GM OLM....8200 miles on dino?

NewGuy · Sep 22, 2005

I did not reset the OLM on my 5.3L engine after the past several oil changes. It went off approximately 8200 miles after it was reset. My Tahoe sees 85% Hwy and 15% City, but I also tow 150 miles/month with it. The hwy miles are 75+ MPH with the AC full blast. 8200 miles on dino seems excessive. I am glad that I change it more often.

Any thoughts or comments on the OLM? Does anyone let their engine go this long on dino without changing it?

Audi Junkie · Sep 22, 2005

My cousin's Montana goes about 2200 miles between OLM lights. She's a soccer-mom...ALL short trips.

Whimsey · Sep 22, 2005

I use to be skeptical about GM's OLM being a gimmick. But the more I see of it seems to be very well thought out in taking "real life" individuals driving conditions into consideration. Too bad you didn't leave the dino oil in for the full 8,200 miles and had an UOA done. That would have answered all questions

.I've run Schaeffer's 5W-30 Supreme Blend for 8,200 miles in my wife's 2002 V-6 Explorer and it looked fine. In fact the same as the previous run of 4,100 miles using the same oil and driving conditions. Whether just ANY dino oil can hold up to longer OCI's, even in favorable driving "conditions" is debatable. But considering the "soccer mom's" OLM came on at 2,200 miles and your's which is vastly highway driven with some towing came on at 8,200 tells me they are considering realistic variables which determine the useful life of dino oil. And today at least name brand dino oils are much better than previous dino vintages for the most part.

Whimsey

JHZR2 · Sep 22, 2005

Its not excessive. Contrary to common belief, dino oils can last at least 7500 miles, and just look at what LC claims - 10k miles!

Our toyota previa had dino OCIs at factory spec 7500 miles from new (including breakin) all the way to 160k. We then swapped to mobil1 10w-30 and havent looked back...

196k and counting... I think if dino was that bad, we'd have had a problem by now, yet have never had a single problem, constantly beat EPA MPG values, etc.

JMH

JohnnyG · Sep 22, 2005

I'm workin' on it. First O/C at 5000, reset OLM, now 17600 on it and haven't even LOOKED under the hood. No "Low Oil" indicator, no "Change Oil" indicator, NOTHING! 2004 Silverado 5.3. I drive about 8 miles each way to work, very little highway, though there was a 600 mile trip in there somewhere. The Blackstone kits are in the garage.

Audi Junkie · Sep 22, 2005

"First O/C at 5000, reset OLM, now 17600"

Maybe the bulb is burned out?

Beast of Busco · Sep 22, 2005

quote:

First O/C at 5000, reset OLM, now 17600 on it and haven't even LOOKED under the hood.

I don't think I'd trust it THAT much!

I have the OLM on both my Saturn and truck (5.3L) and would like to see how far they'll go (I'd always been the 3-3500k oil changer!). Using LC now, so really I shouldn't have that much of a problem.

HOWEVER, since I have been infected with BITOG disease, which caused me to stock up on Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30, I will be very tempted to change oil in the car when I get around 3500-4k miles on the Pennzoil HM oil!

ruking77 · Sep 22, 2005

It is important to know what oil is used as oem fill. For example, my GM OLM can go up to 15,000 miles OCI. However the factory fill and recommended oil is Mobil One or synthetic. The calibration is indeed on Mobil One and by default synthetic.

Ugly3 · Sep 22, 2005

GM is proving the 3,000 mile oil change is a waste of oil and a waste of $$$.

Schism · Sep 22, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by Ugly3:
GM is proving the 3,000 mile oil change is a waste of oil and a waste of $$$.

We'll see. JohnnyG's analysis of 17k+ will tell.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnnyG:
I'm workin' on it. First O/C at 5000, reset OLM, now 17600 on it and haven't even LOOKED under the hood. No "Low Oil" indicator, no "Change Oil" indicator, NOTHING! 2004 Silverado 5.3. I drive about 8 miles each way to work, very little highway, though there was a 600 mile trip in there somewhere. The Blackstone kits are in the garage.

JohnnyG i'd check the oil, you shouldn't rely on the light to tell you when the oil is low. Infact if you are running below safe, then your UOA results will be pretty much usless, as in we won't know if the OLM was infact correct, because you were running too low on oil.

martyi · Sep 22, 2005

I don't know how the GM OLM works but Hondas' has oil life expectancy measured as percentages. It takes into account engine temps, revs and other factors as does the GM chip but reads it out as you go (maybe GM does the same thing rather than just turn a light on when the oil change is due).

I have 3500 miles on my Honda Ridgeline and, other than one 600 mile trip, it sees only a few miles a day - 90% short trip. My OLM shows 60% oil life expectancy and this is on the factory fill. The manual says to change oil, including the factory fill, when the "service due" notice comes on (which is at the 15% level) or once a year, whichever comes first.

This thing allows for synthetic but is calibrated for dino. If you use synthetic, chances are you could almost reset the OLM and change on the second go around - but I'm not that much of a gambler.

Scott P · Sep 22, 2005

According to the manual, you don't change the oil until the light comes on. I put in 7 qta of Mobil 1 5W-30 (SL I think) in the Envoy when it had 11,700. The truck is at 19,000+ miles and the light hasn't come on yet. The wife drives it about 50/50 highway/city. I will be doing a UOA when I do change it just for giggles.

Bill · Sep 22, 2005

quote:

posted by JHZR2
Its not excessive. Contrary to common belief, dino oils can last at least 7500 miles, and just look at what LC claims - 10k miles!

I think this statement needs to be qualified, last at least 7500 miles?

Maybe at Most , dino oils can last around 7500 miles, there are some UOAs of dino oils going up to around 8000 miles.

There is a UOA of Valvoline going less then 4000 miles, here is the UOA link:
Valvoline UOA

This Valvoline was just about used up,
I do not think it is wise to make a blanket statement that all dino oils can make it to 7500 miles,
depends on the vehicle and conditions the engine is used in but i do beleive dino oils can go farther then the 3000 mile that is advertise.

Using Lube Control a dino oil can go farther such as the Halvoline 10,000 mile UOA that is posted in the UOA section.

The Critic · Sep 22, 2005

GM says that you must use a 5w-30 that is 6094M approved when using the oil life monitor.

Notice that Valvoline isn't 6094M approved.

Are you sure you didn't accidentally reset the system again? The Oil Life Monitor goes up to a maximum of 12,500 miles.

Remember, its 1-yr or when the OLM comes on, whichever comes first.

Michael

NewGuy · Sep 22, 2005

I changed the oil a couple of days ago and I added LC 20 to my 6 quarts of Havoline 5W30 and will add 1 oz every 1K miles. I believe that I will take it out to 6-7K and get a UOA. If the oil analysis results support the GM OLM....I might start letting it run until it tells me to change it.

I drive a lot of hwy miles and I know that has to be easy on the oil, but it is hard to break the habit of shorter OCIs.

Thanks for the discussion. It is good to see that other oil life monitoring systems are giving similar results.

steveh · Sep 22, 2005

Do the oil life monitors really factor temps,revs,ect. Or are they just simple timers that go off after so many hours? like if you drove 200 hours on the highway you would have about 12,000 miles vs 200 hours in the city you might have only 3,000-5,000 miles. kind of like the OCI on heavy equipment.

NewGuy · Sep 22, 2005

A GM engineer posted some of the factors that impact the life span of the OLM. Someone might be able to post a link to that discussion. It seems that the algorithm behind the OLM was pretty complicated with several factors that impact the result.

Audi Junkie's cousin only gets 2200 miles between changes because she drives short trips. It looks like I could get 8K+ as I drive mostly highway miles.

farrarfan1 · Sep 22, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by NewGuy:
A GM engineer posted some of the factors that impact the life span of the OLM. Someone might be able to post a link to that discussion. It seems that the algorithm behind the OLM was pretty complicated with several factors that impact the result.

Audi Junkie's cousin only gets 2200 miles between changes because she drives short trips. It looks like I could get 8K+ as I drive mostly highway miles.

Ask and ye shall recieve:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=010523

steveh · Sep 23, 2005

I still think that without the oil change monitor that hours should be used more then mileage. Someone that lives in a big city might drive 1hr a day for a 10 mile round trip to work and back. 200hr=2000 miles or someone driving all highway 200hr x 60mph =12,000 miles.

Starbreaker666 · Sep 23, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Wan:
GM says that you must use a 5w-30 that is 6094M approved when using the oil life monitor.

Notice that Valvoline isn't 6094M approved.

Are you sure you didn't accidentally reset the system again? The Oil Life Monitor goes up to a maximum of 12,500 miles.

Remember, its 1-yr or when the OLM comes on, whichever comes first.

Actually it is according to there web site IIRC...

Michael [/QUOTE]

GM OLM....8200 miles on dino?

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