Quick Oil Life Reset Guide on Jeep Wrangler JK

Last Updated on June 11, 2023 by Nick

What’s going on, guys. Today I’ll show you how to reset the oil life light on my Jeep Wrangler. After three or four thousand miles, that light will come on your Jeep Wrangler dashboard, saying an oil change required. Even if you take the vehicle to get the oil changed at one of those quick lube places, they don’t know how to reset the oil life.

You’re going to go home, and next time you start the vehicle, it’s going to flash oil reset again, and it’ll keep doing that till you reset it. So right now, I’ll show you how to reset that oil light; it will only take about thirty seconds. So let’s do it!

How To Reset Oil Life On the Jeep Wrangler JK (2008-2017)

For your info, this operation work for the Jeep Wrangler JK (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 model years). For the latest model, you can reach it here.

What Happens If You Forget To Change Your Engine Oil?

In this section, we are talking about what happens if you forget to change your oil on time. Now, if your question is, is it okay if I forget to change my oil on time? The answer is NO!

The answer is very simple. However, we can do a little bit better than that. So if your question is, how bad will it be for my engine if I forget to change the oil on time? Well, suddenly, that’s a much more complicated question with a far more complex answer, so that’s what we’re going to get into in this content.

Oil viscosity rating

One of the most important properties of engine oil is its viscosity rating. So if you look at a bottle of oil, it may say something like 5W-30, and that number is giving you its viscosity rating. The 5W indicates the viscosity rating when the oil is cold. The W stands for winter, and then the 30 shows the oil’s viscosity when it is hot.

Generally speaking, the viscosity of that oil will remain the same throughout its useful life of that oil. But as that oil is used, it oxidizes. So that oxidation occurs because of the heat, the oxygen, the pressure the environment that this oil is within. So as that oxidation occurs within that oil, its viscosity eventually increases. 

What causes oil viscosity to increase?

There are multiple reasons for that increase in viscosity, part of it being the oxidation and part being the volatile components within that oil. The lighter elements that cause it to be a bit more thin start to burn off. Also, as time goes on, you start to include and increase the number of contaminants within that oil. So all that results in the viscosity eventually beginning to go up as you have that within your engine for longer.

How long does that take?

That’s unknown, you know. It’s going to depend on the oil you’re using, and it’s going to rely on the engine you’re using. But at a certain point, as you start to hit this point of the curve where the viscosity begins to go upwards, that’s where you’re going to start to run into danger because you’re not going to have proper flow within your engine. Without that adequate oil flow within the engine, you will not have appropriate protection, and you will start to increase wear.

FAQ – Jeep Wrangler Oil Service

So there you go, the oil change reset is no longer appearing. Anyway, one thing to also check the oil level is to check the dipstick, see where the oil levels are, and see the oil color to check the engine oil’s overall health. Thanks for stopping by, and have a good day.