Why oh why do we get gages that nothing more than a gloified idiot lights? Especially in a truck?!! This needs to be changed and maybe Im in the minority but the more real info available the better.
Why oh why cant we have an oil life monitor like GM has? Its a stroke of genious and has proven to be realiable due to oil analysis time after time.
I don't know anything about GM's oil monitor. How does it work? Does it just calculate hours?
I don't think we will get more than idiot lights. I honestly have found them satisfactory. I would love to have detailed info but they have always done the job. Has ford ever had anything more than idiot lights?
I don't know anything about GM's oil monitor. How does it work? Does it just calculate hours?
I don't think we will get more than idiot lights. I honestly have found them satisfactory. I would love to have detailed info but they have always done the job. Has ford ever had anything more than idiot lights?
Miles; i've seen it in a G6 rental once. works pretty nice. an oil pressure indicator might let you know before it's too late... by the time the idiot light went off, the damage had usually been done.
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I've got an oil monitor on my 500. It gives % of oil life left (I think it goes by miles but I'm not sure).
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Ford DOES have an oil life monitor. The wife's Mountaineer has one in the Message Center Console. You can customize it to whatever mileage you want between oil changes and it shows your oil life left in percentage. Wouldn't take Ford much to install them in the trucks also, perhaps in the overhead console. Why they haven't is anyone's guess.
I don't know anything about GM's oil monitor. How does it work? Does it just calculate hours?
I don't think we will get more than idiot lights. I honestly have found them satisfactory. I would love to have detailed info but they have always done the job. Has ford ever had anything more than idiot lights?
The GM oil life monitor is very complex. It takes into consideration, hours, idle time, load, engine temp, mileage, engine revolutions, how many times its been bumped off the rev limiter, throttle position and on and on.............. It assigns a value to each varible and makes calculation based upon these factors. In other words, it knows how your car or truck has been driven. It knows if its been short tripped to death in cold weather or been on a long trip to florida. It knows if you have been towing a heavy trailer. Each car/truck is set up with the monitor is different based upon the engines oil capacity ect. One guy that beats on his corvette pretty hard has his go off around 7K consistantly. Gm says the average is around 7500 mile and thats probably accurate. I have heard of some going off under 3K miles and some that go off at 12K. People have had their oil anylized and nothing has ever shown up that is wrong. Honda also has a similar system on their cars although its a bit more conservative from my understanding. Also, each unit is under the impression that synthetic oil is NOT being used except for maybe the corvette.
There is more info here than you can ever imagine. Im not a chemist nor an engineer but I can read between the lines and figure some things out. Some people will never use such a device because they are forever stuck in the 70's. I think its a great time saver and money saver. This guy here doesnt believe in 3k changes.
The GM engine oil life monitor counts engine revolutions and accumulates the number for the basis of the oil life calculation. It then adds deterioration factors for operating temperature, start up temperature, soak times, ambient, coolant temperature, etc... There are a LOT of factors that "adjust" or affect the slope of the deterioration but the fundamental deterioration is traced back to the ZDP depletion that is inescapable with engine revolutions. The specific rate of ZDP depletion is readily measurable for any given engine so that is the fundamental item that is first calibrated for the oil life algorithm to tailor it specifically to that engine.
The algorithm was developed over the course of many years by several lubrication experts at GM Fuels and Lubes, spearheaded by Doctor Shirley Schwartz who holds the patents (with GM) for the algorithm and the oil life montitor. I had the luck of working directly with Dr. Schwartz when the idea of the oil life monitor first progressed from the theoretical/lab stage to real world testing/development/validation. There were fleets of cars operated under all conditions that deteriorate the oil life for any and every reason and , thru oil sampling and detailed analysis of the oil condition, the algorithm was developed, fine tuned and validated to be the most accurate way invented yet to recommend an oil change interval by. As just one example, I have seen cars driven side-by-side on trips, one towing a trailer and one not, for instance, to prove the effectiveness of the oil life monitor in deteriorating the oil at a faster rate just because of the higher load, higher average RPM, higher temps, etc...and it works flawlessly.
The oil life monitor is so effective because: it is customized for that specific vehicle/engine, it takes everything into account that deteriorates the oil, it is ALWAYS working so as to take into account THAT INDIVIDUALS driving schedule, and it tailors the oil change to that schedule and predicts, on an ongoing basis, the oil life remaining so that that specific individual can plan an oil change accordingly. No other system can do this that effectively.
One thing is that I know personally from years of testing and thousands of oil analysis that the oil life algorithm works. There is simply no argument to the contrary. If you don't believe me, fine, but, trust me, it works. It is accurate because it has been calibrated for each specific engine it is installed on and there is considerable testing and validation of the oil life monitor on that specific application. NOt something that oil companies or Amsoil do. They generalize....the oil life monitor is very specific for that application.
Why oh why do we get gages that nothing more than a gloified idiot lights? Especially in a truck?!! This needs to be changed and maybe Im in the minority but the more real info available the better.
Why oh why cant we have an oil life monitor like GM has? Its a stroke of genious and has proven to be realiable due to oil analysis time after time.
Am I the only one?
oil life monitor is a pain in the ass, i think i can read the little sticker the person that changes it puts in the window or if i do it my self i think i can write it in the back of my owners manuel.
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If what you posted is true then yes I wish we had that system!
It is true and only Honda has something similar. I think the Ford system is mileage only and heck you may as well just put a sticker on your windsheild instead. The proof is that the Gm OLM goes off all over the place mileage wise for those that use it. Some at 2500 miles and some at 12K miles. How the car/truck is driven and what conditions its exposed to make the difference. It takes the guess work out of things and keeps the tree huggers happy.
oil life monitor is a pain in the ass, i think i can read the little sticker the person that changes it puts in the window or if i do it my self i think i can write it in the back of my owners manuel.
But if there is a way to analyze/estimate the quality of the oil, then it is better you can ensure you have quality oil in your engine. Changing at 3k miles is simply a failsafe method to make sure you have good oil. How is it a pain in the ass to change the oil when a message tells you to?
One of my friends has a chevy with a 4.3 work truck has his go off around 6 to 8 K pretty consistantly. He uses anykind of oil he can gets his hands on most of the time. Usually, he runs over on the oil change as well because he is so busy. I might add this is a work truck and is loaded down everyday of its life and is driven now by his knuckle head employees.
My point in all of this is that the truck is pushing 300K miles now with no engine work. Kinda like the guy with the 1,000,000 mile van with the 5.4 on 10K changes. Also, there is a safty factor built into the gm olm.
If it is a very inexpensive thing, then it can only save us money. I very much doubt that it would reccommend to change the oil in less time than 3k miles. That might mean that we get 1k or 3k extra miles out of an oil change. Over the course of a lifetime of a vehicle that adds up.
How about an ABS based Tire Pressure Monitoring system?
We have both on our Pont GP. I love both systems. The OLM gives you a heads up with a Change Oil Soon light on start up. When it stays on constant, it's time to change oil. But it does give a guy time to schedual/buy the oil change.
The TPM is great too. It'd prolly save a lot of knuckleheads, lotsa fuel.
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85 F Two Fiddy-6.9/C6/3.54/ Holley Red, Racor, Soup Bowl,AutoJet 3",Ride Rite Rear
How about an ABS based Tire Pressure Monitoring system?
We have both on our Pont GP. I love both systems. The OLM gives you a heads up with a Change Oil Soon light on start up. When it stays on constant, it's time to change oil. But it does give a guy time to schedual/buy the oil change.
The TPM is great too. It'd prolly save a lot of knuckleheads, lotsa fuel.
Finally, somebody that agrees with me on the gages! I despise the Ford gages. I was told that they worried that people would freak out if they actually saw the oil pressure going up and down. I have an old GMc sonoma that does flutuate a lot and I have not freaked out. I have never heard of anybody else doing it either.
Fone fiddy, one of my buddys has a base xl ford company truck and I think he mentioned something about a tire pressure monitor going off one time when his tire got low. Somebody else may be able to confirm that.
Also fonefiddy, how many miles do you get on your pontiac on average before it tells you to change oil? Im just curious.
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I despise the Ford gages. I was told that they worried that people would freak out if they actually saw the oil pressure going up and down. I have an old GMc sonoma that does flutuate a lot and I have not freaked out. I have never heard of anybody else doing it either. 
