Properly breaking in a new vehicle isn’t as straight forward as getting in, starting it up, and peeling off the lot. For most vehicles, especially those powered by internal combustion engines, certain conditions must be met during the model’s first few miles in order to avoid damaging the vehicle’s various systems and components. This very much applies to the 2025 Chevy Silverado 1500 pickup truck – the best-seller not only for Chevy, but also for its parent, General Motors. Now, GM Authority is outlining the 2025 Chevy Silverado break-in procedure, as per General Motors.
This article is part of the GM Authority Owner’s Guide series, where we provide tips, tricks and other information for owners.
The Break-In Period
GM says that the overall performance of the Chevy Silverado 1500 will benefit by following these break-in period recommendations during the first 500 miles (800 km) of driving:
- Avoid full throttle starts and abrupt stops.
- Avoid exceeding 4,000 RPM (gasoline engines) or 3,000 RPM (diesel engine) when accelerating or downshifting to slow or brake the truck.
- Avoid making hard stops for the first 200 miles (300 km). Hard stops with new brake linings can result in premature wear and earlier replacement. This guideline should be followed every time brake linings are replaced.
- Do not tow a trailer.
Electrical systems will adapt and calibrate during the break-in period. Hence, some instances of clicks and similar vehicle noises are normal during this process.
After The Break-In Period
After the 2025 Chevy Silverado break-in period, the engine speed and load can be gradually increased.
On new vehicles, the various mechanical and electrical systems adjust during the first 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of routine driving to provide optimal fuel economy and transmission shift performance.
It’s also worth noting that normal driving charges the vehicle battery to achieve optimal vehicle operation.
GM recommends oil be changed every 7,500 miles (12,000 km).
More To Consider
The above is what General Motors explicitly outlines as being the 2025 Silverado break-in procedure. However, it’s worth noting that some owners and mechanics also recommend changing the engine oil at more frequent intervals than what’s indicated on the truck’s oil life indicator. The thinking behind this theory (remember, this is not recommended by GM) is that many parts and components go through a break in process during the first few thousand miles, and it’s better to get the by-products of the break-in process out of the truck’s oiling system sooner rather than later.
With the lifter issues plaguing GM’s 5.3L V8 L84 engine and 6.2L V8 L87 engine, running clean engine oil and changing it more frequently than the oil life monitor indicates could go a long way toward avoiding these engine issues. To that end, we’ve seen owners say that they feel more comfortable changing oil in their trucks at 5,000-mile intervals, rather than going by the Silverado’s oil life monitor or by the 7,500 interval recommended by GM.
The two most commons approaches we’ve seen are:
- First oil change around 1,000 miles, second oil change around 5,000 miles, and each subsequent oil change every 5,000 miles thereafter.
- First oil change around 3,000 miles, second oil change around 5,000 miles, and each subsequent oil change every 5,000 miles thereafter.
Again, these steps are not outlined by General Motors or Chevrolet as being part of the Silverado break-in procedure. Instead, it’s what we’ve heard as being a best practice for prolonging engine life and avoiding any hardware failures.
Discussions
Have questions or want to discuss the 2025 Silverado? Then head on over to our Chevy forum.
About 2025 Chevy Silverado 1500
As a reminder, the 2025 Chevy Silverado 1500 is underpinned by the GM T1 platform. Four powertrain options are on offer, starting with the turbocharged 2.7L I4 L3B gasoline TurboMax engine, the naturally aspirated 5.3L V8 L84 gasoline engine, the naturally aspirated 6.2L V8 L87 gasoline engine, and finally, the 3.0L I6 LZ0 turbodiesel Duramax. Production takes place at one of three GM plants: the GM Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana, GM Silao Assembly plant in Mexico, and GM Oshawa plant in Canada.
Comments
This is not new breaking information, it’s the same as in my 2012 Silverado owners manual. I change all of my vehicle’s oil at 5000 miles and ignore the oil life system. I always changed at 3000 miles until I switched to full synthetic oil. Been driving and working on vehicles for 50 years and have had great results with my vehicles, all Fords and GMs.
Same here. 5w-30 full-synthetic and a quality oil filter every 5k miles solve most issues. 3 Ford’s (2 EcoBoost, 1 V10) an Acura and a Subaru all close to or well over 100k miles with zero engine issues and no oil use, even the Triton V10 with over 200k on it. 10k mile oil changes are suicide, especially for a Turbo engine and the ultra light weight oils being recommended (0w-20) aren’t doing you any favors as well.
I change mine at 40%
I only use quality filters such as AC Delco gold/profesional (black, no cheap blue crap) or Wix XP.
Oil changes are everything. My father was a mechanic and still believes that at 3k change the oil. If you have full synthetic don’t go over 5k. Oil is a h$ll of a lot cheaper than a new engine.
Growing up he used Havoline motor oil at his shop and we rigorously changed oil at 3k. NONE of our vehicles had severe engine damage. I had a Ford probe LX (LOVED THAT CAR) that had over 220k on it when it started to burn about a quart of oil per change. He tore it down. The rings were alittle worn. Hardly any scratches on sideways. Pistons were near perfect. Put back together. Ran awesome.
So many now wanna run oil changes out to 7.5k to 10k. That’s just pure insanity and asking for trouble
The gentle break ins are for the diff, trans, brakes, etc. The engine wants to be broken in harder and under load early. The only way to properly seat the rings and not glaze the cylinder walls is put them under pressure. If performance and race engine builders warm up their engine then run them harder (picking up RPM quickly), then that is the way to go. Ideally you do the engine load for break in on the highway as to not shock the drivetrain too much. Do harder roll ons, start at half the redline rpm, then a grand or two under redline and let the engine braking slow its self-down. I wouldn’t redline it until you get some miles on it, but the higher rpm certainly helps a ton for the process. You don’t stress the drivetrain components much and the engine gets a harder and proper bedding. Did this on a LS2 and was one of the highest stock dynoing cars. You saw a correlation between dyno and break in procedures. Those that baby it were in the 330ish range, those that went harder early were in the higher end numbers (350+). If you want to know the best way for an engine, look at what the pros are doing… The heat cycles and being easy are for the other components and accessories.
I break them in like I am going to run it. Break it in like you stole it, and it will always run better!
What is this a Model T? It should be ready from day one. There is a laundry list here. 3000 RPM is nothing. I don’t recall these things for my new VW. In fact, the owners Manuel says it is ready to go. This is why Civics, Corollas, Accords will continue to dominate. An 60k pick up and one needs to treat it like it’s a Yugo? No way
Use a quality oil and filter. Never follow the oil change monitor and change the oil early. Long drain intervals will destroy your engine. Just look at the massive amounts of sludge in engines that died early with heavy sludge inside.
Opinions are like A-holes everyone has one.
I just experienced a valvetrain failure at 90,000 on my 2018 Sierra 5.3 with the 4/8 cylinder deactivation. I traded it in on a 2025 Sierra 3.0 Duramax, so this discussion has my attention. When I bought my 2018, I did 3,000 miles oil changes for the first 50,000 or so then I started using the oil monitor. My justification was that I had two other vehicles (Mercedes-Benz) that the service reminder was stretching the oil change interval out to 10,000 and both are at 120,000 miles with zero issues. They both also hold a lot of oil, but I decided surely I could stretch out the GMC with synthetic more than 3,000 without issue. Now I am questioning if this could have led to my valvetrain failure. I have 750 miles on the Duramax. The oil monitor percentage seems to be coming down quicker than it did on my 2018 so I am curious about that. At this point I think I will do my first change at 3,000 and also get some input from the dealership. Also, I used to do my first oil change at 500 miles, but my dealership then told me not to. They said there was dye in oil from the factory that they could use a light to find a leak. That was a LONG time ago, so I’m not sure if that is still true or not.