Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

[kenmac]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Oil life monitor means nothing to me. All it knows is how many miles/ hours is on the oil. It has no knowledge of the oils condition (ie available TBN, viscosity,,etc, etc,..) I change based on UOA. Could be 10K ,15K, etc,. Could be + or - 1 year

 

[crazyal]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Toyota says 10k miles (unless driven in harder than normal conditions) so that's what I do. 0w20 Mobile 1 and a Toyota filter (they can be bought pretty cheap on ebay). Since it's a daily driver that sees 20k+ a year it's always by mileage. I have no doubt that the engine will go past 200k miles.

 

[Toyboy]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I think the oil life monitors (GM) go by revolutions of the crankshaft and have nothing to do with mileage. Is there any GM experts on here to help sort this out?

 

[beemerphile]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I think the oil life monitors (GM) go by revolutions of the crankshaft and have nothing to do with mileage. Is there any GM experts on here to help sort this out?

Prior to 2013 GM OLM's monitored revolutions, time, and temperature. Post 2013 it resets to 20% at 5,000 miles regardless of what the algorithm says. Seems like a conservative owner would just use 5,000 mile intervals (or at least once annually) which are easy to remember and forget the sensor. I change filters every other time on the even 10,000 intervals. I have opened old filters to confirm that they still had not collected too much gunk at that interval. Old filters (that are not blocked) actually filter better than new ones because of filter media pre-coat and the agglomeration tendency of contaminants.

 

[cletus99]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Anyone that is changing oil at 3k miles is just wasting oil. Numerous studies have been done to show how long oil these days are good for. Just do a search and you'll find them. Dramatic improvment in oil now a days compared to many years ago. But, too each there own :confused3:. Although, if I was doing a lot of heavy towing, I might would change it every 3k miles. I go by the oil monitor usually mainly because of just being a reminder and it usually averages between 5k to 6k miles. Vehicles I've had that didn't have monitors I usually changed around 6k or 7k miles. I've had numerous vehicles I've put close to 200k miles on and I've never had an engine problem.

 

[JDgreen227]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Anyone that is changing oil at 3k miles is just wasting oil. Numerous studies have been done to show how long oil these days are good for. Just do a search and you'll find them. Dramatic improvment in oil now a days compared to many years ago. But, too each there own :confused3:. Although, if I was doing a lot of heavy towing, I might would change it every 3k miles. I go by the oil monitor usually mainly because of just being a reminder and it usually averages between 5k to 6k miles. Vehicles I've had that didn't have monitors I usually changed around 6k or 7k miles. I've had numerous vehicles I've put close to 200k miles on and I've never had an engine problem.

Well...I am a VERY low mileage and conservative driver with my GMC, it gets maybe 1500 to 2000 miles per year put on it, and many of the miles are short trips in cold weather...so for me a change at 2,000 miles makes sense.

 

[JJZ 109]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Anyone that is changing oil at 3k miles is just wasting oil. Numerous studies have been done to show how long oil these days are good for. Just do a search and you'll find them. Dramatic improvment in oil now a days compared to many years ago. But, too each there own :confused3:. Although, if I was doing a lot of heavy towing, I might would change it every 3k miles. I go by the oil monitor usually mainly because of just being a reminder and it usually averages between 5k to 6k miles. Vehicles I've had that didn't have monitors I usually changed around 6k or 7k miles. I've had numerous vehicles I've put close to 200k miles on and I've never had an engine problem.

I agree. I think the interval on my 2013 F150 is 10k. Instead of the 3k changes that the fast lube places try to get you to do, I go in at 5k.
With my '97 F Super Duty 7.3 diesel, I do it every spring when I reopen the business - regardless of miles. It's a bucket truck that sits all winter unused. It gets 3,000 - 3500 miles a year on it, but it idles for a bit to warm up on chilly mornings.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Well...I am a VERY low mileage and conservative driver with my GMC, it gets maybe 1500 to 2000 miles per year put on it, and many of the miles are short trips in cold weather...so for me a change at 2,000 miles makes sense.

My vehicles are not quite that low mileage but do not every trip the mileage on the oil change meter. For the last 3 years I have been using full synthetic, but I am thinking that it is a waste of money for no more miles than I go. I try to change mine once a year or when the oil monitor system says to (all my cars have one). The oldest car, an Olds Bravada & wife's driving preference, has 99,000 miles on it, most of it with Dino oil and never uses a drop of oil between changings. She takes it to dealer for oil changes only when the monitor says to and I don't keep up with that one too much anymore. It may go 2 years between changes, I just watch the oil monitor. I write the date on my trucks oil filter and try to change it when the year is up (or thereabout). With the full synthetic oil, I don't worry too much about going over the 12 month limit. All the vehicles are mostly stored in garages and minimum trips are 20 miles each way so they get up to operating temps long enough to boil off any condensate that might be in the oil. The 2003 Bravada is all original except for a water pump and the left front wheel bearing (and batteries of course). Engine is still super quiet and gas mileage is still same as the day we bought it, even with 99K on the plugs.
With todays quality of oil, anyone doing 3000 mile oil changes, even if doing heavy towing, is wasting money and natural resources and not gaining any advantage on engine life. If you have an oil life monitor, use it and change your oil when the computer tell you to. You don't need OA unless you plan to exceed the mileage from the computer. My Chevy and Olds OEM says that the Oil life meter is set for regular oil and synthetic oil would of course last much longer.

 

[dodge man]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I usually change all of my oil in my vehicles once a year. I use synthetic oil and high quality filters so I'm comfortable with that. For me its not so much the cost as the time it takes to do two oil changes a years for every vehicle instead of just one. I try to change it more often if the mileage starts getting up near or over 10,000 miles. If I use convential oil, I'd probably go by the oil monitor in the vehicle.

 

[MoKelly]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Oil is cheap. Change it by the book or once a year, which ever comes first.

Chris

This is exactly what I do for everything - car, truck, motorcycle, tractor, etc.

MoKelly