How far is too far for oil?

[atvman29]

My 1.8L auto hatch is at just over 4800 miles, and as of last night, oil life (according to the car) is just over 50% still...

I can't imagine the oil will be good for 10,000 miles but perhaps with oil being as good as it is and engine technology improving, is it plausible?

Anyone know if the oil life monitor is an actual viscosity tester of sorts or just a timer?

Part of me thinks timer as it can be reset, but perhaps that's only because oil viscosity readings aren't allowed to go up.

 

[Sonic]

If you haven't changed the oil yet, you are overdue! You should always change the oil at 3000 miles for the first oil change because as the engine breaks in there could be excess oil shavings and other impurities in the oil. After the initial oil change, the rest of your oil changes can run a little longer, like up to 4000 miles without problem.

All this flies out the window if you have the 1.4 engine. I personally will be doing my first oil change at 1500 miles, then the rest at 3000 miles max. I will also be sending a sample of my first and second oil changes to Blackstone Labs for a complete analysis.
Here is Blackstone's website:
Blackstone Labs

They are well known in the modded car world as a leader in oil testing.

 

[AxelRipper]

I plan to do the oil on my 1.4 at 3k miles, and then when the oil sensor gets to probably 20% from there on out. These are not timer or calculation based setups, but acutal oil quality sensors in the engine. I'm not 100% sure how they work, but I would assume its some sort of viscosity measurement.

Also, I recommend always using Mobil 1 (yes, it is "Dexos" certified). I'm pretty sure thats all that gets used on the engines during developent and testing (diesels run Shell IIRC). It may be more expensive, but you can be sure that it will last as long as your car says it is good for (I've seen it go 15k miles in a 91 CRX with no issues at all).

 

[laborsmith]

Dexos certified is synthetic, and Mobil 1 is the first synthetic.

Dexos certified is recommended per the Sonic Owners Manual.

The advantage of using the more expensive synthetics is one can drive many more miles after an oil change because the synthetics resist breakdown which causes sludge and sludge is the reason for the old every 3000 mile oil change recommendation.

Laborsmith

 

[beaslbob]

I don't know if this was answered or not but the oil life monitor is just a mileage indicator. On my 2006 envoy at oil changew you floor the accelerator (engine not running ) three time to reset the oil life monitor. After that it says 100% oil life remaining.

my .02

 

[RichieRocket]

Oil changing is a touchy subject, everybody's got an opinion....here goes.


My '98 Civic's oil change interval is 7500 miles on the oil and 15,000 on the filter. That's on rotten dinosaurs...

For my 1.4T, I plan to do the first oil change within 200-300 miles after I do the break-in as specified by Motoman. I will start a break-in thread seperately.

Afterwards, I will use the Dexos syn and replace when the monitor says so. This engine has a oil to coolant heat exchanger under the filter housing AND more importantly, the turbo centerbody is liquid cooled. So the oil will not be challanged. In a non-cooled turbo, the oil could be exposed to much higher temps, 400-500F, maybe higher? but with the liquid cooling, the oil going thru the turbo bearings should stay below 250F? Can one of the engine guys confirm that?

 

[theenico]

I'm at about 250mi and will be changing the oil either this weekend or next weekend. See my response in RichieRocket's 1.4T engine break in thread.

From here on out it will be full synthetic once a year (I only drive about 7,000mi a year).

 

[Gimpster]

Like RichieRocket said, everyone has opinions on this BUT:

FWIW on my 2009 Cobalt SS's, I was safely going 6k-7k on OCI. I ran multiple batches through Blackstone to be sure. I was using M1 0W-30 and Delco filters. I use this as comparison since it was a turbocharged car but was GDI. GDI cars are particularly hard on oil typically, and this car is standard port injected.

So after the initial break in period I'll be trying 6500-7k OCI's and seeing what the results look like and go from there. I wouldn't be surprised if a quality oil would get you 10k.

 

[jlslatton]

I still cannot get the oil life indicator to show up. Can you provide step-by-step for this goof?

 

[atvman29]

I still cannot get the oil life indicator to show up. Can you provide step-by-step for this goof?

With the car off, but the ignition on, hit the menu button. After it cycles through the two normal screens, it should flip to oil life. On that screen you can scroll through a few other items.

 

[jlslatton]

Thanks man, I'll give it a shot (again).