Oil Life System To Be GM Standard Equipment
FOR RELEASE: May 17, 2001Oil Life System To Be GM Standard Equipment
Monitoring oil life saves money and the environment DETROIT -In keeping with its commitment to sustainable mobility, General Motors will be installing its award-winning Oil Life System on all new North American vehicles by model year 2003.
Giving consumers an accurate and reliable way to monitor engine oil life will help reduce America's appetite for oil, protect the environment and save consumers money while still ensuring that engines are properly maintained.
"The Oil Life System is a win-win-win-win solution to the difficult issue of engine oil changes," said Dennis R. Minano, GM Vice President, Environment and Energy and Chief Environmental Officer. "Once again, GM has shown that there are other ways, besides improving gas mileage, that we can reduce pollution and conserve resources using our advanced technologies."
Since 1995, GM has produced more than 10 million vehicles with the Oil Life System. Together, these vehicles will save an estimated 64 million gallons of oil - more than six supertankers full of oil - through 2002. Consumers will also save more than $1 billion in service costs by avoiding unnecessary oil changes.
GM received a first-ever Environmental Excellence in Transportation (E2T) Award Wednesday from the Society of Automotive Engineers for the Oil Life System. The Oil Life System constantly monitors how the vehicle's engine is being used, and alerts the motorist when it's time to change the oil. In GM vehicles equipped with the Driver Information System, the monitor also tells the driver precisely how much oil life remains.
Unlike some oil life sensors that perform chemical tests on the oil, the Oil Life System uses sophisticated decision-making software to determine when the oil's usefulness has ended.
In actual driving, the Oil Life System has been found to double or triple the oil change interval for a typical vehicle.
In its vehicles without the Oil Life System, GM currently recommends oil change intervals on two different schedules, depending on how the vehicle is being used. Drivers making lots of short trips around town or towing trailers should change their oil every 3,000 miles; those making relatively long cruising trips should be on a 7,500-mile interval. But in practice, most drivers do some combination of both styles of driving, so the guidelines are far from precise.
In fact, because these guidelines are intentionally conservative, a lot of oil is being drained before its useful life has ended.
"The Oil Life System gives consumers the confidence that they aren't damaging the engine by running bad oil, nor will they be wasting time, money and resources by changing oil that has a lot of useful life remaining," Minano said.
Oil changes are a significant environmental problem. The American Petroleum Institute estimates that more than 640 million gallons of motor oil are sold each year, about half of which is used by do-it-yourself oil changers. While gas stations, quick oil change shops and car dealerships generally follow good practices and return the used oil for recycling, only about a third of the do-it-yourselfers are returning used oil for recycling. The rest of it - as much as 200 million gallons - is apparently dumped on the ground, poured down storm sewers or sent to landfills. That's the equivalent of 20 supertanker accidents every year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that do-it-yourself oil changes are the single largest source of water pollution in the United States. Just one quart of improperly disposed used oil can contaminate 1 million gallons of water, enough to meet the needs of 50 people for a year.
"We're proud to do our part to lessen this environmental impact of vehicles," Minano said. "The Oil Life System grew out of GM's extensive Research and Development efforts, and it shows once again that GM is the industry leader in consumer-oriented technology and environmental protection."
