Oil Life Percentage

[Murrow]

I've had my BS BL for two months and 1,100 miles. The oil monitor still says 97%, which seems very high. I'm coming from GM, in which the oil monitor drops 10% every month, even if you don't drive the car at all.

Is it weird for it to still show 97%?

Do these cars have crazy long oil change intervals?

Is it one of those situations in which the oil life drops very slowly at first and then falls off a cliff after a few more miles?

Do you guys follow the oil monitor or ignore it?

Thanks!

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[Mrmike]

Guess I'm old school. I change my oil and filter every 6 months or 5000 miles whichever comes first. I do it myself and use Mobil 1 full synthetic and Motorcraft FL-910S filters. I also manually check my tire pressure monthly.

 

[RSH]

The standard oil change interval is 10k miles. With my own 2021 Badlands I typically change the oil in the 5500 range, well before the oil life monitor says to do do it.
If you tow or use your Sport in severe duty conditions the owners manual says to change the oil at 3k miles

 

[BLUEOVALRACER]

Guess I'm old school. I change my oil and filter every 6 months or 5000 miles whichever comes first. I do it myself and use Mobil 1 full synthetic and Autolite filters. I also manually check my tire pressure monthly.

Did You mean Motorcraft Filters?

 

[BLUEOVALRACER]

I also do every 6 months or 5000 miles whichever comes first

 

[SteveI]

I'm at 4,002 mi and 97% 9 months ...

 

[MAJB Retired]

I have a 2024 BS bought in Oct 2024 and at 4000 miles and 12 months the oil life was at 0%. My F150 does the same thing at the 12 month mark even though I only but a couple K a year on it.

 

[sajohnson]

I change the oil every month, regardless of mileage. You can never be too safe!

Seriously, while it is of course better to change the oil too frequently than not often enough, it is a waste of time, money, and resources.

Rather than using some arbitrary interval, having the oil tested and using the lab's recommendation is a good way to go.

I've used Blackstone Labs in the past. I have a 2002 WRX at Cobb Stage 2 that was my commuter car before I retired. My route was all rural roads and interstates, but it saw a lot of high rpm and full throttle use. I was using Mobil 1 and Subaru's shorter 5,000 mile interval when I had the oil tested. Blackstone suggested I switch to the 7,500 mile interval. I did that and had it tested again. They said it could go to at least 9,000 miles (I stayed at 7,500).

I still have that car. It has 205,000 miles on it and still runs fine.

The Badlands doesn't get driven much, so I change it every year using 100% synthetic and Motorcraft filters.

 

[Mrmike]

Did You mean Motorcraft Filters?

My bad! I meant Motorcraft FL-910S filters.

 

[Robins21]

We ignore it. We have the oil changed every 5,000 miles.

 

[OBSASQ]

The standard oil change interval is 10k miles. With my own 2021 Badlands I typically change the oil in the 5500 range, well before the oil life monitor says to do do it.
If you tow or use your Sport in severe duty conditions the owners manual says to change the oil at 3k miles

I know years ago California bureaucrats were going to force people to change oil based on manufacturer recommended schedules not what they called the "Jiffy Lube" schedule of 3,000 miles. They say Californians throw away millions of gallons of oil each year on unnecessary changes. I'm surprised they haven't made that law by now.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

I do mine based on miles/normal driving conditions. Normally about once a year. 2.5 - 5 k depending on vehicle. When I worked, it was every 5k because it was easy to remember. I’ve had to clear the oil monitor on both Bronco’s. Ford goes to 0 life at 12 months regardless of driving conditions or miles.

 

[Quashish]

This reminds me my wife's car is about ready for an oil change. I did the first one myself at 1000 miles. But I’ll probably use our service plan on this next one. Once those are used up I’ll probably switch to the FL 400S filter. It’s slightly larger than the FL 910S and allows for a bit more fluid capacity. I have been doing this on my focus ST which allows for a full 6 quarts. (An additional .3 quarts) Im not sure what the difference would be on the sports. I also have always used mobil1 full synthetic on all my vehicles.

 

[watt-man]

I've had my BS BL for two months and 1,100 miles. The oil monitor still says 97%, which seems very high. I'm coming from GM, in which the oil monitor drops 10% every month, even if you don't drive the car at all.

Is it weird for it to still show 97%?

Do these cars have crazy long oil change intervals?

Is it one of those situations in which the oil life drops very slowly at first and then falls off a cliff after a few more miles?

Do you guys follow the oil monitor or ignore it?

Thanks!

I figured for the first change on our '25 BS Heritage, I'd watch it to see how different it is or isn't from our Honda past. To answer your question, we're at 1700 miles and the oil monitor (in the phone app) says 72%. So I am surprised by your number.

I was surprised when we took a 10-day vacation and the oil life when we left said 84%, and after first drive when home, said 79%. I wasn't sure if that was simply a 'time' element in the program, or the fact that to physically move this car 1 foot in the garage to get to a ladder, that you have to start these silly things because you can't simply slide them into neutral. A lot of this 'nanny' stuff is really annoying. I wondered if instead of 'time' being the reason for the oil life indicated drop, that it logged a 4-second cold start, followed by no warm-up and sitting for another day, was the reason.

To answer your other question, I'm usually changing the oil (Mobil 1 synthetic) every 5,000 - 6000 miles. I don't change the oil filter every time, usually every 2nd or 3rd change. All of our cars have never had any oiling issues, and are still running fine at 200K plus. Heck, I have 206,000 miles on my one-cylinder motorcycle...

 

[Murrow]

I figured for the first change on our '25 BS Heritage, I'd watch it to see how different it is or isn't from our Honda past. To answer your question, we're at 1700 miles and the oil monitor (in the phone app) says 72%. So I am surprised by your number.

I'm at 4,002 mi and 97% 9 months ...

Interesting on both counts.

Mine's been on 97% for at least a couple of weeks. I'm wondering if there's a glitch in some cars, since Stevel also seems "stuck" at 97% after 4k miles and 9 months. I would expect to be closer to watt-man's number.

I'll continue to watch it, but I'll probably change the oil in a couple of months either way. If the number continues to stay at 97%, I'll have the dealer look at it.

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