There are more opinions than a--holes when it comes to oil. I'm 58, was a pump jockey as a teen and back then we changed oil at 2500-3000 miles or 3 months, old school guys of the day were every 1000-1500 miles. Truth is, we were all right at the time we got our habits. As oil, electronic fuel injection, engine tolerances, metallurgy and unleaded gas have changed over the years there is absolutely no reason to change the oil a minute before the DIC tells you to, if you use a modern full synthetic oil even that is in play. I say this as a guy that raced an SCCA Firebird for years and ran a Donzi with a pair of 540 big block Chevys for 15 years, often turning more than 6000 rpm for very extended periods. One of the biggest reasons oil needed changing was due to gasoline fouling from carbs being too rich, especially in winter, no problem with modern cars, that's one main factor in why modern engines will go triple+ the miles of a 60's engine.

 

Randy-
I do agree with you on these points. I started in a machine shop as a kid,
However even in the owners manual it states to never go longer than 1 year on an oil change..

Oil is cheep, imo..

 

I won't argue mine never gets close to year between changes by the dic.

 

i use mobil 1 does any one use wal-mart syn.?

 

Welcome brown1243. You might check and see who really makes it. I've only used M1 and Valvoline full syn. I shop ahead,Costco puts it on sale all the time, buy three cases when they do. 4,500 to 5,000 miles on the 5's, 25,30,35,40 makes it easy to remember.

 

I can only wish that I had your income! I cannot throw my money down the (recycler) drain!

 

Does the WalMart Synthetic meet or exceed the GM oil specs.??? I think your vehicle is still under the 5 year/100,000 warranty....correct.

I know, I know.....here we go again !!!

 

The oil life thing keeps changing on my car. Before we left for our trip to Tennessee it said I had 60% oil life. Shortly after we got to Tennessee it said I had 80% oil life.

After we got home it said there was 40% oil life left.

I know we have around 3000 miles since we got it.

One of our neighbors bought a new car from the dealer we got the HHR from and she gave the dealer the card my wife gave her so we just got a certificate in the mail for a free oil change.

It goes in this Friday.

When I had my body shop I also had equipment to repair radiators. One day some fellows who had a ‘72 Vega Camback came by, they had shoved a 454 in the little car and the original cross flow radiator could not keep it cool.

To fit the big block and the Muncie 4 speed transmission in they cut a lot the floorboards out so I crafted a new transmission hump and repaired the floors too.

I ended up building them a special 4 tube cross flow radiator that just fit between the engine and the D. they were upset that the fancy stainless steel cooling fan had to be ditched and electric fans put in its place.

The engine was so big in the little car that a custom hood had to be built. In Wisconsin at the time it was required that you have a hood. The hood did not have to actually cover the entire engine but you had to have one to drive your buggy on the streets. I made that mostly out of wood and fiberglass. I just wish some of the pictures had survived so I could post them.

 

I'll guess an say that, before the trip, most if not all your driving was city.

The OLI adjusts the % of use by the TYPE of driving you're doing....mostly RPM and engine temperature are the criteria. So, IF you were driving mostly city it would register the lower number....as you completed your trip, one way, (which was somewhat substantial) it adjusted by assuming the rest of the vehicle use was under the same hway conditions. When you returned home, it recalculated again.

I've driven my car for an entire duration of an oil change, usually around 8-10,000 miles. It's interesting to watch the different readings under the different conditions. But they are not instantaneous. It does take several hours of driving at hway speeds to recognize a lower reading, or vise versa. And it does change incrementally.

Interesting additional information you also provided. I remember MANY Vega's used as drag cars.....after substantially changing the cooling, framework, firewall and THEN the engine.

 

Someone say Chevy Vega ?? Oh I had one I plugged in a pretty stout small block V-8... That was a fun lil wagon..