Oil life question

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

OP
OP
iboughtatahoe23

iboughtatahoe23

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2023
Posts
765
Reaction score
413
Not sure why the text didn’t upload but:

Oil life seems a bit low for only 1749 miles since last change. (2014 Tahoe)

Changed it at 168,832 miles. 2014 Tahoe 5.3 v8 doesn’t burn or leak oil. I can’t recall oil I used but iit was a decent synthetic brand and I used the right weight and all that. Added the right amount etc. typical oil change. Not to hard can’t really mess it up.

Anyways: for in town driving would this much oil life be acceptable for 1749 miles? I don’t ever travel. Just driving to work and stuff like that. And sometimes I let it idle for a bit to warm up. Maybe 5-10 min. My oil PSI is good too. And inspection on it recently
 

B-train

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2022
Posts
2,257
Reaction score
3,880
It used 63% that quickly? When do you normally change the oil? By the monitor (if so what %), or by mileage?

Is it possible the monitor didn't reset and now you are just seeing lower than before? I usually change mine at 5k, which is somewhere around the 40-50% oil life left per the truck. I occasionally forget to reset it, but don't really use it other than a check point.

If you did reset it, then my assumption is that lots of short trips with idle time in cold weather could cause that. There are all kinds of inputs that go into the calculation. The oil looks decent from what I can see.
 

Dustin Jackson

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2018
Posts
1,544
Reaction score
1,741
@iboughtatahoe23 That "oil life monitor" is just a timer, it doesn't actually mean anything.

As long as you can see your dipstick through the oil you are good, if the oil is so dark on the dipsticks that you can't see it then its time to replace it.
 

Geotrash

Dave
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2018
Posts
6,426
Reaction score
15,921
Location
Richmond, VA
Is it possible the monitor didn't reset and now you are just seeing lower than before? I usually change mine at 5k, which is somewhere around the 40-50% oil life left per the truck. I occasionally forget to reset it, but don't really use it other than a check point.
+1. I find that oil change shops seldom reset the oil life minder.

My solution is to change the oil every 5K miles at 100K, 105K, 110K, 115K, etc so it's easy to remember.
 
OP
OP
iboughtatahoe23

iboughtatahoe23

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2023
Posts
765
Reaction score
413
+1. I find that oil change shops seldom reset the oil life minder.

My solution is to change the oil every 5K miles at 100K, 105K, 110K, 115K, etc so it's easy to remember.
I did reset the oil life gauge bc it was at 40% when I changed it last in August and there’s no way it used only 3% in 5-6 months.

Mileage is 170 K and it’s only been five months since I changed the oil and I’ve only put on less than 2K miles. Only factors I can think of is cold weather in the last few months, idling, high miles. Idk.

I changed it at 40% life last time to.

I bought it at 165k in February 23’ had fresh oil done that following march and changed again for 2nd time this last august at 168832 from 165k miles the first time and this time around I have oil life at 37% now in January and only have 1700 miles on the second oil change
 
OP
OP
iboughtatahoe23

iboughtatahoe23

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2023
Posts
765
Reaction score
413
It used 63% that quickly? When do you normally change the oil? By the monitor (if so what %), or by mileage?

Is it possible the monitor didn't reset and now you are just seeing lower than before? I usually change mine at 5k, which is somewhere around the 40-50% oil life left per the truck. I occasionally forget to reset it, but don't really use it other than a check point.

If you did reset it, then my assumption is that lots of short trips with idle time in cold weather could cause that. There are all kinds of inputs that go into the calculation. The oil looks decent from what I can see.
I did reset the oil life gauge bc it was at 40% when I changed it last in August and there’s no way it used only 3% in 5-6 months.



Yes to answer your question I do do a lot of short trips and idling and it is really cold here about 20° on average and been dipping below freezing lately. But my oil doesn’t look like 37% oil life?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
132,307
Posts
1,865,722
Members
96,896
Latest member
grass209
Top