I am not the best nor the dumb one when it comes to vehicale maintence, But have any of you ever paid attention to your little electronic gage that tells you the percent of life you have left on your oil?? At 3000 miles mine says 50% life left so in reality its still okay.. Also, according to anyone who takes are of their cars will keep up the maintence properly, which I do anyway and change it at 3000 miles.. So what do all of you do, wait till you reach 3000 miles then change it, or wait till your percent of life gets low on the gage??

 

I may be wrong, but i believe the oil life reading is more for the SS model. I personally have an LS model that does the same thing. The SS model has synthetic oil from the factory and is suppost to last at least twice as long as regular oil. I dont remember what member it was, but they put 8k miles on their car and the oil life still read 20% but they had it changed and it wasnt very black. The lower models do not have synthetic oil so it would be recommended to not go by the oil life reading and actually change it when you reach 3k miles.

 

The oil life monitor is effective for both synthetic and conventional oils. If you're dumping dino at 3k you're wasting money. With a good dino in harsh conditions I'd go at least 5k between changes. I know its a hard habit to break but you get used to it.

Running a good synthetic you can easily get 8k+ out of your oil despite what the oil life monitor says.

All this assumes that your engine is running properly and doesn't have any leaks.

 

the bottom line is
the more u change the better for the car

 

Needlessly changing your oil is wasteful. That is why GM came up with the oil life system.

Follow the oil life monitor display no matter what model you have. The GM engineers designed the system and they know what kind of oil came in your car from the factory.

My 2003 Alero has an oil life system as well, it just doesn't have the nifty display.

Changing your oil every 3000 miles is something the oil change industry promotes more than anything.

 

I'm going for a change this weekend. My display will probably read around 15% by then. It's been over 7,000 miles since my last oil change. I trust that guage.

 

I got 23000KM and i've only had to change it twice. GM wouldnt put an oil life monitor in the car if it doesnt work. They dont want to have to change all our engine in 3 years

 

personally as soon as i hit 3000 miles im thinking bout calling to get it in for a change i have 12,000 miles on her and had it in 4 times. (note..my second oil change at 6,000 they put in regular oil. the change only costs me like 40 bucks. i go back for my next change because the thing ran completely dry of oil less than two thousand miles after that change. made my check engine light come on and everything. i went back to get it taken care of and BAM 68 bucks for a oil change, i'm like WTF. u owe me one. so the service department gave me a free one for next time... also the oil life reading was at 55% when there was no oil at all in the engine. can any1 explain that for me???

 

The biggest problem you have is that your engine is either consuming oil or there was a leak from the last oil change. Its also possible that the sump was under-filled.

The oil life monitor is not programmed to take these things into account. The GM Oil Life Monitor assumes that the owner of the vehicle maintains the oil level within the acceptable range and uses the proper viscosity and grade of oil as per the owner's manual.

Just so you know: The "Check Engine Light" won't come on for a low oil level concern. You're thinking of the low oil-level indicator.

 

you'd think the delearship u got the car at would know what kind of oil to put in! thats why i change mine at 3,000-4,000miles

 

I change my oil every 5,000 miles. I drive mainly on highway, so i rack up miles quick. My oil sensor reads 43% currently and I have about 4400 miles on this oil change. Taking it to dealer on Saturday. The dealer is constantly sending me reminders to get the oil changed. I asked them their recomendation, they say you should change your oil every 3,000 miles.

 

My Oil Life meter is at 34% right now with 3,900 miles on the current oil change. I pulled the dipstick and the oil is jus a little darker than when I put it in.

When GM recommends Mobil1 I use Mobil1. Not to mention its the only true synthetic.

 

I took my Cobalt LS into the dealership for an oil change and when it was done they said the next due date was in 5000 miles. This is with CONVENTIONAL OIL. The oil life meter was at 30 percent and the oil was still clean!