% oil life vs. miles

Greenfrog

Member
Off the topic, but for lack of a better place to ask, and us CASE owners also drive vehicles......I have a question:
I have two Honda vehicles, the other day I had oil changed, and they wrote 15% on the windshield tag rather that the ususal 3000 mile next time to change. Is this going to be the trend? I reallly never paid much attention to oil life in the past. I was wondering if I am going to be able to go more miles than usual( Or less?) Others out there might be finding this way of measuring oil useage. In the past I think oil life was about 40-50% when my 3000 was up. In relation to tractors, will this per cent equate to hours? I was wondeering if others have been using this method? If % is better that miles , maybe we have been changing oil too often. I entertain a discussion on this...............
 
There is no way your car computer can determine % of oil life,they are caculating by mileage on the car what they think is left to get service done on the car.Put synthetic in it which has twice the oil life and it will tell you the same thing,it can't determine the life of oil in the engine.
 
well, as others mentioned the computer can't figure that out with any accuracy. its just an estimate based on miles and your driving patterns, idleing ect

% really depends on alot of things. Most importantly the quality of oil. Just because it has the API rating doesn't mean its the same as the others. all oils are NOT created equal. FOr example oil additives to control acid are the key item in oil life. Premium synthetics may be up around 12 TBN. Lower grade oils may by 6-8 TBN. HUGE difference in % life of oil. Also depends on the engine. A newer engine is less likely to contaminate the oil as fast as a well worn engine.

I'd change it where you're comfortable. Many new cars have 7-8000 change recomendations.

I run AMSOIL synthetics in my cars and change about once a year. SOme cars run about 10000/year some run up to 25000.

"Your mileage may vary"
 
There is a oil life reading on the odometer, milage, temperature read out. Just toggle it around. I am not really sure how it is reading it also. Might be measuring viscosity.
 
The computer takes into consideration the # of cold starts, rpm. miles, and # of gallons of fuel burned and a bunch of other sensor readings to give that percentage. Later model engines that have hot thermostats. fuel inj. etc. don't need oil changed at 3000 miles unless they are short-tripped to death and constantly under heavy load. I was a Fleet Service Manager for years and could talk for hours on the subject. I change my gas tractors every 100 hours and I run my 830 CK diesel on 15-40 Amsoil and change it every 3 years. Run my pickup and the wifes car on 5-30 Amsoil and change it once a year, don't even care about the miles. Do some oil sampling, that will tell the story. The boys and I are thinking about converting our trucks to propane, what do you all think of that, any body thought about it??
 
I worked for a Major Food Company had several trucks in the Chicago Metro Area running on CNG from the dumps that surround the Metro area. I left before they had many hours on them but they were talking about oil changes in terms of year of service
 
I to have been contemplating a propane ride but don't know much about the current conversions. Especially if a guy had some large storage he could do well on the price. It was 54 cents this year at Conway, KS. Tom
 

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