I recently changed the oil in my C7 and parked it in the garage. I reset the oil life at the time of the oil change. I noticed that the oil life now reads 60%. I have not used the car and it has been sitting in the garage. Is this normal for the oil life to drop even if I am not driving the car?

 

Yes. Part of the calculated oil life cycle is simply time.

However, whether 60% (down from 100) is appropriate depends on how "recently" you changed the oil.

 

Yes, it's normal. Mine did that over the winter. Changed the oil in November and by March it was 60 some percent. The logic behind it is you must change your oil at least once every year. So if you change the oil and don't drive it for 6 months then when you get back in the OLM will read 50%.

 

330 miles in the trip meter and oil life is 69%. I just checked it today a few mins ago. I also don't believe I have driven 330 miles since last oil change. When I did the oil change I reset both A & B trip meters. Both are reading 330 right now. I am sitting here thinking where in the hell have I drove and put 330 miles on the car since the oil change. No I'm not crazy but I am retired and nobody drives the car but me. I was thinking of resetting trip B back to zero and see if any miles just start appearing. I do have a Range device plugged in to the obd port to prevent going into 4 cylinder mode. I keep it plugged in all the time. I also have the car on a battery tender that is plugged into the round port in the trunk of the car. I wonder if something is causing an eletrical glitch???

 

To change the oil in my 2015 coupe, in one year, about 3,000 miles. I reset the OLM to 0, two to three times.

 

Maybe zero both of them and take a reading of the odometer and see if the trip meter corresponds to the odometer after a drive?

 

That's a good idea. I will do that tomorrow for sure. I didn't think about that. I'll let you know what I find out. Thanks.

 

The C7 OLI decreases by slightly over 8% each month, even if you never drive the car. That's how it tells you to change the oil after a year even if you never start the engine.

 

8.33, to be exact. That works out to 33.3333% in 4 months of my storage. You might ask "Why is that important?". So, funny story here. Because I don't drive it in winter and I use the spot for my John Deer with a snowblower, I need to make room. I don't have street parking during the months of December to March. In this case, I take it for storage for the next 4 months. I did a UOA with 0W40 Supercar at 4500 miles. Suggestion was that I can take it to 6000 miles. According to the calculators, that is a 33.333% increase. I am about to drop the oil if I can get my lazy *** off the couch. Last time I switched to 5W30. This time, I am going to use 5W30 again but at the end of it, test the oil again and see. By this time, as much of the 0W40 has been purged out as possible so next oil change, we will test it and see what 5W30 tests out at. That should guide me if I can keep the 6000 mile limit regardless of what the OLM says or not.

BTW, last time that test was done, the OLM just hit 0 as I was in town and a couple miles from home. This time, the oil is past the OLM limit but before the 6000 mile limit. We shall see which oil is more economical from BOTH a financial standpoint and the 2 hours it takes to do the oil change..

 

The odometer and trip meter match. I went on a test drive today and watched both of them at the same time.

 

Will oil go bad just sitting in a car for 1yr? Should someone change it out even if they have not reached the 3000 mile limit? If oil goes bad in 1yr just sitting around, then someone needs to make a better quality oil for vehicles.

 

Then the problem lies with the elves that took it for a joyride.

 

With the contaminants, possibly. Oxidation and other blow by is an issue, not to mention heat. How much? Hard to say. Test to know. I did.

 

If you change the oil and then do not drive it one single time, then probably not. Shelf life of unopened oil is like 3-5 years. Less so if its exposed to the elements.

If you drive it, at all, then yes, definitely. As Aklim said, how much? Hard to tell without getting an oil analysis.

My thoughts are if you never drive it then why have the car in the first place? If you do drive the car then why chance it and try cheaping out and potentially damaging the engine? It's cheap insurance.

 

lol. That was funny. Had me laughing my butt off.

 

I was just wondering about the oil life. It would be a good idea to get an analysis done. I drive it every now and then but not as much as I would like to. When I go cruising, I'm always looking out for the other idiots on the road and that's just part of the problem. The rest of the time I'm looking out for pot holes and stuff in the road. It's stressful sometimes.

 

We'll see who is laughing when they take it out next Saturday night and you see it drive past you.

 

If I ever had that issue, I would determine if I am stressed in only that car or whether it is in any car. IF it is in that car only, I get rid of the car. If it is in every car I drive, I need to either get therapy or get out of that area. IDK about you but if I am stressing, I'm not enjoying. In which case, I might as well be working.

 

It would be fine to just reset the monitor to 100% and go on with life. However as others mentioned it is pretty cheap to do an oil change. BTW, the interval is not 3000 anymore it can go as far as 15000 under ideal conditions.

 

That is much further than my testing shows. Not sure you can hit those ideal conditions to push it to 15K.