Oil Change

[louballs]

Alright, so its been about 3000 miles since I bought my car. I was told that a Saturn Dealership changed the oil right before I bought it. Should I change the oil now at 3k or should I wait for the oil monitor to tell me when? Should I trust that thing??

[Sp00ner]

Originally Posted by louballs

Alright, so its been about 3000 miles since I bought my car. I was told that a Saturn Dealership changed the oil right before I bought it. Should I change the oil now at 3k or should I wait for the oil monitor to tell me when? Should I trust that thing??

Search for our previous arguements on the subject. It just depends how much faith you put in the oil, and the oil monitor. I'll tell ya, I'm at 6,500 miles, and it still has not come on...

[jpapa]

sp00ner, if you've changed your oil already and at 6500, that could have an effect on the monitor. I was thinking about this, and if one of the things the monitor measures is the time it takes the oil to heat up to a certain temperature, then putting the new oil that's less broken down will heavily effect this temperature measurement. This could be the reason that it takes so long for the light to come on with the people that have changed their oil once or twice or more could be affecting the light to stop from coming on for a longer period.

[louballs]

so should i or shouldn't i listen to this thing??? maybe i'll just go ahead and get it changed.....

[jeepin79]

I just had my second one done at 10000. I figured 5k was a good number to stick with for my oil changes. I dont trust the oil life monitor. The ION 3 sedan I traded to get the Redline I waited for the car to tell me when to change it. I was up to almost 9k and it still did not go off. Better safe than sorry.

[jpapa]

Even if you play the sorry road, if the light doesn't go off, and your engine ceases, it should be replaced under warranty. I know that would be a big hastle, but they sure as hell better pay for a rental in that type of situation when you're trying to trust what something in the car was designed to tell you to do.

[max_boost]

I did my first oil change at 1,750 miles and my second at 5,000. I am going to change it every 5,000 from now on.

I never used the oil change light in my Grand Am and I'm not going to use it now.

[loreg]

What a timely post

I was just at the dealer and they told me I needed mine changed. I'm at 5,525 miles. Mind you, I've had the car for only 18 days now (04 bought used) so I was a bit surprised that I had to get it done already, thought I had another +/-500 miles to go. Well, the sales guy, Nate (he's awesome) sees me there waiting and asked why I was there. Told him about the hard/no start I had and that they told me I needed an oil change. Well, he was as surprised as I was since the oil was supposed to have been done before I took the car so, Nate had them do it for $0. Good thing too because I wasn't prepared to pay out $108 for it.

Anyways, Nate and I were talking and he said pretty much what has been said here, that the oil manufacturer recommends every 5,000 but that the service manager who has a RL (I didn't catch if it was Ion or Vue) does his every 3,000. I asked him if going to 5,000 would be adverse to the warranty and he didn't see a reason why it would be. But, I'm still going to remain faithful to the 3,000 because you never know....

[max_boost]

$108 wow that's a lot. The dealership only charged me $65. It's not that hard to change it yourself, I got the filter and oil for less than 40 bux at Wal-Mart.

[AntiSatan]

I would suggest when you get around to 3k to look at your oil before changing it. When it becomes a dark amber color its time to change it. It also depends on what type of driving you do. My old SC I would change between 4 to 5k (sometimes longer) but I was also inspecting my oil during that time. Also as a FYI car should be warm and on a level plain.