glanced at the OLM on the wife's Tahoe

[steve20]

last night, as I had to move it around the driveway. 450 miles and 86% Oil life left!!! talk about severe service-hasn't even gotten what I consider cold yet in NJ.

FWIW truck always gets on sale synthetic 5-30 with AC or PP filters. Changes are based on OLM% or 5K miles whichever comes first.
Steve

 

[rg200amp]

That dose not sound to right. I would stick to the 5000 mile OCI.

so lets say -15% in every 500 miles(rough)
in 3000 miles you would be at 10% oil life?

Seems your OLM is trying to stick you to a 3000 mileOCI!!!

I'd stick with your 5000 mile OCI. Especially since you use synthetic.

 

[XS650]

Steve, does she do a lot of short trips that don;t get the engine warm?

 

[steve20]

Yup-all trips are short trips-I never drive the truck, but typically it never sees more than 5 miles driving at a time. Vehicle used to run to FL 3 times a year, but since Mom passed, no more trips to FL. Runs well though, the 5.3 with a 4.11 rear will surprise you-especially when you stop to fill the tank HA-

Steve

 

[ThirdeYe]

I have a similar commute, only 5 miles each way. I never change it past 5,000 miles even with synthetic, unless I'm doing some highway trips which I probably won't be doing anymore. I've only put around 2,000 miles on the Platinum in my car since I put it in almost 3 months ago. Plan on changing it at around 4,000 miles to get a UOA see how it's holding up to my short trip commuting. Every once a week however, I take it on a 15 mile trip which might be just enough to get it up to temp and burn off a little bit of fuel/condensation, and once in a while I take a longer highway trip to do errands, but it's kind of sporatic and doesn't happen very often.

 

[Jim 5]

Originally Posted By: steve20
Yup-all trips are short trips-I never drive the truck, but typically it never sees more than 5 miles driving at a time. Vehicle used to run to FL 3 times a year, but since Mom passed, no more trips to FL. Runs well though, the 5.3 with a 4.11 rear will surprise you-especially when you stop to fill the tank HA-

Steve


I agree. I have the 5.3L with the 4.11 rear. Best I can do is 13 mpg. And it's the same highway and city. No difference. Then engine is spinning too fast on the highway with the 4.11's to get decent fuel economy. And it can't really tow well.

 

[Spykem4e]

whats the sump capacity?

I know that my olm change rapidly when doing 3-10 miles trip. 1% about every 40 miles but if I let the car warm up and do a lot of highway driving, it decrease byarate of 1% per 130-140 miles approx.

 

[Colt45ws]

GM 5.3L, should be 6 quarts.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Listen to the OLM!! Well, with a caveat...it was developed and "calibrated" using conventional oil.

But yeah...if all trips are short, less than 5 miles, 3000 miles on dino oil might not be that unreasonably short of an OCI. The OLM only recommends the OCI commensurate with the conditions it's given. If lots of long trips, don't be surprised by a 7500 mile recommendation. But short-tripping all the time...3000 miles might be it.

Again, it's calibrated to conventional oil. Synthetic can probably be stretched out, but I probably wouldn't go too far without some basic documentation (UOA).

 

[zulu]

FOLLOW THE OLM! That's what it's there for. Here is a great post. There are a million posts about the OLM making intervals too long, but this proves it knows what it's doing. FWIW, our Silverado Crew Cab with a 5.3l/3.73 combo gets about 5000-5500 miles if I follow the OLM all the way to zero. That's with about 50/50 driving. I think your OLM is spot on.

 

[steve20]

Jim
I did drive the truck for the first 250 miles to insure proper break in and I remember averaging 8.8 mpg the first tank. After 200 miles you could really feel it loosen up.We got the 04 after trading in the 99 with the old style 5.7 and 3.73's.
I think the 99 was a better truck.
We did manage a couple of tanks of 16-17 mpg all hwy, but usually it's 15.9 I checked the ave mpg last night as well, and it was 12.7 I do not know how she could get 12.7 and hit the oil so hard at the same time? maybe it wasn't reset recently
Steve

 

[Jim 5]

Originally Posted By: steve20
Jim
I did drive the truck for the first 250 miles to insure proper break in and I remember averaging 8.8 mpg the first tank. After 200 miles you could really feel it loosen up.We got the 04 after trading in the 99 with the old style 5.7 and 3.73's.
I think the 99 was a better truck.
We did manage a couple of tanks of 16-17 mpg all hwy, but usually it's 15.9 I checked the ave mpg last night as well, and it was 12.7 I do not know how she could get 12.7 and hit the oil so hard at the same time? maybe it wasn't reset recently
Steve


It's all the time spent with the engine running cold. The GM algorythm penalizes heavily for this.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: steve20
Yup-all trips are short trips-I never drive the truck, but typically it never sees more than 5 miles driving at a time. Vehicle used to run to FL 3 times a year, but since Mom passed, no more trips to FL. Runs well though, the 5.3 with a 4.11 rear will surprise you-especially when you stop to fill the tank HA-

Steve


3k miles seems reasonable for that driving cycle.

The oil isn't getting worked very hard except for the cold running contaminants. Synthetic isn't much of an advantage there. You would be just as well off with a decent quality dino oil.

 

[Steve S]

Paying programmers by lines of code is like paying airplane manufacturers by weight......................................not in INDIA!!!

 

[bretfraz]

When I used to drive my 5.3L truck short distances (had a 6 mile commute to work), UOA showed elevated fuel dilution numbers. I was using LC at the time, recommended by T. Dyson to combat the fuel issue, and changed at 6000-6500 miles, well before the OLM said to change.

If I were running conventional oil without LC, and still doing 6 mile commutes, I'd stay well below 5000 mile OCI's. Find good oil and filters on sale and you can do an OCI for less than $15.00.

 

[javacontour]

Seems reasonable if that usage pattern continues. It puts you on about the 3K OCI path.

 

[swalve]

That's a 3200 mile OCI if it keeps up at the same pace. Doesn't seem out of line to me.

(86% left means you have used 14%. 14% of 3200 is ~ 450)