How low do you go?

[supton]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
The early toyota ones go off at 5000 regardless of what you do.

I still change at 5k miles. I have a compulsion.


I think they did that so as to do a tire rotation every 5k. Oil change then every other. I kinda like it, pretty simple. I short-changed an OCI on my new-to-me truck to get it back onto that schedule.

 

[A_Harman]

I'm running past the OLM by about 50%. Since my car is burning a quart every 2000 miles, I'm wondering why I'm even changing it at all.
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Oh that's right, I've got my winter oil in it now, then when driving season starts again, I'll put my track oil in it. So I guess I'm a seasonal oil changer now; 4 months winter oil, 8 months summer oil. At this stage, the OLM is more a point of reference.

 

[cmhj]

oil is cheap

 

[saberz]

With my GM vehicle's, i rode it down to 0%. Was about 6,500/7,000 miles on an oil change.

 

[SirTanon]

I change it at, or after, it hits 0% and say "Oil change due" - not a moment before.

 

[wtd]

On the last change on my 14 Mustang GT, the OLM was at 10% with about 7,200 miles on the oil change. Oil was still very clear on the dipstick and looked pretty clean coming out of the oil pan. I would have let it go done further but it was a very nice day and I thought it would be a good time to change it before my year was up in March.

Last year I changed it when the OLM was at 2% and the message center said to "change oil soon" and I had about 6,600 miles on that change.

 

[Merkava_4]

40%

 

[mjoekingz28]

Originally Posted By: cmhj
oil is cheap



Oil is not cheap. You could probably look around and find sub-par motor oil, but there is quite a bit going on to get four quarts out of the ground and into your oil pan.

Bread is about a dollar a loaf. Does that mean I buy two more than I will eat and constantly throw away one?


Or, order a Biggie fries when I will only eat a regular.

Just because something does require a whole lot of money to purchase, does not mean you should just kick it around.

 

[Gasbuggy]

I don't pay attention to the one in my Cadillac.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: Ihatetochangeoil
Originally Posted By: oldmaninsc
Originally Posted By: WobblyElvis
In my opinion the OLM is very conservative.


I agree. The owners manual for my Impala states to change the oil within 600 miles once you get the change oil message. I usually try to take it down to almost zero, but a lot depends on what is happening in my life at the time.

I'm always amused with people that think the OLM is just a toy. I guess GM engineers are smart enough to design the car, the brakes, the various safety systems, but not smart enough to design a computer algorithm to tell you when to change the oil? LOL!


GM engineers did not engineer into the calculations the use of bypass filtration, synthetic oil, or test lab analysis. I'm using all the above and I ignore the OLM. Which do you think "GM engineers" would give precedence to, test lab analysis or their own OLM?

Amazon sells a patented product to check the condition of your oil: http://www.amazon.com/Lubricheck-Motor-O...ords=oil+tester I bought one; at the very bottom of the instructions, if you question results, it refers you to a testing lab.

Yes, the OLM is programmed to be conservative, but it is NOT intended to take precedence over lab analysis.


Boy you really missed the point. Where did anybody talk about lab analysis or bypass filtration? If you trust a 50 dollar qizmo you found on Amazon, that's your business. And how many people actually do UOA? Granted some do, but I'll bet even of the members here it is a fairly low number - at least percentage wise.

If that's what floats your boat - go for it! I was referring to people who arbitrarily pick a set mileage because they think they know better than GM (or fill in the blank) engineers.
In the end - it's their money to do with as they please, whether it's on needless oil changes or lab analysis. I just think it's funny!

 

[CT8]

I am conservative. With the driving the vehicles do I change the conventional oil vehicles at 1 year of 5,000 miles and the syn oil vehicles 1 year what ever the miles usually under 10,000 miles. When i was working some times I would work at the other branches and put 13,000 miles of mostly freeway miles and a 13,000 miles the oil M1 oil uoas were fine.

 

[Bgallagher]

If you use a quality motor oil (conventional or syn, whatever the manual dictates) and a quality filter you can easily use any of the OLMs with confidence. I use the OLM for all my vehicles without any issue what so ever.

 

[Silverado12]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
25% on the Cruze since that OLM was shown to be optimistic in that model year. 15% on our Honda so the light goes out.


I think I'm going to do my Cruze the same as you're doing w/yours. It seems about right at 5,000 or so miles. I don't want to extend with a turbo engine, since they can be hard on oil.

 

[DriveHard]

I change every 6 months regardless of miles. I usually have somewhere in the teens% to 30% life remaining on my GM meter.

 

[tojo1968]

What ever Nissan says to use and at what interval.
Castrol Magnatec 5w30 every 3750 mi. Severe service schedule.

 

[K23Turbo]

I ignore my MM and change anywhere from 6-8k miles using synthetic 5W30.

 

[oilotaku]

i am used to a 3-5k change on my vehicles and that is usually still what i do in my 05 malibu with the v6 however in the wife's turbo eco cruze we just went down to 12% i wanted to do it sooner and will next time after seeing what has happened to audi and subaru id rather be overly cautious

 

[MuzzleFlash40]

They both get done between 5 an 6k which is well before the OLM goes off.

 

[Stewie]

I go by season.

When is not cold up here then is time to OCI

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: Stewie
I go by season.

When is not cold up here then is time to OCI

Sort of the same for me... I need a lift available over lunch hour...