GM Oil Life Monitor

[Bob Woods]

How many on this board have newer GM vehicles with the oil life moniter?

How many still change oil at 3000 miles?

How many wait for the light to come on?

I myself use MobilOne and wait for the light on my 03 GMC sierra with 5.3

 

[TheFuror]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Woods:
How many on this board have newer GM vehicles with the oil life moniter?

How many still change oil at 3000 miles?

How many wait for the light to come on?

I myself use MobilOne and wait for the light on my 03 GMC sierra with 5.3

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I have an '04 Avalanche with the same engine. I don't wait for the oil monitor. Rather, I change every 3K using Kendall synthetic.

I am currently in the first of a two phase UOA (3K miles with this oil and K&N oil filter; second phase is same oil with Napa Gold) so we will see.

Best of luck.

Bob W.

 

[Patman]

My 98 Corvette not only has an oil life monitor, but you can check to see what % it's currently at.

On my first interval with the car when I got it last summer, I went with a 5000 mile interval and the oil life monitor said there was 40% oil life left. Right now I'm at 4000 miles on the current interval and it shows 48% oil life left. I'm going to take this one to 6000 miles, then another 6k run, then on the following run (which will begin in the middle of spring) I will do an interval where I wait until the OLM tells me there is 0% oil life left. I'm confident that from that point on I will be able to simply follow the monitor in order to decide on my intervals, and I'll use UOAs to back me up as usual.

 

[haley10]

I don't do 3K or use the olm yet. I started with a 5K oci and got a uoa. I'm going to work up from there to see what is reasonable.

The olm is probably fine if you use synthetic and have no engine issues. The olm calculates, but doesn't actually measure, so I do a uoa every year or so to check for coolant leaks, proper air filtration etc. anyway.

OLM is good for keeping you from skipping an oci and is a good tool when combined with an occasional uoa. Since it doesn't tell me anything about the efficiency or condition of my air filtration , doesn't know that I run GC 0W-30, or doesn't know if I have an internal coolant leak etc., I take it for what it is worth.

No way would I go by the OLM with generic cheap dino.

Like Patman, I might eventually be able to go by the OLM, but verified by uoa and I use GC.

I have a Series II 3800, V6. Each GM engine will be different and as BMW's OLM implies, also has a lot to do with the amount of fuel consumed.

[ January 05, 2005, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: haley10 ]

 

[Patman]

Oh yes, I did forget to mention one thing. My OLM is calibrated based on the use of synthetic oil, since the Corvette's have the longer OCI (for 97-00 it was 10k, for 01-04 it was 15k)

And since mine is a 98, it's OLM is calibrated more conservatively, based on a 10k maximum, while the 01-04 would be based on the 15k maximum. Nothing changed mechanically which would account for the different OCI, so my more conservative OLM's algorithm is even safer to follow. I could probably reset the monitor when it hits zero the first time, and then go an additional 50% and still be safe.

 

[JHZR2]

my 2004 saab 9-3 has an oil life monitor of some sort (calibrated for 2yr or 30k km max OCIs I believe)... Ive gone 5600 miles, and my oil life is at 67%. That puts me at just below 17k miles per change.

Ill probably do the filter every 5000 (missed the first one!) or 7500 miles, topping up with the right oil. Ill get it done by 15k regardless (my father's toyota van with similar driving profile had 8ppm Fe, no consumption and great results at 13k UOA, on regular old M1 10w-30, and Ive seen a few decent break-in saab 9-3 UOAs at ~15k, so Im not worried).

Its using the A3-rated saab GM-LL oil thats specced for it, and all light highway driving, averaging 32 MPG+

JMH

Edit: Patman, the corvettes are calibrated for 15k MILE OCIs using regular old specc'ed M1 5w-30 ACEA A1 oil?!?

 

[Bob Woods]

The olm is probably fine if you use synthetic and have no engine issues. haley10

I would like to see the system have an input for type of oil used. MB lost a law suit because their OLM was calibrated for synthetic and they didn't tell the comsumer.

 

[Big John]

I don't use it on my 03 silverado 5.3,I use RP 5w30 and change every 5-6k,so far always before the message comes on.

My wife's Impala I use RP 5w30 and try for a 5-6k oci but,with all her short tripping the message has been coming on at 4,so I change it.UOA's coming for both as soon as I hit my mark...

 

[TomJones76]

I followed the light. It waited nearly 8000 miles to come on in a recent run, maybe 65000 the run before.
Then, I got 2 UOA back with 43 and 44 PPM of silicon... as a result, I'll be running shortened intervals until I can get back at least one analysis with the Si PPM under 20. Turns out I have some kinda' intake leak.

 

[Pluto5]

My oil light monitor (03 Impala LS) has yet to come on. I change every six months with dino at 4-5K miles. GM says you have to change at least once a year so I figure that if you do everything twice as often as GM recommends you will be in good shape. BTW I use Pennzoil and S-T filters. Thanks to this board I'm saving lots of resources!

 

[Scott P]

I use the OLM in my Grand Prix as a reference tool. I do 6 month/6,000 mile intervals and that usualy leaves about 20% or so on the OLM.

 

[nascarnation]

my philosophy:

if you lease or plan to sell by 80,000 miles, use the cheapest dino available that meets the spec and change by the GMOLM (obviously does not apply to vehs that use syn as factory fill).

if you plan on a long term relationship, use M1 and change by the GMOLM

 

[SSDude]

I consider it nothing more than just another idoit light.

 

[Gene K]

SSD the OLM takes a lot more into account than just mileage or fuel use. I believe using the OLM would be preferable to a strict time or mileage based oil change interval.

Now whether you feel comfortable using up 100% of the Oil Life using the specified oil without UOA backup is another matter.

Some people have proven that with high quality synthetics they can go 2x OLM recommended OCI if it is calibrated for Dino.

Gene

[ January 05, 2005, 06:37 PM: Message edited by: Gene K ]

 

[Cutehumor]

hey guys. if you have the GM oil life monitor and do a UOA. please post how much oil life the oil monitor said when you changed the oil in the UOA forums. thanks

 

[like a rock]

I have a olm on a 2001 Saturn L-300 with the 3 liter 24 valve dohc motor. I ran Castrol gtx dino with a 3000 mile oci and at the start of that interval I reset th olm. When I changed the oil a 3 months and 3000 miles the monitor had not said change yet. My wife runs lot's of short trips which I thought should have activated the monitor.

So for kicks and grins I did not reset the monitor into the current oci of SM castrol gtx just to see how far the thing would go. Well 1500 miles into this oci and the thing still has not said punt yet. No way should a person use dino oil with these olm's. With all the short severe trips we run in 4500 miles I would cringe to think what that uoa would be. Synthetic oil would be the best bet for me with the olm.

 

[Gene K]

LAR thats why you run a UOA. Some cars can go 10,000 mi on Dino. We have a LeSabre 3800 that runs 6000 mi on Dino HDEO (Currently Rotella T 10W-30) with the same short trip abuse you are discussing.

My Aunts Saturns routinely do 10,000 mi OCI on Mobil Delvac 1300 15W-40.

Gene

 

[[email protected]]

My 2002 Envoy SLT (4.2l DOHC) with the Digital OLM lets me know the % left of the oil life (it also has "Change oil soon light, but since I change the oil at 50% it has yet to come on).
I change my oil (I run Castrol 5w-30 syn blend) when the OLM reaches 50%, which is around 4000 miles. Since my Envoy carries 7 quarts of oil, it doesnt really come out "dirty".

Now my other car, a 2000 Saturn LS 3.0 DOHC V6 has the oil life monitor "light". I never follow it. The Saturns oil is really dirty at 3,000 miles. I always change it then. I dont reset the light until every other oil change, and the light kicks on about 7,000 miles. I would NEVER let the oil go that long. I run Castrol 5w-30 Syn Blend in the Saturn also, and it comes out real dirty at 3,000 miles. Cant say the same for my Envoy.

I think next time, depending on the color and feeling of the oil in my Envoy, I might wait until my OLM reaches 25% oil life. I think Im wasting money changing it at 50%.

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cutehumor:
hey guys. if you have the GM oil life monitor and do a UOA. please post how much oil life the oil monitor said when you changed the oil in the UOA forums. thanks

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I already begun including that data in my Corvette's UOA reports.

 

[4.8 Silverado]

My oil life monitor maxed out at 9800 miles and I had a UOA done on the oil at 10,900 miles.Results showed that I had 3k left in the oil.Mobil 1 15/50.