Oil life monitor

[Greenman]

Should I trust this thing?
Based on mileage and what it shows as oil life remaining, my next oil change will be at 7400 miles. This is on a work truck that hauls big loads and pulls a dump trailer.

I'm thinking it gets changed at 5k, regardless of what the monitor says.

 

[Bartman39]

I'm thinking it gets changed at 5k, regardless of what the monitor says.

😉...:thumbsup:

Severe duty applications require this so if I were you I might even consider 3K change if the duty is very severe...?

 

[railer]

What reason do you have for changing the oil at 5k miles? Or 3k miles?
Why wouldn't you simply follow your owners manual, and heed the advice of the people who designed the vehicle, and who are infinitely more knowledgeable than you or anyone else on the internet?
Edmund's got 13k miles out of their Pontiac G8, and still had 1000's of miles to go, based on oil analysis, and not based on anecdotes and speculation.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/oil-life-monitoring-systems.html

 

[Jimzz]

5000k is a good middle ground. If its a vehicle that makes money I would do a UOA on this change and the next at 5000 mile services. Then adjust as needed.

 

[Greenman]

What reason do you have for changing the oil at 5k miles? Or 3k miles?
Why wouldn't you simply follow your owners manual, and heed the advice of the people who designed the vehicle, and who are infinitely more knowledgeable than you or anyone else on the internet?
Edmund's got 13k miles out of their Pontiac G8, and still had 1000's of miles to go, based on oil analysis, and not based on anecdotes and speculation.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/oil-life-monitoring-systems.html

To make the engine last. I drove my last truck for 266k, I want 300k out of this one. While I understand that the oil might not be worn out at 5k, I don't know what's measured by the oil monitor, and I don't know how accurate they are. That's why I asked the question, to gain information. It could very well be that 7 or 10k is completely acceptable, but I want to know exactly whats being measured by the device.

 

[WoodButcher]

What reason do you have for changing the oil at 5k miles? Or 3k miles?
Why wouldn't you simply follow your owners manual, and heed the advice of the people who designed the vehicle, and who are infinitely more knowledgeable than you or anyone else on the internet?
Edmund's got 13k miles out of their Pontiac G8, and still had 1000's of miles to go, based on oil analysis, and not based on anecdotes and speculation.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/oil-life-monitoring-systems.html

I agree w/ Greenman.
Think about it, the guy that wrote the owners manual,
the guy that built that oil life monitor,
everyone involved with that new car would love to sell you another as soon as you finish the payment booklet.
I changed the oil in my new motor @ 500 miles with dino juice, @ 1500 I'll put synthetic in and every 3,000 after that.
My work van has 280,000 hard miles, oil changes and regular maintenance I believe have kept it going.

 

[railer]

I agree w/ Greenman.
Think about it, the guy that wrote the owners manual,
the guy that built that oil life monitor,
everyone involved with that new car would love to sell you another as soon as you finish the payment booklet.
I changed the oil in my new motor @ 500 miles with dino juice, @ 1500 I'll put synthetic in and every 3,000 after that.
My work van has 280,000 hard miles, oil changes and regular maintenance I believe have kept it going.

Following that flawed logic, why wouldn't they just fire 90% of their testing and reliability people, and use cheap parts to build the engines. They'd be able to "sell you another" once that poor quality engine blew up, but they'd save a ton of money on parts and testing.
The downside to that is once everyone realized that their engines were garbage, the company would be bankrupt. And that's exactly what would happen if they were recommending 10k oil change intervals on vehicles that actually needed the oil changed at 5k miles. It is illogical and makes zero financial sense for them to do that.
I could care less about any irrelevant anecdotes. You changing oil that was perfectly fine had nothing at all to do with that engine lasting.

OP: I was not trying to be a wanker, but I was just answering your question while thinking of all the other silly responses that I've seen to this same question. OLM's typically do not measure oil, they use an algorithm that looks at your driving characteristics to determine oil life. OEM's have a vested interest in your engine NOT failing, and if anything it costs them money to recommend extended oil changes (for those people who get their oil changed at dealerships). Read the Edmund's link above, or spend the $25 at Blackstone labs just before your next OLM recommended oil change to see for yourself.

 

[JCH13]

What railer said: it's an algorithm without any closed-loop feedback. On some cars it's based on engine RPM, ambient temperatures, throttle position, on-time, and mileage. It's a reasonably sophisticated bit of software that's been developed based on experimental results. I would trust it, but a UOA might do a better job of putting your fears to rest.

 

[Zargon]

What reason do you have for changing the oil at 5k miles? Or 3k miles?
Why wouldn't you simply follow your owners manual, and heed the advice of the people who designed the vehicle, and who are infinitely more knowledgeable than you or anyone else on the internet?
Edmund's got 13k miles out of their Pontiac G8, and still had 1000's of miles to go, based on oil analysis, and not based on anecdotes and speculation.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/oil-life-monitoring-systems.html

besides having to stop following the one on my wifes last car because it kept killing timing chain tensioners with 7k oil change intervals? went down to a 4k at 50k miles and stopped needing new TC Tensioners every 10k miles......

besides that most manuals give you recommendations, then tell you to ignore them for sever duty applications.

 

[Jimzz]

besides having to stop following the one on my wifes last car because it kept killing timing chain tensioners with 7k oil change intervals? went down to a 4k at 50k miles and stopped needing new TC Tensioners every 10k miles......

besides that most manuals give you recommendations, then tell you to ignore them for sever duty applications.

Was that a 3.6L GM motor?

I was going to replay to JCH13 about the oil life monitor but your case may be what I was tying to. Many have been told to change at X interval or by the oil monitor but that has destroyed motors as well. Toyota had sludge issues using their numbers and GM had some timing chain issues on their 3.6L motors. The recall for GM was to reduce the monitor time frame and Toyota said to change oil sooner with many also saying to use Syn as well.


Like I said before I would do 5k and do back to back UOA's to verify if that is good or not.

 

[Zargon]

nah this was a 1.9 ecotec

 

[boomerang]

Following that flawed logic, why wouldn't they just fire 90% of their testing and reliability people, and use cheap parts to build the engines. They'd be able to "sell you another" once that poor quality engine blew up, but they'd save a ton of money on parts and testing.
The downside to that is once everyone realized that their engines were garbage, the company would be bankrupt. And that's exactly what would happen if they were recommending 10k oil change intervals on vehicles that actually needed the oil changed at 5k miles. It is illogical and makes zero financial sense for them to do that.
I could care less about any irrelevant anecdotes. You changing oil that was perfectly fine had nothing at all to do with that engine lasting.

OP: I was not trying to be a wanker, but I was just answering your question while thinking of all the other silly responses that I've seen to this same question. OLM's typically do not measure oil, they use an algorithm that looks at your driving characteristics to determine oil life. OEM's have a vested interest in your engine NOT failing, and if anything it costs them money to recommend extended oil changes (for those people who get their oil changed at dealerships). Read the Edmund's link above, or spend the $25 at Blackstone labs just before your next OLM recommended oil change to see for yourself.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[DVad3r]

Sure it works, but oil life reading or not, I don't care what it says, after 6 months I would change whatever oil is in there.