Blackout Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 Hey Everyone! Hows it going hope everyone is staying warm as its getting colder! I have a question im @ 5800KM on my 2013 Journey RT its this is going to be my very first oil change and I have a couple questions to ask #1 im @ 5800KM and my oil change light has not come on yet any ideas why? # 2 Whats the best oil to put in the 3.6 L V6 Should I go full syntethic or Regular? also is it 5w20 or 5w30? Im having it changed this weekend I asked the dealer and they said oil change light warning should come on between 5000-6000km I appreciate it let me know Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2late4u Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 i have a 2011 3.6 and used the free dealer oil changes which they use reg oil. now after the free oil changes used up i switched to full syn oil which i have used for the last 10-15 yrs do not use blended syn oil as what i have read its not as good. one note i tried to upgrade my free oil changes to using syn oil and my dealership couldnt give me a firm price to use the syn and then the last oil change they quoted me about $50. for them to up grade to syn . i laughed and told them no way... buy your syn mobil one or penzoil or any syn oil ( i always catch mine on sale ahead of time i have about 4 jugs of it now) should cost between $20 to $26 a jug and then i get a oil filter from the dealer for about $6-$7 and do my own oil changes( real easy to do) mind you will need an extra half quart (5.5 quarts) so about $30. to do it at home about $70. down at the quickee oil change. also i go about 9k between oil changes my old van went 10 to 11k and my daughter is still driving it on her postal route. doesnent use a bit of oil..... Journey_SeXT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journeyman425 Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 The maintenance reminder is interactive and does not call for an oil change strictly by mileage. Several other criteria come into play to determine when the light comes on. 5800 km = approx 3600 miles. Mine did not come on until 9500 miles or about 15000 km. I had already changed the oil once at 4400 miles and again at 8800. The second time around, I switched to synthetic. 5W-20 is the required oil viscosity for a 2013 Journey with a 3.6. Synthetic is not required; it is a matter of preference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webslave Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 The maintenance reminder is interactive and does not call for an oil change strictly by mileage. Several other criteria come into play to determine when the light comes on. 5800 km = approx 3600 miles. Mine did not come on until 9500 miles or about 15000 km. I had already changed the oil once at 4400 miles and again at 8800. The second time around, I switched to synthetic. 5W-20 is the required oil viscosity for a 2013 Journey with a 3.6. Synthetic is not required; it is a matter of preference. Journeyman425 is spot on. The vehicle uses a complex algorithm to compute when an oil change is due. Duty cycle (how long or short the drive is), loading (full passenger complement most of the time or not), towing, etc. to come up with the change interval and no two intervals will likely be the same. My '08 Commander was the first vehicle I'd owned that did that sort of thing and it took me a number of years to come to the point where I trusted it to tell me accurately when to change it. Now, several MOPAR vehicles later, I trust the system. My '13 told me to change the oil at 9,756 miles. We live out in the country, so, any of our trips are long (17 miles to the first store) and virtually zero stop and go. Lightly loaded (just the two of us) and no towing. The manual for the '13 calls for a maximum of 10,000 miles (~16,000 km) or 1 year on the oil and 5W-20 is the recommended viscosity range. I use synthetic (Mobil 1) since the change interval is rather long and the synthetics hold up better to both time and heat. If you are one of the "old school" types and cling religiously to changing the oil every 3,000 miles or so, or if you have a lot of stop and go and the EVIC tells you, usually to change at less than 5,000 miles, I wouldn't waste synthetic on that type of interval as the dino based oils, nowadays, are perfectly capable of maintaining integrity for that type of time span (the new dino formulations are leagues ahead of the oils of 8-10 years ago). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journeyman425 Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Webslave is also entirely correct. Dino based oils formulations are indeed vastly improved over their bretheren from a decade ago. Engine manufacturing techniques are also leagues ahead of what they used to be, resulting in tolerances which could not have been imagined in mass-produced engines and once were solely the province of only the finest machine shops. This is one reason why there is no longer "break-in oil" , which used to accumulate microns of debris left behind in the manufacturing process. I regularly see customers at my shop who have simply forgotten to change their oil and have driven the vehicles for 15-20,000 miles between services. While I don't condone this kind of maintenance, the lack of oil sludge as a result of it is remarkably low, which is a testament to the examples that webslave and I have posted here. Go ahead and follow the intervals posted by the maintenance reminder system built into your vehicle. The manufacturer stands behind it. I am still somewhat of the old school myself, simply because my last new car before the Journey is my 2000 300M which required more frequent maintenance for the reasons listed above, and still runs perfectly with 287,000 miles. But my Journey will see longer intervals because I know it is engineered to handle it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackout Posted December 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Hey Boys, Im going to stick with the OIL it recommends I have 6 free oil changes so will see what the mechanic says when I go change it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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