# 1st Oil Change for 2014 Chevy Cruze



## hanginghelmet (Aug 15, 2014)

Hello everyone, I have had my 2014 Chevy Cruze for 8 months now. I purchased it brand new. I have only put 4600 miles on it. I have not had my first oil change yet. The oil life shows 29% Oil life left. I have been told by various people that for a brand new car you should run the oil down until he change oil light comes up. Is this correct? Should I wait until the change oil light comes in? Is there even a light that comes on? I'm just worried that I should have gotten it changed by now. Thanks for everyone's help!!


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## bostonboy (Apr 8, 2015)

Hello I'm going on my 10th month & the service woman was like get it in asap. This is even after I told her I didn't drive this winter w/ 3900 mileage or less & in a heated garage(I did start it every week & moved her ever 2 weeks for the tires). her statement was u know fluids break down quickly, not in a heated garage IMO. I may go this week


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## AZ007 (Sep 26, 2014)

Yeah I would probably take it in. Call your dealership first and explain the situation. Mine said to wait til 20% for the free oil change, but I bet they'll make an exception for you since it's been awhile.

At the same time, don't worry too much. GM has done their research and (supposedly) has the most advanced oil life monitor in the world. If it says your oil is still good, it probably is. Here's a link to read more about it:
ZDP depletion and GM oil life monitor | Passenger Car Motor Oil (PCMO) - Gasoline Cars/Pickups/Vans/SUVs | Bob Is The Oil Guy


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## Eddy Cruze (Jan 10, 2014)

hanginghelmet said:


> Hello everyone, I have had my 2014 Chevy Cruze for 8 months now. I purchased it brand new. I have only put 4600 miles on it. I have not had my first oil change yet. The oil life shows 29% Oil life left. I have been told by various people that for a brand new car you should run the oil down until he change oil light comes up. Is this correct? Should I wait until the change oil light comes in? Is there even a light that comes on? I'm just worried that I should have gotten it changed by now. Thanks for everyone's help!!


I don't know who these various people are, yet if they knew your service is free, at least for the first two years it would be most stupid to listen to them. Every 6 Months or 6000 miles seems acceptable for this car and the manufacturer. My other Cars called for 90 day servicing's. Also from what I read here you don't have to show maintenance proof when requesting warranty work, I don't believe that as service work can generate additional profit for the dealer. Every other Dealer I've had demanded paperwork before any big warranty stuff was honored anyway?


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## JoeInMilwaukee (Dec 10, 2014)

I'd say get it in now for the oil change. I had the first oil change on my 2014 Cruze done at 3000 miles (the dealer didn't have any problem with the Oil Life Monitor being at only 60%).


- Joe


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

You get four oil change service/tire rotations over 24 months from date of delivery.

If you mileage is low, still get the services a six month intervals, regardless of the OLM.
Otherwise you are leaving YOUR money on the table (trust me, the cost was in the base price of the car)

No engine ever suffered damage from early service.

Rob


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

How do you know they are using dexos and even changing the filter, ha, one sure sign is having an engine fire.

Read this board where others had some idiot using a 450 ft-lb impact wrench to tighten the drain plug. I caught my dealer NOT changing the oil filter. Now my three sons are changing their own oil after the same bad experiences.

Cruze is sure nebulous on that first oil change, for years, like a hundred or so, used break-in oil, guys that wanted to be cautious changed after 500-1000 miles and had to live with oil burners for the life of their vehicles.

Elected to do all of my own oil changes on my new Cruze, rockauto.com had the best prices on Delco filters, and stuck with Mobile One with that green dexos label on it, and well undisputed documentation. Plus it only takes me 20 minutes, can't even drive to and from my dealer in this time.

Owners manual, if you can find the page in that 500 page owners manual with all that worthless constantly repeated safety stuff in there. Says the limits are every year or 0% on oil remaining with another 600 mile bonus. 

Do my changes at 20% oil remaining, getting kind of dark at this rate. With close to 40K miles on it, still draining 4.5 quarts so not burning a drop. Since I don't live in an area with stop signs every quarter of a block, usually hit around 8K miles.

With conventional engine oils was less than half this mileage, so far cheaper total cost using dexos. Dexos only cost seven bucks more than conventional, but yet my dealer wants 40 bucks more, go figure. 

And have satsifaction that the job is done right.


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## Royalwapiti (Apr 1, 2015)

Just use the frequency and oil GM recommends. 2 Points here.

1) Just mark your filter with a sharpie and you will see if they change it. It's not the end of the world if they don't. Aside from screwing you $8 in the good old days they use to recommend the oil filter be changed every other change. So it will not hurt your car if it happens once.

2) My company has fleet cars, like 200 Chevy Impala's, we use to say conventional oil at 5,000 miles was OK but then engines started blowing. Now we use dexos only using the OLM as a gauge. On my 2014 Impala I usually get 7500 miles before the OLM says 4%, then i go change it. It has 50,000 miles right, 14 months old.


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

The Cruze oil filter is a cannister type.....you replace the cartridge......there is nothing to mark.

Rob


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## jalaner (Dec 28, 2013)

Consumer Reports addressed the oil life issue years ago by studying engine wear in NY Taxi fleets. They did not find any increase in long term engine wear unless oil change intervals exceeded 7,500 miles. Some taxis (Crown Vics) went 400k miles on this oil change schedule. They actually disassembled the engines to measure and compare tolerances. I've had a lot more problems with incompetent service people using the wrong oil, overfilling, damaging plugs etc. than engine wear so I try not to over do the oil changes.


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