Z06bob

A few months ago I had my oil changes on my 15 z06. The percentage is now reading 68%,whats going on? I only drove the car a few hundred miles this summer.
Over the winter while the car was stored the percentage went to zero?

breakskeet

There is now a time algorithm built into the oil life monitor to ensure that the oil gets change once a year. For those that have to store their cars in the winter and change their oil immediately prior to storage, one option is to not reset the oil life monitor until you bring it out in the spring. Leave yourself a note on the dash so you will remember to do this. That way the car is stored with fresh oil and you will start with 100% oil life in the spring.

HorsePowerObsessed

The oil life monitor calculates a bunch of different items to determine that percentage, one of which is TIME. If you change the oil and let the car sit for 8 months the oil life monitor still goes down because time still affects the quality of the oil. It's not just miles driven.

rwheelz

Ridiculous that manufacturers make this a requirement. Synthetic oil doesn't break down whatsoever from just sitting for a year. Dodge can deny warranty on a RAM truck if you don't change the oil every six months, regardless of mileage.

BladeZ06

This is 100% incorrect. Even modern synthetic oil in unopened bottles have a shelf life. As our cars use Mobil 1 here is a link directly from their website.

https://mobiloil.com/en/faq/ask-our-...mobil-1-quarts

So 5 years on Unopened quarts in ideal storage conditions. I hope we can agree that a motor is not fully sealed and is not the same as an unopened quart of oil. The motor has been run which introduces contaminates into the oil, it is sitting in a garage with temperature and humidity changes and it is not fully sealed from the outside world. End of the day I would change my oil at least yearly even if I did not drive the car 1 mile over that year. I would hope that to keep things properly lubricated that the car is at least run and driven somewhat regularly. Sitting and not running at all is very hard on a car.

Based on your driving habits I would consider doing it at least in the Spring right when you think you will be driving. If it was my car I would change it twice a year because oil is cheap.

Gotham

WOW!!! If that's true about shelf life of synthetic oil then they need to start putting that on the containers!!!!

Road machine

If you drove your car after an oil change and then stored it, the clock should indeed keep ticking. New oil has a BN number between 5 and 15 with synthetic at the 15 mark and cheap oil at the 5 mark. That number is the ability of engine oil to neutralize acids that form from combustion and normal oxidation. Once a car is driven after an oil change, acids are introduced and the oil begins to oxidize. The oil will actually oxidize in the bottle as well though very slightly due to less air in the bottle. Even if a car is not driven (stored) after an oil change the oil will oxidize but not nearly fast enough just over the winter to get a BN below 3 which signals the need for an oil change. Of course if the car sits for more than just a few months over the winter, you should change the oil again even if the car was never started after an oil change. If you own a car like a Corvette Z06 the last thing you should be worrying about is changing oil too often. If oil becomes acidic, it will eat away at your bearings. I bought a car at a Mecum auction some years back. A super low mileage Camaro convertible Indy Pace car from a huge collection. When I got the car I noticed the oil pressure was very low. I checked the oil and it was full of very clean looking oil. I asked my mechanic about it and he checked the oil for acidity and the oil was very acid. We tore the engine down and while everything looked brand new ( it had less than 500 miles on it) the bearings were eaten away. I didn't even have to have the block cleaned or anything re-bored, just put all new bearings (cam, crank, and rod) and the rebuilt engine had great oil pressure. The GM algorythem to estimate oil life takes all of these issues into account. They are not in the oil change business they build cars and just want their cars to be maintained so the customer is happy. A three or four year old Z06 with 3000 miles and low oil pressure would not make any customer happy.

Track

Having trouble understanding how the oil could eat the bearings but not the aluminum. It sounds like maybe a bad additive in the oil they used?

CarAholic22

Synthetic oil is good for more then 5,000miles as the car indicates so don’t worry if you drive more. Same thing with a years worth of use. While it for sure wouldn’t hurt to change you don’t have too. It’s just a money grab from chevy for service.

Road machine

It would be eating Aluminum as well, but there really isn't anything that is of high precision like bearings that would be sitting in oil. Cylinders have a coating on them, and so cannot be eaten up but even then the oil drips down off of cylinder walls. The bearings always have oil in and on them.

Loki 6

I'd be willing to suggest that no one here puts a ton a miles on their car per year, so adding time into the algorithm make sense. Regardless of what the oil life monitor tells me, or the mileage, I like to change my oil ever 3-6 months. I drive the car about 4K miles per year. Yeah i know, this is overkill...but i live in a very hot and unforgiving climate and I like to make sure the oil is as healthy as it can possibly be.

oldschool75

Hy, my z06 war 4 month in winter break. now the oil live is 0%. Tomorrow i got service, is it ok if i take small roadtrip 50 miles, or better wait? thanks

madrob2020

You’re fine to go. Just don’t beat on it since it’s cold & it’s been sitting for 4 months.👍

ukester

so if thats true what about the breakin oil-seems to me looked at many new vets on the lots w/some miles and oil has never been changed and yes they were over a year on the lot. Mine needs a oil change even though this car has been driven a whopping 750 miles since the last one which was done in October

rtv900

nobody is requiring anything, it's a monitor to help if you want it. If anybody really believes that time does not affect oil they can choose to just reset the monitor, it takes all of 3 seconds. How can they deny a warranty? Nobody knows if you actually changed it ever, you hold the button down and reset it you don't have to get a notarized letter and a witness.

Warp Factor

Thousands of oil analyses by Blackstone labs have shown that an oil can still be within original specs, way after a year has gone by.

That said, on my C7Z06, I will still have oil changes performed according to the oil life monitor, and at a dealership, because it's worth it to me to not furnish GM any excuse to screw with my warranty.

But on my other high-buck engines, I've gone much longer than a year between oil changes without any problems whatsoever.