How long does it that that thing to come on. I didn't reset mine to see how long it takes to come on. The truck is up to 7600 miles, 10 months and 2 oil changes since it was last reset. The truck tows 95% of time in local driving. Does any one go by that thing to do their oil changes?

I've tried to let them run out on both my truck and my wife's trailblazer. I made it 7700 and got nervous so I changed it out, wife's blazer was over 8300 and again, couldn't let it go that long.

It comes on with a variation of calculations. at 7700 I was still showing 29% life left. I won't do the 3000 anymore, but still can't bring myself to run a full 10k.

you can run 10k without having to worry unless you drive a lot of city. People forget that oils have improved over the years as have engines and now 10k or 15k on synthetic is a good interval if you drive highway and city mixed. Filter changes at about 5k - 7k intervals. That is how I do it anyways.

makes a big diffrents if youer towing it will come on between 5 & 6000kshighway driving 8 o9r 10 ks it knows when you pull

I always change my oil at 5k. I notice the Oil Change light comes on almost everytime at about 7500 miles. I drive a mix of city and highway. I DO let the engine get up to operating temperature before shutting down. I live about 10 miles from work and even in the winter time it warms up. I also stay out of overdrive and try to leave the heat off when it's that cold out, at least on my trip to work.

I changed a bit before it came on last two times. The last time I had an analysis done on the oil and it came back positive and that I could leave it in. This time I will analyze before I change. I am running synthetic and bypass filtering so I don't worry. I would suspect that GM built in some safety in the program as I am sure they wouldn't want to have to warrantee a motor that had had it's oil changed according to their schedule. Oils are much better than they were a few years ago as are the tolerances in the newer motors. Can you imagine a 59 283 chevy going 100K before a tune up?

Mine comes on at a little over 10,000 miles. I usually change at 7500 or so.

Usually change mine between 5 and 6K . One time went to 7K and the oil minder still said 30 % left. Seems like it's set for around 10K average driving.

Where does it tell you % left? The only time I seen it is when I reset it.

Where does it tell you % left? The only time I seen it is when I reset it.

You have to have an 03 or newer. I think you need steering wheel controls too. It would show up in the drivers information center (DIC).

OCDUNE

Ok so let me get this straight, you pay $40,000 for a truck $3,000 for extended warranty and then want to save a few bucks by streatching the oil change. I own two quick lube locations and I change oil every 4,000 miles. Except for very hot locations synthetic is not needed. Do the math regular oil and 4,000 change is the way to go.

I use amsoil oil and filter. I change the filter every 5k and oil and filter at 10k. I don't reset the DIC at the 5k mile change and have never seen it get below @ 20% at 10k miles.

Paid for lifetime oil changes when I bought the truck and change the oil at every 3000 mi. Have never seen the indicator come on, not sure if I have it and if I do does it work?

Why do you only do filter every other time? Is the couple dollars you save worth the having one quart of old cruddy oil on your truck?

i would chnge the filter and not the oil!

I was doing oil and filter at 7500 mile intervals. I found that my "change oil" light was coming on pretty regularly at around 7800 to 8000 miles (was doing a lot of interstate driving). I have been doing an analysis of the drain oil on every change since 30,000 miles. I have been pushed to 9,400 on one interval due to schedule and travel. Every single time analysis has shown more oil life, continued additive pack left and low contaminants. Now I go by the light and it runs somewhere in the 8000-9000 mile window with oil results still showing excellent results. The GM change oil system runs on a very sophisticated algorythm that computes engine temp, run time, road speed, and some other factors and is an excellent measure of oil depletion. 3000 or 4000 mile changes are certainly not going to hurt your engine, but it's really an atrocious waste of oil, money and time. Not condemning, just an observation based on 4 years and 117,000 miles of science and experience.

3000 or 4000 mile changes are certainly not going to hurt your engine, but it's really an atrocious waste of oil, money and time. Not condemning, just an observation based on 4 years and 117,000 miles of science and experience.

:exactly:
I ran 10k on my last oil change, DIC said I had 6% oil life left. This was with 4k miles towing our 10k 5er. Had the oil analyzed and it was still good for continued use. Maybe if more people would have their oil analyzed they would see how much of a waste 3-4k oil changes are and that the oil minders CAN be believed. Not flaming or anything...

A couple questions...

The DIC - I do not have steering wheel controls, does anyone know how to check the oil life status without these controls?

Does the Oil Minder monitor towing and therefore shorten the oil change interval accordingly?

It seems that there is a difference with the '03's oil minder and my '01. Does anyone know if my '01 is just on a milage timer of some sort or is there something more complex to my system? If it is based on miles alone anyone know what that magic number is? I think that my '01 Tahoe is set up on milage alone.

I have an 01 also.

The oil minder still uses the algorithm to calculate oil life, but there is no way to check what % remains.

I have always been a 3k change type of guy. I am running mobil1 this time and am going to wait for the light to swap the oil. I just ordered a oil analysis kit so that they can check the condition and also check for fuel contamination. If the injectors leak, I want them fixed under warrenty as there is less then 1 year remaining on the factory warrantee on the injectors.

I have an 01 also.

The oil minder still uses the algorithm to calculate oil life, but there is no way to check what % remains.



You can check the percentage on the oil minder of an '01, it just requires a Tech II! ;)