My new HHR has 300 miles on it and I’m wondering when I need to do my first oil change. My Chevy dealer’s service guy told me I can wait until 2000-3000 miles, or just watch the Oil Life Display.

I think I should be doing my first oil change sooner (500 miles?), any recommendations or old threads to refer me to?

Thanks,
Randy

 

Hey Randy,
Much has been devoted to this topic. Im old school about oil changes but have accepted the fact that with this car and its monitoring system, the 3000 mile intervals just arent necessary. I have 2000 on my car, will probably do the 1st one at 3000 and change to synthetic. After that, Im going with what the DIC says.


Don

 

Welcome to the forum Randy.
I do my first oil and filter change at around 1500 mi. I use conventional oil.
There after, I go by the DIC and change it at the 55% to 60% life range.
I do my own oil and filter changes. Pretty easy to do on an HHR.
I am old school, but feel comfortable with that routine.
Just my 2 cents...................

 

I normally do 5-6000 synthetic changes, I'm going to go with the DIC and see when it tells me to change.

I'm running Mobil 1

 

I took my HHR to the dealer at about 1200 miles, along with 5 quarts of Mobil 1 Synthetic. I called first to make sure they had no issue with doing so and they were happy to do it for me and did it for free. I did it religiously every 3,000 miles for next couple changes and then they said go ahead and do it based on what the DIC tells you, so that's what I do.

I did make a switch to Penzoil Synthetic a couple changes ago (Walmart was out of Mobil 1) and it seems to run cleaner than the Mobil 1. No issues here and my HHR has 13,800 or thereabouts.

 

I have been using Mobil 1 Extended and change it when the DIC says to. The extended is good for 15,000 or 1 year, so they say. I get about 8000. I have put 23000 miles on my HHR in one year. No complaints from me. I also did the same with my 2004 Trailblazer. 60k in 2 years with no problems.

I think if everyone would synthetic and extend their oil change intervals it would help with the current oil supply and demand situation and help clean up the planet.

I but my Mobil 1 at Walmart and take it to the dealer when I get my oil changed. It is too high if you buy it from them.

 

Why don't you just have Wal-Mart change the oil at that point? Saves a trip!

 

Personally IMHO I would change it around 2-3k just to get the metal shavings out of the system.

 

I have heard and seen MANY horror stories of having Wal-mart do oil changes and tire jobs. If you go any where go to the dealership. It may be more but it will be done right every time.

Also on my 1st oil change I waited until I got to 50% on the DIC. Then after that I waited until around 40-30%.

Just my $.02

 

I let mine run to less than 5% life and got 9555 miles out of it, I figure the GM engineers know more than me about. Besides, it's under warranty!