So I changed the oil when the truck told me to a few months ago. City driving since then, and I drove it to Houston tx a week ago. Now home in Wichita ks. July 9th I leave for a road trip/ backpacking/ hiking trip to south central Utah. Going to to the Death Hollow hike outside escalante for 1 week. Question is, thats going to add 2,000+ miles to the odometer, 90% highway. I strongly suspect that the truck at some point on this trip is going to tell me 'change oil soon'....If I am driving home to wichita ks, with 800 miles to go, and it tells me that, how hard is it going to be on it to go 800 miles over on the oil change? Am I just worrying too much? Just really want to take care of my truck, and not abuse it. I just know that at some point on this trip its going to tick over and tell me to change it, and I will not be able to until I get home.

I also don't want to do permanent damage to the truck either.

 

You're going to see lots of opinions here, but I'm going to point out page 408 on your owner's guide(your page number may be different):

If you're more than 500 miles out I would stop and have it changed; if less than that take it on in without worry and do it at home.

 

It will be in the middle of the night if I am 500 miles out. Honestly, I believe I may just have to get it home......Not sure I can do anything else. I guess if I am en route, and in denver it says that, I can pull over at a wal mart and have it changed.....But do not rteally want to do that.


Won't they go further with highway miles between oil changes than they will with city driving?

 

No doubt highway miles are much easier on oil than city miles, but the manual doesn't specify. Surely if you go 600 miles after the OLM indicates 0% it will be better than a city driver going 450. But considering how long the oil change intervals are on these new engines I don't think I'd want to push my luck.

It would be preferable to have Wal-Mart change the oil than run oil past its useful life IMHO.

 

I've changed it myself in situations like you have. That's probably what I'd do, or have dealer do it.

 

If it was me, especially considering the heat you may experience on the trip, I'd change it before I go. Using your guess on miles and when the indicator will trip, you are changing it between 1200 and 1500 miles early, so approximately 15% early. Assuming an oil change costs about $30, that is an extra cost of only $4.50, maybe up to $6.00. Less than 2 gallons of gas...

 

If your that worried about it, change it before you go. Life's too dang short to stress over an oil change.

 

^^ This. Why not just change it early for the extra piece of mind?

 

How many miles were on the last change before the truck said to change it? Is the oil life monitor set at 100%