GM Oil Life Sensor Troubleshooting

I totally agree with you Shiden_kai... Gm's small block is a time proven winner.

Willy

That could be true... and if so, I stand corrected. My point being that the change cycle is not dictated by mileage alone as many suggest.

Willy

Would you like to put money on that, Willy. I still take Paypal. I'm a GM dealership tech with the online Service Manuals and the Owner Manuals at my disposal.

Doesn't matter if it's a 2006-2007 model. Still says the same thing.

Ian

You need to re-read my post and what I said the owners manual says. I didn't say what you are attributing to me. And I can win that argument even with a newer GM vehicle. Do you want to put money on that fact that there are some newer GM vehicles that have right in the maintenance schedule to change the oil at 3000 miles?

Ian

Willy, you are so full of shit! Tell me "where" this oil sensing device is located on your Impala. Please give me and the rest of the boys at our dealership a good laugh!

Ian

You are right about two oil maintenance levels, 3K and 7.5K. My point was that in the 2003 LeSabre manual there is no mention of using the oil monitoring system for determining change intervals.

For the LeSabre I consider the driving conditions as close to severe. Lots of 20 MPH/stop~go driving, not in cold weather (central Florida). Even under these conditions the oil monitoring system has never been below 60% at

My 2006 Lucerne manual doesn't say anything but use the oil monitoring system to determine oil changes.

No not mileage alone, but other factors such as ambient temp, engine load, engine run time, etc. The system doesn't know if you've changed the oil, you have to tell it.

No bet from me as you're correct.. Under extreme conditions, that could be the recommendation.

Willy

I think you raise a point which have been somewhat illuminated to me in the last 48 hours. While there ARE some cars that indeed actually monitor the condition of the oil, it appears that while GM wants to give you that impression, in reality it could be that it's all a computerized mathmatical formula based on a variety of conditions that the system monitors such as starts, stops, engine revolutions, just to name a few.

Now that you've peeked my interest, I'm investigating further as it appears I may have been grossly misinformed.

Willy

Everything I have read published by GM and others says that the OLM reading is based on computed information, not chemical analysis of the actual oil in the vehicle.

John

The only exception being certain Saabs, one of which just bit my friend very hard in the wallet. Saab issued several TSBs to update the PCV system but never notified owners and went through multiple fixes before finally getting something which seems to work. People who were having their cars properly maintained, but by independents, often missed getting the updates. My friends 9-5 engine is now complete toast due to oil problems which were not caused by improper maintenance.

The mainline US GM brands seems to have so far avoided the oil sludge nightmares.

John

Do you know what oil he used, and what change interval he observed? I am curious, because there is a lot of speculation that (1) synthetics would have held up better, or (2) shorter change intervals would have solved the problem, or (3) the PCV system is a major cause (if not THE cause) of these problems and it is a design or implementation problem.

Lots of buck passing...

He said that they were using a synthetic (don't know which one) changed at the Saab recommended 10k mile interval.