Low engine oil add oil

mitchely03 · May 17, 2020

Got hit with this last week. Sure enough checked my oil and it’s right at the end of the dip stick

is this going to be common from here on out with my truck? 2015 5.3. Has about 73k.

I do not have a catch can. The truck is tuned. Has an intake exhaust etc.

if anyone cares. I did not so recently changed from 0w-20 to a 5w-30. Being as I’m in SoCal and it’s warm here so I wanted a little more protection. Is this an issue that caused the low oil? Should I go back to the 0w-20?

thanks!

catpartsman · May 17, 2020

I’ve got 107K on my 15 with a diablew tune, air aid JR intake and muffler delete. No catch can either. Knock on wood, mine doesn’t use a drop of oil in 5000 miles. I oil sample every time and everything is normal each time. I run the 0-20w synthetic oil since new. I don’t run the guts out of it either and run mid grade fuel.

I’m gonna guess it’s not normal. I know people with these trucks who have over 250K on them with zero engine work done and no oil usage issues.

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diyer2 · May 17, 2020

Before you changed oil weight did it use oil?

Did you change brands?

How many miles on the oil when the low oil light came on?

As far as being common from now on, could be.

How often do you do oil changes?

mitchely03 · May 17, 2020

29 minutes ago, diyer2 said:

Before you changed oil weight did it use oil?

Did you change brands?

How many miles on the oil when the low oil light came on?

As far as being common from now on, could be.

How often do you do oil changes?

Hi there Before the oil change. I have never seen this message come up ever. This was the first. I have used valvoline since owning the truck making sure each oil had the dexos. I change my oil when the indicator gets to 20% on the dash. The message came on at 54% on the oil life.

PPK · May 17, 2020

well.. not good news. at least its not knocking.. my '05 5.3 started using oil at 80k, a quart every 3500 miles. Mine stayed there until i got rid of it at 100k.. And i think the deal is they start to using oil a lot earlier.. but not enough for the owner to catch it. if the engine is not getting a lot worse mpg.. then it may not be healthy... but is not sick sick sick either. keep a close eye on it.

CamGTP · May 18, 2020

Keep an eye on it and see how fast it it loses oil, if it continues to do so.

This way you can figure out if it's a serious issue or not. If you asked GM they'd probably say a 1 quart in 3k miles is "normal".

$5-6 every 3-5k miles isn't that bad really. You could even run 8.5 quarts if you wanted to. The sump is never full when the engine is running so the crank won't slap the oil even if you add a touch extra.

diyer2 · May 18, 2020

15 hours ago, mitchely03 said:

Hi there Before the oil change. I have never seen this message come up ever. This was the first. I have used valvoline since owning the truck making sure each oil had the dexos. I change my oil when the indicator gets to 20% on the dash. The message came on at 54% on the oil life.

I was looking for mileage of oil changes.

This you don't want to hear but............

I don't understand how people allow the low oil light to come on. Don't have the time to check the oil? No excuse for this in my book.

Changing the oil at 20% equates to how many miles? 5 K miles max between oil changes with off the shelf oil IMO. Me, I wouldn't go over 4 K miles.