Oil Change
- Thread starter Msnolan
- Start date
mopar31898
Member 2025
I'm not an owner of a newer jeep but I would take a look in the owners manual. I would not believe anything the dealer says because they come up with their own arbitrary times to get you in to sell you more stuff.
The owners manual is what the engineers recommend so I would go off that and the input some of the owners on the forum recommend. I'm sure others will comment.
The owners manual is what the engineers recommend so I would go off that and the input some of the owners on the forum recommend. I'm sure others will comment.
OneArmedSaint
Member 2025
I have a 2021 Willys JT, changed the oil at 1,000. Sort of a habit I've always had with new cars. Early change after a break in period. Reset the oil light and now I change at 7500 religiously. I've only got 16k on it, its a play truck, but I'll stick with 7500 mile changes.
I'll change it before driving to Moab at end of March and again after I return.
I'll change it before driving to Moab at end of March and again after I return.
I do my first one around 500-1500 miles to get any metal particulate (or sand from the sandcasting) out that may be left over from the engine production process, then I typically do one at 5,000 and then every 7500 after that. I also change my oil filter at every change. This timeframe is assuming you are using a full synthetic oil. The dealership/shop time frame is probably generic and just spits out 5,000 (all 3 of my jeep wave oil changes at the dealership came with 5k recommendations, despite using the full synthetic mopar oil. I disregarded them). I also immediately change all of my fluids on any used vehicle purchase to make sure the guy before me didn't use the wrong stuff. I write the mileage at which i did the last change on the side of my TJ filter for reference, but with the JT I just do it when it hits ~25%. I'm pretty sure the newer jeeps calculate that percentage solely on mileage.
Mudskipper
2nd Time Around
Really depends on the type of driving you do. If you do lots of short trips only, especially in winter, I’d go with 3,000 miles. That might seem like a waste given the manual recommends 5k or 7.5k miles, but in the winter, on short trips your engine never really gets fully warmed up and at a temperature sufficient to “cook” out the contaminants from any small amounts of unburned gasoline that the piston rings “wipe” off the inside of the cylinders on the intake stroke. This stuff ends up in the oil and accumulates over time. On longer trips when the engine is up to temp and running for several hours, the oil gets hot enough for these contaminants to boil out of the oil. But with only short trips, this doesn’t happen.
The opposite side of that is if you do mostly long trips only, you can stretch the interval out farther than the specs, because highway miles on a warm engine produce far fewer oil contaminants, and those get cooked off as it’s running, unlike shorter trips.
Bottom line, the old saying “grease is cheaper than metal“ is still true at the end of the day. You could change oil at 3k miles for 150k miles and still be thousands of dollars ahead of the cost of rebuilding a sludged up engine and cylinder heads and main bearings from not doing regular changes.
The opposite side of that is if you do mostly long trips only, you can stretch the interval out farther than the specs, because highway miles on a warm engine produce far fewer oil contaminants, and those get cooked off as it’s running, unlike shorter trips.
Bottom line, the old saying “grease is cheaper than metal“ is still true at the end of the day. You could change oil at 3k miles for 150k miles and still be thousands of dollars ahead of the cost of rebuilding a sludged up engine and cylinder heads and main bearings from not doing regular changes.