My wife’s van is due for an oil change based on mileage but the gauge says there is still 40% life left in the oil. Should I change it?

2012 Honda Odyssey van, synthetic oil, it’s been 5k miles since last oil change.

I'd change it if it was my vehicle. 5K is my personal limit.
IIRC, it used to be 5K miles many years ago and now they say 3K.

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2012 Honda Odyssey van, synthetic oil, it’s been 5k miles since last oil change.

Back in the old days, with conventional oil, I used to change every 3K miles. These days, with full synthetic, I think you can be confident in changing between 5K and 7K. Some people go 10K, but I don't like to do that.

As for the gauge that says there is still 40% life left in the oil... it's not testing the oil. It's just based on your mileage since it was last reset.

What do oil gauges measure?

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Originally posted by chellim1:

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2012 Honda Odyssey van, synthetic oil, it’s been 5k miles since last oil change.

Back in the old days, with conventional oil, I used to change every 3K miles. These days, with full synthetic, I think you can be confident in changing between 5K and 7K. Some people go 10K, but I don't like to do that.

This is my thought as well. I don't pay any attention to the oil life gauge.

Jim

You can easily go 6,000 to 7,000 or more on synthetic oil, I’d wait until the counter is at 10%.

I had a Mini Cooper that that had 10,000 mile oil change intervals with Mobil 1 oil.

Yes, they're accurate. More so than any of the guessing everyone seems to do. I'd change it when the oil monitor says it's time to change it.

Modern ECU's do a lot better job at regulating the air/fuel ratio, modern engine metals do a better job at sealing combustion chambers during cold start/warm up periods etc., and modern oils have much much better detergents in them to keep the oil cleaner than even 10-15 years ago, all leading to longer oil change intervals.

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Originally posted by joatmonv:
I'd change it if it was my vehicle. 5K is my personal limit.
IIRC, it used to be 5K miles many years ago and now they say 3K.

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I believe you have that reversed no? Used to be 3K. Now 5.

My Subaru book says 6K. I plan on 5 but don’t stress if I’m over.

My Subarus said change every 7.5k miles, so that's what I did. I got 144k out of the Outback before a non oil related issue caused me to sell it. My Ridgeline has the oil life counter. I'm at about 4.5k miles, and it says 60% oil life. I probably won't wait for the counter to reach zero at around 12k miles because I thought the 7.5k was a little long. Anywhere between 5k-6k is where I change my oil. YMMV.

Some people are gonna say change it every 3k miles, some will say 15k and there's everything in between. In vehicles made in the last 10yrs the oil monitor should be fairly accurate. Many people follow it, change the oil at 0% and still get a long life out of their engine. I typically change mine at 20% just to be sure.

Modern maintenance minders take into account your driving habits and calculate the expected oil life based on that.

So if you cruise a long in nice weather all day at 55mph, you might get a lot more life out of you oil than the guy who's heavy on the throttle, in stop and go traffic and lives in the extreme heat or cold.

I researched the hell out of the GM system for the Vette. The consensus seems to be extremely accurate. Plus I use Mobile 1.

I don’t pay attention to them. I change my oil every 5000 miles with conventional or 7000 with synthetic and reset the maintenance minder when done.

Oil filters don’t filter everything from the oil and depending on the filtration qualities of the brand of oil filter used, particles smaller than 30 microns accumulate in the oil. The longer you go the more particles accumulate and the more wear you put on your engine. None of my cars or trucks burn any oil. My daily beater has over 230,000 miles and doesn’t use oil either. Of course if you buy new cars every couple of years, this won’t matter to you. Extended oil change intervals on newer cars (10,000 miles or more) are intended to lower the “cost of ownership” for marketing purposes, not so you can get the most mileage out of your car.

Thanks guys. I’m leaving today and driving about 300 miles round trip. I’m usually not anal about stuff but I am when it comes to vehicle maintenance. I want mine to last as long as possible but I’m thinking another 300 miles won’t hurt it.

My car calls for oil changes every 10K miles. It started showing "You need to change your oil" warnings when it got to around 7 or 8K. I asked the dealer about that and they said to ignore it, that it's just based on time elapsed since the last change.

If you're really concerned about it, you can send a sample to Blackstone labs for analysis. A little pricey at $28, but it will tell you if you've waited too long or still had life left along with a bunch of other things and recommendations for down the line.

I did a sample on my 2019 Tacoma when it had 5000 miles (changed the oil then although Toyota says 10,000 miles) so I could establish a base line. I'm planning on doing it every 15,000 miles from now on which will be 3 years with my driving habits. The harder you use you vehicle (towing etc) the more important this is.

With synthetic oil, you're fine.

Oil life monitors like those of Honda don't actually look at the oil. Rather, they extrapolate based on how many trips you take, how warm the engine gets, how far you drive, etc. A car used for lots of short trip/never warming up driving (considered "'severe' service") needs oil changed sooner. Others, like my own Toyota, are strictly mileage-based (5000 for mine). Neither kind "knows" when you've changed the oil, so they must be manually reset, or they might come on again in the middle of your next service interval.

As far as the OP's question, here is what a honda dealer says about the Honda oil life indicator. The highlight is:


My old Silverado, I changed with Mobil 1 at the lesser of 6 months or 7,500 miles. I drove it 145k miles and sold it at 13.5 years to my buddy. He drove it 3 more years and put another 30k on it. Neither of us had any lubrication related issues on it, and it ran so well that he sold it for exactly what I sold it to him for.

The oil change interval indicator varied so it was more sophisticated than merely counting miles. It usually came on between 4500 and 5500 miles so I suspect it was based on conventional motor oil.

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Originally posted by chellim1:
As for the gauge that says there is still 40% life left in the oil... it's not testing the oil. It's just based on your mileage since it was last reset.

Are you speaking specific to a '12 Honda Odyssey ? The reason I ask it that oil life indicators are manufacturer and/or vehicle specific. Some actually differentiate between synthetic and conventional, some are employing a sophisticated driving algorithm looking for starts/stops versus highway driving, a few merely countdown miles (as you stated), and some expensive vehicles actual test the oil's electrical resistance and/or oil thickness.

The problem with having an oil sample tested is that they don’t test for particles small enough to make it through the oil filter, but too large for them to test. They don’t even have a category on their testing analysis for that. They basically just test the oil for TBN, tell you how much active additive you have left, if there are any wear metals in the sample (ppm) and then tell you to run your oil for a longer or shorter oil change interval.

Another thing I notice is that a lot of these oil life gauges don’t adjust enough for stop and go traffic. On my Si, it will only reduce the oil change interval by 200-300 miles as compared to all highway driving. Stop and go traffic used to be classified as severe duty calling for a lot shorter oil change intervals.

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Originally posted by konata88:
What do oil gauges measure?

Actual oil "gauges" measure engine oil pressure. Oil life monitors, as previously noted, take into account various driving parameters and calculate when a change is due (theoretically). This may not always be an accurate assessment though.