My last oil change I switched to Mobil 1 synthetic engine oil. The oil has about 3k on it and my "change engine oil" indicator came up in my dash. According to the manual this comes up when the "system" detects that the oil is dirty and needs changed. Is it ok to ignore this or reset it and run the oil for another 2K since synthetic is good for 5k?

 

What year/model/engine do you have? I have over 100k on my 06' and have never seen that light come on, not sure if i even have one?

 

Its an 08 w/ the 5.7L Hemi. Its not really a light. Its a message that shows up in the dash where the odomoter is when I start the truck. Itll beep and flash the message.

 

My wife's Jeep has that. It pops on every 3K miles.

However, keep in mind that just because the oil, itself, is good, if your filter is not designed for longer intervals it may deteriorate before the lubricant.

 

I would change the oil, ESPECIALLY if you just switched to synthetic as synthetic cleans the engine better than conventional and it's entirely possible that it has picked up a lot of contaminants that are now suspended in that oil.

It's never a bad idea to do a 3k change on the first use of synthetic, then go to 5 or 6k changes after that...

 

Hammer - Nice quote

Was that message indicator only on the 08's

 

I don't know if it was only on the '08s, but I do know my 4.7L also has it. Comes on every 3k miles like clockwork, so I don't think the indicator checks the oil for anything. If you have the REC nav system, you can set that to remind you at an interval of your choosing, but it still doesn't keep the other reminder from going off every 3k miles. Since it was all linked to the ECU, I kinda figured it would change both.

 

Both my truck and Jeep just have the "reminder" on the overhead that you set yourself. But my '02 Z71 had the "sensor" and I only saw it come on once, at 4700 miles (like now, I did 5k changes with full synthetic then), made it to 5k without it coming on every other time. This leads me to believe that at least GM actually senses something before triggering the oil change warning.

My mom's 2010 Dodge Journey came on the first time at 3200 miles, I just had the oil changed (yes I said "had it changed" as the dealer included free oil changes for 3/36) - at 6000 miles and the light hadn't come on yet. So I'm not sure if it actually senses anything or not. The Chrysler engineers swear the system is actually sensing the oil, but I dunno...