So my Cobalt is coming up on its second oil change (2 years old, 11,700 miles) and I was wondering if I should get a tune up while in the shop. Would it be necessary on the car, even though it has so few miles on it?

 

wait you waited 2 years for a oil change?

 

huh?! am i missing something...
its only had one oil change in 12,000 miles and 2 years???

 

haha you put about as many miles per year on your car as me.

 

aaahhhhhhh change ur oil evry 3k?? did they change the rule? lol good luck with any warrenty work...

 

wow. even if you just go by the DIC i think you should have changed the oil before then...but yes, I think you should have them look at a few things at this point.

 

Nooo, it first oil change was sometime last spring, this would be the second.

Yep

Haha, yeah my commute to school is only about 14 miles both ways and it's the roughly same for work.

I wait until the oil life in the DIC gets down to below 10% before I get ready to change the oil, so it's not like I'm going by my own calculations. I also check it from time to time to make sure it isn't burning any excess, which it doesn't.

Finally an answer to my question If I put more miles on my car than I do I would get my oil changed more often, but now it'd just be a waste and a hassle.

 

Not.. really....

I would make sure you get everything looked at...

 

yur in compliance with the warranty, dont let others here scare u. jus dont let it go longer than 1 year.

a full tune up isnt needed since plugs, tranny fluid etc arent due for a long time, and there r no grease fittings to lube. theyll jus do a bunch of inspections an charge u up the butt.

 

wow dood you should really change your oil at LEAST every 4-6 months dont care how often you drive. you should look into tires balanced and alignment, for god sakes put new gas in the tank lol get that stuff that removes water also from the tank. not sure of the name. i would just check the plugs wouldnt change em. check your tranny fluid. also i suggest you drive the car more.

 

Yeah, it gets changed roughly once a year. The guy I go to is pretty reasonable. It seems like when I went to him last year he only charged $35? And he used Mobil-1. The first place I called wanted $90 to use Mobil-1!

I was going to get my tires rotated and balanced (they're not the original ones, I got them in September '07). I do use gas treatment quite often actually and I used some fuel injection cleaner the other day. I usually keep the tank full as well.

 

You seem to keep good care of your car... i would just look into a oil change atleast every 5000 miles...

I know the DIC says its okay.. but.. just for good measure... it wont hurt.

 

No reason to change the oil any sooner than the DIC says UNLESS it is more than a year. There is no reason you can't go 7500 miles on an oil change. I have gone by the DIC for all my oil changes, which average about every 7K miles and my engine is still in perfect shape. They say the oil filter will last the life of the oil but I usually change my filter at 55 - 50% oil life just to be safe.

I get my tires rotated everytime I change the oil.

Don't use fuel cleaner too much, it is not necessary. I will usually through some in my car once a year, no reason to do it more often than that unless you are using junk gas.

At 11K miles the only other things to check are brake wear, make sure there are no leaks for transmission or engine and check the belt for signs of wear. I check all these things everytime I do an oil change, there is little else to check on these cars. There is no other maintenance and I surely wouldn't pay for the 20 point inspection or whatever it is that they charge out the ass for.

Here is what I do at my oil changes:

Change oil and filter
Rotate tires (also note tire wear)
change BKR7E plugs (only because I am running copper plugs. On a stock balt or 2.2 there is no reason change them till at least 50K)
Check for leaks
Check brake and rotor wear
Check drive belt

 

wow you should never have to change your oil filter at 50% just a waste of money. If you just buy a good one to begin with you will not need to change it. I always change my oil when my truck tells me to on the dic. I put around 7K on it before i need to. thats almost 10 months of driving. even in my old cars i only change them every 6K. And rotating ur tires is only needed once a year but more times will not hurt anything. I check my air filter every oil change aswell. I have a K&N and allthoough is clean most oil changes i still clean it every time since i only do my oil roughfly once a year.

 

Well, I have done lots of research on extended oil changes. The problem with extended oil changes is that the oil filters are only designed to hold so much contaminants and at 3K most filters are at 80% - 90% capacity. I have never been able to find any particle tests on the canister filters used on the cobalt so I have no idea how full the filter is. Until I see some data on how much the cobalt filter can hold I will continue to change the filter at 50%.

On high performance tires you should always rotate the tires every oil change, especially if you are going 7K on an oil change. For normal M+S all season tires you can go longer before rotating.

 

negative....Mobil states the oil should be changed at least once a year if u dont excide the mileage limits. He has had the car 2 years and is going to change it for the second time. He doesnt need to worry about water in the gas

Lets say he get 400 miles to the tank and has driven 11,700 miles. That would mean he filled up his tank 29 times which is slightly more than once a month because there are 12 months in a year and 12 months x 2 years is 24 months.

 

Mobil AND the owner's manual. He's in good shape.

 

im an ASE tech for firestone. We sell the mobil extended performance oil changes and tell the customers to come in at 5000 miles for a filter change. When i first got my balt i did it every 3000 miles but stopped cuz the oil coming out was brand new. You cannot break Mobil synthetic down. i change mine evry 5000 now and its still nice but any oil filter should be changed at 5000 miles period

 

i cahnge mine every 3k...maybe thats why with double the power and 73k miles my car has yet to have one problem