I use synthetic and change at 5000. Why they chose 6000 is a good question. Conventional oil is recommended and that stuf is pretty much gone at 3000. Synthetic may still have good lubricant and base qualitiy but at 5000 it is still dirty.

 

It strikes me that maybe the 6,000 limit has something to do with the 5W-20 oil... then again, Ford uses 5W-20 and they recommend 10,000 mile change intervals even with conventional oils!

 

Check your oil at 6000 miles when you change for the color of the oil. If it is very dark, you may need to change more often due to driving habits (short trips etc.). Conventional or synthetic, oil still gets dirty and can start sludge buildup. My 07 manual says under certain conditions, the oil must be changed every 3000 miles. I don't want any excuse for the dealer to void my Lifetime Warranty. I do my own changes, so the cost to me is low.

 

I have been using conventional oil. I have the 2.4 cvt and have been averaging 24-25 mpg- so plenty of HWY miles. I am at 7700 miles right now and just did the 3rd oil change in less than a year. I am very disappointed that the light comes on every 2500 miles. I change oil that doesnt even look dirty.

 

To everyone except Chris: You can't go by the color of the oil to determine if it needs to be changed or not. If that were the case, diesel engine owners would be changing their oil every 500-1000 miles. If you really want to know the condition of the oil, contact one of the many oil analysis companies and ship them off a small sample. There are many threads on here discussing the 6000 vs 3000 miles interval and there's a lot of good pro/con info for each side. search for 5w-20 vs. 5w30 and you'll find them.

My take on it is Jeep gave us a change oil light. It's duty cycle based (meaning it calculates a mile interval based on how you drove the vehicle) and if you follow it you get to maintain your warranty, and save a little cash in your pocket as well. Mine goes off about every 5500-5800 miles, others have it go off sooner. I write down every change I do in the service log and keep my receipts in there too. I wish it were 7500 miles though. Today's oil can handle more mileage between changes, but at least we got it up to 6k miles. Maybe car manufacturers will start realizing this and push the cycles out even further.

 

Todd, I would LOVE to go by the Jeep change oil light (or in my case, change oil message - I have the optional in-dash computer). Problem is, I can't find any way to reset it UNLESS it's saying to change the oil. So if I happen to change the oil BEFORE the message says to, the message will come on 1,000 miles (or whatever) later and it screws up the whole cycle. A bit of a design defect on Jeep's part...

So beyond everyone's personal views on oil change intervals, has anyone heard straight from Chrysler / Jeep's mouth why 6,000 is the limit? If not the heck with it and I'm just going to start going by the "change oil" message regardless of elapsed time or mileage.

 

Modern engines have more precise tolerances, and especially with the adoption of electronic controls and many many sensors, notions like changing the oil (even conventional dino-juice) every 3k mi. are becoming antiquated.

The electronics leave a bit to be desired, unfortunately, but with so many high-profile companies invested in the GEMA series of engines (ChryCo, Hyundai/Kia, Mitsubishi, Dhaimler, etc.), i would hope that these engines are designed and built rock solid, mechanically speaking.

 

They went with 10,000kms.....which happens to work out pretty well for Canadians.
Just happens that the 6000miles seems uncommon due to that imperial measurment system you use down there

 

We figure 3000mi = 3 months, considering average mileage is 12,000 mi/year. We can be crafty too, sometimes! :smiley_thumbs_up:

 

Jeep assumes you are using the standard oil your car came with.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I can tell when it's time to change the oil just by the way my Patriot drives--even before the light comes on.

The first time it happened, I was driving home, and I noticed that the engine sounded a little bit more rough than usual and seemed to struggle to rev up. Next thing I knew, the light came on. I stopped by Advance Auto Parts and changed the oil shortly after I got home.

BTW, I had bad luck with Valvoline synthetic; it only lasted 2500 miles. Mobil and Castrol usually make it to around 4000 miles. I guess my driving has something to do with the short intervals between oil changes....

 

This is an ultra modern World engine !! Not an old Stove-bolt Chevy 6 . You could leave the oil in for 10,000 mile changes & your engine woudlnt know the difference. If your engine is rough & wont pull , get the electrics checked , because it sure wont be the oil!!!

 

Modern engine or not, oil discoloration is an honest indication of contamination. This is due to blow-by which is a term for gases getting past the piston rings and into the crankcase and therefore the oil. The darker the oil, the higher is the level of contamination. This contaminated oil is circulated over and over throughout the engine as you drive. In a perfect engine there would be zero contamination. In time some of this is left as "sludge" on the engine parts. No need to go hi-tech, just err on the side of caution if you plan on keeping you vehicle for a long time.

 

Darkness of the oil tells you nothing of the oils condition. You would be changing out at 2000miles on some synthetic oils that have 10,000 mile guarantees. Only real way to determine if the oil is still protecting, and there are no harmful contaminants is through oil analysis.
That said, you can visit "Bob is the oil guy" forums and get an idea of how long your brand of oil will protect by looking at other peoples used oil analysis. With the current batch of name brand SM oils, going 5000 miles on dino is no issue at all. 7500+ miles on any name brand syntetic is pretty safe as well.

 

I am lucky if I get 4000KM between changes - I am doing 5-6 oil changes a year - it is really annoying. My Toyota Matrix was every 10,000 (or 2x a year)... and I did it every 8000km to be safe.
What was really funny, is I had a Journey with the same engine, and the light would some on around 6300 - 6500km.... makes no sense to me.
I find it hard to beleive that I can only get 4000-4500 between changes.
My driving is mixed 50/50 city and highway.

 

Tater, I'd recommend having an oil analysis done then. Perhaps something is wrong with the oil calculation on your vehicle and an oil analysis will tell you if you can ignore the message and put more miles on or not. They usually cost about $25 bucks, but once you determine it is safe to go 8,000 km, then you've just cut your oil change costs in half.

 

OIL CHANGE 6 TIMES A YEAR????????I really dont Understand????? No wonder the USA uses OIL!! Take no notice of that Dashboard Indicator---its a built in $$$$ oil Bandit!!

A lot of modern engines here in Euroland specify fully Synthetic every 18.000-20.000 miles . ............

I'm going on to 12.000 mile changes once my warranty is up!! I have the same 2.4 engine as the Pat & Neither my Caliber, Patriot or Avenger has a oil change indicator fitted.

 

Todde702: I am not talking about your oil turning tan or dark brown. If you have very dark or black oil, it is full of sludge. Once the oil has reached the limit of sludge it can hold, deposits will from in the engine. To quote your source, the GM Oil Life System: "One the other hand, short trip driving in a cold climate (like Winter maybe), may limit oil change intervals to 3000 miles or less "(less?). This looks like their out, because it is all based on driving conditions. I wonder if the computer is recording driving habits and conditions and based on that, it lights the change oil indicator. but what about us who don't have that feature (I don't). That's why I look at my oil color. The anti wear additives may be still doing their job, but I am talking about sludge whether in conventional or synthetic oil.