oil changes

[HollywoodTurbo]

How often are yall changing the oil? Going off the oil life %, I should change the oil every ~11,000 miles. Does anyone feel that is a little bit too long between oil changes? I had my first oil changed at 4k and Im a little nervous about warranty issues related to changing it going off of the oil % life, considering you can't document that you went 11k miles because "the car told me it was ok". This goes against the owners manual of recommended services.

 

[dmcgee1]

Old school, here.

I change (at least I plan to do so) every 3,000 mi. I did the first at 2,940 mi.

 

[slimjim550]

try 50/50

I plan to change mine when the % is around 50% that way the oil changes will be at around 5,000 miles which will save some money and still be within the updated "recommended" oil change interval.

 

[SooperSonic]

I'll probably take care of it when the DIC is around 30% or so.

 

[thebook92]

I first changed mine at 2,000 miles. I plan to change it again at 5,000 miles, and every 5k after that. I can't see any issues arising from an oil change interval that frequent.

 

[RichieRocket]

I'm gonna run the oil until the counter says 0%. My reason is that for both our civic and mazda 3, I followed the owners manual schedule, 7500 mile oil changes with standard petroleum oil. The civic went 262K miles (until the head gasket blew) and never burned any oil.
I'm running synthetic, so it will have no problem going 10-11K miles. Sure the oil will come out black, but the color does not tell you anything about how the oil is performing. I'm sure lots of people will disagree and flame me...

I should get the oil tested at Blackstone labs after my next oil change.

 

[Eric Smit]

My buddy has a Cruze with the 1.4T. He just recently had his first oil change at 17k miles. hahaha. His car runs fine, too.


-Eric Smit

 

[american_tuner]

I'm gonna run the oil until the counter says 0%. My reason is that for both our civic and mazda 3, I followed the owners manual schedule, 7500 mile oil changes with standard petroleum oil. The civic went 262K miles (until the head gasket blew) and never burned any oil.
I'm running synthetic, so it will have no problem going 10-11K miles. Sure the oil will come out black, but the color does not tell you anything about how the oil is performing. I'm sure lots of people will disagree and flame me...

I should get the oil tested at Blackstone labs after my next oil change.

This is true! I ran motul in my Mazda and the oil ran for like 500 miles and looked dirty as hell. Will I run mine till 0%? No not me. I do not trust the filter that long. It may be okay but I'm just not going to to it. 5 to 6k is long enough for me. Or every 3 months. Which ever comes 1st.

 

[inm]

Did the first one at about 4k, gonna do the next at 10k, then after that every 5k.

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[sonic hotness]

ya i plant to do my fisrt oil change at 3K then every 5k after that

i only got 220miles on her right now

 

[SSpeckerwood]

I did my 1st around 5k miles.I'm going to go by the DIC until I hit about 25% and then change it. I'm running mobil1 extended performance which is dexos certified and guaranteed for 15k miles. I do about 1k miles a week driving and hardly ever do any city driving.

 

[HollywoodTurbo]

My fear is that by using the oil life indicator, and say I change it at 25%, and I have an issue that occurs later in the cars life, the dealer could come to me and say that I'm not following their recommended maintenance and deny the repair. Even if I save all my receipts with the mileage, it would still indicate that I've gone past the mileage recommended in the owners manual. It would be only on my word versus their ccriteria "well the car said 25% life remaining". I doubt this information is stored inside of the cars computer for every time the indicator was reset...

 

[RichieRocket]

My fear is that by using the oil life indicator, and say I change it at 25%, and I have an issue that occurs later in the cars life, the dealer could come to me and say that I'm not following their recommended maintenance and deny the repair. Even if I save all my receipts with the mileage, it would still indicate that I've gone past the mileage recommended in the owners manual. It would be only on my word versus their ccriteria "well the car said 25% life remaining". I doubt this information is stored inside of the cars computer for every time the indicator was reset...

HollywoodTurbo, there is no oil change mileage requirement in the owner's manual. It says if you accidently reset the oil counter, to change the oil within 3000 miles, otherwise follow the counter down to 0%, then change within the next 600 miles.


About oil filters: My '98 civic had an oil change interval of 7500 miles, but the oil filter change was 15,000 miles....every SECOND oil change. The honda filter was actually kind of small.

 

[LS1notFOUND]

As long as you change it when it tells you to or at least every 6 months your good (or is it 12months?). 50% probably will take you to the 4-5K range most often and is a good mark for changing synthetic oil in a "more spirited than granny" and "more dusty than an operating room" driving environment

 

[inm]

When I got my oil changed the first time, the tech at the dealer said its best to do it no more than 5000 miles, no matter what your oil life monitor says. He said he has seen countless vehicles come in with 7.5k or 10k miles and its completely destroyed engines. This was all off the record, of course, since GM is 'never' wrong, this tech would 'never' think or recommending something against what GM says.

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[67sleeper]

Yeah i will be there at 3000 for my first oil change because I am not going to dare push it far past that with how I drive n how often I drive

 

[sonic55]

On Star will record the oil change resets, and if you can prove someone actually did the oil change at the reset, I'd think GM would have to stand behind the engine warranty, even if you went to 0% each time. I am going to go like others posted, around 50%. I plan to keep the car past warranty.

 

[Scotiez]

I just did my 1st oil change at 4000, I plan on doing all the rest from now on at 6000. that will still be way below what the oil life monitor says. Oh I also put in Mobil 1, gona be full synthetic from now on

 

[Flyer]

I'm sorry to bring up an old thread but I feel obligated to reply to this thread.

I would STRONGLY recommend AGAINST going to 0%. It's my understanding that GM claims 20% on the oil life. I do know OnStar will flag 'time for an oil change' starting at 19.9% with their On Vehicle Diag and also email the dealer if you subscribe to Dealer Maintenance Notification. This is OnStar, a GM owned company telling you to change the oil at 20%.

As a dealer, the only reason they would tell you follow the oil life monitor is because they are repeating what GM says. If they are half as good as they should be, they would strongly recommend 5-6k miles between oil changes.

I can't tell you how many 4 cylinders (2.2's) that have been in service for cam actuators and timing chain components, being all tensioners, guides and even new chains because the actuators get clogged up with dirty oil from people following the oil life monitor. GM is paying these claims with no questions as of now. There's also a reprogram on the PCM that shortens the Oil Life Monitor at the same time these are done.

The reprogram tells me that they know this is a problem but they have commited so much and so hard to the Oil Life, they have no choice to stand behind the concept.

Something else worth mentioning, starting with 2011, all GM vehicles with a gasoline engine require a synthetic blend motor oil such as the AcDelco Dexos1 oil. This was an effort to help extend the oil life and keep the oil cleaner through the extended drain intervals of the oil life monitor.

Now .. I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't follow the oil life monitor, but I will tell you as one who is in the know I will not. I will change the oil in my little Sonic at around 5k miles, just as I do in my 2011 Tahoe. FWIW, my Tahoe does get the Dexos, but the Sonic gets Mobil1 (solely because of the turbo).

 

[Kuntryboy865]

The car dealership told me that the Sonic uses a special kind of oil and that it can only be changed at the dealership. Is this true? I can't just use regular oil?