first oil change - 2026 2500HD gas

c4racer2 · June 9

Did the first oil change at 850 miles on my 6 week old 2026 2500HD TB 4x4 V8.

Used Mobil 1 5W30 which I have been using for years in my trucks and late model GM cars, and a PF63 AC Delco filter.

Took exactly 8 QT and right to the top of the dipstick.

Debating if I will let the dealer do the next one. It's $60 worth of supplies and 30min of my time to DIY and probably would end up wasting a lot of time if I brought it to the dealer, not to mention the risk of them doing something stupid. I mean it happens.

first longer road trip this weekend so I wanted to get this done first. Saw very minor metal flake in bottom of drain pan - nothing significant, as you would expect.

PunchT37 · June 9

5 minutes ago, c4racer2 said:

Did the first oil change at 850 miles on my 6 week old 2026 2500HD TB 4x4 V8.

Used Mobil 1 5W30 which I have been using for years in my trucks and late model GM cars, and a PF63 AC Delco filter.

Took exactly 8 QT and right to the top of the dipstick.

Debating if I will let the dealer do the next one. It's $60 worth of supplies and 30min of my time to DIY and probably would end up wasting a lot of time if I brought it to the dealer, not to mention the risk of them doing something stupid. I mean it happens.

first longer road trip this weekend so I wanted to get this done first. Saw very minor metal flake in bottom of drain pan - nothing significant, as you would expect.

Good for you. I do my own work, if I can.

Another JR · June 13

I view every visit to the dealer’s service department has a significant risk that they will do something wrong, use the wrong fluid, or change software without permission. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, and usually everything is fine (other than you never know what fluids they used), but I definitely try to minimize my exposure by doing everything I can on my own.

I make them put on the work order that software is not to be updated without documented permission from me.

Definitely inspect their work after fluid changes for loose plugs and filters, and incorrect levels. I have had all of these things happen over the years. I even had a dealer leave a connector disconnected after a minor fuel vent system filter recall on my Chevy Volt that bricked the car on the freeway when the lithium battery was depleted and the gas motor should have taken over.

In another case, a friend coming over for dinner arrived at my house and I pointed out the trail (not drops) of oil behind his truck and noted oil still pouring out under the truck. He had just had his oil changed at the dealer and drove 20 miles to my house. We followed the trail back and found his oil drain plug a half block back along the road. If it had fallen out a mile sooner he would have gotten the red light and may have ruined his engine.

Grumpy Bear · June 14

On 6/9/2026 at 2:00 PM, c4racer2 said:

Did the first oil change at 850 miles on my 6 week old 2026 2500HD TB 4x4 V8.

Used Mobil 1 5W30 which I have been using for years in my trucks and late model GM cars, and a PF63 AC Delco filter.

Took exactly 8 QT and right to the top of the dipstick.

Debating if I will let the dealer do the next one. It's $60 worth of supplies and 30min of my time to DIY and probably would end up wasting a lot of time if I brought it to the dealer, not to mention the risk of them doing something stupid. I mean it happens.

first longer road trip this weekend so I wanted to get this done first. Saw very minor metal flake in bottom of drain pan - nothing significant, as you would expect.

No one will care for you like you care for you. Do what you can for as long as you can. IMHO of course.

Chuck FB · June 14

On 6/9/2026 at 1:00 PM, c4racer2 said:

Did the first oil change at 850 miles on my 6 week old 2026 2500HD TB 4x4 V8.

Used Mobil 1 5W30 which I have been using for years in my trucks and late model GM cars, and a PF63 AC Delco filter.

Took exactly 8 QT and right to the top of the dipstick.

Debating if I will let the dealer do the next one. It's $60 worth of supplies and 30min of my time to DIY and probably would end up wasting a lot of time if I brought it to the dealer, not to mention the risk of them doing something stupid. I mean it happens.

first longer road trip this weekend so I wanted to get this done first. Saw very minor metal flake in bottom of drain pan - nothing significant, as you would expect.

I feel better now for my own view point and actions or lack there of towards the dealership service theme reading your post and others. GM corporate is who offers the two free oil changes on the HD trucks and I bought my truck in Feb of 2025 and those oil change offers run out within 2 years I believe and I highly doubt I will be using either one of them. I had asked if I could officially give those free services to another customer ( a friend ) and they said no, its all a GM corporate thing based on the vehicle in question. What that service advisor did however was go into a little story about how such and such customer was denied engine warranty because he had done his own oil changes because then they are not documented ... you see where that goes and so an employee playing the game of scaring the customer into having the service work done there most certainly triggered my thought process. At a later date I did talk to the person who handles warranty claims at the dealership and she said to be sure to document the oil changes and keep receipts for the oil and filter ( coped the receipts from cases of Mobil oil and case of filters I bought from them ) and the vehicles VIN, the date of service, mileage etc and staple that together as a record I would give them if that was ever needed and I keep my own log book for services for each vehicle as well. Oh and about 8 months after I bought the truck the dealer starts calling me to offer a maintenance service since they haven't seen my vehicle show up on their system ... for the mere fee of 300.00 Canadian to change the oil and rotate the tires and a few other minor checks and I declined the offer, I get the call again a couple of months later for the same thing and she could tell I was not interested and she asked if they should take my name off the call list and I said yes, do that !.

By the way did you happen to keep your factory oil filter to open it up and see the surprises inside as I expect some will show up as per the odd little sliver of metal shaving and particles that the filter does trap along with bits of grey silicone sealer that come off of the inside edge of mating surfaces. I have cut open every filter so far on my truck although few miles but have changed the oil often and the second filter was vastly better with very little of anything, that first filter was the unsettling one as I expected it would be.

KARNUT · June 14

1 hour ago, Chuck FB said:

I feel better now for my own view point and actions or lack there of towards the dealership service theme reading your post and others. GM corporate is who offers the two free oil changes on the HD trucks and I bought my truck in Feb of 2025 and those oil change offers run out within 2 years I believe and I highly doubt I will be using either one of them. I had asked if I could officially give those free services to another customer ( a friend ) and they said no, its all a GM corporate thing based on the vehicle in question. What that service advisor did however was go into a little story about how such and such customer was denied engine warranty because he had done his own oil changes because then they are not documented ... you see where that goes and so an employee playing the game of scaring the customer into having the service work done there most certainly triggered my thought process. At a later date I did talk to the person who handles warranty claims at the dealership and she said to be sure to document the oil changes and keep receipts for the oil and filter ( coped the receipts from cases of Mobil oil and case of filters I bought from them ) and the vehicles VIN, the date of service, mileage etc and staple that together as a record I would give them if that was ever needed and I keep my own log book for services for each vehicle as well. Oh and about 8 months after I bought the truck the dealer starts calling me to offer a maintenance service since they haven't seen my vehicle show up on their system ... for the mere fee of 300.00 Canadian to change the oil and rotate the tires and a few other minor checks and I declined the offer, I get the call again a couple of months later for the same thing and she could tell I was not interested and she asked if they should take my name off the call list and I said yes, do that !.

By the way did you happen to keep your factory oil filter to open it up and see the surprises inside as I expect some will show up as per the odd little sliver of metal shaving and particles that the filter does trap along with bits of grey silicone sealer that come off of the inside edge of mating surfaces. I have cut open every filter so far on my truck although few miles but have changed the oil often and the second filter was vastly better with very little of anything, that first filter was the unsettling one as I expected it would be.

I get a chuckle when people say I ain’t going to the dealer. First find a good dealer check online to get a rating. Then if you only use the dealer and they mess up who can they blame? I only use the dealer through the warranty. But I pretty much been buying new vehicles through one dealer. Hyundai and GMC trucks. I did stray one time for a Camry. The deal was too good. They wanted to do 10K oil changes with their free maintenance. I bought a couple filters from them. Did the in between myself. After the warranty I did Valvoline in between and Toyota the other.

Z45 · June 15

Dealer oil changes are a marketing ploy. You hang out in the showrooms, wander the lots and look at the new trucks/autos all the while the service dept. looks for something they can up-sell to the customer. GM dealers call it a multi-point inspection.

They have a vested interest in having you come back again and again and again. Think about it, how many want you to keep driving your vehicle? You are the only one; the dealers want to sell you a new truck and every time you are there, they get another chance.

Atlas · June 15

That's kind of how I bought my current truck, not on an oil change, but on a service visit. My Camaro was having recall work performed. Walked over to the sales department with a steak tied around my neck and the rest is history.

No, I didn't sell the Camaro. Yes, I was already looking for a truck. They wanted to move my mid-optioned LT to make room for '26's. It had been on the lot for ~100 days already. It was an unpopular config for the loan and lease buyers. The sales department was thrilled to have someone, anyone, interested in buying something.

As for dealer service, I worked for a car dealer as a kid. Wouldn't ever take my car to a dealer to have the oil changed. Just as you can get decent service and work, you can also get really sloppy work. Oil change techs are usually young ones who just learned how to turn a wrench. It doesn't pay well. It's high volume production work, move cars through as fast as possible. As the saying goes, if you want it done right, do it yourself. So I do just that.

Chuck FB · June 15

19 hours ago, KARNUT said:

I get a chuckle when people say I ain’t going to the dealer. First find a good dealer check online to get a rating. Then if you only use the dealer and they mess up who can they blame? I only use the dealer through the warranty. But I pretty much been buying new vehicles through one dealer. Hyundai and GMC trucks. I did stray one time for a Camry. The deal was too good. They wanted to do 10K oil changes with their free maintenance. I bought a couple filters from them. Did the in between myself. After the warranty I did Valvoline in between and Toyota the other.

I hear you over the negativity towards dealerships as some most certainly have earned their reputation and not exactly good reputations either, in either the quality of work done or with outright ripoff tactics and the problem is when one lives in a rural area where there are only so many dealers in a main town and don't have the options that someone who lives in or is surrounded by cities with multiple competing dealer businesses has available to them. Then there are the independent shops and again some can be more on the up and up while some are always waiting to pounce on that circumstance where they can rip the customer a new one and the customer does not realize what just happened was not how it could have gone. And interestingly enough and I don't know if all dealers have the access to genuine parts and a completely different lower line of parts and suspect rebuilt parts but there are certainly dealers that play that game and the customer can be lead to believe they got the genuine part like what came on the vehicle when in fact they got some inferior part that in some cases is extremely failure prone and they know it but they replace it with that junk anyway as that vehicle will come back again with the same issue once again. If one comes across a dealer or independent shop that actually does proper work and stands behind their work if it goes south, that's the shop one certainly wants to associate with.

KARNUT · June 15

10 minutes ago, Chuck FB said:

I hear you over the negativity towards dealerships as some most certainly have earned their reputation and not exactly good reputations either, in either the quality of work done or with outright ripoff tactics and the problem is when one lives in a rural area where there are only so many dealers in a main town and don't have the options that someone who lives in or is surrounded by cities with multiple competing dealer businesses has available to them. Then there are the independent shops and again some can be more on the up and up while some are always waiting to pounce on that circumstance where they can rip the customer a new one and the customer does not realize what just happened was not how it could have gone. And interestingly enough and I don't know if all dealers have the access to genuine parts and a completely different lower line of parts and suspect rebuilt parts but there are certainly dealers that play that game and the customer can be lead to believe they got the genuine part like what came on the vehicle when in fact they got some inferior part that in some cases is extremely failure prone and they know it but they replace it with that junk anyway as that vehicle will come back again with the same issue once again. If one comes across a dealer or independent shop that actually does proper work and stands behind their work if it goes south, that's the shop one certainly wants to associate with.

I had a really good independent shop that did custom exhaust too. I used him for performance work like installing superchargers on my trucks and custom exhaust. As far as repairs my vehicles didn’t need much. My wife never drove many miles and I usually traded trucks every two, three years. I drove a minimum of 50k miles a year. When I bought new trucks actually when anyone in the family bought new trucks. We would usually get exhaust before they went anywhere. Our wife’s cars would get the same treatment until V-8 cars weren’t the norm. By then we had performance cars as toys and would do test and tune at our local track. The 94 impala ss was my wife’s last new daily V-8. She had a Z-28 at the same time. I was driving a V-10 Ram dually. We were lucky to find good dealerships and local independent shops right away moving to Texas in 1978. It helps having knowledge of equipment and automobiles. Back in the day when I went to high school we had shop classes. They were required. The ladies got cooking and home making classes. We were pretty much prepared not be taking advantage of by going out to wolves unprepared.

Z45 · June 15

Had brakes put on a 1999 Sierra once at local small town GMC shop. The new pads were squealing a lot so I went back and complained. Found out parts guy (slip of the tongue) they installed local parts store junk. Never told me that and when I checked my bill it listed GM part numbers and what I assumed was GM prices. I think they realized it was a problem because they had order the GM rotors and pads and never changed me a dime. New brakes did no squeal. btw-That dealer is out of business today.

Edited June 15 by Z45

PunchT37 · June 15

When I first started mechanic work for a living, I remember a guy with a BMW coming in for an oil change. He had his own oil and filter. We had me and 2 other mechanics in that shop. The other 2 left early that day. The guy asked where Brian was. Told him he left early. The guy wasn`t mad. He just left and said he would come back later. I wasn`t insulted either.

One brings his stuff to a person, not a place.

Another JR · June 16

On 6/14/2026 at 11:32 AM, KARNUT said:

I get a chuckle when people say I ain’t going to the dealer. First find a good dealer check online to get a rating. Then if you only use the dealer and they mess up who can they blame? I only use the dealer through the warranty. But I pretty much been buying new vehicles through one dealer. Hyundai and GMC trucks. I did stray one time for a Camry. The deal was too good. They wanted to do 10K oil changes with their free maintenance. I bought a couple filters from them. Did the in between myself. After the warranty I did Valvoline in between and Toyota the other.

The dealer I bought my truck from is actually pretty good. The problem is the labor force issues due to the dealer industry practices. They are struggling to keep experienced mechanics due to the pay structure, and the fluid change staff is minimum wage and uncertified. I still work with them when I need to, but I have had issues due to incompetence or lack of care as I described above. The unauthorized software update issue I suspect is driven by GM policy, but it is still an issue. It is my goddamn truck once i take delivery. You don’t modify it without my permission.

KARNUT · June 16

28 minutes ago, Another JR said:

The dealer I bought my truck from is actually pretty good. The problem is the labor force issues due to the dealer industry practices. They are struggling to keep experienced mechanics due to the pay structure, and the fluid change staff is minimum wage and uncertified. I still work with them when I need to, but I have had issues due to incompetence or lack of care as I described above. The unauthorized software update issue I suspect is driven by GM policy, but it is still an issue. It is my goddamn truck once i take delivery. You don’t modify it without my permission.

The Auto manufacturers tried to lobby Trump to back them in dealership only service and repair. He turned them down. I spent a short time as a counter man for Napa. They had signs on the counter warning about that in the seventies. I understand John Deere is already doing that. We’re just one wrong election away from that happening. Just look at California with their restrictions. We have to pay attention.

c4racer2 · June 18

no - I did not cut open the filter btw.

I did use a PF63 which I will do for at least a few years worth of oil changes just for good measure.

I really don't trust dealers for these tasks - I have no issue using them for larger tasks, but I also tend to consider the value of my time in the equation and if I can easily do it myself in significantly less time than the whole process of taking it to a dealer I will choose that every time. I am a very competent mechanic - I have built cars, engines etc. from the ground up and maintained race cars for years and years, built hot rods even from newer platforms with EFI, swapped engines, transmissions, brakes, rear ends - you name it. Oil change is pretty mundane and I can have it done in the time it takes to drive to the dealer let alone drive back and wait for them to do it.

Edited June 18 by c4racer2