Dan, there is always moisture trying to get in to contaminate your oil. Everytime it cools down, after driving, a little moisture condenses...the longer time frame will allow this to start breaking the oil down. Hard high temp driving will do the same thing...condensation is the enemy...a friend of mine who works for Mobil changes the oil in his Vette every 10K, and sometimes, that can be over 12 months, and he is fine with that, but I like to error on the other side....whatever people are confortable with, but definetly, Mobil 1....

 

Thanks for the advice. I change oil on 4 cars. Two kids commuting to college and one still in high school. So, I built a set of full size car ramps from treated lumber. The ramps elevate the entire car 10 inches. It is a lot easier to service the cars when they aren't front end high. It really helped me speed up the changes on the other three. On the XF, I intentionally took extra time, looked it over front to back and became familiar with how it looked underneath.

 

Well it's going to depend on how you drive the car and how often. Do you only drive the crossfire only a few thousand miles a year? I'm coming up on 7k miles since my last (and the car's first) oil change. The FSS hasn't alerted me to anything. So I'm going to keep driving it until it tells me to. I also drive my car every day, all year long, but drive mostly highway. I'd love to get 10k miles out of the oil.

 

Check Mine Today, Have 800 Miles Left On Counter .that Will Put My Oil Change At 10,030 Miles
Changed Oil Jan 8 09.90% Hwy :d

 

OK, understand this was captured by my security system so I decided what the heck...



One is a movie showing the installation of the filter, and a little dumbness with the long tube that goes into the dipstick tube. The other just shows putting (what else?) Mobil 1 into the car... (click to see movie)

 

I saw this thread and thought it very timely as it begins to address a number of things that I've been faced with lately.
For starters, I don't have the manual for my '05 Coupe so that, combined with my absolute newbieness, means I have to ask a lot of dumb questions!
I picked up my Xfire about July 1 at 25,000km (15,500 mi) and now it's at 30,000km (18,600 mi - daily driver). Not knowing (or knowing how to check) when it's last oil change was I elected to take it in last weekend.
The first question was where to take it and the conventional wisdom was a Mercedes dealership on account of the engine. Being that they were booked for the next two weeks I resigned myself to the local Chrysler dealership.
One and half hours and $167 later (with no vaseline, either) I walked out of there slightly stunned. I had read here to expect $100 so a 67% increase was painful. I think I was also PO'd that their treatment of me was so shoddy. I was made to feel like it was a privelege to be their customer, they explained nothing about the process to me up to and including installing parts without my knowledge and approval.
Now again, I'm sure part of it is my learning curve but can anyone tell me what is an "element" for $48, and why would they need to replace a gasket for an oil change?
I was also a little miffed that they rest my trip meter (I was calculating fuel mileage) but maybe that's something to do with this automatic system you guys are referring to?
Finally, they recommended another change in 8,000km (5,000 mi) and I guess from what's in this thread that's reasonable, but I'd sure like to hear more about this system for checking the need?!
Sorry to rant - thanks for the space...

 

You can find an owner's manual on eBay for a few bucks.

 

All manuals are available for download here:

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ollection.html

 

I just did my first oil change a couple of weeks ago. So I was a newb also. Here is what I did. I bought 9 qts oil from AutoZone because I wasn't sure how much would be needed over the 8 qts. 0W40 Mobil 1 for $6.99/qt. I bought a K&N fleece filter element with all the o-rings from Advance Auto for $19.99. That is all the money I have in the job. I drained the oil from the bottom. Changed the filter element using the information from this site and a cryptic piece of paper included with the oil filter. Put it all back together and poured in 7.75 qts. 8 qts would have overfilled it. Now with this being my first time, I took a lot of extra time (1 hour) to make sure I didn't miss anything. I reset the FSS, and by the way, I reset my trip meter by accident. The FSS set itself to 7000 miles. Done.

From past forum reads, the chrylser filter element is quality paper not synthetic material. The synthetic (fleece) is what you need to go the 7000+ miles between changes. So, your next change should be 5000 miles or less.

This forum is great. It gets a little goofy from time to time but it is a very good read all the time...

 

Ah, it's all coming into focus now. The "element" is the filter - I guess I should have figured that out. Thanks for the manual downloads - now I can check my FSS. I'm guessing I won't have to change the oil again until my baby comes out of her winter hibernation so I'll have lots more research time.

Thanks to all for the help.
Brian

 

One and a half hours for an oil change? Must of been the first oil change they had done on a Crossfire.

 

Hey Goldwing, since we are neighbors, and Crossfire owners, just got mine a week ago at Ehlert in Holland,(i live in Fennville, just south of you.)
I am new to this forum, and also to my 2005 Limited Coupe.
I have a zillion questions, could you please resond to my quote?
Like I said, my car is a 2005, but it only has 7,900 original miles, so I am not sure what to do about the oil. Dealer said they would notify me when oil change is do, they (Elhert), are not a Chrysler dealer any longer, so I dont know if I should use them for service or not, any suggestions would be greatly appriciated.
Thanks, Big Al
Fennville Michigan

 

Or download one on the Chrysler site or here for free

 

I saw that piece of paper too. It shows in a drawing where the two lines printed on the K&N filter need to end up in relation to the oil filter "cover".

It made sense to me once I found the lines on the filter. That is what I was doing when I walked off camera in the movies I posted - checking that little piece of paper to see if I had the filter on all the way.