Oil Maint Reqd

[elziko]

The "Oil Maint Reqd" message has just been displayed in my '57 Avensis 2.2 D4D.

Can someone tell me exactly how the engine management decides that an oil change is required? Is it purely based on the number of miles? If so, it is not indicative of any serious problems.

The reason I ask is because I had the oil & filter changed at 122,000 miles (when my engine was re-skimmed due to a head gasket failure) and now the warning has come on about 8,000 miles later, which seems early.

Thanks!

[igormus]

hi matey

normally an oil change schedule is based on the miles covered.

do not wait for a warning -- it might be dangerous sometimes.

firstly -- having used a code reader you should catch what code is for ?

it looks 8k is small distance (12,8k kms) -- i doubt what is oil change schedule fo yr engine? have you found that in the manual?

regards / igor

[t-spiritpete]

The "Oil Maint Reqd" message has just been displayed in my '57 Avensis 2.2 D4D.

Can someone tell me exactly how the engine management decides that an oil change is required? Is it purely based on the number of miles? If so, it is not indicative of any serious problems.

The reason I ask is because I had the oil & filter changed at 122,000 miles (when my engine was re-skimmed due to a head gasket failure) and now the warning has come on about 8,000 miles later, which seems early.

Thanks!

Hello, maybe they didn't reset the computer after the oil change but after major engine work an early oil & filter change will only a good move for you then ask them to reset the oil change warning.

Regards Pete.

[elziko]

having used a code reader you should catch what code is for ?

The MIL is not on, it's just the "Oil Maint Reqd" message. Should I expect to be able to read a code?

Hello, maybe they didn't reset the computer after the oil change but after major engine work an early oil & filter change will only a good move for you then ask them to reset the oil change warning.

Well an intermediate service is every 10K miles and a full service is every 20K miles. Looking at my service book, it seems that I had a service at 110445 miles and now I have done 130553 miles. So if the "Oil Maint Reqd" message is purely based on distance then it does look like they forgot to reset it at 122K miles and I can safely ignore it for another couple of thousand of miles.

However, if the "Oil Maint Reqd" warning comes on due to some sort of explicit measurement in the ECU then I might have a problem.

Does anyone know if the "Oil Maint Reqd" warning is based on any measurements other than mileage?

[t-spiritpete]

The web page is acting up so if this reply comes up twice then it's not my doing it keeps saying "saving" but doesn't. ...... LOL.

Are you sure they actually changed the oil at 122K if not the the computer is correct in telling you to change the oil. I'm not 100% but i think it's based on mileage, if the oil pressure was low you would have the oil warning light on, don't take this the wrong way but have you actually checked the oil level.

Regards Pete.

[igormus]

ha ha

I did not consider that as oil change false :)))

[elziko]

Are you sure they actually changed the oil at 122K if not the the computer is correct in telling you to change the oil.

The garage told me they were going to do an oil change and the labour appeared on my invoice along with the oil itself and a filter. They're a pretty trustworthy independent garage so I'm inclined to think that they did but perhaps forgot to reset the counter.

I'm not 100% but i think it's based on mileage, if the oil pressure was low you would have the oil warning light on, don't take this the wrong way but have you actually checked the oil level.

Yup, I checked the level and it was fine. I think I'm just going to do a reset on the warning and then forget about it unless the warning comes back on again. If the ECU is using a metric other then distance travelled then the warning should come back on after the reset if there is something wrong. Well. that's my thinking anyway!

Thanks for the advice!