oil change

[Maddmatts]

Out of a modicum of paranoia, I follow my oil life monitor to ~20% which has worked out to be ~11,000km intervals. When I replaced my valve cover last summer (mileage was 135,000km), everything I could see was still very clean. No deposits anywhere.

I would agree that a full synthetic is recommended for the 1.4T. Semi-synthetic would be a bare minimum if the owner isn't pushing the engine very hard but should probably still use a full-synth periodically.

 

[gnonne]

I have two 1.8's and one 1.4 Turbo. They all require Dexos 2 oil, which I've not seen in anything other than full synthetic.

 

[geekbait123]

How many Quarts?

For the life of me, I haven't been able to find how many Quarts of Oil it takes to fill up my Sonic.

It's a 2017,I'm going to drain it completely to add new, but just about how many will it take to fill it up?

 

[6speedti]

1.8 liter engine.
4.5 liters or 4.8 quarts of oil.

 

[TurtleOverlord]

Use a 6 point socket if you have one so you dont round the oil drain like everyone seems to be doing.

 

[6speedti]

Properly torque the drain plug. Everything is aluminum. Strips easy.

 

[Sharon Parks]

I usually drive about 4k to 5k oil change once not sure if that's a good level to keep the engine good. I'm still wondering if valvoline oil is any good. Last weekend I received a discount code Valvoline but I don't know if their quality is good. Who has used Valvoline's service experience to share more with me.
Thanks everyone.

 

[orangeltz13]

The oil monitor does not take oil level/condition into consideration; I am almost certain it's based on mileage as it's the only parameter the car can actually monitor. Changing your oil should always be based on how the car is used. If the car is driven between 9 &15k miles/year the oil monitor might be accurate in its' assessment percentage wise; I would test it to be sure. Change your oil and set the oil monitor to 100% and see how long it takes to get to 10%. Compare that with the owners manual recommendations and then choose your oil change intervals base on the earliest occurrence. If you drive less than 8.5K miles/year you could probably get away with changing the oil 4 times/year. Those are my thoughts.

 

[TurtleOverlord]

Im pretty sure the computer uses many things to determine oil life. Like miles driven, rpm, temperature, time driven, and probably some other stuff. But your right that it just guesses and does not actually monitor it.

If you drive less than 8.5k miles a year you can probably realistically do 1 oil change per year. I do every 5k because I do it myself.

 

[macdiesel]

Engine load is factored in as well

 

[plant.one]

I don't know of they update them since my Silverado was produced- but that thing was 100% mileage based.

It didn't matter on service hours (the dic has an engine hour meter) or conditions. I drive a lot of highway but had a couple months I had 50+ hrs od idle time baked into my oil cha ge interval. No difference in the oil change monitor at the end of my normal mileage interval. When in fact it should have reduced it fairly significantly. 50 idle hours = 3500 miles at 70mph on the highway. Or 43% of my normal interval of 8000 miles.

Just some data based on my service logs.


If you really wanna know how your oil is doing - send a sample into Blackstone labs. $30 and you'll know how your oil is at the end of your interval, if you're experiencing unusual engine wear, or if you can extend your interval.

I've got 150000 miles worth of data on my rebuilt 5.3. I consume <1pt of oil in 9000 miles and Blackstone says I should be able to go 11k between service even without a filter change based on my current data. I started with a 5000 mile interval and let testing tell me what was right. I use Mobil 1 5w30. No extended service, no high mileage, jaut the regular stuff.

I average around 50000 miles a year so I have never hit the months time of an oil change.


That said....
I've always looked at it as oil changes are cheaper than engine changes - so follow the miles or time, whichever you get to first, and change it. Your engine will thank you.

 

[Z71]

Just like plant.one said, frequent oil changes are far cheaper than engine replacements. I change oil on every car every 3k miles or once a year, which ever comes first. My Mazda 626 V6 engine was free of any trace of sludge with 300k miles on it when I replaced the valve cover gaskets at that mileage. I bought the car new and changed oil every 3k miles since new. The engine ran perfectly even at 340k miles when I got rid of the car. I change oil every 3k miles on my Sonic too and I have 156k miles on it now without any engine trouble.

 

[Z71]

1.8 liter engine.
4.5 liters or 4.8 quarts of oil.

I always pour in 4.5 quarts of engine oil per oil change. Even though the empty capacity may be 4.8 quarts, some oil will remain in the engine after you drain it and adding 4.5 quarts will bring the oil level to full on the dipstick. So 9 quarts of oil will suffice for 2 oil changes.

 

[Z71]

Properly torque the drain plug. Everything is aluminum. Strips easy.

Drain plugs are steel. Just tighten the plug until snug. Do not torque a well oiled plug as torque values are almost always specified for dry threads and torquing a well oiled plug to the same torque will in reality cause about twice as high preload and stress on the threads which can easily cause stripping of aluminum threads in the oil pan. And it is virtually impossible to remove the oil from the oil pan threads even if you wipe the plug threads dry. The O ring at the base of the drain plug provides the leak proof seal and the plug needs to be only tight enough so it compresses the O ring and does not back out. Rather than worrying about torquing the drain plug, make sure the O ring is seated properly and replace every few oil changes and always if you notice any damage.

Also, do not torque the oil filter canister on the 1.8 liter engine which has plastic threads. Oil the threads liberally before installing the canister and always install a new O ring which comes with the oil filter. Tighten carefully until you encounter resistance. Because plastic deteriorates with heat, I recommend replacing the oil filter canister every 100k miles or every 5 years whichever comes first. If the canister cracks or splits open, it can destroy your engine.