Is two years too long?

[kohnen]

Gents,

I drive a Chevy Volt, mostly on electricity so the engine is hardly used. The OLM will therefore say the oil needs to be changed after 2 years. Dexos1 5w30 is the required oil, so that's what the OLM assumes.

Is two years on an oil change too long? Too short? Just right?

Love to know your thoughts on this.

Thanks!

 

[Chris142]

Uoa showed the oil in my peterbilt "as good as new" even after 3years

 

[Y_K]

How do you like your Volt?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: kohnen
I drive a Chevy Volt, mostly on electricity so the engine is hardly used. The OLM will therefore say the oil needs to be changed after 2 years.


What's the owner's manual say? Most manuals will say either the OLM or a period of time (ie, 1 year) ... which ever one comes first.

 

[JHZR2]

Its just fine. My saab required 16k/two year oil changes back in 2004. It worked just fine then, and even better now. The duty cycle of the engine is lower on a volt, so the mileage isnt real...

 

[ls973800]

My 2015 Ford C-Max Energi plug in also calls for an oil change every 2 years or 20000 miles. There is an oil life monitor which also tracks the use of the oil and conditions it is being run.

The car is equipped to start the engine if too much moisture is sensed in the engine. It will also start the engine if the gas has been in too long (about a year I believe).

I've had mine for just over a year now with 6800 miles, of which perhaps 2000 miles were from the engine, the rest from the battery. I went ahead and changed the oil and filter because there is no way I felt 2 years or 20000 miles was something I wanted to do. I am leasing the car for 2 years, but still couldn't wrap my head around that long of an OCI. I used Valvoline SynPower 0W-20 and the Motorcraft 910s filter.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted By: kohnen
Gents,

I drive a Chevy Volt, mostly on electricity so the engine is hardly used. The OLM will therefore say the oil needs to be changed after 2 years. Dexos1 5w30 is the required oil, so that's what the OLM assumes.

Is two years on an oil change too long? Too short? Just right?
Love to know your thoughts on this.


You are fine, especially living in that weather-temp stable environment. Just make sure you are within your new car warranty requirements for oil changes.

 

[Sunnyinhollister]

Manual says two years, go by it. I did mine at 20 months:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3483748/1

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: Sunnyinhollister
Manual says two years, go by it. I did mine at 20 months:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3483748/1

I have a 2015 Volt - the last of the 1st generation Volts. The OLM on my Volt also takes the amount of time into account. Since I don't run the engine much at all, the OLM decreases by about 1% per week.

 

[BrocLuno]

I've gone 5 years on low hour engines before...

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: Y_K
How do you like your Volt?

I love the power train. I drive it almost purely on electricity, but it's really nice knowing that I can drive 300 miles after the battery is discharged and it's no big deal.

The electronics are a bit wonky. The infotainment system has rebooted a few times, the GPS takes too long to initialize and won't initialize if you start driving before it's initialized.

The radio, GPS, information about energy use and the climate control are all on the same power switch. You can't really turn the radio off, you just turn its volume down to zero.

Once every few months it decides it can't see the key fob and will refuse to turn off. There's a way to override this so it's not a big deal.

Overall, I love the car, but I wish the implementation of it was more polished. I hear the second generation Volt's more polished, but I've not tried one yet.