Break in oil changes.

[wsteele]

I just bought a new Honda lawn mower and the owners manual states to change the oil at 5 hrs for the first change, so some engines still require a break in oil change. The Koehler engine in my ride on mower also called for a 25 hr first change (100 thereafter).

Talking to my dealer service advisor about my new Sierra AT4 6.2L, he recommended I change the oil filter at 1000 and again at 3000, then 5000 thereafter. He has been my service advisor since I started using this dealer a long time ago and has never steered me wrong.

Not sure it is universal, but at my local GMC dealer, oil/filter changes are less than my retail cost of materials to do it myself. I still do it myself, probably more out of habit than anything else. Still buy Valvoline full synthetic and WIX filters, seemed to work pretty well for the last 14 years on my 2007 Yukon.

 

[R32driver]

I do 5k miles or 1 year on all my vehicles, whichever comes first. This seems to be the new standard for oil changes. I was curious about the first oil change on the yukon (first new vehicle I've ever owned) and the dealer said 5k is their recommendation even for the first one so that's what I did.

 

[NYisles1]

Will the dealer do the complimentary first service that early? Took my wifes Cadillac for an early first oil change two years ago and the dealer said GM would not allow them to do it (under the complimentary program) unless the oil life monitor had reached 20%. Its a lease so I wound up just sticking with what they recommended...but will probably have the Yukons first change done at around 3000 miles whether they cover it or not.

 

[SSGUNNER]

I did my first oil change at 4500 and the oil was pitch black. After seeing that anything between 3500 - 5000 is what I would recommend.

Currently at 7700 and planning next change.

 

[pwtr02ss]

I did my first change at 2700 and the second at 5k. Been on 5k intervals ever since. I don't see what it could hurt. It was black at 2700, black at 2300, and black every change since.

I will say that like @Joseph Garcia said, I read that the Hondas have a special break in oil and it's not advised to change it early. I can't confirm that for a fact, just read it a lot when we bought my wife's car. I've never heard that about a gm vehicle though. IMO, change it early and get the break in stuff out. Oil is cheap. I had planned to do mine at 1500 miles originally, but time got away from me

 

[Stbentoak]

My oil is black after 100 miles… color is no indicator of condition….

 

[R32driver]

Checked mine at 4600 miles give or take and it still looked brand new. It’s one of those unreliable problematic 5.3’s though

 

[avalonandl]

Diesels do that, turn oil black. Means nothing.

 

[thegrunter]

I did a search on this topic and didn't find one specifically and decided this old topic is close to my question. I don't like creating new topics. I just got a new Tahoe and there is the recommended 500 mile break-in period where they don't want the customer to drive a long road trip to avoid flat spotting the cam. My question is with these 10 speed transmissions, the RPM's change a lot and I am wondering if a drive from LA to Las Vegas (300 miles) with only 100 miles on the Tahoe is not a constant RPM drive with all the traffic and hill grades changing gears. I can see if I were in Kansas on a 300 mile flat road on cruise control for 4 hours being ill advised. What say my fellow Tahoe owners? Would you do the LA to Vegas?

 

[StephenPT]

I did a search on this topic and didn't find one specifically and decided this old topic is close to my question. I don't like creating new topics. I just got a new Tahoe and there is the recommended 500 mile break-in period where they don't want the customer to drive a long road trip to avoid flat spotting the cam. My question is with these 10 speed transmissions, the RPM's change a lot and I am wondering if a drive from LA to Las Vegas (300 miles) with only 100 miles on the Tahoe is not a constant RPM drive with all the traffic and hill grades changing gears. I can see if I were in Kansas on a 300 mile flat road on cruise control for 4 hours being ill advised. What say my fellow Tahoe owners? Would you do the LA to Vegas?

That's a good trip for it to break-in. Just don't get it up to 75-80mph and lock the cruise for the entire trip. My Yukon had 5 miles on the odometer when I picked it up at the dealership and then I drove 410 miles home. When I was on stretches of highway where there weren't many other cars around I would slow down to ~45mph and then bring it back up to 65mph. Do that a handful of times on the trip and you'll keep the engine running through its rpm range and avoid improper break-in of the piston rings.