Jmbeebe0722

According the dealer sticker says I need an oil change in a couple hundred miles. But looking in the system check, it says I have 51% left...

Which one of these is best to follow?

geabis

Follow your oil minder system. Unless your not paying for the oil changes and they are free or included in a maintenance agreement. Then go by the sticker.

WOLBEM11

Change at 5K miles THEN DO:

Normal Driving Conditions
------------------------
100% Synthetic = 10K miles
Synth Blend = 5K to 7500
regular = 3K

Harsh or Extreme Conditions
--------------------------
100% Synth = 7500 miles
Blend = 3K
regular = dont use for harsh, if you do just change at 3K tops

Always use Motorcraft or quality filter.
I recommend doing what the owners manual says.

Jmbeebe0722

The first oil change was done at 5,600 miles, my sticker says come back at 10,600 but my oil life meter says 51% at 10,450 miles..

BobbyC

iTrader: (1)

This.

geabis

The intelligent oil minder system monitors many variables from time at operating temp, percentage of run time at load, external conditions like ambient temperature and even fuel used since last oil change to evaluate the condition of your oil. If you change it before the oil minder says your are just spending money on your own piece of mind, you will not extend engine life or get better mileage or any of the other wife's tales that get thrown around. The engine will function well beyond 250k miles without an oil related problem. As long as you change you oil and filter at the recommend interval set by the oil minder system and use the recommended oil and filter.

mbopp

This. GM was the pioneer in oil life algorithm calculations but other manufacturers have now developed their own. My wife's Toyota is still a "dumb" system - it comes on every 5K miles.

kpromero

Toyota will come on every 5,000 miles to basically tell you to rotate tires and not to actually change oil.

geabis

I had an 06 3500 Sierra with the dmax and their oil life system really impressed me. Blew me away that they considered so many factors that play on oil life. I haven't had a chance to review fords system in depth yet. But I'm certain it is just as accurate. I even ran oa on the gm and their system was right on the money with their predictions while running dino oil. Was able to extend my oil change intervals to 40k miles and filter changes at 9k by running synthetic with a high tbn and pulling oa at every 5 k. One of the cleanest diesels I ever had. Still had negligible soot levels at 40k miles.