Fiat Ducato change oil warning

[rooster63]

Near the end of our holiday in Spain, last month, occasionally the change engine oil message came up. Thought nothing of it as had the oil changed in January and had only done about 5000 miles. Did 2000 miles in France and Spain and was getting 35.5mpg, pretty good. Filled up in Spain  and reset the trip meter and came home covering about 500 miles but noticed that I seemed to have to drop down a gear or two to get up hills and maybe my imagination but the van seemed to lack some power and was averaging 32mpg. On the way back from the campsite (have been to Cornwall) the oil can light started flashing and on checking cause it is due to the change engine oil becoming more urgent. I have read in a couple of places that when the oil can light starts flashing the ecu limits the power of the engine maybe even cutting out the turbo. Is that right? Although the drop in power and poorer fuel consumption started before the oil can light started flashing. Have reset the change engine oil light by following the 7 presses of the brake pedal routine and warnings no longer flashing. I assume normal power is restored but not going to be using the van much so won’t really know.

 

[John52]

Yes, my 2021 Ducato goes into limp mode if the oil counter is not reset.

I have often heard of people having their vehicles 'professionally' serviced only to find the counter hasn't been reset.

You can go through the settings on the instrument panel (as you do when setting the clock) to see how much mileage is left on the oil change counter,

[witzend]

If You decide to get software to reset it Your self try these people very helpful and knowledgeable give them a ring

 https://www.gendan.co.uk/mes_chooser.php#selection

[Derek Uzzell]

Rooster63's motorhome is a 2013 Timberland Destiny.

He refers to a '7 brake-pedal pushes' method of extinguishing the oil change warning light. This is explained in more detail here.

https://seventrumpet.com/reset-oil-service-light-on-fiat-ducato/

A GOOGLE-search on "fiat ducato oil change light resetting" indicates that the method is well-known.

The same (and different!!) methods are advised online for extinguishing the oil change warning light of Citroen Relay/Peugeot Boxer vehicles.

[rooster63]

I’m assuming that by using the 7 brake pedal etc method everything is reset as normal and no need for any further action. Van will need servicing in the next couple of months anyway and will make sure the garage resets the change engine oil warning.

[Robinhood]

The assumption (which is probably correct for the year of your 'van) is that the vehicle is fitted with a DPF.

On servicing, depending on the nature of the service, such vehicles require two service intervals to be reset. One is for the general 2yr/30,000 mile general vehicle service, the other for the oil change, the interval for which is condition-based, with a maximum of 2 years.

"White-van man" may be doing mileages, or much short-stop use, such that the requirement for the above services become unsynchronised, but usage and mileage patterns for motorhomes mean that both services (and resets) are generally required at the same time (i.e. 2-yearly).

It is not uncommon for servicing at an independent to result in one or both of the service intervals not being reset (It's not unknown at Fiat Professional dealers either, as I can vouch!).

One or both of the service warnings may then appear at a later time "out of the blue". The general service warning has no physical effect and will ultimately disappear, but the oil-change warning will remain, and progressively introduces limp-mode accompanied by the EML light. (At least, it does if it is fired by measured degradation, things might be slightly different if it is fired by time-expiry).

As above, it is possible to check miles to oil-change through the trip meter, but as you've effectively reset the interval, I doubt this is going to reveal anything. Unfortunately, then, you're not going to be entirely sure whether this was a false-alarm due to an un-reset service interval.

Though it is possible, if your oil was changed relatively recently (5,000 miles) it is unlikely that it has failed condition-based testing - the most likely cause (especially if serviced at an independent) is that the service interval wasn't reset and it is has been triggered by time. If that were the case, then with your mileages the "change-oil" warning would likely be displayed around 2 years from the previous service (assuming a reset was done then) - you might want to check the date for that.   

 

[Steve928]

Interestingly the service and oil intervals on my van (2018 base vehicle Euro6B) are operating on mileage alone without regard to a maximum 2 year interval. The base vehicle was built in 08/18, converted in 03/19 and put on the road 03/20, so it's at least 3 years and 7 months since it was last prepared by Fiat. MES reports zero services and no last service date so clearly it has nothing to count down from - perhaps the last service date should have been set during PDI but wasn't.

At c. 20k miles I still have c. 10k to go on both counters (agreeing with the oil degradation %age in MES). I have in fact changed the oil twice but deliberately not performed the reset as I have leeway on the counters and was interested to see what happened (i.e. nothing yet).

I use a DPF monitor and none of the 50+ active regenerations have been interrupted. This, as expected, appears to be a/the major factor in any condition-based oil degradation calculation as it would appear that it's going to allow me the full oil mileage before alerting of the need for a change. I'll be performing a reset before I get down to that level though!