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Oil Change

Bart2500HD

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Bart2500HD Enthusiast

Bart2500HD

Posted
Posted

The wife bought a Trailblazer a few months ago. It is coming up on 3000 miles, but the DIC says the enginge oil life is at 56%. I havent had the pleasure of owning a vehicle with this newfangled DIC before and just wondering what everyone does for changing oil. Go by the mileage or the DIC?

SteveCZ Enthusiast

SteveCZ

Posted
Posted
Go ahead and change it now since it is the first time. After that use Mobil 1 and go by the light.

 

 

 

 

:(

 

Same thing I did with the Rainier.... used Dino oil for the first change, made it another 5 k, and still had about 28% left on the oil life meter. Changed it out to Mobil 1 and a Pure One Purolator filter..., that should get it through a full cycle.

 

SteveCZ

mjwencl Enthusiast

mjwencl

Posted
Posted

I did my first oil change at 3K miles and then put in Mobil 1 and have been using the DIC GM Oil Life Monitor since. I've been averaging about 5500 miles between changes for my driving style and location.

 

Use the DIC! Don't let it lie around unused!

USA1Fan Enthusiast

USA1Fan

Posted
Posted

I forgot to mention that. The Trailblazer had a 7 quart oil capacity, and went to around 7k miles between changes (going by DIC). That was a different driving environment than my Malibu and Silverado are operating in, so I can't directly compare to see whether the larger capacity (and the programmers' taking it into account with the OLS) or the driving style makes the difference, but here are my observations for the others:

 

Both the Malibu and the Silverado seem to be on a 5-6k trend. The Malibu has just over 22,500 on it now, and has had the oil changed four times so far (3k, ~9k, ~15k, ~19k). However, the DIC shows ~26% left. We took a long trip over this past weekend that knocked it down from 45% or so. (the big drop for the ~1k miles round trip surprised me)

 

The truck has over 13k and has had two changes so far (3k, ~9k, expecting the next somewhere between 14 and 16k).

TonyMazz Enthusiast

TonyMazz

Posted
Posted

For what ever it's worth, the GM Oil Life Monitor system has been tested with conventional oil. There is absolutely no need to incurr the added expense of synthetic oil on the vehicles mentioned here. But you are perfectly fine to use Mobil 1.

 

Since these new motors have roller cams and eliminated many of the friction points wear is reduced dramtically.

 

The GMOLM system takes into account temperature, engine revolutions, combustion events, engine load, speed, fuel quantity delivered into cylinders, air intake temperature and more. It is purely designed for a specific engine and with the revolutions as the pivotal event, it's been proven through 1000's hours of testing that some motor oil additives (i.e. ZDDP) decline at a near linear rate based on the revolutions....

 

So trust the OLM to tell you as it also has a near 2:1 buffer in it to trigger the change oil light way in advance to the total decline of the additives.

 

Also as a final buffer, it has a preset limit of the number of miles you can go as well....so you will never ruin things if you simply trust the oil life system.

 

Our old school of 3K OCI's dies hard believe me....I have spent alot of time trying to prove this thing wrong cause I thought that 3K OCI or synthetic was the ONLY way to go....I was wrong......

 

It's a very cool tool and have learned from talking directly with GM engineers that worked with Dr.Shirley Schwartz who developed it.

 

Far as synthetic vs dino oil...the only reason to go synthetic is for high temperature use...i.e. racing. These oil companies make a fortune on convincing us that simply puting a standard set of miles on the bottle and we just follow them is the way to go. Wrong....you need something that is tailored to your vehicle's engine, tailors to your driving habits, to the temperature, demand, torque curve, fuel, etc to help us know when exactly to change the oil.....

 

Just my 4-cents.... :driving:

  • 4 weeks later...
liteswap Enthusiast

liteswap

Posted
Posted
Just my 4-cents.... :chevy:

 

 

 

 

And if you STILL dont believe him.... next time you change your oil at 3k miles, send in a sample to Blackstone and get an analysis done. It'll tell you things you never thought was possible ;)

 

Imagine.. if everyone even went from 3k OCI to 6k... we'd be using HALF the oil we do now!

  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
burgundyz71 Enthusiast

burgundyz71

Posted
Posted
For what ever it's worth, the GM Oil Life Monitor system has been tested with conventional oil.  There is absolutely no need to incurr the added expense of synthetic oil on the vehicles mentioned here.  But you are perfectly fine to use Mobil 1.

 

Since these new motors have roller cams and eliminated many of the friction points wear is reduced dramtically.

 

The GMOLM system takes into account temperature, engine revolutions, combustion events, engine load, speed, fuel quantity delivered into cylinders, air intake temperature and more.  It is purely designed for a specific engine and with the revolutions as the pivotal event, it's been proven through 1000's hours of testing that some motor oil additives (i.e. ZDDP) decline at a near linear rate based on the revolutions....

 

So trust the OLM to tell you as it also has a near 2:1 buffer in it to trigger the change oil light way in advance to the total decline of the additives.

 

Also as a final buffer, it has a preset limit of the number of miles you can go as well....so you will never ruin things if you simply trust the oil life system.

 

Our old school of 3K OCI's dies hard believe me....I have spent alot of time trying to prove this thing wrong cause I thought that 3K OCI or synthetic was the ONLY way to go....I was wrong......

 

It's a very cool tool and have learned from talking directly with GM engineers that worked with Dr.Shirley Schwartz who developed it. 

 

Far as synthetic vs dino oil...the only reason to go synthetic is for high temperature use...i.e. racing.  These oil companies make a fortune on convincing us that simply puting a standard set of miles on the bottle and we just follow them is the way to go.  Wrong....you need something that is tailored to your vehicle's engine, tailors to your driving habits, to the temperature, demand, torque curve, fuel, etc to help us know when exactly to change the oil.....

 

Just my 4-cents.... :D

 

 

 

:cheers::wtf:

  • 2 weeks later...
MichEnvoyBoy Enthusiast

MichEnvoyBoy

Posted
Posted

I just wanted to chime in because I LOVE the GM OLM debates :D

 

I drive an 02 Envoy SLT with, of course, the 4.2L I6, 7qt sump capacity.

 

When I first bought the Envoy I was a religious little oil changing nazi. I changed it every 3,000 miles. However, the oil was always coming out clean.

 

So I did what a smart little consumer should do - I sent the oil in for a UOA (Used Oil Analysis) at the 3,000 mile mark. It came back with a full report from Blackstone Labs saying I could go at the very least - another 3,000 miles. The additives in the oil were still very high and the oil was only used about 1/3 of its actual life. My DIC OLM was saying it was like at 40% oil life left.

 

I use a very high quality synthetic blend and an AC-Delco oil filter. Now what I do is use my OLM. I have the DIC readout on my dash, so when it hits 20%, Ive got about 5,500 miles on my trip odometer B (I use trip odometer A for my gas fillups and trip odometer B for my oil change miles).

 

Moral of story: With a 7 quart oil capacity and a good grade of oil whether it be dino or semi-syn or synthetic, going 5,000 miles or more on an oil change is an excellent idea! If you need peace of mind, contact a engine oil analysis company and for usually around $20 they will send you a tube to put your oil in, send it back and get an analysis.

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