This is probably a stupid question with an obvious answer but...

I've had my '02 z06 for 3months now. I changed the oil when I first got it. Its been 3months exactly and 2,723miles I've put on it so far.

I was told you should change you're oil when it gets to 15% oil life left. I still have 47% left on my car though. Is this statement correct? Should I wait, or should I still change it?

 

I don't even pay attention to the GM oil life monitor. I really depends on what type of oil you use and what type of driving you do. If you're running synthetic and doing a lot of highway driving then you could wait until 4500 miles or maybe more. Mostly city then I would still change it around 3000. Some people say to wait even longer but what's a $50 oil change every 3 months going to hurt?

 

advanced auto has 5 quarts of mobil 1 and a mobil 1 filter for $26.99 right now.

 

oh the great oil change debate...I'm old school as well on my other cars, change oil every 3K miles or 3 months.

But with the Z, this is the first car I've owned that runs synthetic oil and has the oil monitor system so I'm following the owners manual and change the oil myself. The owners manual states to change the oil when the system alerts you or annually, which ever comes first...sooner if you are tracking the car.

I change my oil a little early, at around the 10% ~ 15% mark and normally hit around 5K miles on each oil change when doing so. This year my Z has set in the garage a little more than usual so I'm actually one month shy of the one year mark and only at 21% on the system.

One last note, remember the system uses algorithms derived from your driving habits as well as oil temps. This is why it's so important to ensure the engine oil heats up - if you do a lot of short trips, not allowing the engine oil to heat up to operating temps, you will skew the data and should change the oil sooner.

 

Here is another question with an obvious answer...
Why would GM develop the oil monitoring system, and put it on the Corvette if they did not expect you to use it?

Go by the monitor system. If GM thought you should change the oil at 15%, then they would have made that 0% on the scale. If you go by the system, changing it before it gets to 0% makes no sense at all.
I use it, and it usually says to change the oil between 3,500 and 4,000 miles. It looks like yours would be close to zero at about 5,000 miles, not too long for synthetic oils.

 

I see your point of view but for me it's about time. I do my own work and my time is valuable so I'd rather change the oil at around the 10% or 1 month mark - being pro-active, rather than let it hit 0% forcing me to be re-active and possible take it to a shop/dealer.

Yesterday, perfect weather, 75 degrees out, wife and daughters out shopping, already had the oil & filter on hand...perfect condition for an oil change one month prior to the annual mark and at 21% on the oil monitor...had a few after the work was done and life is good!

 

My Z burns about a quart a month with regular in town driving, so I go to about 6k before I think to change it. I check the oil life display but I think its a guide more than anything, nothing is spot on.

 

Well, just did my first oil change today. I bought my '02 Mill Yellow Z06 last April. The first oil change was free and done by the dealership.

In all my previous Chevy's I changed the oil by using the ramp on the front end, and sliding under via the creeper just behind the left front tire. This baby is so low I had to slide under from the front. I didn't jack the rear end however. So maybe a half quart of old oil was still in her.

Overall, no prob. And I agree. I trust myself more than some stoner at Jiffy Lube. And it is fat as Kansas under there. No doubt for wind resistance when tracking.

 

It is also worth noting, for those that have never been there, the car does not self-destruct if you let it go a few miles past 0%.

 

Absolutely true. By the way before we had the 3 month/3K oil change interval it was the 2 month/2K interval. Kendall used to advertise itself as the 2000 mile oil. I believe all GM cars use the oil life monitor now. When I bought my 03 Tahoe the sales guy was making a big deal about following its monitor and not the old schedule. By using the monitor I change the oil in the Vette once per year and the Tahoe is down to 3 times per year. Saves some money and the environment.

Bill

 

We have 9 vehicles and there isn't one of them I change the oil on before 6K or at 1 year intervals. On the Vette the 10% DIC reading usually is right around 4-6K depending on how Ive been driving it.

 

I run mine until 0% or as close as I can get given timing. My Mercedes with the Aluminum V8 is driven 14,000 miles between changes. However there are 3 major differences.

1) Mobile 1 5w30, 10w30 does not meet the minimum spec for oil in the engine. Only MOBILE 0W40 meets the spec 229.51. So apparently there is a real difference in the oil and both full synthetic made by Mobile

2) The mercedes uses a filter insert that uses a synthetic micron fabric cover with much finer mesh to remove particles. Using a filter similar to the corvette would void the mercedes warranty.

3) The mercedes contains 8 qts vs. 6.5 so there is more oil

Given the blackstone oil test for use of Mobile 1 10w30 in LS1 engines. The test clearly showed running to 14,000 miles was ok. And this was an oil that did not pass the Mercedes spec. I can assure the MB High out put V8 is in the same precision category as the Corvette engine.

So in summary why not just follow mfg reco. use the oil change computer and the oil recommended. Changing early IMO is just wasting a natural resource and resulting in more recycle oil with no real advantages to the engine.

AND YES I drive on the track also. Bought it new and not 75,000+ miles still using no oil between changes and it has seen redline many times.

 

I use the Blackstone analysis too. I agree with those that say drive until close to 0% on the DIC

Here was my last oil analysis

 

While I do not advocate this on my Vette ( I change the oil once a year whether it needs it or not!) the 3000 mile/3 month oil change thing is so out of date it is not even funny.

For the rest of the world the service interval for most vehicles is 12,000 to 20,000 miles, and the majority of those cars spend much more time in traffic than our cars.

3000 miles is a scam perpetuated by the oil companies. Once per year is the way to go unless you do over 10,000 or so a year (or your display tells you it's time in cars so equiped).

 

Display is there for a reason....

 

>> what's a $50 oil change every 3 months going to hurt?

It wastes your money (your choice) an increases our dependencies on foreign oil producers.


Here is how the OLM system works (I stole this from an Evil-Twin post)...

Mileage has little to do with how oil is monitored, here is the idea:

Car 1:

If you drive 90% of the time on the highway lets say 1500 rpm an hour.
you engine sees 90,000 revolutions in that hour and you drive 60 miles.


Car 2:

If you drive around town, profiling with 90% of your driving in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear, taking 4,000 rpm on average. That's 240,000 revolutions of the engine in 1 hour and you only drive 30 miles.

Run that out over 3 months/90 days:

Car#1 3,600,000 rpms and 5400 miles

Car#2 21,600,00 rpms and 2700 miles

This represents 1 hour of driving a day for 90 days.

Car #2 sees 6 times the engine duty of car #1 and Only half the mileage


So you can see that mileage can be very misleading..... trust your oil life monitor - it has years of GM engineering and research behind it. Of course it's your choice, this is just my opinion, and the opinion on GM.