Oil change after only 2400 miles?

[kwirges]

Today the warning message came across telling me that I need an oil change. The odd thing is, I only have 2400 miles on my Journey - most of which is HIGHWAY mileage. I'm very surprised to need an oil change already...has anyone experienced something similar?

[Hit-By-Thunder]

Today the warning message came across telling me that I need an oil change. The odd thing is, I only have 2400 miles on my Journey - most of which is HIGHWAY mileage. I'm very surprised to need an oil change already...has anyone experienced something similar?

I think it is because it is the break in period. I did read something about it in the online owners manual.

Rob

[jaymista]

I got the same message at 2400 miles. There must be something to signal the first change be done around that time.

[TheStewie]

I got the same message at 2400 miles. There must be something to signal the first change be done around that time.

We had the first warning at just over 4000kms for the oil change, fairly close. We took the extended package that covers oil changes so it may pay for itself after all!!

[WREED6223]

The dealer recommended doing the first oil change at 3000 miles but I haven't hit that mark yet.

Wild Bill

[tool6996]

I'm at 5300 miles and still not oil change warning. Anyone make it that far and not see the warning? Should I be worried?

[NiceTrip]

I'm at 5300 miles and still not oil change warning. Anyone make it that far and not see the warning? Should I be worried?

At 5300 miles, I would absolutely change the oil, warning or no.

I just got the warning at 2500 miles. It pops up in the odometer area just after starting along with a single chime sound, but after a few seconds it goes away, and is replaced by the odometer display.

[tool6996]

i will have to dispute that. The manual and Dodge itself, along with SEVERAL auto publications say, wait for the computer to tell you. Mine has not, now not saying there isn't something wrong with mine but don't discredit the suggested oil changing patterns. Specifically you are not to change the Journey until 6k miles. Just bc in your 1979 Dodge Truck you change it every 2k, doesn't mean times have not changed. Oil break downs have been highly refined over the years.

[tool6996]

Just called the dealer, verified 6k miles for the Journey in my area which is Pittsburgh, PA. No harm in changing at 3k but it is recommended at 6k

[DogSportz]

I took mine in at 5000, before a long trip and the service advisor freaked and said it should have been at 3000 and every 3000 after. I told him that the service coupon book that they gave me and the owner manual both say 6000, he told me I had the wrong service schedule for the car and was going to get everything updated for me.

After the oil change was over, the asst manager told me the service advisor was wrong and to go by the on board computer. So I have several different opinions on when to do it. My change oil light went on at 5700 - mostly highway driving, but I was out of state at the time, so would not have been able to get it done.

Alyssia

[NiceTrip]

i will have to dispute that. The manual and Dodge itself, along with SEVERAL auto publications say, wait for the computer to tell you. Mine has not, now not saying there isn't something wrong with mine but don't discredit the suggested oil changing patterns. Specifically you are not to change the Journey until 6k miles. Just bc in your 1979 Dodge Truck you change it every 2k, doesn't mean times have not changed. Oil break downs have been highly refined over the years.

I'm not saying you should change the oil every 3000 miles for the life of the car. I've *always* believed that the 3000 mile oil change recommendation is little more than a scam advocated by JiffyLube and the like to increase their revenue. If you want to pay for that "insurance", fine, but I firmly beleive that you will not have any oil-related problems if you follow the manufacturer's recommendations.

That said, I'm absoulutely willing to buy the "insurance" for the very first oil change in a new car, and change the oil at half the recommended change interval, especially in light of the number of participants in this forum who have said the Change Oil message popped up after ~2400 miles; even though I can't find anywhere in the manual that says you should change the "break-in" oil any sooner than any other oil change.

In any case, my car did request an oil change at ~2500 miles, and I will be doing it this weekend. I have the Mopar filter (anybody know the correct FRAM or other after-market filter cross-reference) and full synthetic oil at the recommended viscosity rating (10w30).

[larryl]

I bought the Purolator Pureone @ Advance Auto in Nia Falls NY for $5.88-I could have the cheaper one for $3.88 but I like the Pureone better

Basically buy 3 get one free as opposed to Mopar-& sometimes they run sales

The filter #5708664 thats for the 3.5 engine

[TheStewie]

Just called the dealer, verified 6k miles for the Journey in my area which is Pittsburgh, PA. No harm in changing at 3k but it is recommended at 6k

Our change came about the same time as most others vis the oil change message. The warranty manual does say 10k (6k miles i suppose) OR when the message comes on so the dealer is wrong to say always 6k miles. I asked the same of our dealer and he said bring it in within 800 km of the warning to meet the warranty requirements regardless of mileage.

The parts person who was a service mechanic at one time did note that he wondered why in past years that oil changes had to be done more frequently on the 3.5 engine when it is the same engine in the Journey and they extended the intervals out much longer.

The Stewie

[Tonymnyphot]

Just had the first oil change done at 4100 kms yesterday. Seems a little early, if it keeps up at this rate I will be changing it myself. Got the harness recall and 2 RRTs done while it was there.

[radon360]

In any case, my car did request an oil change at ~2500 miles, and I will be doing it this weekend. I have the Mopar filter (anybody know the correct FRAM or other after-market filter cross-reference) and full synthetic oil at the recommended viscosity rating (10w30).

WIX part Number: 57899 (3.5L)

Purolator part Number: PL24651 (3.5L)

Dumb question on my part: Why would you spend more for synthetic oil, then use a FRAM oil filter? Or maybe you were just looking for an aftermarket cross-reference number and not a FRAM filter?

FRAM, which once used to be the best, was cost-reduced by Allied Signal (after acquisition) to the point that they became the worst on the market. They've since become part of Honeywell, but considering their primarily retailed at discount stores, I doubt their quality has improved much.

This guy seems to have the straight dope on oil filters:

http://www.knizefamily.net/minimopar/oilfilters/index.html

See his opinions here:

http://www.knizefamily.net/minimopar/oilfi...s/opinions.html

With the lifetime powertrain warranty from Chrysler and the free oil changes for life from the dealership, you can take a good guess who will be changing the oil in mine. :D

[NiceTrip]

Thanks for the info, and the link!

To answer your question, I was basically looking for a cross reference, and figured if I have a FRAM number, I can cross reference to any other brand. That said, up til now, I've never really seen any objective comparison data on oil filters, and sort of figured that any filter that makes it to market in the US was going to be at least adequate for the job.

Having nothing else to go on, I've typically bought whatever well known brand was on sale or otherwise cheapest that day. FRAM being a national brand, with a well-packaged product and pleny of advertising would have definitely been on my acceptable list. WIX on the other hand, with their plain white box and filter case, has always sort of screamed "generic" to me, and thus I've usually avoided them. Now that I have some real data on which to make a more informed decision, my buying patterns will be different.

I believe that, within limits, you get what you pay for, but sometimes what you're really paying for is a brand name. Given sufficent information I'll always choose a quality product with an unknown name, rather than the other way around.

[mrdirt73]

I think it is because it is the break in period. I did read something about it in the online owners manual.

Rob

I thought that too when mine came on @ 2800 miles the first time, but now it has come on again after just another 2500 miles. What gives? I want to keep my warranty as that is the main reason we went with the Journey, but I don't know if I can afford to have the oil changed every 2500 miles.

[radon360]

Those of you who are getting sub 3,000 mile oil change indications, what are your driving habits?

Do you take a lot of short trips? (5 miles or less)

Is most of your driving on city streets?

I'd also ask about winter driving, but most of us have not had our Journeys long enough to have them experience sub-zero temperatures. Cold engine temperature driving (whether due to short trips or extremely cold weather) should shorten the interval time. Extremely hot weather may do the same.

I'd wish I knew the exact formula and all of the coefficients, but after the constants of the engine design and (presumed) oil properties are used to calculate out an ideal engine oil life, penalty deductions are made for things like engine temperature and operating RPM. Depending on the indicator's design, fuel consumption may be factored into that as well, but again, I don't know the exact formula or coefficients. Some further research tonight may be in order.

[mrdirt73]

Those of you who are getting sub 3,000 mile oil change indications, what are your driving habits?

Do you take a lot of short trips? (5 miles or less)

Is most of your driving on city streets?

I'd also ask about winter driving, but most of us have not had our Journeys long enough to have them experience sub-zero temperatures. Cold engine temperature driving (whether due to short trips or extremely cold weather) should shorten the interval time. Extremely hot weather may do the same.

I'd wish I knew the exact formula and all of the coefficients, but after the constants of the engine design and (presumed) oil properties are used to calculate out an ideal engine oil life, penalty deductions are made for things like engine temperature and operating RPM. Depending on the indicator's design, fuel consumption may be factored into that as well, but again, I don't know the exact formula or coefficients. Some further research tonight may be in order.

I'd say about 75% of my trips are 20 miles or so with a mixture of interstate (semi rush hour) and city.

[Canada_Jay]

Same Here..... 4000 kms. The dealer says that they are receiving complaints from Caravan owners too. Chyrsler is looking into it. (Ya right).

[jruss]

I am stationed in Germany and just had my oil changed as well. The dealer said the oil change schedule is set by the build date of the vehicle. Mine was built in Feb. and showed oil change due with 2600 miles. The stupid part of this all is the dealer dosen't know how to reset the light yet for the oil change I had done. He just recieved his first Journey for the lot a few days before my service and is waiting for the FSM's to arrive so he can figure it out.

[radon360]

Just speculation on my part:

I wonder if, in addtion to the engine use algorithm, the oil change indicator also takes into account how many calendar days since the last oil change. This would mean that all of the days after your Journey was "born", including those in transit, sitting on the dealer's lot, etc. all count against the number of days before the oil change indication appears. One would think that the dealer prep instructions would include resetting this counter, but it's something that can be easily skipped and no one knows any better (at least initially).

Has anyone gotten only 2500 between their first and second oil change?

I ordered my Journey, so it was about as close to being "factory fresh" as possible, and the indicator didn't come on until after 5,600 miles.

Still working on finding the formula used for calculation....

[mrdirt73]

Just speculation on my part:

I wonder if, in addtion to the engine use algorithm, the oil change indicator also takes into account how many calendar days since the last oil change. This would mean that all of the days after your Journey was "born", including those in transit, sitting on the dealer's lot, etc. all count against the number of days before the oil change indication appears. One would think that the dealer prep instructions would include resetting this counter, but it's something that can be easily skipped and no one knows any better (at least initially).

Has anyone gotten only 2500 between their first and second oil change?

I ordered my Journey, so it was about as close to being "factory fresh" as possible, and the indicator didn't come on until after 5,600 miles.

Still working on finding the formula used for calculation....

Yes, my oil light went off the second time after only an additional 2500 miles. I'm pretty sure that my oil light goes off just based on miles only.

[kered118]

oil change display today at 3300miles I drove it from sand diego to las vegas and back following day. I hope the second change oil should be close to 6k as states in the maual .

[Remline]

Just speculation on my part:

I wonder if, in addtion to the engine use algorithm, the oil change indicator also takes into account how many calendar days since the last oil change. This would mean that all of the days after your Journey was "born", including those in transit, sitting on the dealer's lot, etc. all count against the number of days before the oil change indication appears. One would think that the dealer prep instructions would include resetting this counter, but it's something that can be easily skipped and no one knows any better (at least initially).

Has anyone gotten only 2500 between their first and second oil change?

I ordered my Journey, so it was about as close to being "factory fresh" as possible, and the indicator didn't come on until after 5,600 miles.

Still working on finding the formula used for calculation....

My first time came at 2550. The second time it was 5600. Keep in mind that once the indicator comes on the manual says change within 500 Miles.