[Eldi Z]

Originally Posted by Boost Creep

First oil change I filled to top of hash marks because that's what I always did, and it was 11 quarts.
Second time 10 quarts and middle of hash again, but I didn't top it off that time. Figured it's got 10 quarts, it should be fine.
Just did my ninth oil change and 10 quarts puts my car in the middle of the hash marks every time. Doesn't seem to use any oil between changes either.

You sir are correct! I meant 10 Liters, not quarts. So in my case, to reach the top of the hash-marks, requires closer to 10.6 Quarts (not 10)... My bad

[nancygrl]

I'm lucky my dealer is good with this.

[TrackClub]

Originally Posted by kropscamaro16

before you track the car your suppose to overfill it on purpose my oil bottles are liters not quarts so i do 10 liters which 1 liter is 1.05669 quarts so it works out for me

You are NOT supposed to overfill a v8 LT1 motor for track use!

[kropscamaro16]

Originally Posted by TrackClub

You are NOT supposed to overfill a v8 LT1 motor for track use!

im talking 1/4 of a quart or less not 2 extra quarts...its fine but thanks for your concern

[TrackClub]

Originally Posted by kropscamaro16

im talking 1/4 of a quart or less not 2 extra quarts...its fine but thanks for your concern

Got ya! Your message got me worried as you said "overfill on purpose" and that could potentially damage the engine and there is no such "purpose" except for a V6 motor.
Cheers!

[evanescent03]

amazing how incompetent these folks can be. they're supposed to be advisors/experts or know at least when they need to contact the local expert in the shop for tougher questions. Oil changes are super simple in theory but there have been way too many horror stories, hidden camera videos, etc showing the dishonesty that I just do it myself every time. Same story for brake fluid. I have to REALLY trust a shop to let them do these things that I can do myself fairly easily minus a little time commitment.

My wife had a quick-lube shop change the oil on her Pathfinder a while back and i noticed a drip on the garage floor... i crawled under the truck and saw a little drip coming from the drain plug.. which was not even FINGER tight. WTF guys? And this is what you do ALL DAY, EVERY DAY? Never again. They gave us a coupon for some free oil changes and i told them to F off. haha.

OP's story of the guy not knowing how to quickly check the different possible oils for a given engine/application is mind blowing .... despite how common it is, it's still shocking.

[Boost Creep]

This is nothing new.
Dealerships/shops try to get the cheapest labor possible, this is the result.
Why would you pay the guy that changes the oil a lot of money.
$39 oil change and parts are $30, doesn't leave much in the way of getting quality.

[evanescent03]

Originally Posted by Boost Creep

This is nothing new.
Dealerships/shops try to get the cheapest labor possible, this is the result.
Why would you pay the guy that changes the oil a lot of money.
$39 oil change and parts are $30, doesn't leave much in the way of getting quality.

we should be given the option:

cheap parts/oil and cheap labor(disclaimer, your drain plug might fall out on the way home, not our responsibility if it gets out of the lot): $39 oil change
quality parts/oil and trained personnel: $69 oil change

lol but yeah same "you get what you pay for" story. you'd think that going to a dealership you would get higher quality service than a quick lube but it seems like that's not always the case, sadly.

[Xaxas]

Originally Posted by evanescent03

amazing how incompetent these folks can be. they're supposed to be advisors/experts or know at least when they need to contact the local expert in the shop for tougher questions. Oil changes are super simple in theory but there have been way too many horror stories, hidden camera videos, etc showing the dishonesty that I just do it myself every time. Same story for brake fluid. I have to REALLY trust a shop to let them do these things that I can do myself fairly easily minus a little time commitment.

My wife had a quick-lube shop change the oil on her Pathfinder a while back and i noticed a drip on the garage floor... i crawled under the truck and saw a little drip coming from the drain plug.. which was not even FINGER tight. WTF guys? And this is what you do ALL DAY, EVERY DAY? Never again. They gave us a coupon for some free oil changes and i told them to F off. haha.

OP's story of the guy not knowing how to quickly check the different possible oils for a given engine/application is mind blowing .... despite how common it is, it's still shocking.

Mind you, the dealership close to me is quite competent, service has been pretty good and my previous service advisor was very helpful with my previous car A8 shudder and track alignment, heck, I resolved an incident with a steering arm once because a different service advisor (a really bad one) tried to negate warranty for it because I had modified rear suspension but the service and parts manager pulled through after a nice with them.

It's just that sometimes, there's really, REALLY brick headed people who have no capacity of listening, it took me like 5 minutes of explaining that Dexos2 is not the same as Mobil 1 before he realized he didn't know what he was talking about and asked someone who did, will probably go to the manager next time since my previous service advisor is no longer working there, but hey, there's only 1 way to learn who to avoid...

[Boost Creep]

A lot of service advisors don't really know about cars.
Granted they should know about their product and services, but the idea is that not being too deep into cars they can talk to a customer without talking over their head, or appear to be talking down to a customer. They won't get too technical and use words common people don't understand.

I know that's not what we would want, but most of the public doesn't know anything about cars, and that's the customer base.

I once spent 20 minutes explaining directional tires and why one of the customers tires was on backwards, and how that's even possible.
The issue could have been fixed in the time wasted explaining the whole concept.

[JROC]

Just another excellent reason to delete the AFM and some cats. F Mobil 1 and it's overpriced oil, and F GM for trying to force their very limited selection of Dexos2 oils down your throat.

Oils I prefer to Mobil 1 are Rotella T6, Pennzoil Ultra Platinum, Redline, Motul, Amsoil, Castrol Synthetics (used to always run German Castrol) really most synthetic oils I find to be at least as good. To determine if I think an oil is good I judge by how quiet and smooth I think the vehicle idles with a given oil, how much oil registers on the dipstick after a couple thousand miles, what it looks like when I do change it, etc. Mobil 1 has never really impressed me compared to other synthetic oils. If I ran it in my old LS1 it was the only 5W30 oil that I found would burn off quickly, but Mobil 10W30 did okay in the old LS. IDK I'm just kind of picky on oils and filters that I like to use, and Mobil 1 is just not my brand anymore and hasn't been for many year.

I will say the LT1 ran really quite and smooth with it when I bought my car. I noticed that I thought it worked better in this car than other cars I've used Mobil 1in.

[Eldi Z]

Originally Posted by JROC

Just another excellent reason to delete the AFM and some cats. F Mobil 1 and it's overpriced oil, and F GM for trying to force their very limited selection of Dexos2 oils down your throat.

Oils I prefer to Mobil 1 are Rotella T6, Pennzoil Ultra Platinum, Redline, Motul, Amsoil, Castrol Synthetics (used to always run German Castrol) really most synthetic oils I find to be at least as good. To determine if I think an oil is good I judge by how quiet and smooth I think the vehicle idles with a given oil, how much oil registers on the dipstick after a couple thousand miles, what it looks like when I do change it, etc. Mobil 1 has never really impressed me compared to other synthetic oils. If I ran it in my old LS1 it was the only 5W30 oil that I found would burn off quickly, but Mobil 10W30 did okay in the old LS. IDK I'm just kind of picky on oils and filters that I like to use, and Mobil 1 is just not my brand anymore and hasn't been for many year.

I will say the LT1 ran really quite and smooth with it when I bought my car. I noticed that I thought it worked better in this car than other cars I've used Mobil 1in.

Exxon-Mobil, BP (Castrol), Shell (Helix, Rotella, QuakerState..) are all huge conglomerates, like McDonald's , Pepsi Co., GE, Etc. - You can rest assure that these organizations have strict quality control measures in place in most! of their World-Wide factories and 3rd party suppliers, HOWEVER, since there are so many factories in North America, Europe, China, S.E. Asia, it is difficult to REALLY know the Exact composition that is inside the bottle. Similar to McDonald's Big Mac, tastes a little different in some States and countries, right? Not completely different, but there are slight variances.

This is why I personally prefer smaller ("boutique" oil companies) to source my fluids from.
Reason: I know what I am getting EVERY TIME without doubt and from the same old "tap".
It might not always be the "best" fluid (but it usually also proves to be best...), but most important, it is always the Same / Consistency is kept in place!
Examples: Royal Purple, Amsoil, Driven, Kroon (Dutch-European), Motul (French-European), Ravenol (German -European), LiquiMoly (German-European), Fuchs (German/British-European), Etc.

Now the GM / OE Warranty and "official certification" challenge:
To keep our warranties in tact, we must use officially certified fluids (I.E. GM Dexos / 1, 1Gen.2, 2. ,VW 502.00, 505.01, 504.00, 507.00. BMW LL-04. MB 229.15, Etc. Etc.).
This limits our choices of fluid providers.
The large firms (Exxon, Shell, BP, Total,Texaco, Etc.) usually have all of these certificates in place, so we are "covered", however, we do not necessarily get a consistent formula / "best" quality in each bottle we buy (because of the many factories and 3rd party suppliers they have across the country/ies) - The bottle always looks the same, with the same colors and logos Etc. - but again, like the Big Mac story
The small firms (I.E. Royal Purple, Driven, Amsoil) usually avoid formal OEM certification, because of the high costs they incur, so we endanger our warranties if we opt to use them (despite them likely being of superior quality)
So, our choices become limited... I found, that I.E. Motul provides the best of all Worlds. On one hand, it is a medium size organization and still has dedication for motor-sports and enthusiasts (I.E. Motul 300V), on the other hand, invests in a complete OEM certification program and thereby keeps our warranties alive as well (I.E, 8100-XClean) AND is readily available for local supply. Other brands would be: LiquiMoly, Ravenol, Rowe, but not so easy to source.

Once your warranty is over, get your Amsoil, RoyalPurple, Driven, Etc. if you prefer, but until is is over, you must adhere to the Dexos Certified fluids list of oils:

https://www.gmdexos.com/brands/dexos2/index.html

[JROC]

Originally Posted by Eldi Z

Exxon-Mobil, BP (Castrol), Shell (Helix, Rotella, QuakerState..) are all huge conglomerates, like McDonald's , Pepsi Co., GE, Etc. - You can rest assure that these organizations have strict quality control measures in place in most! of their World-Wide factories and 3rd party suppliers, HOWEVER, since there are so many factories in North America, Europe, China, S.E. Asia, it is difficult to REALLY know the Exact composition that is inside the bottle. Similar to McDonald's Big Mac, tastes a little different in some States and countries, right? Not completely different, but there are slight variances.

This is why I personally prefer smaller ("boutique" oil companies) to source my fluids from.
Reason: I know what I am getting EVERY TIME without doubt and from the same old "tap".
It might not always be the "best" fluid (but it usually also proves to be best...), but most important, it is always the Same / Consistency is kept in place!
Examples: Royal Purple, Amsoil, Driven, Kroon (Dutch-European), Motul (French-European), Ravenol (German -European), LiquiMoly (German-European), Fuchs (German/British-European), Etc.

Now the GM / OE Warranty and "official certification" challenge:
To keep our warranties in tact, we must use officially certified fluids (I.E. GM Dexos / 1, 1Gen.2, 2. ,VW 502.00, 505.01, 504.00, 507.00. BMW LL-04. MB 229.15, Etc. Etc.).
This limits our choices of fluid providers.
The large firms (Exxon, Shell, BP, Total,Texaco, Etc.) usually have all of these certificates in place, so we are "covered", however, we do not necessarily get a consistent formula / "best" quality in each bottle we buy (because of the many factories and 3rd party suppliers they have across the country/ies) - The bottle always looks the same, with the same colors and logos Etc. - but again, like the Big Mac story
The small firms (I.E. Royal Purple, Driven, Amsoil) usually avoid formal OEM certification, because of the high costs they incur, so we endanger our warranties if we opt to use them (despite them likely being of superior quality)
So, our choices become limited... I found, that I.E. Motul provides the best of all Worlds. On one hand, it is a medium size organization and still has dedication for motor-sports and enthusiasts (I.E. Motul 300V), on the other hand, invests in a complete OEM certification program and thereby keeps our warranties alive as well (I.E, 8100-XClean) AND is readily available for local supply. Other brands would be: LiquiMoly, Ravenol, Rowe, but not so easy to source.

Once your warranty is over, get your Amsoil, RoyalPurple, Driven, Etc. if you prefer, but until is is over, you must adhere to the Dexos Certified fluids list of oils:

https://www.gmdexos.com/brands/dexos2/index.html

What about Schaeffer? I've heard good things about them. GM gives all these 20 and 30 weight oils a Dexos2 rating, but are so picky about labeling a 40 weight a Dexos2 oil. I'm sure they're nitpicky due to the stupid AFM system that they want to survive during the vehicles warranty. Still I have heard that much of it is companies pay for a Dexos2 rating, and some will tell GM to pound sand.

Motul Eco-nergy was my preferred oil in my old LS1 after GC got to be a PITA to source. The LS1 loved that stuff, and ran smooth as butter with it, and a 5 liter jug was the perfect amount to use to fill the motor. I probably will try the 8100 X-Clean for my next oil change.

[TrackClub]

I will be going with 8100 X Clean as soon as my free oil changes are done (with Mobil1 0w40).