Autos: 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan: Change Oil message and reset

Self-tutoring about auto maintenance: the tutor mentions a message one shouldn’t ignore.

I change the oil regularly on our vehicles. Therefore, when my wife started the van last night, in the dark, cold rain, and the “Change oil” message came on, I was surprised. It felt like eyes were on me. We were facing a drive back home from out of town, and getting stranded because of the oil wasn’t an appealing prospect.

Right there in the parking lot, I checked the oil, which seemed fine, showing no change from two weeks ago. Next, just to be sure, we drove a few miles to a gas station, where I checked the oil again under better-lit conditions. The oil was fine – clean, even.

My wife mentioned that perhaps when maintenance centres do oil changes, they do something that tells the car the oil has been changed. Of course, even when I change the oil, I might not do said trick, whatever it might be, that alerts the computer of the oil change.

It turns out, as usual, she’s right. This morning I looked up the issue online, and came to this helpful video which seems to describe the trick one needs to execute to tell the car that the oil has been changed, at least for the 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan.

Interesting, eh?