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I use the OLM on my 06 Impala and change it when I get arounf 15-20%. It usually lets me go about 7500 miles. On my vette, I wouldn't let it go 8000 miles, but given that it's synthetic and the factory is good with that, I'm sure it's absolutely fine to do. I just did the cars second change myself at 3500 miles, because it's 2 yrs old now and should not go more than a year w/o a change, regardless of what the OLM says. And that "1 yr" advice is also given in your owners manual.
Color ain't got nothing to do with it. I have seen oil turn black within hundreds of miles on personal vehicles that were being changed every few thousands and few months many years ago with conventional motor mineral oil.
For those unfamiliar with diesel engines, oil turns black almost immediately!! I agree, color alone has little to nothing to do with the remaining lubricity/useful life an oil has.......
wow, you're a bit touchy on this subject. no i am not a GM engineer, but i do know 8k on the first change is way to long, should have been done at 1500-2000 miles then every 5k at best depending on your driving style and habbits, the OLM is a joke if you ask me, i would love to inspect the bearings in your daughters car after 10k miles on the oil.
Maybe we're in the minority, but I agree on the first oil change being sooner/less miles than the rest of the oil changes. For me, it's not about whether the oil is still good at, say, 2,500 miles. It's the fact that in the first couple thousand miles, the oil will have more metallic particles/floating crap/break in assembly lube in it, than it will in the next several thousand miles. This is the time the engines mechanical parts are wearing in/breaking in to each other. I'm sure it's a small amount. Yes, the oil filter should catch it all, but I still don't want to have metallic particles floating around in my oil any longer than needed! Does the oil pump no good, either, because it's upstream from the filter, so it picks up the crap and then pumps it to the filter. So I am also a person who chooses to make their first oil change in 1,500-2,500 miles-max. Then I'll let it go another 5,000-8,000 miles before the second change. As for letting it go 10,000 miles between changes? It would depend greatly on how the car is used. I know the following is apples to oranges, but I started going 10,000 miles between changes on my 2003 Buick LeSabre at the 200,000 mile mark. It was still running great at 398,000+ miles, when only a deer finally took it off the road......