So this is really starting to irritate me. The whole "change your oil every 3,000 miles" is out dated and I really wish the manufacturers would stop buddying up with the oil companies and continue pushing this. How about this, stop BSing and give us straight answers.

I rememeber reading where GM stated that they hope they could start getting people to use their oil life sensors for a more reliable reference because the computer basis your driving habits and individualizes the engine in the vehicle from others.

Then I am going through the booklet on the duramax that they give me and the booklet says every 3,000 miles. I think GM hires a bunch of ADD sufferers

 

It all depends on the oil you want to use. If you run Pennsylvania Crude (penzoil) or Quacker State I would be changing that crap before 3000 miles. If you use a good quality oil that doesn't pour out of the bottle already dark with sludge in the bottom you could go longer. I go 5000 miles all highway on the oil on my 99 and its Mobil 1 synthetic. At that point the oil is getting pretty dark and its about 1 quart low. The way the PCV setups work these days pretty much every engine is ingesting oil. If you go by the oil life monitor you may be half out of oil by the time its ready for an oil change. The Acadias have had some pretty bad camshaft and phaser issues due to people running too long on oil changes thanks to the oil life monitor.

 

I kinda agree.. I change my oil usually about every 4k or so.. Some times before if I run the truck hard.. I take a look at the oil, see what it looks and smells like.. As far as burning oil I am only a half quart low on my changes.. I have seen vehicles that have went hundreds of thousands of miles and NEVER had a oil change, ran like a top... Same with trans fluid.. I have seen trans run forever, never had a single fluid change..

 

For gasoline, I always use mobile one and go 5k+. in several independent tests, even at 10k miles, mobile one still has above required viscosity.

My problem in this situation is, I now have a diesel, where there are a ton of new elements added to why you change your oil. The issue here is GM says go with the oil life sensor to ensure you are changing your oil correctly. The booklets all say 3,000 miles. They are contradicting themselves in the literature they publish.

I suppose I am going to just make it 3,000 miles and help support the oil industry in all their hard times.

 

I completly quit listening to the dealerships recomendations when one of their service guys told me that putting mobil 1 in my old 2003 4.3l sonoma would flat spot the cams and cause a warrenty issue because it was too slick for a motor that doesn't have high torque. After I finished laughing I told him to put the mobil 1 in and shut up. The only reason I had the dealer ship change my oil was because I had free oil changes for the first 36,000 when I bought it. I also brought my own oil.

 

I agree that this method is very outdated with today's synthetics. I have been running PP and eu castrol syntec with KN filter. Ran it 7k miles one time and the oil still didnt look bad when i drained it. People send oil to blackstone all the time and get reccomended 5-7k mi oci's. it all depends on driving habits, quality of oil, weather, etc. usually i change my oil every 5k though. well see what the internals look like in a few months when i pull the heads

 

Yes, bringing your own oil is a good idea. The one damn time I forgot to bring mine and put it in the passenger side seat so they couldnt miss it, they put the wrong oil in it. No big deal now, because I traded it with 1,000 miles of that oil change back to them. lol

Luckily, I did some reading and the OE oil for the duramax, mobile Delvac 1300 actually has some decent analysis results, so I might as well just go with that. My issue is just that, since I am new to diesels, I just don't know the interval. I might need to have the oil tested. There is so much that gets in to the oil and how the oil breaks down had a lot of different factors.

 

I am curious how accurate the oil life sensor is. I really need to have one or two tested to find out. How do send it to them or where can I get more info about it?

 

It's not a "sensor". It's an algorithm the computer uses to compute oil life (RPM, load, miles, temperature, etc).

 

toyota oil change intervals are 5k with conventional and 10k with synthetic. that is covered under warranty and recomended by every dealer.

my avalon is almost at 15k on conventional oil and the dipstick still shows new clean looking oil. i'll probably change it here soon just because. im sure charlie will want some of it to play with his oil analysis crap lol. i think the oil could go further, but the filter????