I'm a GM oil life monitor believer

[BlakeB]

GM recommends 7,500 miles, 300 engine hours or once per year on the Duramax. My dads truck goes ~500 engine hours and 7,500-8,000 miles following the OLM. He typically runs the OLM down to 0% every 5 months or so. I haven't ran a UOA on any of his drains, but it would be interesting to know what the oil looks like after 500 hours of heavy towing and lots of idling and short trips.

On my 2017 Duramax, I haven't yet changed the oil, but it had 84% on the OLM when I bought it I've since put 5,300 miles on it and over 300 hours and it still shows 25% on the OLM. I do some heavy towing, sometimes grossing 30-32k lbs and drive frequent short trips. I have a 1 mile drive that I do several times per day.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted by bbhero
Very, very good response demarpaint... Respectful and saying things in a right way.

Thanks. I try to keep it civil.

 

[bbhero]

Ahh you do a very good job man .. I almost went off on someone in bad fashion last pm.... I decided not to. Though I was sure thinking of doing it. And I was thinking about it because of how someone else was talking to another really cool member on here. .

 

[benjy]

are you using water aka xW20 or a xW30 that has shown to be better for gm's cheap timing chains! good luck

 

[tahoe_hybrid]

I change it every 4,000 miles BUT if you have 8qt then you can change it every 6,000 miles

these are what i recommend if you have Active fuel management


well if you want the engine to last more then 250k miles

if you want it to last to 100k use the OLM

if you tow you will want to change it sooner like every 3k miles full synthetic

 

[CheezWhiz]

I use the OLM on my 2016 6.0 vortec 2500HD. I use the cheapest dexos 5w30 I can find and wind up changing at about 6500 miles with 10-15 percent left on the OLM.

Who here has actually worn out an engine? I haven't. I guess if I ever do I will start paying more attention.

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted by benjy
are you using water aka xW20 or a xW30 that has shown to be better for gm's cheap timing chains! good luck


Not as cheap as most of your GM comments

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by BISCUT
I have an OLM on my 15 F150 5.0. From my readings be glad you have the GM OLM. Mine on the 150 surely is heavy on time ...


The Ford OLM is definately taking time into consideration. Your OLM will go down 2% a week (ie, 100% to 0% in a year) even if the truck sat in the garage and was never driven.

 

[Railrust]

Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by BISCUT
Well I dont think TBN is actually linear. I'm no engineer so take it for an opinion.

I have an OLM on my 15 F150 5.0. From my readings be glad you have the GM OLM. Mine on the 150 surely is heavy on time and takes no account into the composition of the oil. Sample sent....time or I should say analysis will answer for itself.


GM's doesn't either. That's why I mentioned it can't take in to account dusty conditions. The trucks (5.3 motors) at least up to 2018 comes OEM with a syn blend oil. So-many report the OLM doesn't go much past 7,500.

A syn-blend should be able to handle that..


I don't think the 5.3's come with a synthetic blend, the engine calls for 0w20...didn't think a 0w20 was available in a blend (could be wrong).

And the OLM will go directly to 0% as soon as you hit 7,500 miles - at least according to what I've read on the 2014-2018 GM trucks forums. I have a 2018 with the 5.3...I just change it every 5,000 miles...OLM is usually between 30-35% at that point (every single time).

What I'd like to know is...would it be better for me to run a 5w30 in this engine? Because I'll expirement as soon as my warranty is up.

 

[Railrust]

Originally Posted by CheezWhiz
I use the OLM on my 2016 6.0 vortec 2500HD. I use the cheapest dexos 5w30 I can find and wind up changing at about 6500 miles with 10-15 percent left on the OLM.

Who here has actually worn out an engine? I haven't. I guess if I ever do I will start paying more attention.


Keep in mind...I believe your engine (6.0) isn't like a lot of these other V8-V6 engines that manufacturers stuff into their trucks, SUV's and bigger sedans, pretending or trying to achieve great fuel economy numbers. The 6.0 doesn't pretend to even try. So I don't think you have to worry about certain things like...low tension rings (for fuel economy), I don't even think the 6.0 is direct injected (not sure).

I have worn out an engine and I think it was my fault. It was on one of those earlier model direct injection V8's where they told me I could go 5,000-10,000 miles on my oil change intervals. So I started with 5,000 mile OCI's, then got a little brave after reading the Internet oil change interval advice sections, and pushed it to 7,500...then to 8,000. Then when the engine reached 150,000 miles it went from an engine that never used a drop at 70,000 miles....to using a quart every 1,000. Traded it in at 178,000 miles...was a quart every two weeks. I kind of blame myself for that, but maybe it would have happened anyway? Don't know. But I did try going to a heavier weight, didn't help.

 

[CheezWhiz]

Originally Posted by Railrust
Originally Posted by CheezWhiz
I use the OLM on my 2016 6.0 vortec 2500HD. I use the cheapest dexos 5w30 I can find and wind up changing at about 6500 miles with 10-15 percent left on the OLM.

Who here has actually worn out an engine? I haven't. I guess if I ever do I will start paying more attention.


Keep in mind...I believe your engine (6.0) isn't like a lot of these other V8-V6 engines that manufacturers stuff into their trucks, SUV's and bigger sedans, pretending or trying to achieve great fuel economy numbers. The 6.0 doesn't pretend to even try. So I don't think you have to worry about certain things like...low tension rings (for fuel economy), I don't even think the 6.0 is direct injected (not sure).

I have worn out an engine and I think it was my fault. It was on one of those earlier model direct injection V8's where they told me I could go 5,000-10,000 miles on my oil change intervals. So I started with 5,000 mile OCI's, then got a little brave after reading the Internet oil change interval advice sections, and pushed it to 7,500...then to 8,000. Then when the engine reached 150,000 miles it went from an engine that never used a drop at 70,000 miles....to using a quart every 1,000. Traded it in at 178,000 miles...was a quart every two weeks. I kind of blame myself for that, but maybe it would have happened anyway? Don't know. But I did try going to a heavier weight, didn't help.


very true, the 6.0 has no DI or AFM, just a very basic iron block LS engine. Does have VVT.

 

[SteveSRT8]

We have 3500 service vans that use the 6.0. We have worn out an engine, but only one. It failed at 210k miles and 5500 hours of stationary operations.

The 6.0 is quite durable. It should be noted that we have little info on the new ones that move the cam. The most we have on one now is about 80k miles, and we love them all. They are much more powerful than the 6.0 with the fixed cam.

As for the OLM, it works wonderfully on V-8 engines. Since that is all our fleet uses we like it!

 

[Charlie2015]

GM's typically have issues when people run the engines low on oil. The OLM does not account for oil consumption. I have seen a lot of 3.6L (CTS/ATS & Camaro) and 2.4L ecotec (Equinox) timing chain issues from running low on oil. The common consumer can run the OLM down to 0% as long as they keep the oil level full and probably never have an issue. How many people can actually read a dipstick or even know how to check the oil level (engine off and on level ground)?

 

[Malo83]

Originally Posted by Charlie2015
GM's typically have issues when people run the engines low on oil. The OLM does not account for oil consumption. I have seen a lot of 3.6L (CTS/ATS & Camaro) and 2.4L ecotec (Equinox) timing chain issues from running low on oil. The common consumer can run the OLM down to 0% as long as they keep the oil level full and probably never have an issue. How many people can actually read a dipstick or even know how to check the oil level (engine off and on level ground)?

Don't think that was the problem, running the oil longer was causing the timing chain problems, on my 3.6 i stick to 5K oil changes as well as my Regal GS with the 2.0T, the OLM is not a factor.

 

[dave1251]

Sorry bud but the people who said not to follow the OLM do not know what they are talking about. It is that simple a few of GM engineers have stated they follow the OLM with the recommend PCMO. The sky is falling crowd is rarely correct and when they are it's not because facts and analysis is followed. It's because if you continue to say something will fail you will be right eventually. Broken clocks are correct twice a day.

 

[gamefoo21]

I honestly don't believe that the GM OLM is smart enough to count anything more than mileage and maybe some kind of engine run time reference.

Beyond that it's stupider than a bag of rocks.

I have little faith in the quality of unpaid interns GM uses for coding their ECUs. There's 5-10 years of cars they cranked put that will overcool, because they didn't bother to program in a shut off temperature for the fan.

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted by gamefoo21
I honestly don't believe that the GM OLM is smart enough to count anything more than mileage and maybe some kind of engine run time reference.

Beyond that it's stupider than a bag of rocks.

I have little faith in the quality of unpaid interns GM uses for coding their ECUs. There's 5-10 years of cars they cranked put that will overcool, because they didn't bother to program in a shut off temperature for the fan.

Dave saved me lots of time with this (thanks)

Sorry bud but the people who said not to follow the OLM do not know what they are talking about. It is that simple a few of GM engineers have stated they follow the OLM with the recommend PCMO. The sky is falling crowd is rarely correct and when they are it's not because facts and analysis is followed. It's because if you continue to say something will fail you will be right eventually. Broken clocks are correct twice a day.

 

[gamefoo21]

OLM is pretty accurate if you don't exceed normal operating conditions too much. But it's not something that deals well with extreme conditions or something that compromises your oil.

It's reliable as long as you understand it's an egg timer, but it doesn't actually monitor the oil. Like it says with normal pcmo with normal driving. It is reliable within those limits.

 

[4WD]

The Chevrolet Oil Life Monitor (OLM) system is not a simple oil quality sensor, but a software-based, algorithm-driven device that takes into account various operating conditions of the engine to determine when the oil needs changing. Certain driving habits can affect the life of the oil, as well as driving conditions such as temperature and driving terrain. Lighter, more moderate driving conditions and temperature will require less frequent oil changes and maintenance, while more severe driving conditions will require more frequent oil changes and maintenance. Read the table below to see how the OLM system determines oil life:

 

[2KBMW]

We've been doing short trips with two of our GM vehicles the last few winters and the OLM
drops like a ton of bricks. It goes off after 5500 to 6000 km (3500 mi approx.). Works great.