# Gm Owners - I Have Some Oil Related Questions For You



## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

I purchased a new 2009 Silverado 5.3L in October 2009. It had 500 miles on it from being ferried between a couple dealers when I got it. It now has 5100 miles on it which means I am driving it less than 600 miles per month. It has never had an oil change and the oil life monitor shows 5% oil life remaining.

I called my dealer to ask about oil life and type. They told me that they have "issues" with the oil life monitoring system and that they recommend 3,000 miles or 3 months for conventional oil and 6,000 miles or 6 months for synthetic oil. Since I put so few miles on the truck, I am wondering if I should be concerned with how many months or just mileage. At 600 miles a month, conventional oil would last 5 months or synthetic 10 months. According to the owner's manual, you are supposed to follow the oil life monitor and only use 3,000 miles without time limitations if the oil life monitor is accidentally reset.

So, I am asking GM owners, how often are you changing your oil, what type do you use and why?


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## Faups (Jul 15, 2009)

thefulminator said:


> I purchased a new 2009 Silverado 5.3L in October 2009. It had 500 miles on it from being ferried between a couple dealers when I got it. It now has 5100 miles on it which means I am driving it less than 600 miles per month. It has never had an oil change and the oil life monitor shows 5% oil life remaining.
> 
> I called my dealer to ask about oil life and type. They told me that they have "issues" with the oil life monitoring system and that they recommend 3,000 miles or 3 months for conventional oil and 6,000 miles or 6 months for synthetic oil. Since I put so few miles on the truck, I am wondering if I should be concerned with how many months or just mileage. At 600 miles a month, conventional oil would last 5 months or synthetic 10 months. According to the owner's manual, you are supposed to follow the oil life monitor and only use 3,000 miles without time limitations if the oil life monitor is accidentally reset.
> 
> So, I am asking GM owners, how often are you changing your oil, what type do you use and why?


************

2005 Chevy Tahoe - I run Mobil One Synthetic w/ Fram High Mileage Filters and change my oil every 5,000 miles

2009 Chevy Suburban - I run Valvoline conventional 5w/30 with Fram Oil Filters and change it every 3,000 miles.

Never had any issues with either vehicle. Also - my wife only puts about 8-10k of miles a year on a vehicle (she drives our Suburban). Because of the low mileage and good maintenance - I change our oil/fluids based on miles driven rather than age/dates of the oil. Not sure if this practice is widely accepted - but it has always worked well for our family's fleet of vehicles.

Hope this helps.

Faups


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## Jelly Donut (Apr 13, 2009)

My first thought is that when you buy a new vehicle, the oil should be changed after the "break in" period. I would have done it at 1500-200 miles. Then I would go by the oil monitoring system, which I have been doing with my 2004 Yukon and did for my 2005 Sierra. However, if I only put 500-600 miles a month on my vehicle, especially my TV, I would at the very least I would change my oil twice a year.

I use conventional oil.

Just my opinion.

Sean


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## jcamp (Oct 16, 2009)

I'm running a 5.3L in my Sierra and use 10-40 conventional oil. I do use the truck 90% of the time as my primary vehicle and tow with it maybe 10% of the time. With that, I only put about 2000 miles a year on it. I change the oil every 4-5000 miles. When my towing percentage goes up I will do it every 3000.


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## OutbackPM (Sep 14, 2005)

When I had my 2001 5.3 the change monitor would recommend a change at about 4000 miles if I did no towing and when I did maybe 10% towing is was just over at about 3300 miles so thats what I went with. If you go mostly with highway and no towing I could see how it would get to 5000 without much difficulty and still be OK.

With my diesel I use synthetic and go beyond the 10000 for regular oil per the monitor but use an oil analysis to confirm the oil is OK. I went 20000 without realizing once and the oil was OK but I watch it now and go for 15000. I also use the EaO filters from Amsoil with the synthetic medium for capacity and good filtration. Some filters are so bad they could bypass with relatively warm temps and little dirt .Its also hard to tell who made what and what quality you are getting. The EaO filter is a Donaldson medium and apparantly through Amsoil they are able to get thier medium to the general public.


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## Duanesz (Jul 10, 2009)

Thats nice that the dealer told you that an item on your truck doesn't work very well. My comment to him would have been well I will drop that off to get fixed next time I am here. I cant remember where I saw it but g.m. had a article on how much oil would be saved a year if all of there customers used the oil life monitors on there cars to change there oil in stead of the 3000mi method.

I have been sending my oil off to blackstone labs for UOA for my focus which I put about 3500 miles a month on. Right now I am waiting on a sample that I took at 10,000 mi wiht mobile one oil. I did one a 7500 and it had plenty of wear inhibitor left in it. The guy from blackstone said run the next oil change to 10,000 and take another sample.

Its my belief that newer fuel injected engines that have much better sealing technology and dont get a lot of unburnt fuel and other contamants in the oil now a days. We use oil analysis at work on large hydraulic injection molding presses and it spots problems before they even are know about buy conventional methods.


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

My dealer is about 20 miles away and I don't trust the dealer that is closer to me. I was quoted $40 for a conventional oil change and $75 for synthetic (mobile1). I am torn between which to use. If I follow the oil life monitor for changes, it will probably be 9 months with around 5,400 miles. I am contemplating going with synthetic because with the dealer's hours it's a real pain to get there and would have to do it less often.


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

thefulminator said:


> My dealer is about 20 miles away and I don't trust the dealer that is closer to me. I was quoted $40 for a conventional oil change and $75 for synthetic (mobile1). I am torn between which to use. If I follow the oil life monitor for changes, it will probably be 9 months with around 5,400 miles. I am contemplating going with synthetic because with the dealer's hours it's a real pain to get there and would have to do it less often.


I'd follow the owners manual/oil life monitor rather the guy who is trying to make more money...


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

From www.silveradosierra.com forum on how to do an oil change:

_When to Change Engine Oil
Your vehicle has a computer that lets you know when to change your engine oil. This is not based on mileage, but on engine revolutions and engine operating temperature. When the computer has calculated that the oil needs changing, the Oil Life Monitor will indicate that a change is necessary. The mileage between oil changes will vary depending on how you drive your vehicle -- usually between 3,000 miles (5 000 km) and 7,500 miles (12 500 km) since your last oil change. Under severe conditions, the indicator may come on before 3,000 miles (5 000 km). Never drive your vehicle more than 7,500 miles (12 500 km) or 12 months (whichever occurs first) without an oil change. The system won't detect dust in the oil. So, if you drive in a dusty area, be sure to change your oil every 3,000 miles (5 000 km) or sooner. Remember to reset the CHANGE ENGINE OIL message whenever the oil is changed._


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## NJMikeC (Mar 29, 2006)

Your dealer is a snake and that is all there is to that.

Oil Monitors work fine and GM has been using them for quite a few years now. Follow the oil type as recommended in the manual and change at either the oil monitor or at 7500 miles if using synthetic. I doubt an oil monitor would show that the oil is spent at less then 7500 miles but maybe. If you did all stop and go it might do it. I'm not so sure though if it properly takes into account towing unless of course you take it out of OD and run it around 3K RPM.

My guess is that they call for 5W-30 and get a decent filter. Wix Gold or Napa gold are the same things and Napa stores are everywhere. Fram's are really bad. The EAO filters from Amsoil are great too but Amsoil is getting a little out of hand with their prices.


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## battalionchief3 (Jun 27, 2006)

Synthetic in All the things I own. I change it every 5000 miles in everything. Some folks don't believe syn oil works. Well it does. Even if you change your oil every 3k miles with regular oil you will have sludge build up somewhere. I have tore a lot of engines down ( my own included ) with regular maintenance and conv oil and they had sludge, all of them. The synthetic ones don't. Period. Syn oil wont sludge up, it cant. I'm sure someone will argue this but i have tore enough motors down and seen the results. Synthetic every 5000k miles and a filer.


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## KTMRacer (Jun 28, 2010)

Trust the oil life monitor, if anything it is VERY conservative. on my duramax silverado, I've sent samples to Blackstone labs for an OA, 10,000 miles with significant towing (10K lbs) shows a very high TBN (total base number) and Blackstone indicates I could easily try going to 15K betweeen changes. OIl life monitor tells me to change at about 8K miles under these conditions.

My recomendation is to use any oil that meets the spec's in the owners manual, synthetic or conventional and change either once/yr or when the Oil life monitor says to change.

On my mercedes oil analysis also indicates 10K miles between changes is also very conservative.

If you want to, next time you change oil, get a free sample kit from blackstone labs and send it off and see what they find. You'll want them to do an analysis including TBN to see how much oil life is left


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

I just wish there was a way for the oil life monitor to distinguish between conventional and synthetic.


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