# GM 2 years of free oil changes questions



## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

When I was receiving the free oil changes, the dealer would notify me just before the DIC told me it was time. I assume they were using the OnStar to figure that out (even though I was not a subscriber)

I would suggest as you get near the end of your mileage / time on your warranty to see how close you are to needing the next change and going to the dealer yourself and see if they would do one last change.


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## Eddy Cruze (Jan 10, 2014)

For the 2016 on the Blend might not be even offered. The national promotion for $39.95 is now $49.95 and at least my dealer isn't using the bulk blend anymore. You can take your car back anytime within that first year (its cheap how GM went from 4 free visits to 2 visits) and reduced warranty coverage as well. You can always reset the DIC yourself by pressing the button at the end of the stalk!


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## Boostpatrol (Jul 30, 2013)

What oil are they using now? Synthetic? I only used synthetic on my 2012 cruze. 


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

If it's four free changes then going in every six months also complies. Many dealerships will argue with you on this until you ask them how long between oil changes on a car that is driven less than 5000 miles a year. They'll invariably say six months - stick them with this.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Boostpatrol said:


> What oil are they using now? Synthetic? I only used synthetic on my 2012 cruze.
> 
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


Yup, like Eddy said, they've done away with the syn. blend stuff.



> If it's four free changes then going in every six months also complies. Many dealerships will argue with you on this until you ask them how long between oil changes on a car that is driven less than 5000 miles a year. They'll invariably say six months - stick them with this.


Only two free changes. As I feel uncomfortable going the full OLM on break-in oil, I changed mine @ 3000, and will probably take it in around 8000 to take advantage of the free tire rotation and oil change. Then again around 15K.

Group 3 synthetics are usually good for 7500-9000 miles or one year, whichever comes first. You can usually take in your own oil and have them put it in the car during the free oil change, as long as it meets Dexos-1 specs on the bottle.


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## Boostpatrol (Jul 30, 2013)

Ok thanks everyone who replied. With turbo engines i feel that going 6000 miles on oil is too much. When i lived outside of a city i drove 10000 kms every 3 months or so and changed my synthetic oil at the 9-11000 km mark. Now that i live in a city, i put on 4-5000 km every 3 months. It is short trips though which is why i change the oil at 5000 km now. 


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Boostpatrol said:


> Ok thanks everyone who replied. With turbo engines i feel that going 6000 miles on oil is too much. When i lived outside of a city i drove 10000 kms every 3 months or so and changed my synthetic oil at the 9-11000 km mark. Now that i live in a city, i put on 4-5000 km every 3 months. It is short trips though which is why i change the oil at 5000 km now.
> 
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


Depends on the oil, but that's generally throwing away money. Look at an oil analysis on the type of oil you intend to use, or send in one from your own. 

This was off the shelf Pennzoil Ultra Platinum sent in from my 2012 at 7500 miles and what I think was roughly 9-10 months. Lots of short trip and city driving. Basically, could have been run longer and still done its job perfectly fine.


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## Boostpatrol (Jul 30, 2013)

Interesting. I have a couple of jugs of pennzoil ultra platinum and i also have Mobil 1 and pennzoil platinum. All 5w30. I guess i can run it longer then. 


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## CJ_Cruze (Jan 20, 2017)

Boostpatrol said:


> So i have a new 2016 cruze premier. It comes with the 2 years of maintenance. I was reading about the oil changes and it almost seems like you use wait until close to the 12000 kms ( canada) interval or oil life indicator close to zero percent before they will do it. What do you guys know about this? If the oil was full synthetic i would go 8000 kms but not on the blend.
> 
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


The oil life indicator estimates when you should change your oil and isn't set at specific KMs, I've seen mine go down just letting it idle in the driveway. I have a 2016 as well and I'm still on whatever the dealership put in it, mine came with a few free oil changes and they told me I could use them at any mileage interval but not sure how they handle it when when its listed in years. They also had a sign advertising synthetic oil changes and when I asked if it was semi or full they said they only offer full synthetic now.


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## EricSmit (Dec 21, 2016)

I work for a dealership. You get two oil changes and two tire rotations. That's good enough for a 2 year 10k mile a year lease to go to term.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

This topic came up before. The bottom line is you get X number of free oil changes. When you get them is up to you. Some dealers are basing their claim that you have to wait until the car tells you to change oil on opinion and not on fact. 

You can buy your car, take it in for an oil change the next day, then the day after that. Both of those would be covered.


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## EricSmit (Dec 21, 2016)

diesel said:


> This topic came up before. The bottom line is you get X number of free oil changes. When you get them is up to you. Some dealers are basing their claim that you have to wait until the car tells you to change oil on opinion and not on fact.
> 
> You can buy your car, take it in for an oil change the next day, then the day after that. Both of those would be covered.


He's right you know. ^


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

Boostpatrol said:


> What oil are they using now? Synthetic? I only used synthetic on my 2012 cruze.
> 
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App




The last oil change on my Cruze, at the dealer was synthetic blend and that was a few months ago. 



Also GM may cover some oil changes and your dealer may also cover some, depends on the deal you got when you purchased the vehicle.


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## JDH (Dec 24, 2014)

My dealer tells me to bring it in when the oil life shows 25%.


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## Jackthegolden (Jan 30, 2017)

No issue to get oil changed at 6 month interval my first one at 5000km


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## EricSmit (Dec 21, 2016)

I literally had my oil changed at the first 1000 miles. I promise, you can use them whenever you'd like.


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## Cardaddy (Jan 17, 2017)

Did the 16 Silverado at 3000 miles. Doing the 16 Cruze RS hatch the same in the next week. For the truck it was 4 months, and about 3 months for the Cruze. I'll NEVER wait for the oil life monitor to get down to 25% being as that'll be closer to 8000~10000 miles! Yikes.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Boostpatrol said:


> Ok thanks everyone who replied. With turbo engines i feel that going 6000 miles on oil is too much. When i lived outside of a city i drove 10000 kms every 3 months or so and changed my synthetic oil at the 9-11000 km mark. Now that i live in a city, i put on 4-5000 km every 3 months. It is short trips though which is why i change the oil at 5000 km now.


GM only says to follow the OLM or change once a year. With that said no way I would do it that infrequently. 5000 kilometers or 3000 miles every 3 months is 4X what GM requires. If you bumped that up to 7000-8000K you would still do 2-3 oil changes a year. 


I know oil color is not considered a way to tell if oil is bad(black oil could be perfectly fine), with that said however even after 5000 miles(8000K) on the original GM dexos1 synthetic blend my oil was still a golden tone(not even close to black).


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

EricSmit said:


> I literally had my oil changed at the first 1000 miles. I promise, you can use them whenever you'd like.



Though true, some dealers are really anal about doing them at your convenience and try to claim they need to OLM to be tripped. Not sure why they would want to inconvenience a customer that already has their car on site for service and turn away money.....


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

diesel said:


> This topic came up before. The bottom line is you get X number of free oil changes. When you get them is up to you. Some dealers are basing their claim that you have to wait until the car tells you to change oil on opinion and not on fact.
> 
> You can buy your car, take it in for an oil change the next day, then the day after that. Both of those would be covered.





EricSmit said:


> He's right you know. ^


Must be nice, here if it's higher than 35% most GM dealers say you pay for it for being too early. Especially true for Cadillac and their vehicles that ran Mobil 1 Full synthetic.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

Merc6 said:


> Must be nice, here if it's higher than 35% most GM dealers say you pay for it for being too early. Especially true for Cadillac and their vehicles that ran Mobil 1 Full synthetic.


It certainly won't hurt anything to go by the OLM.


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## Boostpatrol (Jul 30, 2013)

My dealer told me to do it at 6000 km


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Boostpatrol said:


> My dealer told me to do it at 6000 km
> 
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


Wouldn't be a bad idea to change out the breakin oil early since it's still a new engine. I changed mine at 3000 mi.


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

I also forgot to mention, when I went to the dealer for my first oil change after the free ones, They had a coupon for I think $39.99 for oil change, tire rotation, car wash and vacuum. They like to post comparison deals on their website so I knew that Midas offered an oil change 
(semi-synthetic) and a tire rotation for $21.99. I needed to ask other questions and look into my other vehicle purchased from there so I went with their deal. I needed a wash and vacuum anyway which normally I pay about $10.00.

When I got there, the salesman tried to tell me since it was semi-synthetic it was going to cost more and I told no it is not as Midas offered the same deal minus wash & vac. He looked at the other guy there and shrugged and gave the the "VIP" oil change. Then they conveniently forgot to vacuum out the car.


Just a little rant!!


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