Change your oil and filter every 3,000 miles. Pay no attention to the indicator.
Engine oil life indicator--reliable?
- Thread starter gc2001
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I came planning to ask the same thing. 2004 Escalade ESV. 125K miles. One owner. Good Carfax. I've always done 3000 miles on all vehicles, but I'm thinking that's not necessary any more. I tend to check the dipstick for level and condition of the oil. So . . . . . .
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I should add that we were on Valvoline's 225K Mile Engine Guarantee. They wanted every 3000 miles, and they would end the guarantee for a vehicle if you did 3 oil changes over 4000 miles. I did that on four vehicles.
Valvoline ended that guarantee, and we replaced one of two of the vehicles, so I am not as **** about oil changes now.
All of our vehicles have over 125K miles, and we have had virtually no oil-related issues.
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Hmmm! I just found this in the owner's manual:
If the system is ever reset accidentally, you must change your oil at 3,000 miles (5 000 km) since your last oil change. Remember to reset the oil life system whenever the oil is changed.
I wonder if WalMart resets it, or if I have to remember to?
Other than that, it does not mention what the oil change interval should be, even in the maintenance schedule. It says to go by the Oil Life indicator.
Also, our vehicle has gone over 2000 miles since the last oil change and the Oil Life Indicator is at 76%. That seems suspicious.
Page 5.11 ish. and 6.2
If the system is ever reset accidentally, you must change your oil at 3,000 miles (5 000 km) since your last oil change. Remember to reset the oil life system whenever the oil is changed.
I wonder if WalMart resets it, or if I have to remember to?
Other than that, it does not mention what the oil change interval should be, even in the maintenance schedule. It says to go by the Oil Life indicator.
Also, our vehicle has gone over 2000 miles since the last oil change and the Oil Life Indicator is at 76%. That seems suspicious.
Page 5.11 ish. and 6.2
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Marky Dissod
Full Access Member
It may or may not be, depending on how conservatively / wisely you've driven.
To brutally oversimplify, the Oil Life Monitor measures how the driver treats the engine and engine oil.
Some things 'count' moreso than others, however.
For example:
engine revs accumulated before Closed Loop are counted much less favorably, than engine revs accumulated during Closed Loop
Each time the engine is started, the colder the engine oil / coolant, the less favorably those engine revs are counted
engine revs accumulated in 3rd or 4th gear with the TCC locked are counted more favorably than engine revs in 1st or 2nd with the TCC unlocked
(that's how GM favors highway mileage over metro / urban stop'n'go mileage)
In the manual, it clearly states:
"It is possible that, under the best conditions, the oil life system may not indicate that an oil change is necessary for over a year.
However, your engine oil and filter must be changed at least once a year, and at this time, the system must be reset."
The Oil Life Monitor has no sense of time whatsoever, it only accrues various counts of various sensor inputs.
When it accrues enough engine revs, it's time to change the oil again.
(Also it cannot tell the ambient air quality 'as in clean or dirty', and it cannot tell the difference between butter, margarine, vegetable oil, schidty motor oil, soso synthetic-ish motor oil, or synthetic motor oil.)
The GMT900 Oil Life Monitor lets the driver see the present percentage of Oil Life left.
Too bad the GMT800 OLM does not (if I'm wrong, someone PLEASE correct me!).
Engine oil life indicator--reliable?
Hello, I've got a 2003 Tahoe with 125k miles. It comes with the engine oil life indicator that gauges the oil life based on engine revolutions and temperature (it displays as a percentage). Given the age of the truck, are these indicators still reliable, as long as they are reset after every...
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SilverSport
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remember too that our GMT800s pre date the use of synthetic oil as the engine lubricant specification...if you use synthetic oil it seems that most on this Forum and others with similar vehicles recommend the 5K miles or 1 year mark for oil changes...
GM Oil Life Monitors I've dealt with usually display the Change Oil Soon/Change Oil Now sometime after the 1 year mark...I've only seen it once on a car I took care of that hit the 1 year mark but only had 4K miles...it seems our GMT800 vehicles will just display Change Engine Oil...changing the oil seems like cheap insurance to me...
I've read elsewhere that the current (and any vehicles updated) GM OLM is calibrated for 7500 miles max on oil changes but again, I've read most here do the 5K mark oil changes and I don't prefer to go longer than that.
my 2005 Denali 6.0 is at just over 5 months and 2600 miles and the OLM indicates about 50%...
Good luck with yours...
Bill
GM Oil Life Monitors I've dealt with usually display the Change Oil Soon/Change Oil Now sometime after the 1 year mark...I've only seen it once on a car I took care of that hit the 1 year mark but only had 4K miles...it seems our GMT800 vehicles will just display Change Engine Oil...changing the oil seems like cheap insurance to me...
I've read elsewhere that the current (and any vehicles updated) GM OLM is calibrated for 7500 miles max on oil changes but again, I've read most here do the 5K mark oil changes and I don't prefer to go longer than that.
my 2005 Denali 6.0 is at just over 5 months and 2600 miles and the OLM indicates about 50%...
Good luck with yours...
Bill
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nonickatall
Full Access Member
In my opinion, the car manufacturers only introduced the oil change thing after a year because of vehicles that are used in extremely short-distance traffic.
If you haven't reached 5,000 miles after using a car like this for a year, you're probably driving a lot from your front door to McDonald's or Walmart, which is 100 meters away.
Of course, this causes condensation to collect in the oil, which is not good for the whole thing. But if you only drive your car for 250 miles twice a year in one go, because you pull your camper into the mountains by car, then it's enough to change the oil after 10 years, if the 5000 miles are full. Oil doesn't go bad.
The reason why car manufacturers artificially set oil change intervals higher is because companies that operate company vehicles judge them based on the maintenance costs per mile.
And of course a service every 5,000 miles is more expensive than if I extend the oil interval to 25,000 miles, like German manufacturers do with their crappy long-life oils. And that's also the case with diesels, where I already have a significant amount of soot particles entering the oil. I think that's catastrophic.
They also claim that the oil for automatic transmissions or differentials is a lifetime filling.
When people tell me that, I always tell them: Yes, that's right, you don't need to change the oil anymore if the transmission is end of lifetime...
But in my opinion, what is even more important than changing the oil every 5,000 miles is that you use high-quality oil. I see this again and again in vehicles that are driven with cheap oil, which collects carbon dioxide.
Personally, I only use Motul oil, which is pretty much the best in Germany. And my engines are clean inside...
Mudsport96
Full Access Member
Here is a perfect apples to apples comparison.
My daughter has been driving the Silverado to college. It is almost all highway there is 5 miles of 35 mph, 2 miles of 45 mph, 10 miles of 65 mph, and 95 miles of 85mph. One way So double that for a round trip.
So, I did an oil change at 412,500 miles and at 415,500 the oil life monitoring system showed 76% life left...that was in 6 weeks as she walks or takes the college transit busses everywhere when she is there, all miles are to and from home/college.
My wife uses the Tahoe, she will occasionally run to the next city over 20 miles at 55mph. But, mostly around town here at 35mph tops. So 3000 miles takes months to accrue. So at 2000 miles the monitoring system shows 20%.
So while the system COULD work I would never trust it based on personal experience.
Both vehicles are basically the same drivetrain.
Engines: 5.3 L59( Tahoe) 5.3 L33 (Silverado)
Transmission: 4l60e same for both
Transfer case: Tahoe 4 button auto case, Silverado manual case
Gear ratios: Same at 3.42
Tires: same Brand, model, and size on both
Tahoe is rear disc brakes, Silverado is rear drum
My daughter has been driving the Silverado to college. It is almost all highway there is 5 miles of 35 mph, 2 miles of 45 mph, 10 miles of 65 mph, and 95 miles of 85mph. One way So double that for a round trip.
So, I did an oil change at 412,500 miles and at 415,500 the oil life monitoring system showed 76% life left...that was in 6 weeks as she walks or takes the college transit busses everywhere when she is there, all miles are to and from home/college.
My wife uses the Tahoe, she will occasionally run to the next city over 20 miles at 55mph. But, mostly around town here at 35mph tops. So 3000 miles takes months to accrue. So at 2000 miles the monitoring system shows 20%.
So while the system COULD work I would never trust it based on personal experience.
Both vehicles are basically the same drivetrain.
Engines: 5.3 L59( Tahoe) 5.3 L33 (Silverado)
Transmission: 4l60e same for both
Transfer case: Tahoe 4 button auto case, Silverado manual case
Gear ratios: Same at 3.42
Tires: same Brand, model, and size on both
Tahoe is rear disc brakes, Silverado is rear drum
Marky Dissod
Full Access Member
What would it take for you to trust that system?
That's NOT a challenge. May I give an example?
I do not know a single NYC cabdriver / livery driver / chauffeur who would EVER allow the oil life monitor to hit 15%.
They consider it irresponsible to allow the oil life monitor to reach 0%.
(I used to be one myself.)
Most NYC cabdrivers / livery drivers / chauffeurs apply the following 'skew' to the Oil Life Monitor:
If mileage is mostly all highway miles (NOT NYC), they'll change oil when the oil life monitor hits 17%, but NEVER over 5000 miles.
(They recall well when Toyota stopped recommending 6000 mile oil changes due to sludge buildup leading to prematurely failing engines.)
If mileage is more highway than local, they'll change oil when oil life hits 20%, but NEVER over 4000 miles.
If mileage is more local than highway, they'll change oil when oil life hits 25%, but NEVER over 3500 miles.
If mileage is mostly all local miles (NYC, 5 boros, stop'n'go), they'll change oil when oil life hits 33%.
If they intend to keep that car after the lease is up, they may change the oil as often as every 2500 miles.
Oil and filter changes every five to six weeks are normal for them.
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the 18th letter
Full Access Member
My indicator hit 40% over 6 months 3.5k miles. I meant to change at 50% 3k miles. I think it runs on a timer as well somehow. I tend to do infrequent longer trips.
Marky Dissod
Full Access Member
This post has been proven incorrect. Read the next post for clarification. I make mistakes.
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It simply counts things - engine revs, input and output shaft revs, changes in sensor readings - and compares counts against other counts.
Old example:
When the engine starts up, the Intake Air Temp and Coolant Temp sensors (and motor oil temp sensors for those vehicles so equipped) are compared against each other, so it knows whether or not, and when, to start using the O2 sensors for fueling adjustments instead of Open Loop.
It cannot point to a watch, or any other objectively independent measurement of time.
If the key is on but the engine is off, it can only see that RpM=0, it's in Park, and whatever other sensor inputs / outputs are available.
More like, 'since these two or three things happened at once, everything is working as it should', or
'when I compared this value to this other value, and then saw a similar error twice, I knew something was up, so I logged a code'.
The closest it gets to measuring time, is how many engine revs vs engine speed vs road speeds vs input shaft speeds vs output shaft speeds, or something like that.
Engine oil life indicator--reliable?
The ecm / tcm / etc cannot measure time in discrete time units per se. Ummm it HAS TO count a literal timer inside the ecm. As a fact the idle speed is revolutions per MINUTE. If the ecm did not have an internal timer, it literally could not set base idle speed. As it has to set a given amount...
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The ecm / tcm / etc cannot measure time in discrete time units per se.
It simply counts things - engine revs, input and output shaft revs, changes in sensor readings - and compares counts against other counts.
Old example:
When the engine starts up, the Intake Air Temp and Coolant Temp sensors (and motor oil temp sensors for those vehicles so equipped) are compared against each other, so it knows whether or not, and when, to start using the O2 sensors for fueling adjustments instead of Open Loop.
It cannot point to a watch, or any other objectively independent measurement of time.
If the key is on but the engine is off, it can only see that RpM=0, it's in Park, and whatever other sensor inputs / outputs are available.
More like, 'since these two or three things happened at once, everything is working as it should', or
'when I compared this value to this other value, and then saw a similar error twice, I knew something was up, so I logged a code'.
The closest it gets to measuring time, is how many engine revs vs engine speed vs road speeds vs input shaft speeds vs output shaft speeds, or something like that.
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