Oil Life Monitor

Postie

Postie

Active Member
2 You're 10
Feb 28, 2009
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Cold lake, Alberta
VetteCoins
500
Just curious guys, do you change your oil when the Oil Life Monitor tells you or do you stick to your plan of X amount of Km's to change it.

Manny maybe you can throw your tech advice in here. Which would be better. Granted there are a few variables like, how your drive, highway or city, type of engine and Oil used, but i'm just seeing what the average user should do or does.
 
Postie said:
Just curious guys, do you change your oil when the Oil Life Monitor tells you or do you stick to your plan of X amount of Km's to change it.

Manny maybe you can throw your tech advice in here. Which would be better. Granted there are a few variables like, how your drive, highway or city, type of engine and Oil used, but i'm just seeing what the average user should do or does.
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I personally have never waited to the moniter % . It does depend on how you drive .Here are a few of my own peronal guide line's.

1. Do not change oil before going into storage, change when you bring it out.

2. If you are doing track driving (1/4 mile or street course) change oil after event , and flush out the brake fluid & clutch fluid (MN6 only)

3. Even you you only drive for shrt period you should change your oil every 3 months .

Now some my say this is excessive, I say its pretty cheap insurance .

Thx
[email protected]
 
Good Advice!...but, this is what I do...

Now, I usually store my car for 5 months straight which may be different than how people store cars in the east or west coast.

I go by the % oil life left and change at 10% or until it is time to put the car away for the winter and change it at that time. I always change my oil before storing the car because I want to remove all the acids/dirt and byproducts that the oil has accumulated over the summer and not have that sitting in the pan all winter. The moisture that accumulates over the freeze/thaw cycle of Fall/Spring will get boiled off in the first drive from what I assume. I also try to minimize the amount of moisture that accumulates by putting a bag of silica gel in the garage to remove excess moisture from the air.

That's what I have stuck with. I am interested to see what others do. I find it interesting that Manny would not change the oil before storing the car. Is there any reason for this? I would like to know more about it so I can make a more informed decision.
 
Riley P said:
Good Advice!...but, this is what I do...

Now, I usually store my car for 5 months straight which may be different than how people store cars in the east or west coast.

I go by the % oil life left and change at 10% or until it is time to put the car away for the winter and change it at that time. I always change my oil before storing the car because I want to remove all the acids/dirt and byproducts that the oil has accumulated over the summer and not have that sitting in the pan all winter. The moisture that accumulates over the freeze/thaw cycle of Fall/Spring will get boiled off in the first drive from what I assume. I also try to minimize the amount of moisture that accumulates by putting a bag of silica gel in the garage to remove excess moisture from the air.

That's what I have stuck with. I am interested to see what others do. I find it interesting that Manny would not change the oil before storing the car. Is there any reason for this? I would like to know more about it so I can make a more informed decision.
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The reason I do not change it before storage is that while the car sits it does form acids, and is sitting for 5 + months in your engine . So it does no harm to have it sit over the storage period with the old oil, but it is better for the engine to run in the spring on the fresh oil .

Thx
[email protected]
 
Nasty98 said:
The reason I do not change it before storage is that while the car sits it does form acids, and is sitting for 5 + months in your engine . So it does no harm to have it sit over the storage period with the old oil, but it is better for the engine to run in the spring on the fresh oil .

Thx
[email protected]
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It forms acids in the oil while sitting over winter? Crazy! Good to know...what if I just drained the oil in the Fall, left the plug out and didn't fill it until Spring?:D

vt65 said:
i change the oil before i put the vet away, in spring i change it again and use the "winter " oil in my wifes minivan :D
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Excellent! Too bad all of my vehicles take different oils!

10W30 Chevelle
5W30 Synthetic Corvette
5W30 Normal Oil in the truck...I don't want to know how fast it would leak the synthetic stuff!:rofl:
 
Riley P said:
It forms acids in the oil while sitting over winter? Crazy! Good to know...what if I just drained the oil in the Fall, left the plug out and didn't fill it until Spring?:D



Excellent! Too bad all of my vehicles take different oils!

10W30 Chevelle
5W30 Synthetic Corvette
5W30 Normal Oil in the truck...I don't want to know how fast it would leak the synthetic stuff!:rofl:
Click to expand...

It is best to store with oil to minimize the condenstaion build up, this also goes for the fuel tank. Fill up / Stabil and your good to go . I know alot of these sound like rituals, but they are cheap insurance :D

Thx
[email protected]
 
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Ha HA! My little joke is that I would leave the drain plug out so the water won't build up in the pan and just drain out too. I would actually not store it without oil. It is also good to know I can leave it until spring so I don't have to do the panic oil change before storing it.
 
Oil Change

Well here is what I do, change oil as per the monitor. I'm told to so as per GM Dealship.

I do not change oil prior to storage.

I do change oil in the spring.

cheers :seeya:

enzo
 
For my truck, I change the oil every 5000 KM's, but for my Vette it will get changed every 30 days. A little extreme, but this will be one part of it's maintenance schedule. :coolgleam:
 
C6Vette09 said:
For my truck, I change the oil every 5000 KM's, but for my Vette it will get changed every 30 days. A little extreme, but this will be one part of it's maintenance schedule. :coolgleam:
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Send me your old oil! JK. I heard of a guy that used to change his oil very frequently like that but he had a few vehicles and the oil oil from the Vette would get put into the other cars.
 
Good to hear different views on this, Myself I'll go with the mileage and or at the 50% on the OLM. Which ever comes first. My driving is mainly highway and I really don't push it that much. Yet,
Now, standard Synthetic 5w30? what are some recommendations out there.
 
Postie said:
Good to hear different views on this, Myself I'll go with the mileage and or at the 50% on the OLM. Which ever comes first. My driving is mainly highway and I really don't push it that much. Yet,
Now, standard Synthetic 5w30? what are some recommendations out there.
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5w30 for sure, I would not use anything else .


On a side note , I use the old oil from the corvette oil changes in my beater :eek: Have been doing it for about a year now . Hey why not its only a beater and its still good oil .

Thx
[email protected]
 
the tech that worked on my car with the cam build indicated that because I really don't drive it in cold weather, if I found the new cam/lifters too noisy, I could go with 10-30... any thoughts?
 
HLN A55 said:
the tech that worked on my car with the cam build indicated that because I really don't drive it in cold weather, if I found the new cam/lifters too noisy, I could go with 10-30... any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Cold or hot I would only recomend the 5w30 . The viscosity of the 10w30 is to heavy for these aluminum engines .I have tried it and found that it took longer to build oil pressure with the 10w30 .

Thx
[email protected]
 
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