GM OLM

[roadrunner1]

Quick question,
One of my nieces just bought an '04 chevrolet with the OLM, is there a way to tell you the remaining oil life in a percentage form? It has a sticker on the windshield as to when it was changed and when its due.

I have no familiarity with this system whatsoever, and last night with the owners manual in hand I followed the instructions on how to access the information in the radio information center, but basically it looked to be reset information.

Thanks in advance, the last GM product we owned was an '84 Olds Cierra my wife had when we met.

 

[Barkleymut]

My 04 Saturn only alerts me when it is time to change the oil. And from what I have seen it is set to go off every 7500 miles. Pretty basic and useless.

 

[eljefino]

You might be able to get % remaining with a (Tech III) scan tool or with on star, if you can't get it on a display.

If you're going to do it yourself, don't reset it, and see how much further into your new oil they'll let you go.

That'll set a baseline.

 

[BobsArmory]

The olm's work pretty good. My wifes last car, a 2000 chevy Impala didn't show remaining oil life but it averaged 6,000 to 7,500 miles before the light went off. As I recall the light came on when there was about 600 miles left before you had to change the oil and filter.

We went by the olm for the entire time we had it (190,000 miles) and the motor was still running perfect when we sold it. GM's olm works great. Put decent oil in it and it will not fail you.

 

[Benzadmiral]

My '03 Buick has the percentage readout, which I select via a "Gages" [sic] button to the left of the instrument cluster. I've had the car for 5.5 years, since 44K miles (103K now), have changed oil about every 5000 miles/5-6 months, and each time the readout has told me I had about 2K miles to go to zero. The car burns very little oil. It runs perfectly and gets astonishing gas mileage for its size.

From all I've read here, the GM OLM is both very conservative, and very useful.

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
You might be able to get % remaining with a (Tech III) scan tool or with on star, if you can't get it on a display.

If you're going to do it yourself, don't reset it, and see how much further into your new oil they'll let you go.

That'll set a baseline.



Yes, with a GM Tech 2 you can see the percentage. There is no other way. My dad has had me hook my Tech 2 up to his 05 GMC Canyon to see how much % he has because he hates not knowing when it's coming up on the oil change.

 

[TTK]

If you have OnStar, they send you a report every month showing the percentages.

 

[Doog]

The first thing I do is change the oil and reset the OLM on any used car I buy. Then go from there with my own records.

 

[Mullick2001]

I have a readout in my driver information center in my factory radio. Trust me your lucky you don't have it. In order to change my factory radio I need a $200 adapter to keep my door chimes and Information center. I have changed my oil at 8,000 before and I had 15% left. I was using max life back then and didnt trust if for longer than 8,000 miles. That was all road trip miles though I am running amsoil now and at 3,800 miles im down to 35% because I dont work in the winter and drive only short trips. It varys but you can usually get a good idea of how long you have left based on how you drive.

 

[roadrunner1]

Thanks to all for the replies, I was just curious if I could easily monitor her percentage of oil life remaining.

In '04 was this OLM intelligent or basically a mileage counter?

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: TTK
If you have OnStar, they send you a report every month showing the percentages.


Not this vintage of Onstar. This truck would have the older analog system that is much less capable.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Despite the older tech and simple light the 04 OLM on our vans was very accurate and accounted for stationary operations as well as miles driven.

Our oldest fleet truck is an 04 rapidly nearing HALF A MILLION miles and it has always been serviced by the OLM.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: roadrunner1
Thanks to all for the replies, I was just curious if I could easily monitor her percentage of oil life remaining.

In '04 was this OLM intelligent or basically a mileage counter?


It's always been an intelligent programmed monitor and not just a milage counter.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: roadrunner1
Thanks to all for the replies, I was just curious if I could easily monitor her percentage of oil life remaining.

In '04 was this OLM intelligent or basically a mileage counter?

From what I've gleaned here, the algorithm takes into account mileage, how long the engine is on each time and the temp it reaches, plus the external temperature -- all factors that affect the life of your oil. The OLM doesn't "test" the oil, but it makes a very good estimate on the oil's life based on the factors above, and maybe others.