Oil change indicator problems
 

New here...we have an 08 Aspen and are having a slight problem with the oil change indicator. I am the primary driver of this vehicle and would tell my husband everytime the vehicle chimed to tell me that it was time to change the oil. My husband kept telling me it was too soon and I kept telling him that it must not be as it chimed. Well, we have been noticing that the oil change indicator is chiming after about 2500 miles. I do not drive it off road or drive it to death... I drive to work (less than 4 miles away) and shopping and that's about it. Has anyone else had this problem? I stopped in at the dealership today and made an appointment for them to check it out. The maintenance guy told me to just reset it as it shouldn't do it and he didn't know why it was doing it.... I told him it was doing it everytime...he didn't have an answer... Hopefully someone here might have an answer for me :D

Thanks!!

EDITED: we are using the oil that our manual says to use....no cheap stuff!!!

Page 169 of your manual states:

"The engine oil change indicatory system is duty cycle based, which means the engine oil change interval may fluctuate dependent upon your personal driving style."

As you know by now, it can be reset by turning the ignotion to ON, pressing the accelerator fully 3 times within 10 seconds, and then turning the ignition switch to OFF.

Ours just lit up yesterday, and we're right over 6k miles. I suspect you're taking a lot of short trips (several per day), correct?

Also, the engine isn't "smart" enough to monitor the life cycle of the oil by it's type/quality. That is, it won't know the difference between no-name dino oil and Mobil 1 full synthetic. It's just monitoring use. E.g. duty cycle might be 250 starts and/or 200 hours of operating time, or a max amount of time or mileage (6 months/6k miles) if the other criteria aren't met.

okay, so I took my Aspen in to the dealer to have it checked out. The service tech guy tells me that there's probably nothing they can do to fix the oil indicator from coming on so soon. I asked if I needed to change the oil every time it came on or just at 6,000 miles. He said no, I didn't need to change the oil every time it came on, and that it would not mess up the engine.... is he right?

2009 T&C Oil Change Ind @ ~2500 miles
 

How long had it been since the last oil change? The system is duty cycle based, so it might be monitoring how often you start the car. Alternatively, it may have tripped the indicator based on 3 or 6 months regardless of the mileage.

Oil Change history 09 T&C 4L
 

The 2500 mi interval may be valid for mineral oil, but I'm not going to dump synthetic after 2500 mi just because some indicator pops up. If the indicator was based on an oil sensor, that would be different. The warranty requires 6000, which is still probably short for a PAO synthetic and general use.

My wife drives 9 miles (state hwy) one-way to work and probably averages 6 starts a day.

Age/Days.Interval/days..mileage.interval/mi
..0........................26..............NEW
..8.......8...............563.....563......oil/filt.change
.55......47..............3095....2532......OC.ind/oil/filt.chg
137......82..............8887....5792......OC.ind/oil/filt.chg
188......51.............11449....2562......OC.ind ON


On the first oil change, the oil looked like metalic paint. Second was much better. On the third, the oil was dark(normal) and clear, with no metalic paint look.