November 4

What Is The Best Oil To Use in Your Chevy Silverado?

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When it comes to ensuring your Chevy truck performs well and enjoys a long working life, choosing the right engine oil can make all the difference. High-quality motor oil lubricates your engine’s components as they move, helping them run smoothly and protecting parts from damage. High-quality engine oil helps you keep your Silverado 1500 on the road longer, whether you’re using it for work or transporting your family around town. Here at Huffines Chevrolet Plano, Chevy Silverado drivers like you often ask us which engine oil they should choose, so we’ve put together some tips to help you choose.

What Is the Best Oil to Use in a Chevy Silverado?

Chevy Silverado in White | Pickup Truck on Street

Image via Flickr by Jason Lawrence

The answer to this question depends on several factors, including how old your Silverado 1500 is and what engine it has under the hood.

For newer Silverados, like the 2020 or 2021 model years, a solid oil choice would be SAE 5W-30. If your Silverado 1500 is fitted with the 5.3-liter V-8 or 6.2-liter V-8 engines, the 2020 owner’s manual also recommends using SAE 0W-20.

Temperatures get quite hot around here in the summer. To ensure your engine oil continues to perform well at high temperatures, you may want to select an oil with a higher viscosity. The viscosity of oil refers to its thickness, and thicker oils generally perform better in hot weather. For this reason, you could consider selecting an SAE 10W-30 engine oil.

If your Silverado is older or has a lot of miles on the odometer, it could be a good idea to choose a high mileage engine oil. These types of engine oil are specially designed to keep an older engine with more than 75,000 miles behind it running.

Which Factors Make a Good Oil for a Silverado?

One of the main factors to keep in mind when selecting your motor oil is your engine’s power. Anything above a V-4 tends to do better with a thicker oil that can cope with the extra power the engine puts out. That’s why we recommend a 5W-30 or 10W-30 for trucks with larger power trains.

Another essential factor to note is the type of engine oil you choose. Typically, you can pick from fully synthetic oil, synthetic blends, or standard motor oil. If you’re all about performance, you’ll want to select a fully synthetic engine oil. Although this will cost you more, synthetic engine oils do the best job when it comes to protecting your components. Synthetic oils typically last longer than standard motor oil, too.

Synthetic blends are also worth considering if you want to keep your costs lower. These types of oil combine some of the benefits of synthetic oil at a more affordable price. They’re usually more durable than standard engine oils but won’t quite match long-lasting synthetic motor oil.

Standard engine oils will do the job just fine, but you’ll probably need to change them more often. This may mean that you don’t really save any money over the longer term.

How Often Should You Change Your Oil?

No matter how high the quality of your oil is, you’ll need to change it at some point. Engine oil is subject to high temperatures and a lot of strain, causing it to wear down over time. In addition, it gets contaminated by dirt and debris from engine parts. If you fail to change your oil on time, the contaminated oil can cause damage to your engine as its lubrication wanes. Sludge can also stick to your engine parts as the oil breaks down, hindering the parts from moving smoothly.

For most drivers, it’s a good idea to have your engine oil changed every three to six months. This can vary depending on how much you drive and the type of motor oil you use. For example, standard engine oil may need to be changed after about 3,000 miles of driving. Higher quality synthetic oils can operate for between 5,000 and 7,000 miles of driving.

What Does an Oil Change Involve?

If you take your Silverado 1500 into our service center here at Huffines Chevrolet Plano for an oil change, we’ll start by draining and disposing of your old motor oil. Then, we’ll replace your oil filter, which is a crucial step to improve your engine’s performance. Once that’s done, we’ll add the oil of your choice to your engine so that you can get back on the road in no time. Remember, if you’re unsure of which oil to choose, you can check your owner’s manual or ask one of our knowledgeable auto technicians for advice.

Sticking to a regular oil change schedule comes with an additional important benefit. Each time you come into our service center, one of our mechanics can carry out a quick, multi-point inspection of your Silverado to identify problems before they get serious. Common checks we can perform include coolant and brake fluid levels, brake pad wear, and tire treads. These routine maintenance tasks can reduce the risk of you ending up with a large repair bill to deal with for a problem on your truck that went undetected.

Take Care of Your Oil Change Needs at Huffines Chevrolet Plano

We hope that our guide to the best engine oil to put in your Chevy Silverado has helped answer your questions. If you want to know more about your Silverado’s motor oil requirements, feel free to reach out to our professional team of auto experts.

Here at Huffines Chevrolet Plano, we pride ourselves on offering Texas customers like you a no-hassle experience when it comes to oil changes and other routine maintenance needs. Our technicians are extremely knowledgeable about different grades of engine oil, putting them in a great position to assist you with finding the right oil for your Silverado pickup. You can schedule your next maintenance appointment online or drop by our dealership in Plano to talk to us in person. We look forward to helping you get back behind the wheel of your Silverado 1500 in no time.


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