Why did my oil light come back on?

We have a 2016 Ford Escape and just had the oil changed 1000 miles ago at a Fox Ford near us. Why would the change oil warning come up when we just had it done 1000 miles ago?

Just reset it. It doesn't know when the oil was changed.

Is it the 'change oil' light, or is it the oil light?

If it's the change oil light, they may have failed to reset it properly. You may be able to reset it yourself by looking up the process on youtube - however if its the oil light, that usually only comes on when the oil is low enough that it may already doing damage to the engine.

Check the oil level by pulling the dipstick out, wiping it off, putting it back in then pulling it out again. If it is below the low level, then either they didn't put enough oil back in when they changed it, or the vehicle is using oil.

If it is low, either they didn't put enough in it, or the vehicle is using oil.

If it's the oil change light, the person who changed the oil didn't reset it properly. If it's the oil pressure light, get the car to a garage.

They didn't reset the warning lamp.

The Oil Life Monitor wasn't reset properly, since you say "back on", that implies it came on before you changed it last, and the technician turned it off. My 2014 Ford OLM has the option to set the starting point to various percentages of existing oil life, my guess is the tech set it (accidentally or on purpose) to a mostly used up percentage.

The OLM in a Ford (and many other makes) does not actually test the condition of the oil, it monitors driving conditions and driving habits to guess how long the oil will last and notifies you when they think the oil is becoming ineffective. When you physically change the oil there's no detection that the oil has changed, you have to perform a reset procedure (on the dashboard) to start the countdown over.

If your OLM is similar to mine you could reset it now to 75% (or less) starting point and you should be good to go. When I change my oil I reset it to 75% to begin with because I don't trust the OLM to safely detect the effect of the dust from living two miles down a dirt road. Your driving conditions may need additional compensation too.

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