'06 explorer - oil change required light

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Bob - 05 Nov 2006 04:27 GMT

Oil has 2600 miles & 60 days since last change. Oil life value was set
to 80% (4k miles) at that time. Oil change required light is now
coming on. Changing oil life % does not clear the problem (comes on
after each restart.) Oil level is correct and oil color is nominal.
Dealer is at a loss to explain it.

Is the oil change light only triggered by the odometer, or does it
somehow sense oil characteristics also?

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Jim Warman - 05 Nov 2006 08:45 GMT

Oil condition is made by a computation using 5000 miles/180 days as a
basis.... tell your dealer that this is from section 413-08 "General
Procedures" in the workshop manual.

Now, we're going to assume that, even though nobody there can read, that
they did scan the IC for codes...... I don't expect any for the message
centre, per se... but it is a step that should be performed.

Next step... an OASIS report using symptom codes 204000, 204100, 204200 and
206000 - and any DTCs that may have been retrieved from the instrument
cluster..

If they are still no wiser.... at the bottom of the OASIS report will be a 9
digit OASIS contact ID. After they phone Hotline and make the appropriate
switchboard selection, they will be asked to enter this number on the phones
keypad. After an undetermined period of listening to some reasonably
informative canned messages, the tech will talk to an engineer that
specializes in the chosen area..... This engineer will offer a diagnostic
process that, most often, will either either lead the tech towards a
resolution or spark a glimmer of intelligence in his brain that also has the
chance of resolving the concern....

If a tech is to use the term "I don't know...." he should always, always,
always follow that with "but I'll find out....".

Not all of our repairs are picture perfect, smooth as silk operations....
but we use all of the available resources at our disposal... and everything
gets fixed - everything.

I'll risk saying that your dealer sounds slothful, lazy and uncaring...

> Oil has 2600 miles & 60 days since last change. Oil life value was set
> to 80% (4k miles) at that time. Oil change required light is now
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Is the oil change light only triggered by the odometer, or does it
> somehow sense oil characteristics also?

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Ollie - 05 Nov 2006 16:52 GMT

There is always the "works as designed" option

Did they fix the fuel gauge on explorers that need 2/3 days or 50 mls to
update after refueling ??????
got a call from my wife several times after refueling and her trying it
again the next morning cause it still showed empty

I know there is a tsb on clusters that will cut the reset time from 50 to 30
minutes, but still.....

> Oil condition is made by a computation using 5000 miles/180 days as a
> basis.... tell your dealer that this is from section 413-08 "General
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>> Is the oil change light only triggered by the odometer, or does it
>> somehow sense oil characteristics also?

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Bob - 07 Nov 2006 04:17 GMT

Ok, here's the answer in case someone else runs into the problem.

Going under the *setup* menu to "oil life set to xx%" is not designed
to clear a "oil change required" notification. In fact it has no
effect at that point, as I found out.

You need to go under the *System Check* menu to "hold reset if new
oil", press reset (default sets oil life to 100%), THEN go to the setup
menu to select oil life %. What a dumbass way to do things! Should
all be in the same menu.

What was happening: Oil life was set to 100% (5k miles); oil was
changed at 60% (3k miles), and menu was not properly changed; with 2k
miles on oil, the sensor saw 5k from the previous oil change and came
on.

Bob

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