Oil Life Gauge?

It's true. My wife drives the Civic Hybrid ('06) and it has an actual oil life monitor that tells her the oil life (in percentages) and a warning system that tells her it's time to change oil.

 

Intriguing.

I wonder how it purports to gauge oil life. How would it read:
* acidity
* water content
* various metals
* viscosity
* fuel contamination
* etc

I hope some engineer-petroleum-Honda smart posters come up on this.

Are there any after-market units?

I know, change my oil at the recommended interval with good or better dino
or synthetic oil (periodic analysis optional but recommended) and I will have
nothing to worry about.

I'm not worrying, I'm just interested in the concept/execution.

 

An engine hour recorder/meter would be a excellant tool to have. I know that
they are readily available for normal gas and diesel engines. I suppose that
they have an oscillator/timer built in.

A timer function would be a natural for the ScanGauge. But in the 10,000+
posts on 4 or more forums, IIRC, ScanGauge can't/doesn't do timing
functions, but I think CANbus does, such as percentage of ICE-on time
against time in "Ready."

Which brings me back to my perennial complaint about the near uselessness
of the "fat yellow bar" graph in the energy screen on the MFD. Jeez, I'm sure
that people smarter than me have over the past 10 years expressed dreams,
hopes, wishes, adamant rants that the potential of the MFD be better used.

For normal ICEs, you can still get no end of "performance" aftermarket
goodies. But the algorythm and the world have changed. Toyota is leading
the way to new reality. Why, oh why, can't/wont they lead the way in better
instrumentation for their own vehicles? Why for a $150 soft/firmware update
cant I get even simple ICE data a la Scangauge up on the MFD?

Oh well, maybe in 2010... but then, maybe, Honda with it's extensive racing
experience will wake up first. This "oil life" meter thingy would suggest so.

 

would be neat if SG could do that though. Not the testing part. That would be real out of the ordinary but very cool tho!

 

The original EOLM (engine oil life monitor) was developed by GM Research. I believe the Corvette was the first vehicle to have it followed by Cadillac and Buick. It does work VERY well and has now been in use since 1986 (at least on the Cadillac line...Corvette a year ahead of that I think). It is not a "gauge" but a computer algorithm that uses various engine inputs to calculate engine oil life remaining. If you develop a coolant leak it will NOT sense that. If you use a synthetic oil such as Mobil 1 it will tell you to change oil sooner then is needed.

 

No kidding??

LenS,

Thank you for your concise, brief history/summary. With what you've provided
as a starting point, I'm going to root around the internet and see what I can
find.

 

If memory serves me right, GMR had to find several oil analysis labs for oil sample testing during the ELOM development. There were many hundreds of oil samples taken on test vehicles and the oil analysis sample volume was large. Say if a vehicle was tested for 100,000 miles there would be in excess of 50 oil samples just on that one vehicle. It was/is hoped that extensive use of the ELOM would save millions of gallons of oil per year. Also since over 40% (I think) of used motor oil does not get recycled its use would help to make cars greener by reducing the amount put into the ground, land fills, dumped down drains and put into our streams and drinking water.

 

I work for a GPS tracking company and I have a one of our systems in my Prius, it is hooked up through the OBD port and it tracks engine hours. Kinda funny cause I get hundreds of ignition on/off's while I drive.