For the past few weeks Ive noticed a bigtime power loss. I was getting so pissed off about it. Ive driven my 06 cobalt ss 9000 miles and had only changed the oil once. I changed it around 4000 because my oil life said around 40% and I figured it was my break in oil so it would be good to change it. And it was starting to run like ****. So this time my oil life said 40% and I was at 9000 miles but it was running like crap. So I got the oil changed today and it took about 5 miles of driving and all my power was back. It felt way better, engine sounded smoother and felt smoother. But anyways I just figured id say something...maybe us cobalt ss owners shouldnt go by the oil life % just change it every 3000 like tradition..

 

I never trust those meters. I always change mine at the 3,000 mark. Never hurts to change the oil early IMO, well maybe in the pocket book.

 

poor car...

 

i would not change at 3000.....we have mobil 1 synthetic in our cars, which is guaranteed up to 10000 miles. i would change at about 7000. anything under 5000 you are wasting your money. Look at your oil before when it has 3000 miles on it. it will still be very clean. just my $.02

 

My car has 6500 miles, had it since June, and still havn't had the oil changed....meter reads 19% and getting it changed this week.

 

watch how better it feels....let me know

 

i put royal purple in at a 1k and i was getting like 29-30mpg of gas now i get like 32-33 and car feels stronger

 

I wouldn't trust ANY car to come with synthetic oil straight from the dealer. Either way, the oil life percentage is crap, since it's always been in the 70% range when I've felt I've needed an oil change.

 

from the dealer? They don't touch the oil, just check it on the PDI.

It comes from the factory--you can trust them

 

There are so many threads on this it's not funny! This is not GT4 where your power goes down and you change you oil and everythings fine again, if you really do feel a loss of power and an oil change fixes it you may have a bigger problem. The whole point of running synthetic oil is that you can run it longer because it does not break down like petroleum based oils. Changing your oil with 40-50% still on the DIC does nothing but **** your money away needlessly, if you don't trust the DIC then thats your problem, but don't say it doesn't work. Why would GM put it on the car and tell you to go by it if it don't work?, we are talking about the engine life here and with all the success that the General is having I really don't think they would risk anything that could effect the reliability of their cars.

The first oil change is not done any earlier then what is normal because it is not your break in oil, RTFM, the car does not need to be broken in, but if you don't believe the DIC then you probably won't believe the manual either. Look at it this way, if you go by the DIC by the time you reach 96,000KM and are ready to get rid of the car you will have saved enough money to have payed for stage 1. If you want to **** that money away for no reason then go right ahead! LOL......

 

Agree with you ^^ I think the only variable that the oil life monitor does not account for is in a severe dust condition. I think most people would do ok with the DIC though.


The funny thing is that probably the ones doing the pre-mature oil changes are running 87 octane to save money

 

lol @ the GT4 comment...I was just going to say that

oil change = 50 more HP, add that to your ricer dictionary

 

I changed my oil today and had 40% oil life left and it has been about 5000kms (3100 miles) and it was really really dark, i don''t think it should be that dark with 40% life remaining, is this normal?

 

hahah love it

 

joeycobalt ...you are so smart! you must have graduated from uti! .yea my oil was super dark and if your **** isnt lubed up well, then things arent going to be pushing through smoothly. My cobalt runs awsome, and if i had any other major problem shouldnt my cel be comming up? I guess you must not have much faith in the cel but you think the oil life meter is perfected for the cobalt ss. You can go till your meter says 5 % for all I care genius..

 

Whether the oil life meter is perfected or not...the fact that you do not have to change out synthetic motor oil every 4000 miles is pretty established. If you want to "play it safe" 7500miles would work, 4000 is overkill as stated earlier, you're basically pissing money away.

In regards to the oil being dark...synthetic oil is going to collect the same amount of crap as any other oil, the reason you don't have to change it as often is because the stuff it's made of is more durable/resistant.

 

What you feel and what the car actually needs could be two different things.

All you have to do is check the dipstick every couple tanks or so, and if it's dirty, change it. Otherwise you're completely fine letting the OLM go to 0 for the change. The synthetic doesn't break down, it just gets dirty, and how fast it gets dirty can vary greatly. In AZ, for instance, I doubt my OLM will ever get to 0 before my oil needs to get changed.

 

Well maybe that Ive been down in Bay St. Louis MS since Katrina hit might have something to do with it. Its so dusty down here from all this clean up its insane! And it never rains. I probably need to check my cai filter too.

 

New blinker fluid every 2000 miles is good for at least 10 WHP...........

As far as oil goes, I can't even trust the dealer anymore. They tried to tell me that a "SYNTHETIC BLEND" will be just fine in the LSJ. I guess that's why Red Lines are selling poorer than their cousin...........Best thing is to change your own oil even though I'll never understand what made them put the filter THERE?!?!

 

if you spin a bearing because the oil gunked it up... ur not going to throw a cel. Ur just gonna have a fucked crank(might set off the knock sensor, but might not at the same time). Same thing goes if some crappy oil gunks up the passageways through the valvetrain. The cel only tells you about things that are monitored by the ecu(basically anything with a sensor).

As for the whole oil thing... you can lose power if ur oil gets too dirty. The thing is, newer engines(like ours) run extremely clean. Things aren't like they were back with carbueraters. It's nothing uncommon to be able to go 5-6k miles and still have perfectly clean oil(even petrolium oils). If you do something to your intake system(like add a cai) that might expose it to more dirt, dust etc. then I would suggest periodically checking your oil. Me personally I check my oil once a week. It's not much to take 3 minutes out of my time in the morning to pull the dipstick and check the level and condition of my oil.

Keeping ur oil up to par's just something u gotta do. People say it's a pain in the ass to spend the $20 to change ur oil, but I'd rather spend $20 and 5 min changing my oil then god knows how much on new internals and god knows how many hours fixing whatever the problem is.

 

Salesmen don't know jack about cars, if it was a technician / parts guy that told you that his ass should be fired. The cars *do* come from the factory with synthetic mobil1 in them.

When I was looking at buying my S/C I went out on a test drive and the salesman was highlighting all the features about the car that I already knew about...2.0L engine with blah blah blah and here's cruise control and yada yada, but when I asked him about getting a stage 2 installed on my car and he thought I was talking about a bigger spoiler....I just shook my head and told him not to worry about it I'd find out on my own

 

you should have seen the look on my face when a salesman tried to talk me into the cobalt ss non supercharged v6... yea... v6

 

P.S. the color of your oil won't tell you whether or not you need an oil change. you need to actually get your fingers wet and FEEL the texture of the oil.

Do the 2.2's come with syntec from the factory?

 

Just found an ad for mobil 1 from 1978. they were claiming a 25000 mi change interval (or one year) back then. now they're making a big deal about the 15000 extended performance model. granted, engines have changed, just found it interesting.

http://www.geocities.com/wastespace/images/mobil1.jpg

 

just about every manufacturer puts synthetic in all their cars. If you go to the dealership for an oil change, they use synthetic. Especially on newer cars. Mostly for warranty purposes.