change oil NOW message

[Rocketv8]

hey all.....i have a question...today my "CHANGE OIL NOW" message came on when i started the car after it sat for about 6 hours.....the thing is, the oil life monitor showed 30 something percent the last time i checked it a few days ago.....in addition, it has only been about 2200 miles since i last had oil changed, although its also been over 6 months ( i dont put alot of miles on the car)
shouldnt the "CHANGE OIL SOON" come on before "CHANGE OIL NOW" as sort of a warning?
the only other thing i can think of is that i accidentally reset the life monitor to zero, but i dont think thats what happened...has anyone ever had this thing come on when its not supposed to yet?

[JimW]

Usually happens to me when the battery was disconnected for some reason.

Have you done that lately?

[Rocketv8]

no, i havent disconnected the battery at all....tomorrow i guess i will check the oil and see what the condition of it looks like...it should be fine because, like i said , the oil only has 2200 miles on it..maybe its just a computer malfunction???

[Isnibs]

As well as miles etc. Is the the oil life monitor run on a timer?

[dred98]

If a timer is involved I would think that six months is too quick. It should say "Change Oil Soon" first, and the book says change it at least once a year, although it says too that the message may come on at less than 3000 miles "under severe conditions". I don't know, but perhaps a lot of short trips might be considered severe conditions. Do you only do a few miles because they're frequent short trips or you just don't drive it very often?

[Rocketv8]

to answer your question dred, i drive the car just about every day but almost all of my trips are very short, like, for instance to work is 3 miles and back is 3 miles again...some days thats all i drive.. i take a long trip (for me 80-150 miles round trip is long) only about every 3-5 months...so i guess all my driving is very short stop and go type...but i still cant figure out why the change oil "SOON" didnt come on first, unless i accidentally hit reset.. i checked the oil today..its not really awfully dirty but it looks like it could use a change

[stevensolds]

3 miles, thats in the severe service category. that is actually very bad for the engine oil and there are college students that drive that 0.5 miles to school and back every day and not change the oil any more than once a year. VERY bad for your engine. You should change it every 3k or 3 months, whichever first. ******* just to be on the same side, i would change it now.

[omegaic]

Just remember you can never change your oil too much, but it's very easy to change too seldom.

[stevensolds]

damn right. i used to change it every 2 mos but now i do it every 3.5k - 4k

[Rocketv8]

thanks for the input everyone...i am going for an oil change first thing in the morning...from now on it gets changed every 3 mos, no matter how little mileage is put on

[scottydl]

Not a bad practice (to change the oil on regular intervals), but I do think that the DIC oil monitor certainly has value. Just keep an eye on the % remaining and check it every time you fill up the gas tank, that way you'll know if/when the reading suddenly jumps one way or the other.

[stevensolds]

i have such a heavy foot mine drops 1 or 2 percent every day. it gets down to 30% in 1 month