The grill R/T is applied with 3M tape. It's a emblem I bought on ebay and may have been for a Charger. Civic is gone. I'm looking for another toy to drive. The Caravan R/T is at 2,800 miles.

 

I'm still holding out for the first oil change. The Caravan R/T will be six months old at the end of November and should have around 3,000 miles on it. Has anybody changed to synthetic oil in their GC?

 

I only have 600 something miles on our 2014 Grand Caravan but my plan is for when I change the oil is to use Castrol Edge full synthetic motor oil. I will be changing the oil at 3,000 even then once it's changed with synthetic I will be changing it every 4,000. I would recommend not going over 5,000 miles on any motor oil, synthetic or dinosaur oil!

 

I agree. Even though people change at less frequent intervals today, I still change mine between 3,000 and 4,000 miles. The reason the oil is easier to see on the dip stick as it gets older and darker, is dirt.

 

I am at 3 months with 2700 miles, will change to Mobil 1 in March or April. As i likely will drive less than 10,000 miles a year, I will do an oil change around every 8 months. Still deciding what oil filter to use mopar or off brands. (I do have a purolator on hand.)

 

I find the comments about changing oil interesting. Have had my 2011 Grand Caravan since last June, so new to this brand.

I called a local Chrysler dealership and asked, and they told me not to worry about changing the oil until the van says that it needs an oil change. After 8,000km (about 5,000 miles), the light was still not on, so I had it changed since it was going in for other stuff.

It sounds like the engine won't ask for an oil change for 10,000 to 13,000km (6,000 to 8,000 miles) under normal conditions. Can I trust that the sensors reading the oil are accurate?

We would like to keep this fan for an extended period. I put 300,000km onto my 1999 Chev Venture, and 347,000km onto my Nissan pickup. Something similar with this 2011 GCV would be great - it is very nice to drive, quiet, and can be very inexpensive to run (relatively, of course).

Changing oil frequently CAN add to the lifetime of an engine, but I also hate the idea of changing oil that is not really used up - there are both cost and environmental factors that make it a bad thing. If engine oil sensors do what they should be doing, it makes sense to trust them, but I am don't know enough about them to make an informed decision.

 

I'm a huge procrastinator so oil gets changed once a year when all of the stars are aligned. At that point each commuter car (1 summer and 1 winter) has 13,000 km on it so it's not too bad an interval for synthetic and all highway miles.
When I had one commuter car of course the mileage was double that but still only an annual oil change. This is very bad and knew there might be consequences but.............
All of my north American built cars went way past 350,000 km and were sold/given away because of corrosion issues not engine issues. The one and only Asian built car threw a rod at 100,000 and was scrapped.
Just my experience......not a recommendation.

 

Your engine doesn't have oil sensors. A computer computes the oil change intervals using engine starts, mileage, speed, time running, etc. to compute the oil change intervals. You could put in used oil and it would still take the same time to come on again.

 

Assuming one does NOT put in used oil..... can the car's recommendation about oil changes be trusted?

 

Yes, if you want to max out your oil. I usually change my oil every 3-4,000 miles so I don't worry about the car telling me when. To those of you that say I'm wasting money, I don't place a dollar figure on my peace of mind.