Oil Maintainance Mode?

[tseibel76]

Today it was about -1. Driving around in all electric when the ICE fires. I'm thinking, "Normal Operations". However, I look down and it says "Oil Maintainance". I have 1340 miles on the car, most of which are in electric. I figured I would keep driving to finish the mode. However, after about 45 min. and 0.50 gallons of gas, I had enough. I pulled over and got out the OM. It said it will run as needed, but you can stop it by reseting the oil life monitor. I did so, and it shut off right away.

 

The oil life monitor showed 92% oil life. I have about 240 miles on the motor.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? The oil life seemed low, with so few miles on the motor. The mode would not shut off and kept burning gas until I forced it off. How long should the car need to run in this mode and does it need to do so already (1340 on car, drove it home on 10/14/13)?

[larryh]

This is discussed in the following thread.  According to the comments there:

 

The mode is supposed to go on only when the ICE has not been used hardly at all for a prolonged period to prevent too much condensation from building up in the oil (and leading to damage).

 

http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/topic/1046-oil-maintenance-mode/?hl=%2Bmaintenance+%2Bmode

 

This probably wouldn't occur if you made longer trips.  I make 60 mile trips twice each week.  I have not experienced this yet in 7,500 miles of driving.   Apparently, the ICE needs to run periodically when it gets cold.  I would let it run rather than stopping what it is programmed to do to prevent damage to the car. 

Edited December 14, 2013 at 03:24 AM by larryh

[Russael]

Mine hasn't gone in to this mode at all yet, which I found very odd for me since I expected it to kick on a loooong time ago.  I have over 2,000 EV miles and 0 ICE miles.  My guess is if you drive the ICE for very short bursts (maybe 5 miles out of your whole trip and do that frequently, then letting the engine get cold again), with very cold temperatures which would cause condensation is why that mode would kick on.  At least that's the impression I'm getting from the CMAX forum thread.  Since I haven't run the ICE at all, it has stayed stone cold so the risk of condensation for me is low, thus, the ICE has no need to evaporate water from the oil.

[larryh]

Of the 7,500 miles that I have driven, 5,250 of them have been in EV mode.  So the ICE has run for 2,250 miles, or 30% of the total miles.  It looks like your ICE was on for 240/1240 = 18% of your driving.  In the post above, many of the others experienced OMM at around 200 miles on the ICE. 

 

I assume that none of your ICE miles resulted from long trips, but instead, you are driving mainly in EV mode with the ICE only briefly turning on.  You could try taking a relatively long trip (maybe 20 miles) using the ICE every couple of hundred ICE miles or so (when it is cold and the ICE only stays on only for short periods of time).  Maybe that will prevent OMM?  I don't think you want to change your oil every 200 ICE miles. 

Edited December 14, 2013 at 01:48 PM by larryh

[tseibel76]

Thanks for the posts larryh and Russael.  I bought the car in Fargo on 10/14 and drove back to Bismarck that night, which was all in regular hybrid mode.  From the dealer to my house was about 200 miles.  Other than that trip, I have just been driving around town, almost all in electric.  My only ICE usage since 10/14 has been when the ICE fired for "Normal Operations" or "Heater Settings".  It has been really cold here and the ICE just fires up for a couple of minutes, then cycles in these modes for a 15-30 seconds at a time.  So, condensation could be an issue, given the short bursts of ICE usage.  

 

I figured after driving around for 45 minutes and using 0.50 gallons of gas, the mode would shut off on its own.  That's what surprised me the most.  Maybe I will just use EV Later every couple of weeks and run in regular hybrid mode to keep the mode from coming back.  In any event, I was surprised at the oil life monitor.  My last car, a 2011 F-150, would go 6000-8000 miles between oil changes.  The computer was showing an oil change pace of about 3,000 miles, which surprised me.  The other question I have is once you enter this mode, how long should it run.

 

While I was driving, the HVB was not being used at all. It was basically operating like a gas-only car, not even hybrid.  My SOC on the HVB was about the same at the start of the mode as the end, after driving about 20 miles.  

[murphy]

The oil change interval for an Energi is 20,000 miles or 2 years, which ever comes first.

The oil life monitor should be tracking based of those two facts.

The car has no way to actually analyze the oil.

[larryh]

The oil life monitor on my car shows 64% remaining after 2,250 ICE miles and 7,500 total miles.  This yields about 12,000 total miles, or 3,500 ICE miles between oil changes. 

Edited December 15, 2013 at 07:37 PM by larryh

[Russael]

I think the math is a little incorrect there.  If you had 50% oil life remaining at 2250 miles, you should be able to drive 4500 miles before you needed an oil change.  From what I see, methinks you should be able to roll 5940 ICE miles before needing an oil change, or a total of 19800 miles.

[shaggy314]

IT could be the car tracks IVCE usage and time rather than miles OR at least it would be smarter to do that instead. I got a free 3 year maintenance so I'm getting my oil changed for free at 7500, until I have to pay for it; THEN it's according to what the car wants.  ;-)

[larryh]

I think the math is a little incorrect there.  If you had 50% oil life remaining at 2250 miles, you should be able to drive 4500 miles before you needed an oil change.  From what I see, methinks you should be able to roll 5940 ICE miles before needing an oil change, or a total of 19800 miles.

Oops.  It is 64% remaining, not 64% used.  It is 36% used.  7,500 / 0.36 = 20833.  So is the intelligent oil life monitor just assuming I can go 20,000 miles between oil changes regardless of how I drive?

 

My actual mileage is 7485.  7485/20,000 = 37% used or 63% remaining?  Does the Intelligent Oil Life Monitor actually compute different intervals based on driving conditions?  Or does it always used a fixed 20,000 miles--that doesn't seem very intelligent.  Does anyone's car compute the remaining oil life based a different interval than 20,000 miles?

Edited December 16, 2013 at 09:42 PM by larryh

[Russael]

No idea how those oil life monitors work or what they're measuring.  If it were based on engine hours, that'd make sense and should be more easy to calculate rather than just miles, however, driving long distances at moderate RPM is less abusive to oil than driving in stop and go traffic.  Still, we have 2 separate powertrains...  I'm leaning more toward engine hours and length of time.

[tseibel76]

Oops. It is 64% remaining, not 64% used. It is 36% used. 7,500 / 0.36 = 20833. So is the intelligent oil life monitor just assuming I can go 20,000 miles between oil changes regardless of how I drive?

 

My actual mileage is 7485. 7485/20,000 = 37% used or 63% remaining? Does the Intelligent Oil Life Monitor actually compute different intervals based on driving conditions? Or does it always used a fixed 20,000 miles--that doesn't seem very intelligent. Does anyone's car compute the remaining oil life based a different interval than 20,000 miles?

It must take something into account other than miles. I had 1350 on the car when mine showed 8%, which would translate into 16875 miles when a change would be required. This is less than your 20833 miles larryh.

 

However, this does not take into ICE usage. While unlikely, someone could go 20,000 miles in all electric, why would they need to change oil? My ICE has about 250 miles on it at 8% used.

[larryh]

No idea how those oil life monitors work or what they're measuring.  If it were based on engine hours, that'd make sense and should be more easy to calculate rather than just miles, however, driving long distances at moderate RPM is less abusive to oil than driving in stop and go traffic.  Still, we have 2 separate powertrains...  I'm leaning more toward engine hours and length of time.

Since you have barely used the ICE, does your car show 100% oil life remaining?

[murphy]

It's a combination of 20,000 miles and 2 years.

[Russael]

Since you have barely used the ICE, does your car show 100% oil life remaining?

 

I'll check it tomorrow when I go to the store.

[Russael]

Well, not running to the store today, but I did check the car.  Oil life remaining is 74%.  I have driven 17 ICE miles (and that was only a couple days ago), and I've had the car since May 28 (6 1/2 months), so mine has to be going by a timer.

 

I'm still of the mindset of the oil life going by engine hours or time, whichever comes first.

[larryh]

So it looks like it just uses the lesser % oil remaining based upon a fixed 2 year interval or 20,000 miles since it was last reset as described in the manual.  Driving conditions must not be a factor.  I was expecting more intelligence given that is called an intelligent oil life monitor. 

Edited December 17, 2013 at 08:18 PM by larryh

[larryh]

I notice the following in the Vehicle Health Report: 

 

Your vehicle's Intelligent Oil Life Monitor uses actual engine and operating conditions to calculate when you need an oil change. The computation takes into account your driving habits when determining when it's time to change the oil. The Oil Life Remaining percentage you see is the calculation sent from your vehicle when this report was sent.

You still have Oil Life Remaining. Your vehicle Intelligent Oil Life Monitor uses actual engine and operating conditions to calculate when you need an oil change, instead of having to follow a preset schedule. Keep in mind, if it's been a year or 10,000 since your last oil change, you will need to change your oil.

 

 

For the Vehicle Health Report settings at SyncMyRide, it provides the following options to choose from:

 

Operating Preferences:

• Normal Condition
• Extensive idling and/or driving at low speeds
• Operating in Dusty Conditions

 

So the oil life monitor is supposed to use actual engine and operating conditions to determine the remaining oil life.  The actual operating conditions then come from the preferences selected above by the owner?  Does SyncMyRide download this information to the car so it can use it to compute the remaining oil life?  Also, the statement that oil needs to be changed every 1 year or 10,000 miles conflicts with what the manual states, which is 2 years or 20,000 miles.   For my Vehicle Health Report, the computation seems to be based on using 8,200 miles out of 20,000 miles. 

Edited January 3, 2014 at 10:48 PM by larryh

[Russael]

Oil Maintenance mode turned on for me today.  Yay.

[larryh]

You can find some more discussion of OMM here:

 

http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/topic/2258-oil-maintenance-mode-4-months-and-4000-miles-1100-ice/?p=17536

[Russael]

Easy come, easy go.  I drove about 8 miles to a store entirely in gas mode, picked up an item, and about halfway back, it kicked back in to EV mode.  So it seems to need to run about 20 - 30 minutes for it to get hot enough to steam the water vapor out of the crankcase.  Best if it's continuous, or with a brief stop in between.  It did drain a little bit of the battery while running in that mode, as I had left the house with a full battery and it took down about 1/4 of the charge up until the engine kicked off.

 

For the 0% EV trip, I averaged 30MPGe... not too bad for stop and go.  My mom's 2008 Fusion with the same type of driving only gets about 22 with the 2.3L 4 cyl.

Edited February 7, 2014 at 02:03 PM by Russael

[Dune]

After reading up a bit more here, have decided to just let it run in OMM and see how long it takes.

I'd been resetting it after having been given some incorrect info by someone in my dealer's service department.

Probably should have considered how few of these they've probably sold and thusly the possibility that he wouldn't really know what he was talking about.

Fortunately this forum is a much better resource.

I do multiple short commutes daily and not even every day, so I am interested to see how long it will stay in OMM before allowing me to go back to EV.

 

Happened a couple times since I posted this and the engine didn't run for very long either time (probably less than an hour in total either time).

Edited March 2, 2014 at 10:42 AM by Dune