE DUE or OIL CHANGE
REQUIRED in the information display.
The following table provides examples of
vehicle use and its impact on oil change
intervals. It is a guideline only. Actual oil
change intervals depend on several factors
and generally decrease with severity of
use.

Edited June 2, 2017 by WWWPerfA_ZN0W

[TheWizard]

Maybe not. Here is the link that describes it: http://owner.ford.com/how-tos/vehicle-features/dashboard-instrument-cluster/intelligent-oil-life-monitor.html?fmccmp=myfordmag-site-MFPR0515OIL. When I run it for 2011 or 2012 Edge it says "may not apply to your vehicle" but when run for 2013 or newer it doesn't show that message.

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

We need more fact-checking by their audience on their own vehicles! Volunteers?

[akirby]

It's also possible the algorithm was changed or they didn't fully implement it on all vehicles early on.

[chefduane]

My manual states verbatim the same thing that PerfA posted in #30. Probably because my Edge is also a 2011. Funny how that works out, eh? Regardless, I'm staying with a 5000 mile oil and filter change. Best compromise as I can see it.

[omar302]

I'll just add that earlier models like 2011-2013 Edge & Explorer (didn't try newer) also give you the option to reset the oil life meter to any value in 10's (10, 20, 30...100%) which is useful if you want a reminder in less than 10k intervals. For example, resting to 50% will make the oil life warning come after 5k miles (starts when 5% or 500 miles is left).

 

Also, on another note, I wished if Ford programmed the oil life meter for our area, as here Ford recommends 5k intervals but 100% life still represents 10k miles.

Edited June 2, 2017 by omar302

[macbwt]

I am willing to bet that Ford now utilizes engine hours to determine oil usage. If some of you were to keep track of your engine hours (like I do now manually) you may very well find a correlation between hours of engine run time and miles. i.e. More idle and city less time until oil change and more highway more time until oil change. I doubt there is a sensor in the engine analyzing the oil. Just a computer program with set parameters.

[2011edgese]

I never follow these oil monitoring systems. I do every only change at 60%. That's about 3500 on average. Specially with these turbos, you want clean oil all the time. Just my preference.