1st oil change

[KathyandDave]

Our cousin Ronnie, a trucker in his 60's who drives a beautiful Volvo rig, advises us to get the 1st oil change at 5,000km (that's about 3,000 miles), instead of the GM-approved 10,000km. Comments?

[Wiarton William]

The reason is that early oil change will get rid of any filings or grit in the engine oil....

[Rondo]

Definitely do as your cousin says! I am assuming you have the Duramax diesel. The 10,000 km (5000 miles)is for the regular oil changes to my understanding. My dealer told me to have the first oil change at 3000 miles or 5000km in your terms. As stated earlier, that first oil change is crucial because it gets rid of any of the filings and anything else that may be in the engine to really cause some real problems. I had my initial change at 3000 miles and from that point on I've been changing it about every 5-6000 miles. I didn't notice what year you have but mine has the internal gauges that tell me what I have left for oil life and gas filter life! I change the gas filter every third oil change and since the truck has a screw on tranmission filter besides the pan filter, I have it changed about every 15000 miles also. Doing this with the transmission screw on filter they should never have to mess with the pan filter unless something goes wrong with the tranny itself.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

GM reccommends every 10,000 "miles" and not kilometers (km). At least that's the way it reads in my owners manual.

[Emmel]

Although my GMC is a 2002, that manual says to change oil at 7500 miles under normal conditions. The manual then states to change at 5000 miles under normal "towing" conditions. Again this is on the 02 model, not the newer trucks for today.
I'm also from the old school and change my oil at every 3000 miles, needing it or not!
Rondo hit it on the head with the other filters too!
Again, this is MHO!

[TLightning]

IMHO, 3,000 mile oil changes went out with carburetors. Newer engines and newer oils have virtually eliminated any changes that soon. If you have a newer GM, the DIC is the thing to use...it will work out to about 10,000 miles for oil changes.

[Emmel]

TLightning, I have to ask a stupid question about the DIC, like, what you talking about Willis? I'm sure it's probably something simple, but I have to ask anyway.
Also, if you are old enough to remember, the fuel injection has been around for many many years.
But as you stated, they have come a long way with the newer oils and they are made to last longer. Oil changes are then left up to the owner as to when he/she feels like having it changed. I'm not trying to say you have to change your oil when I do, I'm just saying this is when I do change mine.
By the way, my 68 fire bird still has a carburetor and with only 40,168 original miles, it gets the oil changed every six months since I only put maybe 1 to 2000 miles on it a year since I've owned it. It's fun to have another relic around besides myself!

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Our 2003 Big Butt has that electronic oil life stuff. Al was not gonna trust it, nope, new fangled stuff.

BUT, we went to a dealer sponsored, "meet your dealer" dinner one night, hey, they fed us free. Anyway, again, going in with a "show me" attitude (ya would think we were born in Missouri), we actually were convinced.

The service manager, who stated his qualifications and the years he had worked, and his feelings on this new fangled stuff, he convinced us. He was more than well qualified to discuss this. He explained how he did not believe it either, at first. How he had attended some GM classes and after working with this system and vehicles under his care at the dealership, he now believed it.

So, we are using it, we get a lot more than 3000 miles between oil changes.

We save $$ not spent on oil changes that GM says we don't need. And, if you are thinking green these days, we are not polluting with the extra oil either.

[richfaa]

I will say that I had my first oil change at 3K miles then the second one 6K miles later most of that pulling the 3400 anchor. I had the oil analyzed and it came back perfect..I wasted my money . However being hard headed and old fashoned I still do the maint every 6K miles.

[bncinwv]

I must be one of the few that adhere to the manual specs and the DIC (digital information center - tells you oil life left, filter life, etc.). I had the first service done at 10,000 miles per the manual and will have the second done at 20,000 miles per the manual. By the way, I didn't have the oil analyzed, but when it was changed the oil was still clean on the dipstick. I believe the metal filings deal is myth since if there were any impurities in the oil, I believe that is what the filter system is for??? Just my opinion, take it for what is worth, but at $160 a change (with tire rotation), I think I will stick with the OEM recommendations.
Bingo

[mtheo]

My 2002 says 5000 and 7500, I stick to the 5000, I'm a little slow so it is easy for me to look at the odometer and tell when I NEED to change it, no math needed. As for going much longer, it looks prety black at the point, it might not be bad just looks that way.

[skypilot]

Only have 2600 miles on my 08 and will 'probably' have oil changed at 3K because of my 06 Dodge experience. I had the oil changed on it at 3K miles and sent a sample off to Blackstone (I believe it was, cummins gave me a free test kit as a show and I used it). In any case, the findings came back high on silicon, magnesium and some other metals. The narrative stated that it was probably due to being a new engine and had residual materials from manufacturering. Recommended another sample be pulled after about a thousand miles -- which I did. Came back much lower on all materials. So, given that, I believe in the early first change. Figure it can't hurt (and in my case, Dealer is providing the first one free anyway).

[Rondo]

Mark-- The oil from a diesel will look black even the next day after you have it changed! I noticed this the last change I had. I have it changed about every 5-6000 as I stated in a previous post but for some reason after driving from the dealer about 45 miles away and around the city of Omaha and checking the oil the following day (just curious I guess) the oil was just about as black as the dirty oil! I asked the service rep about it and he said that's just the way diesels are. I'm heading back in for another change in the next couple of days and I'll post the results of another check upon returning just to verify my first findings and the service reps statements!

[skypilot]

You are 100% correct about the oil turning black -- just have to start one of the new ones and the oil goes black from the soot suspended in the oil (well not quite that fast but not far off). That is one of the major reasons why the new ones require the newer spec oil. It has a better suspension component in it to keep the soot and other stuff suspended. I was readin on one of the Dodge forums about the FS2500 auxilary oil filters -- on the earlier engines it would keep the oil just as clean looking as when it came out of the bottle (can)... Now with the newer engines and the EGR and other smog / emissions stuff, it filters the soot out but the oil is black regardless. Think of it this way -- the oil is doing one of its many jobs....

[TLightning]

quote:Originally posted by Emmel

TLightning, I have to ask a stupid question about the DIC, like, what you talking about Willis?

Driver Information Center.

Don't know when they started using them, my 05 Silverado had it. It tells you in a percentage format, how long you have until you need oil/filter change and fuel filter change. For example, if it says "25%" for your oil/filter...it means you have used 75% of it's life and have 25% remaining. It also gives fuel used, mpg, total hours on the engine, miles remaining at current mpg, and other useful information. My dealer says to use it, but I usually cheat a bit and do the changes early.

[Rondo]

Tom- I have a 2007 2500 HD and I use the DIC all the time! I also do some cheating on the changes and usually change the oil filter and gas filter at the 40-45% reading. That is usually about 5-6000 mile (or possibly a little more) mark on the oil filter readout. The gas filter is changed about every third oil change. I've put on a lot of miles since the truck was new but most of it has been without the Monte or the utility dump trailer I have behind it so it has not had the heavy duty pull that a lot of the fulltimers and longtimers are having but I do run the miles on it driving to the farm and also cross country to relatives in Ohio, Alabama and Georgia so I keep the truck well used and keep the cobwebs out of it most of the time! Most of the highway miles to the farm are at 60MPH so that gives me the sweet spot for my traveling anyway. Of course the mileage drops when I'm towing the Monte or the utility but still averaging about 12mpg in tow and between 20-24 with out the towing.

[Waynem]

The acronym for Driver Information Center is sometimes a non-affectionate term used by DW to let me know I've done something wrong.

However, I really believe in this method of breaking in an engine. It has never failed me.

How To Break In An Engine

[KathyandDave]

Well, our question spawned a lot of discussion! Meanwhile, we have learned some things...

Our Sierra manual says that, for a gasoline engine (ours is the Duramax diesel), the engine oil should be changed when the DIC says so, then the DIC must be reset, unless a year elapses without a message from the DIC, in which case the oil should be changed, or if the DIC gets reset inadvertently, then change the oil after 3,000mi (5,000km). Moving to the Duramax manual, it says THE SAME THING.

The dealer told us that we didn't need the first oil change until 6,000mi (10,000km) and that it would be on him. However, encouraged by the replies here, we followed cousin Ronnie's advice and got the dealer to do it at 3,000mi (5,000km). Did he reset the DIC? I'm not sure and we'll ask him. Our experience is that most mechanics DON'T reset the DIC, although perhaps the dealer did.

What happens if you don't reset the DIC? We have a GMC Envoy that also has the DIC, which wasn't reset by the mechanic after the last oil change. Spontaneously, it lit the service oil light. After some instruction from our mechanic (start engine, pump gas pedal deeply 3 times), I was able to reset the DIC and extinguish the light.

The mechanics seem to adhere to the 3,000mi (5,000km) strategy. One mechanic told me that the reason GM recommends 6,000mi (10,000km) to the dealers is that they are under pressure to reduce the environmental impact of swapping the oil out, so they have relaxed the requirements. Does the technology support this? Who knows?

[ols1932]

quote:Originally posted by mtheo

My 2002 says 5000 and 7500, I stick to the 5000, I'm a little slow so it is easy for me to look at the odometer and tell when I NEED to change it, no math needed. As for going much longer, it looks prety black at the point, it might not be bad just looks that way.

Oil will look black immediately after an oil change in a diesel engine. At least that's the way it is with my 7.3 Power Stroke. Has always been that way so you can't go by the color of the oil.

Orv

[deepskyridge]

I do my own oil changes, every 4000-5000 miles, I send in the oil to blackstone labs every other oil change, 30,000 on the powerstroke and no adverse issues. I also put in fujimoto valves on all my vehicles. makes changing oil a snap.