Later

Message from OnStar:

Remaining Oil Life: 78%
Mileage: 2,854


No required maintenance due at this time.

Based on oil life and mileage readings, next required maintenance estimated at 13,300 miles.


OnStar recommends oil changes every 13,300 miles? I don't think so.

goetylsd

Do you use synthetic oil? Do you do a lot of highway driving? It could be possible. I regularly get 10,000+ miles out of an oil change and my driving if fairly mixed, but I try not to be too hard on it. I think in the past I've gotten 12,000-13,000 miles before, using regular oil on top of that. I myself think it seems high, but why would GM put this technology into our cars if it wasn't to be counted on? I trust it for the most part. If the motor on an HHR goes bad, and you follow the Oil Life Indicator, it would GM's fault. I think I read on here somewhere that the Oil Life Indicator is a pretty advanced system, plugged directly into the engine. They put a lot of research and testing into it. The percentage reflects your driving style and conditions directly. If you drive your car hard, the percent goes down faster. If you take it easy, it'll take longer to go down.

sleeper

The DIC & / or the motor does not know which oil is in it..
The DIC % works off cycles.. Hi-Way hauling would last longer.

Can't reply to the On-Star comment, mine never did that.

whopper

Both previous comments are right on. You should be able to trust the % read-out - BUT if it makes you unconfortable, by all means change it early.

You may find though as you rack up the miles it will no longer forcast a 13K mile usability. With our HHR, I have sometimes been surprised by the low "percentage used" shortly after an oil change -like maybe at 3000 miles where it shows 70% left. But that seems to be short-lived as I can roll up another 3000 miles, and the DIC shows only 20% left (rather than 40%).

I consider it a "rough" estimate initially, and consider its accuracy to improve with the added miles.

So change it early if you wish, but please do not ask us how frequently should be change it, as I do my oil changes every time someone asks that question here - and so far I have HAD to do 5 changes this year - and I really can't afford any more.

sleeper

whopper

Hey, it's not funny man H3LL I had to sell one of my bikes to keep the HHR on the road. LOL

goetylsd

I feel very bad for you. You have probably wasted 1000's of $$ on oil changes.... Just kidding, haha

hyperv6

Welcome to the new world of better oils. Yes the monitor really works and you can go that far under some conditions.

Mixed driving on syn oil I see 8-9K miles.

Later

Car still has the factory oil in it with only 2854 miles on the odometer (Got the car 9/10/10). We took a 1200 mile trip to TN to see my wife's aunt who is ill. This won't be normal use.

Happy to report the car got an avg of 30 mpg for the whole trip.

Will change oil at 5,000 miles and get tires rotated. Dealer does all that for $29.

I was just amazed that they would recommend you go that far under any conditions.

Greybeard999

Things have changed in regards to oil life as others have said, they wouldn't slap a 100K drivetrain warranty on it if they felt the long recommended oil change intervals weren't safe for the engine. If you track what onstar says though, you would probably find that number changes as driving style and usage changes.... It's just an estimate, same as the engine computer % of oil life number is an estimate.

I switched to full synthetic a few months ago on mine and I will probably change oil again sometime next spring/summer unless the DIC says different before then. (I wouldn't expect it to) Yearly or 9k-10k oil change is doable these days...... with a possible filter change and top off somewhere in the middle.