In the past week or so whenever I start my car the change oil light stays on for about 5 minutes and then goes away. I had my oil change with full synthetic almost 3 months ago but I still have about 600 miles left to go before I'm due for another change. I went under the hood and checked the oil level and a color. The color was normal not as black as I've seen it when I've changed my oil before. The oil was a little low so I topped it off with half a quort and the light still stays on for a while. The oil looked fine but should I go by what my car says or by what the milage is?

 

color doesnt mean much in oil. some of the additive pacs darken with heat faster than others. only a used oil annalysis really tells the tale.
as for the light, sounds like the oil level sensor is starting to fail. look on the driver side of the pan and you will see a big plastic bolt with 2 wires . about 70 bucks should take care of that light.

 

I'm a little cornfused. Do you have a "change oil" light (oil life monitor), or are you referring to your oil warning light?

 

and its reccomended that you change your oil every 3 month or 3000 miles, whichever comes first

 

Synthetic oil allows longer oil change intervals. Because synthetic oil resists oxidation and viscosity breakdown better than ordinary motor oil, it does not break down or sludge up as fast as ordinary motor oil. Some synthetic oil suppliers say oil change intervals can be safely extended to 7,500 miles or longer (some as claim as much as 25,000 miles!).

http://www.aa1car.com/library/synthetic_motor_oil.htm

They do think you should change the filter every 3 months or 3000 miles, but with synthetic you don't have to change the oil quite as often. Which we should all think about because of how much less waste oil there is.

 

The light that comes on is the "Change Oil" light. This last oil change I didn't do myself so I can only guess at what brand and change interval of oil they used. It's possible the sensor could be going out since I've never had this problem before and I'm well under the milage recommended for the next change. I'm going to wait until i change my oil and see if it stops coming on at startup and if that doesn't take care of the problem I'll take it in and see if they can test it and or replace it. Thanks for the help guys

 

Look in your owners manual dude....... you pretty much just hold down the trip reset button to get the light to go away...

 

Ok, that's why I asked. When you have an oil life monitor, you need to reset it manually after changing the oil. It appears that the monitor wasn't reset. Your monitor doesn'tknow you changed the oil unless you tell it.