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Oil life monitor

The oil change light is calculated by the vehicle's computer based on engine operating temperature and engine RPM's.

It does need to be reset every time that you change you oil.
 
I also used to be a faithful "3000 mile oil changer", but now I follow the oil life monitor.

It's still kind of scary to me to think that I have 22,000 miles on my AV and have only changed the oil 3 times :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:!!!
 
muffman said:
Well.... when I was your age....... ;D

LMAO

Speaking of oil, how many miles break in are you guys going before using sythetic?

after 1500 I went straight to Mobil 1 and I've never turned back!
 
RichUF said:
I've always been a 4-5K guy (instead of 3K). No matter what most say and my dad drilling it into me as a youngster, 3K just seems excessive to me.

Even Click and Clack have changed their recommendation to 5000 miles:

Tom: We used to recommend 3,000-mile oil changes because that practically guaranteed that the oil wouldn't be in the engine long enough to break down. But with the improvements in oils, engines (and the problems of used oil disposal), we changed our recommendation to every 5,000 miles.

Ray: And even 5,000 may be too often, but we think it's a good estimate. The dealer would obviously like you to change it more often because for every oil change, he gets ... what? Paid!

Ray: And the manufacturers would like you to think that you can wait longer between changes because they're mostly concerned about getting you through the warranty period. Plus, the promise of less maintenance appeals to potential buyers of these cars.

Tom: And neither one of these parties is wrong. One is just being extra-cautious, and the other is being perfectly reasonable. Since we lean a little toward the cautious side in this regard, we recommend an oil change every 5,000 miles.
 
I rotate my tires and change oil every 6,000 miles. The monitor has never come on before the 6,000, but my driving is all city and highway with little or no off-road.
 
JAYHAWK said:
I rotate my tires and change oil every 6,000 miles. The monitor has never come on before the 6,000, but my driving is all city and highway with little or no off-road.

you got an oil life monitor on a summit white washing machine?
 
I have a 2006 AV, purchased new and when I was commuting 100 miles round trip per. day the monitor seemed to click on about every 10,000 miles. I have always used dino oil and used the monitor the whole time no issues, no problems and she still runs great with 239,664 miles as of today. To date repairs have been U joint, starter, rear diff bearing (2X), plugs, oil changes every 10,000 miles, three sets of tires and one total brake job. Hope she keeps going! i just can not see spending $50-65K on a new truck.
 
Greetings, I just acquired a 2007 AV.  The seller informed me they had changed out the gauge cluster because it was broken. When going through the monitored systems I find that the oil monitor does not have any digits,  just - - - and it does not/will not reset. I would just like everything to work.
Anyone have a suggestion? Please
 
Jeff that is a huge red flag when someone changes the cluster. Do you know if they had the cluster programmed when they put it in?


What is the mileage on the cluster hopefully, you bought it from a dealer
 
I change oil & filter every 5,000 miles along with tire rotation. It makes it easy to look at odometer with multiple of 5's to see when your next oil/tire rotation is. I usually have 35-37 % left on the computer oil usage at the end of 5,000 miles.
 
And yes oil and filter are cheap, but when you have 150K miles you save some money. I usally put 30K miles a year. So instead of changing my oil 10 times in one year. I now change it 5 times a year. So when my Av is 5 years old if I did the 3K mile oil change I would have done 50 oil changes. With the light I will only change it 25 times. That is not a whole lot of money but since I do my own service it save me a little time and money.
We think alike. My time is valuable too. I am not changing any sooner than 5K intervals, and I change the filter every other time. AFAIK the non AFM 5.3's are not "oil picky" anyway. The rest of the truck around it will fall apart but they ain't gonna blow up.
 
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To me Oil changes are:
1) Therapy, (when the hoods up, a certain someone isn't telling how to live my life)
2) Cheap insurance, even though oil technology is much improved since my '68 Pontiac, and the advent of computer controller fuel injection has all my vehicles running "cleaner". Unlike "normal" throw away America, I keep my vehicles 20 years plus, and get over 200K miles.. never had an oil related failure
I only use 100% synthetic oil and change a 5K intervals.. except for my 2 corvettes.. neither of these gets 5K in a year, so these get fresh oil and filter before winter layup. Growing up I was a 3k guy but 5K is the lowest recommended for "severe duty" (which translates to actually driving your car / truck) and 5K intervals are easy to remember.. some of our vehicles have built in oil change timers.. none of these are sophisticated enough to monitor anything but time and mileage..
When I someday manage to get a "newer" vehicle I may rethink my 5K thumb rule.. BUT the therapy benefit might outweigh savings in oil costs

I use the 5K oil changes to address other routine items
-Lower the spare(s) on my trucks and lube the cables/ check air pressure in (all) spares
-lube all door / hood / trunk hinges, latches and locks
-check / test all fluids / filters
-evaluate brake pad and rotor wear
-rotate tires and evaluate tread performance
 
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