GM Oil Life Sensor Troubleshooting

Respectfully, maybe in some cases. Their shitteaux approach to the FI plenum problem in the 3800 engines still rankles me. Clear case of a substandard design and implementation.

I understand that. But that's a different subject. There seems to be an increasing amount of oil related problems with many different manufacturers, but for the moment, GM seems to be untouched by it.

Hey, you know me....I think that the Gen II 3800 was a sorry piece of engineering in more ways then just the intake plenum failures. Too bad, really. The basic engine is fantastic.

Ian

Actually you may not have gone "long enough"... it depends on how you drive the car etc...

Here's an easy way to see if it's working. Get your owners manual and find out how to get a reading for "remaining oil life". You didn't say what model or year car you own. Once you have a reading, after you've driven for a couple of days, see if the reading has changed to a lesser amount. If it has, then your oil monitor is working correctly.

I find on my 04 Impala, which is driven almost exclusively on the highway at higher speeds, could EASLY go 14-15,000 miles between changes, although I always get it serviced before then.

Changing your oil without resetting your sensor will NOT result in it coming on sooner (although it will be sooner than it would if you didn't) as the sensor actually detects various chemical levels in your oil as part of the overall formula it uses to determine when it's time to change oil. So although based on engine revolutions alone it would be time to change, as part of the formula the system uses, if your oil is still in great shape (which it would be if you changed it)... the change oil light is still not going to appear.

Hope that helps.

Willy

Correction. It does NOT say to "revert back to a 3000 mile interval"... GM does NOT recommend a 3K oil change cycle.

rather, it says, have your oil changed within 3,000 miles of the time you discover that you didn't reset the monitor.

Willy

Since many (if not most) of today's GM cars have a "black box".. it would be interesting to know if this info storage device keeps records of oil and operating conditions.

Do any of you Tech's know the answer?

Willy

Perhaps GM's secret is their ancient pushrod engines!

See Toyota truck argument!

Would you like to put some money on that? I take Paypal!

Ian

I do not understand why people consider a pushrod engine "ancient" or somehow less of an engine. OHC engines have been around since at least the

Would you rather have the OHC engines that come in Ford trucks, the ones where you have to lift the body or cab off the frame in order to even work on the silly engine?

The Chev small block engines are a fantastic engine! Pushrods and all. And very easy to work on.

Ian

Which sensor would that be, Willy?

No, but your knowledge of this system needs some.

Ian

No. We are waiting patiently for more pearls of wisdom from you, Willy!

Ian

wrote

Yes! I enjoyed the first 6 laps....nice to see a rookie like Hamilton put the moves on Massa.

Ian

IMO you are right on target in everything you have said. AFAIK, GM has not had the oil problems that other manufacturers, including Toyota, Volkswagen, Chrysler, etc have had.

None of these cars run vastly higher temperatures than the others, so it is not just a temperature problem. Nor is it a shootout between synthetic versus dino oils.

I believe that most of the problem is due to disastrous engineering, and a little of it may be due to poor maintenance by the owner.

There's no sensor, Willy. If you reread the post from the extremely helpful user, it's all algorithm based. As I recall, GM says OLM, or once a year, or at least every 12500 km.

My 2003 LeSabre with a 3800 V6 has the engine oil monitor but he manual still states to change oil at 3K mile intervals.

My 2006 Lucerne with the Northstar V8 manual refers to using the oil monitor to indicate when an oil change is required or one year if the monitor does not indicate time for a change.

I'm picking up a 2007 Lucerne next week, this one with the V6. For this vehicle do I use the 3K mile interval or rely on the oil monitoring system.

Thanks

It's up to you.

Ian

For everyone? IIRC, the 3000 miles is only for severe use. I've only ever used the monitor for my LeSabre and changes are at about 7500 miles. My commute to work is 26 miles and I don't do much city driving at all. It all you ever do is go to the grocery store a mile away, the 3k may be correct. Of course, the monitor should tell you that.

Okay, let me rephrase my response.

If you own a 2006-7 GM car that has an oil sensor, the manual does not say that.

Willy

Don't be pissy because you misquoted to prove your invalid point that oil needs to be changed every 3000 miles. Unless you have an older car, you can't possibly win that argument.

Willy