New Car's 1st Oil Change

We just purchased a 2012 Chevy Equinox V-6 SIDI engine, have about 350 miles on it. This is our fisrt new car in over 25 years, car has OLM which GM says you can go between 7500 - 10000 mile even up to a year if OLM is OK with it between oil changes. I changed the oil on my 08 Equinox at 3K or 5 months and that’s what I’m going to do with the 2021 maybe stretch it to 5K or 6 months if I decide to go a full syn oil. My question is we used to do the 1st oil change at 500 milesor so does that still apply to todays engines and the advanced oil. GM recommends/require an oil that is DEXOS1 rated for the Equinox. We have a 1000 mile round trip all interstate drive coming up in a month and I don’t want to have any problems. Most of our driving is SC small town driving some traffic tie-ups and SC paved country back roads. Thanks

There has been quite a bit of controvery here on oil changes. You can do a search and read for hours. I change my oil when the monitor is about at 50% or 5000 miles. I won’t go longer regardless. Its my car and I can do what I want. I also would not buy a used car that had oil changes extended to 7500 or 10,000. So for me I would do the 5000, 6 month change. (Looks like you do need to use synthetic) and really can’t extend the changes just because you use syn. Your first oil change should be at the normal interval like 5000. No need to change it at 500 like we used to do. Now let the blasting begin.

There were problems with the Equinox 4 cyl, they were getting fuel in the oil. Haven’t seen any problems like that with the V-6 although someone wrote that the V-6 uses a little oil during break-in.

You won’t have any problems on your upcoming trip and there’s no reason to change the oil at around 500 miles. If you’re uncomfortable using the oil life monitor as a guide you can certainly change the oil more often if you wish. Just be sure to use oil that has the “Dexos” symbol on the label. If it doesn’t have it, don’t use it as you certainly want to keep your warranty in effect. There are dozens of oils out there that are Dexos approved–http://www.gmdexos.com/licensedbrands/dexos1licensedbrands.html--but the most cost-effective is actually the genuine ACDelco Dexos.

If you do a search you’ll find half a dozen threads where this has already been discussed.

p.s. And I could read other replies first and not repeat what others have said.

Follow the OLM and change the oil when the remaining life is less than 20%. We followed the OLM on two cars. One has about 94,000 miles and the other has 130,000 miles. Neither use oil between oil changes.

“My question is we used to do the 1st oil change at 500 milesor so does that still apply to todays engines and the advanced oil”

As you have guessed cars and oils are far different today than when I bought my first car back in the 1960’s. Many people are still using grandpa’s recommendations when cars and oils were far different than today.

I recommend you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations. If you want to do it more often, OK but never less often.

I second Bing’s suggestion. Anything more is a waste of money.

FWIW Popular Mechanics had a recent article, which seemed pretty reasonable, on making your car last longer and they suggested the first oil change should be well within 1000 miles – this is a peak wear period for the engine, and they said you will be surprised how much particulate matter you will find at that point (and changing the oil quickly lessens the load on the engine’s first several thousand miles). Another good reason for doing an early oil change is that oil is very cheap relative to the cost of an engine, and the dealer should recycle it so added pollution is less of a worry.
On the flip side, engines on nearly all cars now last far longer than they used to, so it may be completely unnecessary. When you do your first oil change is just one part of the pie chart for engine durability, and it may be a pretty small part. Good luck.

We’ve had a 98 Malibu that had 178k before we got rid of it, for health reasons and a 01 Stratus with 120K that we traded in on a SUV to carry my Wheelchair and walker so we try to take care of the cars. Thanks all for the responses, for my own peace of mind I’m going to change it sometime next month maybe about two weeks before we leave on vacation. Again thanks All

This might be a good place to repeat one thing. Automatic transmission can generally profit and last a lot longer IF the fluid is changed. I recommend every 24 - 36,000 miles.

I hate to admit this but I never changed the transmission fluid in any of the cars I had. I must have been very lucky because I never had a transmission problem.

@sccubsfan - Well based on what you stated on how long you kept your vehicles…you didn’t really keep them that long. 175k miles and my vehicles are just getting broken in.

DEXOS sounds like it could be the death knell for mineral-based motor oil…

If you read GM’s press releases about why they developed this motor oil standard, the main reason seems that it allows greatly extended oil change intervals without sludging or viscosity breakdown…Once these standards become more wide-spread, (will Ford, Toyota, Honda also require DEXOS or will corporate ego compel them to develop their own “special” lubricants…) and motorists accept 6000 and 10,000 mile oil change intervals, the amount of discarded motor oil in the waste stream will be greatly reduced…

Hey, another selling point for electric powered cars…They generate no hazardous waste!

“They generate no hazardous waste!”

Do worn out batteries count?

The batteries that are used in the newest hybrids and electrics (L-Poly) are 100% recyclable…

The internet oil expert:

“The batteries that are used in the newest hybrids and electrics (L-Poly) are 100% recyclable”

Motor oil is also recyclable. In your last post you implied that motor oil is hazardous waste.

They are both hazardous before (and after to some extent) they get recycled.

It’s not what we do, it’s just that there are so many of us doing it that’s the problem…

You would be well advised to not pay attention to the OLM. That little gimmick has gotten many people in trouble, mechanically speaking, no matter if it’s an oil change interval problem or the notion that the OLM means the hood never has to come up to even check the oi level.

Some luck out with the OLM and some don’t.