hey, this isnt really a noob question, but i may get flamed anyway. I have had many a car and know how often the oil is supposed to be changed @ 3500 miles. However, i know these cars come with synthetic and am not sure how much more oil life they have off the bat. My concern is that i have about 2900 miles on my car and my oil life meter on my DIC says that i still have 44% oil life left. So is my meter off or does the synthetic oil simply have a longer lifespan? thanks for the help

 

they say synthetic life span is longer. i still do mine at 3k-4k anyway. i have talked to people in the oil change business (manager at a kwik-lube) and he told me that it doesnt matter what kind of oil you use (regular, synthetis, 5k syn, 10k syn, 15k syn) it all looks the same when it comes out of the engine.

personally, i dont care what oil, i would do it every 3k-4k.

the little sticker gm puts on my window when i get it changed lists 3k miles from what my car was at then.

 

The meter doesn't know whether you have synthetic or not; it does its math based on a lot of other factors such as cold starts, rpms, temps, etc. You could have the cheapest conventional oil in there right now and it will still be saying 44% remaining. Stop and go, city driving, and short trips will make the numbers go down faster.

I have 10,000 miles and right now the meter says 6% remaining. But like you, 10,000 miles seems much too long, and I have already changed it twice. I'm just curious to see exactly how long it goes before it reads 0%.

 

i change mine when my meter reads 20-25%. im being generous as well, my tech said that i could wait until 10% and it would be plenty safe

 

if you change your oil at 3-4k in this car you're wasting your money.... i know there's a few people that are against this, but the oil life is there for a reason... i've change my oil at 6k with REGULAR oil, and it looked a hell of a lot cleaner than previous cars did at 3k... i would check it regularly and see how it looks, and change accordingly... but every 3-4k is a waste of money and time

 

Exactly - if you check your oil regularly and see when it starts to get dirty, you can change it when it needs it and get the most out of it. I took my OLM all the way down to 1%, and the oil was a little dirty, but nowhere near black. Hell, I probably could have gotten another couple thousand out of it, but it was either let the OLM go to 0 and have it bug me constantly, or reset it and possibly forget about it altogether. At that point, I figured it was in my best interest to change it.

 

The OLM on all Cobalts is calibrated for synthetic oil (according to the service director where I work). How your oil looks really doesn't matter as it is designed to hold contamination so it will look dirty. Probably the best way to know the condition of your oil would be to have an oil analysis done. I personally believe changing oil at short intervals is old outdated information. Oils today have additive packages that will allow them to last longer. With all that said, I still can't leave my oil in for 10,000 miles or more. change it when you are comfotably, it is cheap insurance.
Dennis

 

i change mine when it gets down close to 20-30% or when i have time

 

Just follow the info in the DIC, and change it when it zeros out. Fine for your car, your pocketbook, and your even being a little green besides....a lttle less coal used...

 

what most people assume about the OLM's now a days is that it's just a meter that counts on it's own, when in fact most manufacturers now use meters that take a sample of oil and see exactly how much crap and other content is in it, and the dirtier it gets, the less life you get. Being a new car, I believe that the Cobalts have this technology, and the OLM is pretty accurate. And for example, BMW's don't have to get your oil changed for about 15,000 miles or so, depending on how you drive it, it also let you know in the dash.

 

i was at the chevy dealer..one guy told me that you have to change the SUPERCHARGER OIL every 7500 miles for 120bux but to check the book... the manager said every 30K miles...

its a 2.0L engine that takes 6quarts of mobil1..

does that mean it uses engine oil for the S/C?

they isnt anything in the book about supercharger oil..
are these guys retarded?

ihad a few free oil changes and this fool told me that he was giving me regular oil..
YEAH RIGHT! i'm taking my last oil change and running from this place.

 

so anywys, i change my oil yesterday, the meter was at 13%... now granted, i didn't do any tests on it, but it looked like it still was pretty clean and head plenty of life left....

 

No, read my earlier post. The owner's manual even says its based on the car's computer keeping a count of cold starts, rpms, etc. The meter counts down faster if you do a lot of short trips or stop and go driving. Your system would require a lot of tiny little diagnostic equipment to sample and analyze the oil. I can't even imagine how difficult this would be to engineer and still be reasonably affordable and reliable. Besides, if the car had the ability to actually analyze the oil, why do we have to reset it after changing the oil?

 

so...is there anything you got to for the supercharger to keep it maintained?

i.e. oil..coolant..