I've got just over 4000 miles on my truck and the oil change light is yet to appear. I'm debating on whether to wait for the light to appear or go ahead and change the oil now. Did you guys wait for the light?

 

My light came on and I checked the stick, you know, old school. The stick looked fine so I waited. Reverse is true, check your stick if you think there is an issue.

 

After 4000 miles I would chage my oil even if the light didn't come on. My oil light first came on at 2500 miles, so I took it to the dealer since the first oil change was free. The light then came on again at 5500 miles.

 

Just wait till your light comes on. The oil change interval is determined by taking into consideration many factors such as operating temperature, trip distances and engine rpm including mileage. Just let the computer tell you how long to go with your oil change.
Were running synthetic oil now. Should easily go 8K before an oil change is even a consideration unless you like tossing your money away. There are many studies done on synthetic that show we change our oil needlessly before then, not to mention environmental impact on changing your oil more frequently than needed.
Take for example, my BMW has 3 years of free maintenance. They use synthetic, and when they're paying for the oil change, they recommend 24K or 1 year! Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

 

They come from the factory with Synthetic?

 

I don't know about the synthetic part but yesterday I took mine in for the first change after the info message popped up at 2700 mi and the service guy told me the computer can test the viscosity of the oil and alerts you when it needs changed. I got two years free oil changes with my truck so I'm taking it in as much the truck tells me.

 

I'm pretty sure it doesn't do anything to actually 'test' the oil. I was always under the impression these systems based their warning alerts on things that the computer has monitored, such as idle time, engine load, number of starts, etc.

Rob

 

I was certainly under the impression that the first oil change in any car was with much less miles (like 1500-2500 maybe) than all subsequent oil changes, just to clean out the break-in "stuff" such as microscopic metals from running a new engine - machining material, casting material, etc. Once done, if running full synthetic, then many miles between oil changes. My MB's have routinely gone 10k miles and 18 months between oil changes (per dealership) and have all run fine for many hundreds of thousands of miles.

 

I am old school I did my first oil change at just over 2000 km because it was at 3 months. We do ours 5000KM or 3 months whichever is first. Sure that is overkill but I won't be told if my engine screws up that it is because of lack of oil changes and my engine will be clean too. Even though the all mighty oil change light is there it is one light I probably won't see.

 

I change my oil every 6,000 miles or 1 year, which means I did'nt really put a lot of miles on the truck.If I put 6,000 miles on the truck in 2 months, the oil gets changed.Just my 2 cents.