Hybrid AWD

As some of you know, I own a 2007 GMC 1500, it comes standard with the "Oil Life" reading as does many other GM models. I have owned the truck May and I feel it is now time for it's first oil change.
The display says the truck's oil still has 48% oil life left. How do you feel (if you have the oil life reading) about the reading in your car?
I was scrolling through the owners manual and it states that the vehicle can go up to a year without having to change the oil under the ideal driving conditions.
To me, one year is approx. 15,000 miles, and there is no way i'd go 15,000 miles in a brand new vehicle without an oil change. They also say that when you are prompted to change the oil soon, "soon" refers to within the next 600 miles . So let's say under all ideal conditions, I could go almost 16,000 miles on 1 oil change... screw that. The book does say it's based off engine revolutions, driving condition and NOT mileage.

So how does everyone feel about these sensors?

Would you go 15,000 in a new vehicle on 1 oil change?

Would you change your oil every 3,000 or 5,000 miles?

Would you change your oil out from conventional to Synthetic on the first oil change? Assuming, your car came with conventional.

Kyon

i forgot where i saw this, but NYC did a test where they put brand new engines in around 300 cabs and drove them for 100,000 miles or so. each motor was given a specific oil and a specific milage to go. ex synthetic, regular oil at intervals of 3k 5k 10k and 15k. they then removed the engines at 100k miles and tore them apart to see what the difference was and guess what. there was no definitave proof that 1 brand was better or that any oil change interval was better. just go with whatever the dealer say. the only problem i see with that is that oil filters dont last as long.

dont quote me on that, but its something along those lines. but i still change my oil every 3 months :P

MaxPower

That's a bad way to compare oils, the only time a cab is shut off long enough for the oil to even cool would be if there is a part that needs to be changed. Their engines get easily 500,000+ miles.

When it comes to new cars and how long the oil last is pretty much what the engineers have decided. My car says to change it every 8,000. I still do 3,000 since I beat it up every now and then and sometimes make short trips without fully warming up the engine.

IMSHAKN

I'm not sure how GM's system works, but I would bet that you could last a year without an oil change. A lot of truck fleets routinely sample their oil to determine when to change the oil. Unfortunately it costs consumers more money to test the sample than it costs to change the oil, so frequent oil changes win out.

Fabrik8

If GM is willing to stake the life of their engines on their temp/load/RPM algorithm, I'd say it's safe to follow. I'd also still stay on the conservative side of the fence, just for peace of mind. I don't believe there is any point in changing oil every 3k-5k miles though, whenever I've checked my GF's oil at those intervals (I use synthetic) the oil looks pretty clean still. I'm sure the oil has plenty of life left, but it's much harder to check how much life the filter has left in it. For example, Amsoil recommends changing the filter at some interval (which is longer than the recommended change interval for non-synth) and then changing the oil and filter at the next interval. So they're confident that the oil lasts much longer than the filter is good for.

Corey

Nick, my dad has a '99 Siera (5.3 liter) and it has the previous variation of the oil change warning. It will pop up when it's time to change the oil. My dad has kept track of the mileage and the light has been fairly consistant to pop on every 7-10k miles. This is in the range of what the owners manual recommends. Some times it'll come on a little early, sometimes a little late. He hasn't anylized all his driving to see what makes the intervals change, but he has never had a problem with the truck. It's actually nearly 150k miles and hasn't had a single issue.

I'm with Chris, if GM will bet their ass to a 15k miles oil change, I wouldn't expect it to be bad. Can you imagine what kind of money they'd lose if they had engine failures under warranty due to the long interval? I'd say you're golden.

Hybrid AWD

I guess I am just so used to the whole 3000-5000 mark. It seems with most cars nowadays, they are at least recommending 5000 miles. For example, Brenna's Scion was 5K along with the Jetta... so it kind of makes me wonder.
It's funny you mention your dads owners manual stating the mileage to change it, yet my os very vague about it. I wonder if the engine falls under the 100,000 mile warranty. That'd be nice to know. I'm gonna monitor the hours the engine has been running with the digital timer they have and also log the avg. mpg I am getting with the tanks of gas. Then come up and see what the oil life % still reads at 10,000 miles.
I went ahead and just changed the oil over to Mobil 1 5w30 fully synthetic. The oil was dark, but it wasn't black by any means. I felt now was a good time to change it just for the sake of getting the new engine break in period over with.

Priestiality

I follow the sensor to a conservative level. I change around 20-30% with mobile 1 and i frequently get on my . They take into account real-world factors such as temperature and rpm like Fabrik8 said and GM has put some serious research (especially with offering 100k warranties on the drivetrain) into this method.

A few owners on the forum had their first changes sent out to be analyzed and everything came back clean.

Corey

I'm curious what Chrysler is doing now that they're offering some sort of a warranty for the life of the drive train.

Hybrid AWD

talking with some of my old co-workers at pomoco, there is very fine detail about it. Basically you must follow every service and maintance feature of the vehicle.

"No deductible. *See dealer for a copy of limited warranty and details. Non-Transferable. Not available on SRT, Diesel vehicles, Sprinter, Ram Chassis Cab, and certain fleet vehicles"