Chevy Volt Oil Change Intervals

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Jan 24, 2009
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Gents,

I have a 2015 Chevy Volt. It runs like an electric car for the first 40 miles of a trip. If you drive beyond that, the engine turns on. IIRC, it's a 1.4 liter detuned Chevy Cruse engine.

GM requires Dexos 1 oil. Their oil life monitor tracks how much the engine is used, and how much time has elapsed since the last oil change. It tells you to change the oil when the oil is used up, or two years have gone by - whichever is the worst case.

So, according to GM, a Dexos 1 oil can last up to 2 years.

According to almost all of the Dexos 1 oils I've seen, they recommend changing at yearly intervals or more frequently.

So, who do I listen to - the oil manufacturer, or the car manufacturer? The openly conflict on this point but they absolutely agree on the Dexos 1 specification.

Specified oil: Dexos 1 5W30 oil.
 
We use the engine so little that the OLM is essentially a two year countdown timer.

If you rarely use the engine just change when it hits zero

If your like me and use tons of gas I change early around 40-50% but will sometimes reuse the filter for two changes
 
Rock Auto still has some Fram Pro Synthetic oil filters,

I would use Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy, in 0W-30…
Dexos 1 Gen 2 certified…

 
There are some Volt owners that never plugged their car in! Can you imagine? Anyway, why don't you just follow the guidence in your manual?
The Volt was pretty far ahead of it's time, and other car makers are starting to use that "series hybrid" setup in their cars today. Back then, not too many people really caught on.
When the Volt engine DOES need to run, and it can be for various reasons, it does so at a set load and with incremental steps in throttle. You won't see that in many cars today, so public opinion kinda settled on annual oil changes.
I think GM had it figured out, and the OLM is reliable to use as a guide to change your oil.
 
I had a 2014 Volt. Nice car. Ran it mostly on electricity before getting my Tesla. Changed the oil every 2 years when the OLM said it was time.
 
There are some Volt owners that never plugged their car in! Can you imagine? Anyway, why don't you just follow the guidence in your manual?
The Volt was pretty far ahead of it's time, and other car makers are starting to use that "series hybrid" setup in their cars today. Back then, not too many people really caught on.
When the Volt engine DOES need to run, and it can be for various reasons, it does so at a set load and with incremental steps in throttle. You won't see that in many cars today, so public opinion kinda settled on annual oil changes.
I think GM had it figured out, and the OLM is reliable to use as a guide to change your oil.
I'm following the OLM - I'm at one year, 4 months and it tells me I have 35% left. This tells me it's using the time limit for my numbers. Back when I asked Mobil 1 if I could obey GM's OLM and put two years on their oil, they said "Absolutely not!"
 
I'm following the OLM - I'm at one year, 4 months and it tells me I have 35% left. This tells me it's using the time limit for my numbers. Back when I asked Mobil 1 if I could obey GM's OLM and put two years on their oil, they said "Absolutely not!"
GM's olm is a bit smarter than that, so it might take another 8 months for it to get to "0" but that's OK, it won't do any harm to your engine to follow it. Whether it's going by driving conditions or time (and it does both) you can still run it to 0. Did this once several years ago just to test the OLM and posted the results of the Blackstone Lab UOA here. The engine had gone 12,000 miles and about 14 months if I recall. The lab test came back fine and assured me that there was still plenty of "life" left in the oil.
As far as Mobil1's response to your question, I would not expect them to say anything other than that. They are in the business of selling oil, after all.
Get a UOA and find out for yourself.
 
The Volt OLM allows up to 2 years and no mileage limit, while other GM cars are limited to 1 year or 7500 miles, whichever comes first. Since the Volt is a PHEV "extended range EV" you can probably guess why GM allows a longer max interval in it than other cars they make. The hard limits started about 10 years ago when dexos was first introduced. Before that, GM's OLM systems never had any hard limit, but suggested you not exceed 12k or a year.

So for your Volt, change the oil when the light comes on, or if it doesn't come on after 2 years, change it then :)
 
On my 2011 I change the oil every 2 years. No problems yet as most of my driving is on the battery. I burn 2 tanks of gas per year.
 
How many miles per year do you drive? That’s quite unbelievable.
Its actually more common that it would seem.

If you live and stay in a 20 mile circle you could never use gas.

The engine will burn off gasoline at some point on its own to prevent it from going bad.
 
You listen to the entity that holds your warranty. Oil marketing claims should never trump manufacturer recommendations.

I don't know about that. I have seen several people say that the entity that holds your warranty wants it to last that long. Years or hundreds of miles longer is not their goal. I would take the advice of the more conservative one. Are yearly oil changes no matter the use really considered excessive now?
 
I don't know about that. I have seen several people say that the entity that holds your warranty wants it to last that long. Years or hundreds of miles longer is not their goal. I would take the advice of the more conservative one. Are yearly oil changes no matter the use really considered excessive now?
What I'm referring to is when an oil manufacturer 'guarantees' their oil can be run to 20,000 miles, but the owner's manual for your car says change your oil at 7,500 miles, maximum. I'm not advising against more conservative, I'm advising against stretching beyond your car manufacturer's recommendations because your oil manufacturer says you can. It's bad advice, and they won't be there to pick up the pieces when you wear out a cam, or spin a bearing and are standing there with a $12,000 engine invoice in your hand.
 
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