Steve9235

I have 2017 c7 1LT and has 2450 miles on it and the oil % is reading 30% I changed the oil at 400 miles the car is less then a year old why is the percentage so low is that normal ?

dyoung

It works on time also. At the end of a year from resetting it will be at 0% even if you don't drive the car.

rv3flyr

So you've put 2050 miles on it since the oil change, and you're showing 30% used. That equates to reaching 100% at 6670 miles. Sounds just like what mine is doing.

Foosh

Correct, you can change the oil, reset the monitor to 100%, then put it away without even starting for a year, and the oil life will show 0%.

red62vette

At what point (percentage on the indicator) do people usually change the oil? 10-20%?

rv3flyr

The way I understand it, if you changed the oil when reaching 100% used, that would be around 6,000 - 7,000 miles. Changing it at a 10 - 20% indication would only be 500 - 1,000 miles driven.

red62vette

Sorry, I meant to say 10-20% left.

rv3flyr

I think when you reset the gauge, it shows 0%, no?

Zymurgy

No, the OLM starts at 100% and goes down to 0%. It is the measure of Oil Life Remaining.

Foosh

The "danger" of the OLM for some people is that you can reset it without changing the oil and keep it at 100% forever. However, that will not save you in the event of an engine failure. An oil analysis, coupled with lack of oil change records will bust you, and void a warranty claim.

mschuyler

IMO, if you are under warranty, do whatever the OLM says and don't argue. Just document. After that, meh? Use your own best judgement.

c54u

Here is my OnStar OLM report. I know I put the car away at 88 percent Nov 4, 2017. I have not started the engine ever since. I verified last week in the car that it is at 77 percent. It doesn't seem to be dropping very much over almost 3 months now.

Grand Slam

My 17 GS is a daily driver. It is at about 10% with close to 7K miles in 10 months.

Chevy must have changed the algorithms significantly (in addition to including elapsed time). My C5 would indicate 0% after about 4K miles.

Patman

What year was your C5? The first couple of years of the C5 the oil life monitor counted down faster, as it was based on a maximum mileage of 10,000 miles, so it would never be higher than that number under any circumstances. Around 99 or 2000 they changed the algorithm so that 15,000 miles became the new maximum, so it would count down a lot slower than on the early C5s. I believe they stuck with that same algorithm for the entire run of the C6, but now it's obviously completely different yet again because in 2014 they added the time element that was never there on the C5 or C6.

Foosh

That's because without running the engine, you're not going to get an accurate OLM report from OnStar. Don't be surprised when the next time you start the engine, it falls off the cliff.

ptran00

I have a new 2017 Corvette. I chose to do the first oil change at 500 miles. Then after 6 months at 7000 miles, car said oil life 8% left and 3 days later it said oil life 5% so I did an oil change.

Maxie2U

OP, let the search feature be your friend. There are a bunch of threads that address how the oil monitor system works.

Grimlock13

I believe the C6 also takes into account engine RPM, temperature, etc but didn't account for time sitting.

C7 Algorithm added the time factor so it takes sitting into account.

Patman

That is correct, as I used to do 2 year oil changes on my C6 and the oil life monitor still wasn't down to zero even after 2 years. (on my last oil change with that car the OLM got down to 14% after 10,106 miles and almost exactly 2 years to the day)

Grand Slam

My C5 was a '99 so probably before GM modified the oil life algorithm.