Always Red Dave

I change my oil every year no matter how much mileage I put on in that year which is usually no more than 2000 miles a year. Do to time monitoring in the oil life system what oil percentage do you let your car get down to before you change the oil. For instance mine is going in for its second oil change tomorrow with 981 miles on the clock but the oil monitoring system says I only have 27% left. That is only 500 miles from my first oil change.Thanks Dave

dvilin

Once a year for sure like you due to it being in storage for the Winter otherwise when the oil monitor gets around 25% or less I take it in.

laserdude2215

Zero percent for me!

dbaker

5% or 5k miles,whichever comes 1st.

\db2

robertbruce

3000 to 3500 miles

CP

Wasting money

Wasting money

Wasting money

Why do some people think they know better than the folks that designed and built the engine and cover it with a warranty?

saleen556

dvilin

How much money are you saving by letting it get to zero versus 25% or less. Really no big deal either way, certainly not wasting any "real" money in my world.

bigblock427

Mine Vette is a daily driver. Normally, I have mine changed between 5 and 10 percent, in order to avoid not being able to have it changed prior to zero percent.

davepl

0% or annually, whichever comes first.

Corgidog1

I change my oil annually when I take it from its winter haitus in march or april. Percentage is usually 0 or pretty close as I only have 5400 miles after 3 yrs.

spireland

Because oil is cheaper than engines.

Maintenance schedules are done when looking at how an entire fleet should be okay with. Your care is a 1 of 1 statistic. Why risk it for a few extra bucks?

Sellout

exactly 1%

Internets_Ninja

As close to 0% as time allows since I change my own oil. 3000-3500 miles is a huge waste of time and a small waste of money in my opinion. Unless that is all the miles you've accumulated in a years time.

tomtoro

Once a year. I put about 5k per year on mine and use the Mobil 1 15k synthetic (redundant?).

sunsalem

Exactly.
I wait until the people who designed the engine send me a message on my dash display before I change mine.

Jaykoh-Z51

JerryU

At about 10% life left it starts telling you to change every time you start. You can clear the message but about then is the logical time to change. I change mine about then.

Since no one discussed it, it is a complex algorithm BUT as you suspected it does not measure the oil.

I'll mention some things it does but first this is what it said in my '93 Vette Owner's Manual.
1) Change at 7500 miles OR one year which ever comes first.
2) If most Trips are under 4 miles change at 3000 miles or 3 months whichever comes first!

In '93 the only thing measured was miles and they had to guess what to do IF you mostly made short trips,

The worse thing for oil is starting, not letting the oil get to temp (175 to 190 F) for long enough to evaporate some of the excess products of combustion that pass cold pistons. One main product is water that will form acids etc. To keep a cold engine running they also use a richer fuel/air mixture so that also passes the cold pistons that have more clearance to the cylinder walls until the pistons get hot. In fact the worse thing is pulling a car out of the garage to get something it is blocking and putting it right back!

The OLM measures many things, for example engine revolutions made. A much better measure than miles, i. e. a mile around town is much tougher on an engine and oil than a highway mile! It also monitors the oil temp after a start. If it does not get hot enough long enough to evaporate the excess blowby from cold starts, it will shorten the time to change. It is also the first Vette to keep track of time for you! So assuming those few miles you put on are not all 2 mile trips to the store and back in one year it will say change!

Hope that helps understand what it does and why it is better for very low mileage cars than change every 3 months that it said in the past before the OLM was introduced!

Jaykoh-Z51

Jerry...excellent description. Those of us on here that are very tech orientated or have to deal with similar at work, I crave/want that level of knowledge of certain things. I'm an airline pilot so thats been my life for 20 years. "Why/When does this light come on". etc.

I'll promise you I'll bug you again in the future for other knowledge level questions about our rides.


I was concerned the OLM was really just a dummy timer for the average person who NEEDS the reminder. I'm very glad to learn that it actually has quite a bit of logic built in. I'll definitely trust it now. I haven't tracked yet and I know that kind of oil care is a different animal. But day to day driving....awesome.

Anton Chigurh

I always change the oil when it gets around 30%