Hello,
Im normaly accustom to useing conventional Motor Oil in older cars. Oil + Filter change at 3000 miles.

However, I know from A&P school that synthetic oils last ALOT longer then conventional. So what is a good oil change interval for the 2006 Cobalt SS Supercharged? My Oil % life remaining got reset to 100% accidently while I was setting the lights not to come on when I remote unlock the doors. Being that it stayed up tells me its nothing mroe then a milage countdown rathern then acualy measureing any properties on the oil.

So what is a good milage to change my 5w-30 Mobil1 Full Synthetic oil?
It's comming up on 3, 000 miles since Ive purchased it.
Thanks,
-Jonathan

 

I still do mine every 3000 miles because i drive the car hard. I would say between 3000-4000 miles.

 

I would of changed it when I bought if it was used,
I change mine every 5000km but if you cant afford it you could probably run it to the meter 10,000km
But I would change the filter half way and top it back up.

 

you should at least get 5,000 miles out of synth.

 

I go 4k miles on mine but your honestly good til 5k. Just my preference to change at 4k

 

i do mine every 3k on sythentic .. i guess its just a persional thing... i know some ppl that run there %'s down to 10 ....... i know ppl that change it every 3k like me

 

Synthetic does take longer to break down, that is what they preach, they even have 15k mile oil now. I personally don't really care about the property of the oil itself, I still change at 3k to keep my engine clean. Regardless of break down and viscosity, your oil still gets dirty, especially dirty if you have an aftermarket filter (boost doesn't help). The act of combustion alone causes carbon deposits and crap, black nasty oil. Dirty = goey gunk

It may not matter, just do what makes you feel better. I wouldn't recommend someone going above 5k, but 3.5k is personally as far as I would go.

 

aren;t you suppose to be using synthetic oil anyways...

 

The oil change interval varies. With a good synthetic oil, you could go 15,000 miles as long as you change the filter every 3,000-5,000 and do a quick top off.

I tend to just go by the OLM with my synth. I find that the OLM seems to take a long time to get down to the point where your change oil soon light comes on, and it usually is pretty good for synth.

Anyways, the OLM in our cars are not a "milage countdown" like they were in older GM vehicles. GM in the newer cars instead uses a complex mathematical formula to estimate oil life. This formula takes into account RPM's, running time, engine temps...etc.