Short tripping Cruze 1.4T which oil?

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Originally Posted By: FlyNavyP3
I'm of the opinion that your car is there to serve you not the other way around. No need to abandon the car to bike or walk to work. No reason to cater your driving to suit the car with a longer trip to work or weekly highway excursions to heat it up.

Change the oil based on the OLM and enjoy the extra time not spent in the car.

+1,000,000
 
Originally Posted By: FlyNavyP3
I'm of the opinion that your car is there to serve you not the other way around. No need to abandon the car to bike or walk to work. No reason to cater your driving to suit the car with a longer trip to work or weekly highway excursions to heat it up.

Change the oil based on the OLM and enjoy the extra time not spent in the car.


Enjoy those repair bills. I get where you are coming from. There is also, "take care of the car and the car will take care of you"

Even 30 minutes on the highway once a month should help keep it in tune.
 
Originally Posted By: SilverFusion2010
Originally Posted By: FlyNavyP3
I'm of the opinion that your car is there to serve you not the other way around. No need to abandon the car to bike or walk to work. No reason to cater your driving to suit the car with a longer trip to work or weekly highway excursions to heat it up.

Change the oil based on the OLM and enjoy the extra time not spent in the car.


Enjoy those repair bills. I get where you are coming from. There is also, "take care of the car and the car will take care of you"

Even 30 minutes on the highway once a month should help keep it in tune.


I'm sorry, if a car requires a 30 minute drive monthly to prevent massive repair bills then either it already had serious underlying issues or maybe my 4Runner and 1976 K10 didn't get the message as they're both short tripped almost exclusively. The 4Runner has nearly 330k on it, on the original engine. If the OP is concerned about it verify via actual analysis not conjecture. Run your new drive profile for 6 months or until the OLM trips and send in a sample. If everything checks out extend to 1 year or OLM and sample again. Use the longest interval or OLM that provides suitable results. Anything other than an analysis including my opinion is purely that, an opinion.
 
Originally Posted By: BalticBob
Leave early, cruise around until operating temp is ok, then arrive at work.


Don't you mean "CRUZE around?"
wink.gif
 
Telling to OP to "walk to work" does not answer his oil question.

This same type thing has happened to me many times when I have sought specific advice. I don't know why it is so difficult to get straight answers here. If he had asked "Should I walk to work?" THEN some of these responses would have been appropriate, but he did not, he asked about OIL. I hope those who respond to questions will try to more concisely answer the posed question, all throughout this forum.

To answer his OIL question, I would use a cheap synthetic at 3000 mile intervals for this particular duty. Like others have said, the car will be fine. The cars are made to serve us, not the other way around.
 
Would an option be to switch to conventional oil and change it twice a year? That is some pretty short trips.

Getting the car out on the highway is a good thing but at $2.50 a gallon vs a $35 oil change (cheaper if he is doing it himself) twice a year, I wonder which is cheaper. It cost me more than an oil change to fill my car up and about twice as much to fill my truck up.

Just typing out loud I guess.
 
Unfortunately the machine doesn't care whether you want to save money by not using it properly. It has its own requirements, one of which is getting it up to OPERATING temperature.

Ultra-short driving distances does NOT allow the engine to get to OPERATING temperature, so simply changing oil more often does not change the conditions of the internal parts of the engine...i.e. condensation builds up and if not burned off on a regular basis it will cause damage to it.
 
Originally Posted By: KitaCam
Unfortunately the machine doesn't care whether you want to save money by not using it properly. It has its own requirements, one of which is getting it up to OPERATING temperature.

Ultra-short driving distances does NOT allow the engine to get to OPERATING temperature, so simply changing oil more often does not change the conditions of the internal parts of the engine...i.e. condensation builds up and if not burned off on a regular basis it will cause damage to it.


My feeling as well.

Kinda like:

"My door gets a dent every time I kick it closed, should I adjust the door checkers to be softer?"

"Stop kicking it!"

wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: asleepz
Idle it until gauge shows normal temp then drive to work.

That ought to ruffle some feathers.


This is something I thought might be useful for engine longevity (not mpg's though) but from more research it seems that this only indicates that the coolant is to operating temperature, not the oil.
 
Plus, just getting the engine up to operating temperature is not enough. You have to run it for a certain period of time to burn off any condensation etc.
 
FYI, the Cruze powerplant doesn't generate enough heat at idle to warm up in any reasonable amount of time - over ten minutes even in 70 degree weather. And, from experience, it is an engine that gets noticeably stoved up if not limbered up occasionally.
 
Ours does mixed town/highway during the week and OLM is 20% at 7k ... so tend to do it there
Filled with M1 EP and using Hengst filter
 
I'd like to chime in here and give another vote for a bike. Sunny nice days you ride and really [censored] rainy days you could drive. The bike need not be expensive. A nice hybrid bike would be fine. I have a Specialized brand bike called ROLL. It is pricey but really nice to ride. There are less and more expensive bikes out there. Find one you like and have fun. The gas money you save pays for dinner and a movie.

What oil and filter would I use if I drove such a short distance almost daily? Any good conventional/blend/synthetic oil out there I didn't mind changing out at 3000-5000 miles. I'd change it often with such short tripping in the city.
 
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Ok first off. Thank you for the comments. 2nd I don't know what admin "edited" my post heading, but I'm happy with my oil. I didn't want to know what oil to use. I know what oil to use I don't understand why it was changed. 3rd. My OLM does not adjust. It's at 10,000 miles no matter what type of trips I do the whole time I've had the car.
 
If you're driving less than 10k a year I'd personally do it annually from now on, or at least send in a sample and check it.
 
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I had a 2012 Cruze with the 1.4T and my OLM was the same. Twice I let run all the way out to 10K and both times I noticed some "chunks" come out with the oil when pulling the drain plug which I assumed to be result of turbo coking. And this was with QSUD 5w-30 in the sump if I recall correctly. After that I limited my OCIs to 7500 mi and the "chunks" seamed to clear up.


Originally Posted By: JHogan
Ok first off. Thank you for the comments. 2nd I don't know what admin "edited" my post heading, but I'm happy with my oil. I didn't want to know what oil to use. I know what oil to use I don't understand why it was changed. 3rd. My OLM does not adjust. It's at 10,000 miles no matter what type of trips I do the whole time I've had the car.
 
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1) car holds just over 4 quarts? Pretty cheap fill and TDI with some turbo history
2) 15k - is this where you ran UOA?
3) my OLM calculates Oil Life Percentage - is this a set-up issue?
4) PUP was noisy (with meter) compared to M1 EP - but price is why I quit PUP ... plus only running 7k
(Cost of UOA is close to DIY oil change)
 
Originally Posted By: W3DRK
I had a 2012 Cruze with the 1.4T and my OLM was the same. Twice I let run all the way out to 10K and both times I noticed some "chunks" come out with the oil when pulling the drain plug which I assumed to be result of turbo coking. And this was with QSUD 5w-30 in the sump if I recall correctly. After that I limited my OCIs to 7500 mi and the "chunks" seamed to clear up.

I'd be equally concerned why the oil filter does not capture visible chunks.
 
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