I hate to remember changing my car oil, too many minor things to remember in life already! So I decided to build a simple Telegram bot that remembers changing the oil for me.

I wanted to share my thought process before actually coding it and gather my thoaughts. This just the first iteration.

I'm planning this bot to be as simple as possible and free as possible, practically costing me $0 to maintain. Oilly will be his name, with a headline that says:

"Oilly will help you preserve your car engine by reminding you to change the oil, so you have one less thing to remember".

Oilly will interact with the user ask them

• What is your Current mileage?
• Roughly estimate the last time the oil has been changed.
• The mileage in the last time oil changed.
• What is the type of the last changed oil 5k, 10k, 15k?
• How frequent they change the oil every 3 mo, 6 mo?
• Have they changed the oil filter in the last oil change?

Then the bot will respond with something like "Thanks, based on the information you gave me I'll notify you!".

How to calculate the oil change (research)

Based on my research I found that the maximum upper until chaning the oil is 10,000 KM or 6 months whichever comes first.

Some car manufacturers recommends depends on the environment:

• Every 6 months or 7500 KM.
• Every 3 months or 5000 KM (recommended).

User input example (my real usage)

• Current mileage: 25,258
• Last time changed oil: 2 months ago
• Mileage last before change: 21,201
• Oil type: 5k
• Change oil frequency: every 3 months
• Have you changed the oil filter: No

My Simple Thoaught Process

State the facts

Calculate how long the user will take to reach 5k mileage: Ideal mileage usage 5k in 3 months.

Current mileage - mileage last before change => 25,258 - 21,201 = 4,056 in 2 months.

Avg mileage per day => 4056 /60 = 67.6 KM

Mileages left in distance unit => 5000 - 4,056 = 944 KM

Mileage left in time unit => 1 months

Change Oil filter last time: NO, so this time change it.

My approach

Based on the facts above, the easiest way to approach this is by:

• Send notification based on the time left until recommended period: after 1 month.
• Send notification based on avarage distance per day: Mileage left (944) / avg usage (67.6) = 14 days.

Maybe sending the user notification after 14 days asking the user if they reach (26,202 KM)* it's time to change, if the user says no, fall back to 1 month change.

I'm trying to get some hold over this process, I would appreciate your take on this whole thing. 👇