Oil life

[Mike.]

Hi.  I bought a new Fiesta ST3 in January of this year and it's been parked on my drive for most of the year thanks to COVID.  Current mileage is around 1500, but I've just noticed in the mobile app that my oil life is 36%.  I'm struggling to see how my oil life is so low, because that would suggest I'll need an oil replacement either even 2000 miles or under a year.  Is this typical?

thanks

[Waggy]

This is how it works for my Focus, you'll have to substitute your own service intervals for the miles and months - The remaining oil life is the lowest proportion left of 3 competing events from the time it was last reset :

1. A countdown over 12 months

2. A countdown over 12500 miles

3. A "clever" algorithm calculating oil quality based on operational events.

If you do the maths, 36 % remaining seems entirely right. Bear in mind it might have been last reset in the factory if the dealer forgot to do it, but yours seems correct to me.
 

[Jules59]

5 hours ago, Mike. said:

Hi.  I bought a new Fiesta ST3 in January of this year and it's been parked on my drive for most of the year thanks to COVID.  Current mileage is around 1500, but I've just noticed in the mobile app that my oil life is 36%.  I'm struggling to see how my oil life is so low, because that would suggest I'll need an oil replacement either even 2000 miles or under a year.  Is this typical?

thanks

What is your mobile app ? Ive recently bought a 2019 ST3 and the dealer never mentioned an app for obtaining data from the car.

[iantt]

21 minutes ago, Jules59 said:

What is your mobile app ? Ive recently bought a 2019 ST3 and the dealer never mentioned an app for obtaining data from the car.

Ford pass app

[Jim H]

1 hour ago, Waggy said:

This is how it works for my Focus, you'll have to substitute your own service intervals for the miles and months - The remaining oil life is the lowest proportion left of 3 competing events from the time it was last reset :

1. A countdown over 12 months

2. A countdown over 12500 miles

3. A "clever" algorithm calculating oil quality based on operational events.

If you do the maths, 36 % remaining seems entirely right. Bear in mind it might have been last reset in the factory if the dealer forgot to do it, but yours seems correct to me.
 

I though servicing was every 18k miles or 2 years on modern Fiestas? It is on the 1.0, is the ST different?

Edit: You have a Focus not Fiesta, so it may be different.

[Jules59]

43 minutes ago, iantt said:

Ford pass app

thank you

[Mike.]

19 hours ago, Waggy said:

This is how it works for my Focus, you'll have to substitute your own service intervals for the miles and months - The remaining oil life is the lowest proportion left of 3 competing events from the time it was last reset :

1. A countdown over 12 months

2. A countdown over 12500 miles

3. A "clever" algorithm calculating oil quality based on operational events.

If you do the maths, 36 % remaining seems entirely right. Bear in mind it might have been last reset in the factory if the dealer forgot to do it, but yours seems correct to me.
 

Thanks.  The app just says it's an "intelligent oil Life monitor that determines when the engine oil should be changed based on how your vehicle is used".  You'd think that "parked on drive for 5 months" would influence such an intelligent feature to tell it that maybe the oil will last lonnger.  If it's just counting down over 12 months then I guess I can largely ignore it!

[Guy Heaton]

12k/ 1 year for diesel, 18k/2 years for petrol.  Although it is a collosal con because what's the point of a service without an oil change and I'd bet none of us on here have got anywhere near 18k before the oil life gives out.  I'm on 7300 miles and 32% left.

Diesels have shorter intervals cos their oil works harder.  It has to hold soot in suspension where a petrol oil doesn't.

[Waggy]

25 minutes ago, Mike. said:

Thanks.  The app just says it's an "intelligent Oil Life monitor that determines when the engine oil should be changed based on how your vehicle is used".  You'd think that "parked on drive for 5 months" would influence such an intelligent feature to tell it that maybe the oil will last lonnger.  If it's just counting down over 12 months then I guess I can largely ignore it!

I might be wrong, but the information I have found is that your service intervals for the Fiesta ST are exactly the same as mine - 12 months or 12.5k miles, whichever comes first. The intervals are time based because the oil will deteriorate over time whether you use the car or not. I'm sure that many people will argue that this is a con and that the oil will last much longer. That might be right, it might be wrong, but I take it from your questions that you are no expert in these matters, so if you ignore the advice, it's entirely down to you, and you will definitely void your warranty.

[Mavroz]

Is the oil life not also governed by driving style? Eg acceleration, high revs etc etc?

[Eng_Ahmad1986]

On 9/4/2020 at 7:11 PM, Mavroz said:

Is the oil life not also governed by driving style? Eg acceleration, high revs etc etc?

indeed , oil life is monitored by a complex algorithm that takes into account many parameters : distance travelled, time interval since the last reset, outside temperature, driving style, idle time, variations of engine load, etc, actually its a very complex algorithm but provides a very near accurate estimation (provided that you use the correct oil specs and reset the system after every oil change, the computer assumes that anyway) , much more accurate than the " sensor in oil" oil quality sensor that other manufacturers use, like BMW for instance.

[Guy Heaton]

So it doesn't actually check the oil just rolls a few dice?  If I was keeping the car I'd do what I always have done and oil change every 8 or 9k.

[DG97]

13 hours ago, Guy Heaton said:

So it doesn't actually check the oil just rolls a few dice?  If I was keeping the car I'd do what I always have done and oil change every 8 or 9k.

I think a lot of people who were planning on keeping the car for a long time were doing that anyway.

 

My take on it is that my car is the 2018MY - meaning the 1.0 Ecoboost (as far as i'm aware) is exactly the same as what was available in the mk7.5 - absolutely no differences between the two engines yet.... the mk7.5 had intervals yearly and at around 10,000 miles (someone might be able to correct that figure if wrong), yet the mk8 jumped to 2yr/18k miles without any changes to the engine. In my opinion it was simply a marketing con for Ford to say you'll spend less on servicing. Tbh, it's an ideal solution for the very common 3 year pcp deal as you only service once rather than 2/3 times but cant imagine it does many favours for the engine longevity. 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

When I bought mine I asked the dealer what changes had been made to the engine and/or oil specification on the Mk 8 to permit the longer service interval compared to the previous version, and was told "absolutely nothing, as far as we know".

So I'm also sticking with an annual oil/filter change for this car. 

The longer interval might make more sense with the revised (chain cam) version fitted from early this year.

[fiestaecoboostman]

Also remember that "Parked up during lockdown" might mean quite a few short trips. When the car is warmed up on the temp guage (if you have one) the oil is nowhere near hot enough to do its job properly. Short trips reult in the condensation that forms within the rocker cover etc not being evaporated and the oil getting more contaminated with water each time its used. The Ford KA - and other small cars to be fair - used to be renowned for this, owners who did 3k miles a year and so didn't get them serviced had engine problems with very low miles.

I would invest in an oil and filter change annually regardless of service schedule, you can do it yourself if you are handy. Ford parts are usually cheap because the models sell so well.

I just purchased 3 x 5ltr Mannol from eBay in the VW 507 spec I need for £43 - I can do my Skoda and daughters Seat with it. The oil filters cost about £12 (Skoda) and £4 so a DIY oil change works out about £20 where the dealrs want over £100.

If you spent £10k + on a car why would you not change the oil to protect it?

[Eng_Ahmad1986]

1 hour ago, DG97 said:

I think a lot of people who were planning on keeping the car for a long time were doing that anyway.

 

My take on it is that my car is the 2018MY - meaning the 1.0 Ecoboost (as far as i'm aware) is exactly the same as what was available in the mk7.5 - absolutely no differences between the two engines yet.... the mk7.5 had intervals yearly and at around 10,000 miles (someone might be able to correct that figure if wrong), yet the mk8 jumped to 2yr/18k miles without any changes to the engine. In my opinion it was simply a marketing con for Ford to say you'll spend less on servicing. Tbh, it's an ideal solution for the very common 3 year pcp deal as you only service once rather than 2/3 times but cant imagine it does many favours for the engine longevity. 

may be the change now is in the oil specs, I think it was before WSS-M2C-948A and now its WSS-M2C-948B , ford dealer here in Egypt changes the oil for mine on 10k km ( 7500 miles ) or one year whichever comes first, they use Motorcraft, and they told me there that these are ford recommendations, I think what they do is much safer 🙂 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

1 hour ago, fiestaecoboostman said:

I just purchased 3 x 5ltr Mannol from Ebay in the VW 507 spec I need for £43 - I can do my Skoda and daughters Seat with it. The oil filters cost about £12 (Skoda) and £4 so a DIY oil change works out about £20 where the dealrs want over £100.

Yes, had a few VW group cars (still have the Mrs's SEAT) and they do at least recommend different oil specs depending on whether you have opted for the fixed or variable service regime.