To start off, I changed my oil today at 2919 miles. I also got my monthly report yesterday which stated that "Based on oil life and mileage readings, next required maintenance estimated at 14,800 miles." That's almost a 15k mile oil change interval with regular oil? There is no way I would ever let her run that long before changing out oil. Maybe fully synthetic, but that's still pushing it don't you think?

So should I change according to the computer, or every 12k once I change over to fully synthetic. I'm only running partial synthetic till the next change.

Thanks for your opinions, it's hard to trust a computer.

I changed my oil in my truck that I had every 3-5000 miles religiously, switched to Mobil 1 at 60,000 and sold the truck to it's new owner, who was ecstatic to say the least after a test drive, w/ 225,000 on the clock.

Well...you say so what??? to which I say for the last 100,000 I ran my truck down the 1/4 mile for a few passes almost every weekend...The truck was my daily driver (hence the miles) and was pretty heavily modded to the average person (big cam, stall, gears, etc.)...

My shift points for WOT were set @ 6650 w/ a 7,000 RPM redline that I bounced off of repeatedly in the burnout box. Pulled a 4000 lb boat in the dead of summer at 80mph for 7 yrs., basically I pretty much threw all I could at it and never had a problem oil related. When I pulled it apart to put the first cam in at 125K, a 30yr veteran mechanic couldn't believe how clean the inside of the engine was. Then at 175K when I went to an even bigger cam another seasoned mechanic that was helping me still couldn't believe his own eyes, said his engine was coated inside from running Royal Purple and he had WAY less miles on his than mine (less than half)...

My motorcycle service manager summed it up best when he said you can NEVER change the oil too much, but change it too little and it will bite you in the ass...

With my current two vehicles I go by the oil life monitor but only go to 50% because, hey...that's fifty percent thats not protecting the engine and it usually works out to 5-6000 miles and both came factory filled w/ you guessed it...Mobil 1....

Oil is a relatively cheap investment, you can't go wrong changing it early.

A lot depends on your driving style if you make a lot of short trips than do it sooner than later.

If all of your driving is done on freeways over 50 miles at atime than 15k oil changes sound good to me.

I am still on cheap conventional oil, coming up on 4k. I changed it the day I got it, then at 1k, and now at 4k I'm going to full synthetic. I plan on changing it every 5k. Please note I know that I am very aggressive with my car and it will spend some of its life at the race track. It might be a lil over kill with 8 quarts and all, but its an overkill i can live with.

Thanks
Mike Haddad

I had the dealer change my oil at 940 miles, and they listed on my windshield to come back in 3000 miles later. That's with synthetic and at over $100 an oil change, HA. Luckily the dealer I bought my car from included lifetime 5k mile oil changes. They are 40 miles away though.

With 2800 miles on the car, Engineering Mode is reporting 68% oil life remaining and the oil on the dipstick is still looking amazingly clean, considering this is a brand-new engine.

The oil life monitor doesn't know or care what kind of oil you have. It simply predicts the condition of the worst oil that passes GM's minimum requirements for that vehicle. Driving the oil really hot or really cold is really hard on cheap oil, and so the oil life monitor counts down faster because it assumes the worst, that you have the cheapest acceptable oil. High quality oil is more durable under those extreme conditions, and should last longer than what the oil life monitor says.

Changing the oil more often than the monitor recommends is a waste of oil, especially when using a high quality oil. Well, changing the oil after breaking in the engine is an exception.

Changed oil @1000mi. changed to Mobil 1 , I intend to change it every 3000mi. I can use the drain oil in my blazer for another 5000

The oil life monitor doesn't know or care what kind of oil you have. It simply predicts the condition of the worst oil that passes GM's minimum requirements for that vehicle. Driving the oil really hot or really cold is really hard on cheap oil, and so the oil life monitor counts down faster because it assumes the worst, that you have the cheapest acceptable oil. High quality oil is more durable under those extreme conditions, and should last longer than what the oil life monitor says.

Changing the oil more often than the monitor recommends is a waste of oil, especially when using a high quality oil. Well, changing the oil after breaking in the engine is an exception.That's how I feel about this as well. New Mercedes Benz cars for example have oil life monitors on their engines as well and here in Europe I haven't read or heard about anyone feeling the need to change the oil prior to when the monitor says unless of course you have been driving on the same oil a year long before the monitor claims it to be ready to be changed and mind you the oil intervals by MB are long ones(please excuse the long sentence). When I get mine I will use Mobil 1 after the break in and will follow the oil life monitor or at least change the oil every year whichever one comes first. Today's engines and engine oils are way higher advanced than in the past. I'm going to follow exactly what the manufacturer recommends. I trust the oil life monitor.

That's how I feel about this as well. New Mercedes Benz cars for example have oil life monitors on their engines as well and here in Europe I haven't read or heard about anyone feeling the need to change the oil prior to when the monitor says unless of course you have been driving on the same oil a year long before the monitor claims it to be ready to be changed and mind you the oil intervals by MB are long ones(please excuse the long sentence). When I get mine I will use Mobil 1 after the break in and will follow the oil life monitor or at least change the oil every year whichever one comes first. Today's engines and engine oils are way higher advanced than in the past. I'm going to follow exactly what the manufacturer recommends. I trust the oil life monitor.

For the most part, I'll trust it as well, but I'll likely be changing filters a bit more often than. These filters are kind of----- small...

My plan (for now) is; Filters at 75% & 50% then just change the oil *and* filter at 20-25%.
If the oil monitor thinks I need to change oil more often than about 8,000 miles, I'll likely just change a filter at 50%.

That's how I feel about this as well. New Mercedes Benz cars for example have oil life monitors on their engines as well and here in Europe I haven't read or heard about anyone feeling the need to change the oil prior to when the monitor says unless of course you have been driving on the same oil a year long before the monitor claims it to be ready to be changed and mind you the oil intervals by MB are long ones(please excuse the long sentence). When I get mine I will use Mobil 1 after the break in and will follow the oil life monitor or at least change the oil every year whichever one comes first. Today's engines and engine oils are way higher advanced than in the past. I'm going to follow exactly what the manufacturer recommends. I trust the oil life monitor.

Change at least once a year, hadn't thought about that. I don't know if the oil life monitor figures the passage of time in its calculations or not, so changing at least once a year could be the other exception. If only doing yearly changes, it would be a good idea to do it right after winter.