normal oil usage?
- Thread starter kcarr65
- Start date
Sonic Boomer
New member
Thanks for the warning!
SuperSonicChick
New member
I have 4500 miles on my Sonic and 67% oil engine life left. According to onstar vehicle diagnosis they estimate my oil will need changed at 10,000 miles?? HAHAHA!!!
If it's anything like what GM has in the Canyon, Trailblazer, or Equinox, it's just a formula they program that tells you when to change the oil based on your use pattern and nothing to do with actually sensing oil condition. I suspect it's some Obama program to make us greener by keeping oil changes to a minimum.
In that case, change it at 5000 miles or so (1000 miles the first time) and ignore that stupid message, your engine will thank you!
Jon
In that case, change it at 5000 miles or so (1000 miles the first time) and ignore that stupid message, your engine will thank you!
Jon
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RichieRocket
New member
leaky, can you provide more details on this Obama program? Never heard of it. I do believe throwing away good oil is just a waste...
My '98 civic had a 7500 mile oil change interval (on regular petroleum oil), still ran strong at 262,000 miles, no burning oil...
I would expect after 14 years, advances in metallurgy and oil technology would make a 10,000 oil change interval no problem. I believe the oil algorithm takes into account rpm and load, so someone who drives hard would have a lower oil change interval.
Dexos1 synthetic oil is required, so it's no big deal to go 10K miles. The turbo is liquid cooled and there is a oil-coolant heat exchanger, so the synthetic oil is not temperature challenged. Unless you know of other factors which degrade the oil at a much faster rate? I'm gonna follow the recommended intervals and not worry about it.
Haha cool your jets. Since you can't detect the sarcasm, I'll admit I just don't like Obama so prefer to blame everything on him. I'm open to anything though. If he starts giving tax breaks to white single males with no dependents making 100K who have their own health insurance, scraps his CAFE standard, and gets us back into the running for cheap Canadian oil, then maybe I'll vote for the guy this time around. Until then every bad thing including natural disasters and then some are his fault.
I ran a '93 S-10 blazer up to 285K and put it away trashed but with the 4.3 V6 tip-top on nothing other than Castrol GTX every 5K. My 2006 GMC Canyon w/ the I5 is on the same program running strong at 215K.
The Canyon I attempted synthetic and even at 20K miles it would use oil, no issue on conventional oil but would burn a quart in 2K on synthetic. So it gets conventional.
The Canyon, my dads Trailblazer, and brothers Equinox, all have the same program on the dash that ends up telling you to change the oil around 10K. Every one of the vehicles has a completely different driving pattern.
Is it gonna wreck the engine following the dummy message? I doubt it. Is it gonna give you optimal engine life? I doubt it.
My Sonic is still on order, if it takes synthetic maybe I'll go every 7.5K, but am not gonna follow that dummy message. I drive 40K a year so would just assume err on the safe side for the low cost of oil changes and keep the engine internals in as good as condition as possible.
Jon
RichieRocket
New member
Hey leaky, I knew what you were getting at with the anti-Obama jab, as a moderate, I am just sick of all the political BS these days. Some uninformed people might actually read your comment and believe it is actually true...But that's a discussion for Off-Topic Lounge.
Anyway, on the oil subject.
Of course this discussion will be like many forum discussion, raising more questions than actual real answers.
From the owner's manual (sticky thread in General Discussion if you want to look at it), it appears both 1.4T and 1.8L require Dexos1 approved oil.
GM dexos Licensed Products
If you look at the list, there are approved synthetic blend oils. I was always unsure of blends...How much of the mix is really syn? 10%? 50%? I plan to use Mobil-1 full syn. Point being is if the syn blend meets the requirements, full syn should be even better and have additional margin. So I have no problem letting it go 10K+.
One detail I disagree with is you calling the oil life monitor a 'dummy' message. I guess you assume no actual analysis or testing went into the algorithm that tracks the oil life. Maybe someone who actually works at GM could confirm, but I would believe that GM actually did do some oil condition testing and input those paramaters into the oil life algorithm. The algoritm tracks rpms, temps, driving conditions, etc.
The three vechicles you listed that had "completely different driving patterns" may not be that different when tracking how the oil is affected.
Engine RPM's - whether you are doing all highway or moderate congested commuting, the rpm's accumulated impact to oil life may not be radically different. Don't know about you, but I don't rev to redline every shift commuting into work.
Engine temps - once the engine warms up to normal temps, the thermostat keeps the temp stable. Except maybe for radically hot or cold areas...like AZ in summer or MN in winter.
Driving conditions - maybe someone who does 90% stop-go with a lot of idling (like someone who delivers newspapers, etc) could impact the oil life.
My thought is that the vast majority of us, driving in regular temp range and reasonable driving habits should have no problem replacing oil at 10K+ miles without any issues to long run engine performance and life. Upgrading to full syn just gives extra cushion beyond that.
Rich
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Sonic Boomer
New member
I love the oil change reminder system in my 2004 (must have been Bush
) Malibu. I did the first change at 5000 because it was the first change and I worry there may be some metal particles get loose in the new engine. However, after that I followed the reminder. It seems like the longest was 12,000 between oil changes. More recently the intervals have been getting down to 8,000. I don't know if part of the formula involves the mileage on the car or why else the mileage between changes has dropped over time.I now have a bit over 174K and don't smell any burning oil at the exhaust (and pass emissions testing without problem).
So, based on my experience, Chevy's system for determining when oil changes are due works well.
I found a pdf FAQ on it:
http://assets.cobaltnitra.com/teams...5efa6b30/975c7820afba1004895010145efa6b30.pdf
For me, the biggest personal benefit is not having to go through the hassle of scheduling an appointment so often (or dealing with the waste oil so often when I change it myself), but philosophically, I don't like to export dollars to the Middle East any faster than I have to!
Edit - the FAQ mentions detecting if you are pulling a trailer. I would guess it has some way of knowing how much gas is used to accelerate to a certain velocity. In any case it seems like pretty clever algorithm. The biggest concern I would have is if I spent a lot of time driving dirt roads in dusty conditions. I don't see any indication that it detects the quality of air from the intake. In this case it would probably be wise to either get anal about your air filter or go to a shortened oil change interval.
The FAQ also mentions use of this system in 2002 vehicles, so given a bit of development time, we can probably blame Clinton for it!
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LS1notFOUND
New member
Like others have said, this system is setup based on what the factory fill and/or engine is designed for. With a 10K interval your looking at a good filter and a motor that must be pretty gentle on the oil. Not sure yet about the filters changing process on these, but most of the time its the filter that gets bad before the oil when your running synthetics.
So if your using the 9.99 jiffy lube special 3-5K might be where you want to change it...or if you do any of the other heavy use stuff. Ultimately have a look at it, if begins to look pretty bad on the dipstick and have an odd odor, time to change it might be approaching. Black isn't necessarily bad either. Bad oil, "its like pornography, hard to explain but you know it when you see it"
So if your using the 9.99 jiffy lube special 3-5K might be where you want to change it...or if you do any of the other heavy use stuff. Ultimately have a look at it, if begins to look pretty bad on the dipstick and have an odd odor, time to change it might be approaching. Black isn't necessarily bad either. Bad oil, "its like pornography, hard to explain but you know it when you see it"
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milesvdustin
Member
My old volkswagen vr6 had a 10k oil change interval, and it never burned a drop. Just traded it in at 156k miles. I plan on doing my initial oil change at 1000 or 1500 then going Mobil 1 full syn after that.