Believe it or not, a lot of these larger SUV's (Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, Escalde) are driving by what we often call "Soccer Moms" what you might call "Football Moms", mothers of 2-4 kids ages 4+ years old that are constantly on the run 7 days a week; running kids and friends to school, appointments, sports, social events and so forth. The moms really tend to put the vehicle thru pretty severe duty other than towing, very similar to commercial use. Rarely any long highway drives unless the family travels, which may only be a few times a year. No disrespect to the "Soccer Mom", love me some "Soccer Mom" but I have witnessed this first hand over MANY, MANY years while my son played many sports, while working on vehicles and being around many of the husbands of "Soccer Moms".
You end up with the following:
Lots of short distance runs where the engine may not fully heat up
Auto Stop/Start is not likely manually turned off unless the husband bypassed this feature
Mostly in town, city traffic with a lot of time sitting in traffic and/or at traffic lights
DFM not likely bypassed or transmission kept in L9 unless husband installed bypass
Lots of remote starting and allowing the engine to run a long time to warm or cool cabin
Lots of extended idle time to keep cabin warm or cool in carpool lines wait for kids
Extending oil changes out until the OLM pops on dash, then maybe longer
Rarely checking the engine oil, that is what a sensor or light is for!
Unfortunately these conditions are quite common and the vehicle and engine will be tested just due to rat race schedules and needing to haul kids to every event known to man and usually running a tight schedule, barely being able to make an event on time.
I would love to know the engine run hours as well as mileage for most of the early engine failures.
Agree with your comments about the oil pressure being a bit late to the game, the sensor is in the front of the oiling path almost directly after the oil filter, in the old days this was fine, but now with all the DFM components and the fact you have a 2 stage oil pump, having an additional oil pressure switch at the end of the oiling path to control the 2 stage oil pump would have been a novel idea!
As you are aware, I raised the issue of oil fill level when changing the oil, there is an entire thread of hate about this. I have carefully monitored the oil level required when changing the oil and filter and it is MORE than the specified 8 qts, even GM stated in the earlier generation engines the oil fill capacity as 8.5 qts, then sometime along the way with printing of a piece of paper and no changes to the engine or oil pan the value was reduced from 8.5 pts to 8.0 qts and has been this way for close to 10 years.
I myself have decided for many reasons, to include all these engine failures, torun 9.0 qts when changing the oil and filter. I do pull the dipstick and remove the oil fill cap when I drain the oil and allow the engine to drain for close to 2 hours. 9.0 qts is slightly above the top hash marks on the dipstick, but nowhere too high where the crank will hit the oil. Keep in mind while the engine is running, there is oil that has also not drained back into the oil pan, just check the oil when immediately turning the engine off vs waiting 10-60 minutes to check the oil. Have your guys take a spare oil pan on the bench and fill with 8 qts of water, mark the level inside the pan, then add 1 more quart of water and see how little the level rises in the oil pan. You would probably need 12-13 quarts in the engine before the crank would be hitting the oil, at this point the level would be above the windage tray.
The additional 1 quart gives a slight edge on fuel dilution, oil cooling, overall contamination, if running oil until the OLM/OCI triggers, having 1 extra quart means the oil will be overall less contaminated for the same conditions at 8 qts. It also gives a much larger buffer for people that do not regularly check oil before the oil level gets to the point the Add Oil message pops up on the dash, which is typically when the engine is 2 qts low on oil.
Anyone with a newer model DI vehicle that runs on E10 fuel that wants the engine to last should be changing the oil at 1/2 the OLM/OCI. In most cases this would be around 4000 miles IMHO. But it also depends on the oil sump size as well, if a smaller turbo charged 4 cylinder with a 4 qt oil sump, I would not run past 3000 miles on an oil change these days. We have kind of stepped backwards to the 1960-1970's for oil change mileage, but it is due to all the technology but we have also harnessed a lot more performance and efficiency out of todays engines, but with far more moving parts.
You end up with the following:
Lots of short distance runs where the engine may not fully heat up
Auto Stop/Start is not likely manually turned off unless the husband bypassed this feature
Mostly in town, city traffic with a lot of time sitting in traffic and/or at traffic lights
DFM not likely bypassed or transmission kept in L9 unless husband installed bypass
Lots of remote starting and allowing the engine to run a long time to warm or cool cabin
Lots of extended idle time to keep cabin warm or cool in carpool lines wait for kids
Extending oil changes out until the OLM pops on dash, then maybe longer
Rarely checking the engine oil, that is what a sensor or light is for!
Unfortunately these conditions are quite common and the vehicle and engine will be tested just due to rat race schedules and needing to haul kids to every event known to man and usually running a tight schedule, barely being able to make an event on time.
I would love to know the engine run hours as well as mileage for most of the early engine failures.
Agree with your comments about the oil pressure being a bit late to the game, the sensor is in the front of the oiling path almost directly after the oil filter, in the old days this was fine, but now with all the DFM components and the fact you have a 2 stage oil pump, having an additional oil pressure switch at the end of the oiling path to control the 2 stage oil pump would have been a novel idea!
As you are aware, I raised the issue of oil fill level when changing the oil, there is an entire thread of hate about this. I have carefully monitored the oil level required when changing the oil and filter and it is MORE than the specified 8 qts, even GM stated in the earlier generation engines the oil fill capacity as 8.5 qts, then sometime along the way with printing of a piece of paper and no changes to the engine or oil pan the value was reduced from 8.5 pts to 8.0 qts and has been this way for close to 10 years.
I myself have decided for many reasons, to include all these engine failures, torun 9.0 qts when changing the oil and filter. I do pull the dipstick and remove the oil fill cap when I drain the oil and allow the engine to drain for close to 2 hours. 9.0 qts is slightly above the top hash marks on the dipstick, but nowhere too high where the crank will hit the oil. Keep in mind while the engine is running, there is oil that has also not drained back into the oil pan, just check the oil when immediately turning the engine off vs waiting 10-60 minutes to check the oil. Have your guys take a spare oil pan on the bench and fill with 8 qts of water, mark the level inside the pan, then add 1 more quart of water and see how little the level rises in the oil pan. You would probably need 12-13 quarts in the engine before the crank would be hitting the oil, at this point the level would be above the windage tray.
The additional 1 quart gives a slight edge on fuel dilution, oil cooling, overall contamination, if running oil until the OLM/OCI triggers, having 1 extra quart means the oil will be overall less contaminated for the same conditions at 8 qts. It also gives a much larger buffer for people that do not regularly check oil before the oil level gets to the point the Add Oil message pops up on the dash, which is typically when the engine is 2 qts low on oil.
Anyone with a newer model DI vehicle that runs on E10 fuel that wants the engine to last should be changing the oil at 1/2 the OLM/OCI. In most cases this would be around 4000 miles IMHO. But it also depends on the oil sump size as well, if a smaller turbo charged 4 cylinder with a 4 qt oil sump, I would not run past 3000 miles on an oil change these days. We have kind of stepped backwards to the 1960-1970's for oil change mileage, but it is due to all the technology but we have also harnessed a lot more performance and efficiency out of todays engines, but with far more moving parts.
yes, there are some interesting threads of mine there))
