GM oil change recommendation

Can anyone shed some light on the new engine monitors that GM has in their vehicles that tells you when to change your oil? If I listened to this thing, it would have been close to 10,000 miles before it recommended to replace the oil. Anyone know how it decides that it is time?

The dealer says that synthetic oil is totally unnecessary in my 08 suburban. Maybe... 10,000 with synthetic?

Then you have the quickie oil change places that still recommend replacing oil every 3000 miles (of course they would, why wouldnt they?).

Who has the truth?

Click and Clack on Car Talk say 5,000 miles under normal conditions, with the explanation that oils are much better than 20-40 years ago. 3,000 miles is from your grandpa's days.

Go with what your owner's manual says if you want to feel safe.

Thats the problem, the owners manual says to follow the computer display and that seems to be on a 10,000 mile cycle. Sounds too high to me.

Then go with 5,000 miles for peace of mind. It can't hurt.

I have seen cars go up to 12k miles before the indicator comes on. That is crazy! I have a ton of customers who go over on mileage just do to lazyness. Keep the 3000 miles mark for oil changes on conventional oil, due to the fact most are going to go over on mileage. If the industry starts saying go every 5000, then people will start going even further over that. Which is a bad habbit to get into. Leads to carbon buildup, sludge and abnormal wear. Long story short I have replaced several motors for lack of changing oil regularly.

My owner’s manual says 5000 miles but I am old school so I just split the difference and change my oil at 4000 miles. it may be over kill since I use FOMCO synthetic blend oil 5W20 but it makes me more comfortable doing it that way

The computer on my 4.8 chevey tells me to change it every 7000 to 7500 miles. 120,000 no problems.

I was told by a chevy mechanic, (one that I trust totally) that the system was based on the run time, not mileage.. Something like an oven timer. "X" number hours that the engine runs, equals approximately "X" miles. But however it is based, 3000 miles for me, WHY?,,,oil is cheep compaired to an engine.

This article is about 10 years old but still has valid information...it is from Consumer Reports...one of the issues for me with changing the oil more frequent than needed is the extra waste oil generated in the enviorment..and the need to import more oil when maybe it is really needed..People worry about gasoline mpg...I look at motor oil the same way...just my 2 cents worth. Consumer report artile is in the link below..

http://www.moneybluebook.com/articles/consumerreports.oilchange.php

i just cant see changing it 7 to 12k miles, seems to long.

5K or less with a quality conventional motor oil

I do 6K then that reminds me to rotate tires too

If you use fully synthetic and drive mostly highway, then 7500-10K isn't unheard of and quite acheivable. I have an '08 Silverado with the 5.3 and I change mine every 5K regardless of what the monitor tells me. I only use Mobil 1 Synthetic and I drive my truck pretty hard and the oil still looks pretty good when I drain it.

Heres an idea if you want to see how accurate that is. There are companys that test oil samples. Its not that expensive to do. They will annylize the oil showing all the components present in it and give you a recommendation of whether you should change your oil your filter or both. Reason I know this is I am looking at getting the amsoil filtration system for my diesel and you send oil samples in to this company every 15k miles and they give you that data. It cost $25 dollars and typically only take a few days. would be a good little experiment to do on your vehicle one time to know if the advisor is right.

+1

+1

I don't know what you mean by "new GM". I have a 2000 Z71 and either the owners manual or my mechanic, not sure of the source, says that the indicator light has nothing to do with how dirty your oil is or if it has broken down structurely. It has to do with a combination of mileage, hours run, and at what RPM's it is ran. It has no idea if this is highway miles or all gravel roads running in the dust of someone driving in front of you. I would just pull the dipstick and analize the oil if you don't want to go with a set mileage point of change.

I have a '92 GMC full size truck that has lived on synthetic since birth.

No engine problems and I change oil every 5 K. Works for me!

Oil change is over rated. I have run several fleet vehicles 150,000 plus miles with 10 to 15k oil changes. Only reason we didn't run them longer is we trade them at 150K. I was driving these about 5K miles a month. Changed every 2 to 3 months.

My personal truck every 7,500 to 10K.

Just go with your heart!

DayyyyyyYummmmm! Was that in a movie or something?

+1 on that. Do not understand the logic of changing oil at 3000 miles when the owner's manual says 5000 miles, some say up to 7500. The manufacturer is not going to risk destroying their engines, especially in the warranty period, by suggesting a longer change period than required.
Are the quickie lube places going to say 3000 miles? Heck yes, that's more business for them.
I've had someone else change my oil once in my life. Last summer, I was out of town, and had my initial oil change on my new Dodge when the light came on at 4200 miles. The Dodge dealer told me I should have waited until 5000 miles. The little sticker he put on the windshield? Next oil change due at 9200 miles.

Some people have the opinion that if 5000 miles is good, then 3000 must really be good. If that's the case, let's all change it at 1000 miles.

I ran the oil Life Monitor on the last three GM trucks I have owned. It normally called for an oil change around 10K. I used Mobil 1 and never had any engine trouble in over 450,000 combined miles. On conventional oil changes I go with a 5k interval.

heres an article about the engine oil monitoring system. its based on electical current conductivity.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Oil-Monitoring-Systems---Friend-or-Foe?&id=1041543