Focus Vignale 2.0 L Ecoblue A Estate, Manual. Registered 1/3/19.  37020 miles.

This afternoon it has flagged up, several times, the message “Change oil soon.”  The oil life indicator was disabled by Ford during a service update in 2021 and I don’t have the Ford Pass app. The annual service date is late October, Ford dealer serviced and I have Ford Extended warranty. It has done 3653 miles since the last service. My car is an Ecoblue A and servicing is due 12 month/12000 mile intervals. My mileage is about 5000/year mostly longer motorway drives. The car can be sat unused for several days in a week but usually gets a longer run at least once a week. Ford have also notified me about the “Cracked DPF & PCM update” recall and I am waiting from Ford for a date to take to dealers.

My concern is why it would need an oil change after only nine months/3653 miles. Could this be a sign of impending wetbelt failure. How is the oil life/quality determined by the car? What does the forum think?

1 hour ago, Drive a Focus. said:

What does the forum think?

I think you should follow the cars instructions and get the oil changed.

Just take it somewhere, it doesn't have to be Ford, and get the oil and filter changed, to the correct oil, ASAP.

Or, if you know what you're doing, get the oil & filter and do it yourself.

As you're doing low mileage you are not performing full DPF regens and your sump is filling up with Diesel.

This will kill your wet belt

Then still service at the recommended intervals

As you're doing very low mileage, change the oil every 6 months

I asked the exact same question a few weeks ago for the same engine and got the same answer from the knowledgeable FOC crowd here!  By later in 2019 Ford seems to have changed the service schedule to 2 years, don't know why or if anything meaningful changed on the engine (introduction of Adblue?).  Anyway I will start doing an intermediate oil change between scheduled services as a precaution.

Or maybe it is a Ford conspiracy to panic people into the service dealerships with 5 yo cars to get extra oil changes?