I have 5000 miles on my Latitude Plus with the V6.
It shows 50%
2500 was driving from the South West to the North East, so mostly highway.
The oil is clean and never used any.

Question: Does the dash instrument calculate anything besides dividing the miles to oil change (10K) by the current mileage,
or does it actually sense anything about the oil quality to determine the % to oil change?

 

Time/date/mileage

 

So if the miles are low it will tell you how close you are to the 1 yr date for an oil change.
IF the miles are high it will tell you how close you are based on miles.

Seems like a waste of time.

 

I'm waiting for when the u-connect radio pops up an ad to take it to the local dealer for an oil change. Amusing enough I get an ad every few month offering to call Sirius for me so I can sing up for a trial.

 

Honestly I am old school. I usually do 6 months or 6000 miles, whichever comes first. I also do it myself, and with rebates it's really not that expensive. In my mind, it's cheap insurance.

 

The new oil they have now actually is supposed to last 10K miles so I trust that.

My oil is as clean as it was when I got the car, 5K now. Used none at all.

My question was about what that % to next oil change means. It doesn't mean anything just a calculator in case you can't remember when 10K is coming.
Does it get reset so the coputer knows it had an oil change?

 

I usually use the Pennzoil Platinum Synthetic in my 2014 (3.2). I know it is a better oil, but being that the car does mainly city driving for short distances, in my mind it makes sense to change it. With the driving that we do in the vehicle, I find that at the 6 month mark, I am at about 40% left on the dash indicator.

Don't get me wrong, the oils today are much better than years ago, and you could probably go a year without trouble, but I just won't (mainly for gas contamination, etc. etc.) An oil change for me usually costs about 25-30 bucks for oil and filter, at the most.

The oil scale can be reset easily. When you start the truck, go to the oil life indicator and press ok to reset it, it should prompt you.

 

That's what my original question was about.

The dash oil % doesn't measure anything.

If you drive 4000 miles in 6 months and the oil change is due at 10000 miles then:

4000 / 10000 = 40%.

It doesn't care how many months it was it is still 40%.

It's a trivial point but if the mileage is low and you have 6 months since the last oil change it should
show 6 months / 12 months = 50%. I don't know if it does that but its another silly thing they have there.

 

I think it does measure, but not only the time. It may take into account run time, how the engine is used (for example, cruising on the highway for 2 hours at a steady low rpm, vs. driving around a city with constant stop and go), and maybe other parameters that I haven't thought of. Which is why I would rather change it before it says it needs it.

Also, if you look in the owners manual, it recommends that an oil change be done no later than a year or 10000 miles. For severe duty it recommends 4000 mile oil change interval. Being that my Jeep sees pretty much all short stop and go trips, i'd rather be safe than sorry. These engines are not as tough as the old 4.0 in the older Cherokee's.

 

I don't think it measures anything. I noticed it because I'm at 5000 miles and it said 50%.

5000/10000 = 50%

It's a calculator not a computer.

If you see something different in yours let us know. So if you get to 5000 miles and it says something like 1000 miles to next oil change then you would be correct.

I don't need a computer to tell me what my oil looks like. Clean as new and no loss tells me something,
If it was dirty or losing oil that would be different.