Oil life monitor seems off

[Coyote5.0]

Does anyone know exactly how the oil life monitor figures oil life on these cars, because I can't make sense of it.

I got my 2011 GT in October of 2010. A month later, I put it into storage, and got it out again in the spring. I didn't drive it a whole lot last summer. By October 2011, I had about 3300 miles on it and changed the oil at that point, since it was a year old. The oil life monitor still showed 85% oil life remaining at that point when I reset it.

I put the car away soon after for the winter again, and just got it out over the weekend. It's been about 300 miles since the last oil change, and only half the time as I went on the first one. However, the oil life monitor is only showing 53% oil life left.

Can anyone explain that? How can I go a year and 3300 miles and still be at 85% the first time, and only 300 miles and 6 months and be down to 53% the second time? I haven't been driving the car any differently, either.

 

[Az Pete]

Car is just telling you to drive it more often......other than that, not sure other than what the manual says which is not much.

 

[bigb427]

The oil life message is calculated by a 7500 mile or 180 day countdown. The starting oil life can also be changed to 50% or 3750 miles through the message center. You may have inadvertently changed this setting without realizing it. Your owners manual should have all the info you need to change the starting oil life, however it should be fairly simple to figure out just by playing with the setup buttons.