Last November I bought my very first new car, a Scion xA. The owner’s manual says I should get the oil changed every six months or 5,000 miles, whichever comes first. “Shiny,” I thought to myself. “That’s much better than the three month/3,000 mile schedule I had with my other cars.”
Three months later, I got a call from the dealership telling me that it was time for my scheduled maintenance (I’m supposed to get three complimentary oil changes). At that time I had about 2,200 miles on the car. I waited and got the oil change at the six month mark, when I had 4,600 miles on it. The mechanic stuck one of those little reminder stickers on my windshield for the three month/3,000 mile mark. Just last week I got another call from the dealership reminding me about scheduled maintenance.
I don’t know very much about cars, so I have to ask: Should I listen to the mechanic’s recommendation, or can I follow the six month/5,000 mile schedule provided in the owner’s manual?
You can follow the manual. The dealership would like you to come in more often, so you can give them more money to do more service. It can’t hurt to have it done more often, but you’re just wasting money. Have the next service done at 10,000 miles and so on, and you’ll be fine.
The owner’s manual was written by the folks that designed and built the engine. It doesn’t surprise me at all that more and more cars are being produced with a recommended 5000-mile oil change interval; manufacturing technology is constantly improving and tolerances are tighter and tighter. Parts fit better and there is less wear due to surface irregularities. If your manual says 5000, I say do it at 5000.
FWIW, this is for regular or “dino” oil. (Since it came from dinosaurs)
If you’re using synthetic, go with what the oil maker says - some of them have 15,000 mile (or more) change intervals, and changing them at 5,000 miles is just wasting your time and money.
Out of the box, so to speak, my 2004 Jeep was pre-set to go ‘ding!’ and ask for an oil change every 6,000 miles, which is what I’ve been giving it. 25,000 miles on the clock, and it’s still not consuming any oil between changes.
It’s been known for a long time that changing your oil every 3000 miles is unnecessary. A few years ago, the government asked the car companies to develop more realistic oil change schedules, so as to cut down on our consumption of oil. That’s when owners manuals started to recommend 5000 mile intervals.
Wow! I really wasn’t expecting a unanimous response. That’s pretty rare around here.
Thanks to everyone for the advice. I suspected that this was just a way for the dealership to earn more money (especially since the maintenance light is programmed to “remind” me to get an oil change at the 5,000 mile mark), but like I said, she’s my first new car and I wanted to be sure. Now I can rest easy until November.
My father has worked for the auto companies on engine design, changes the oil on our cars every 7500 miles and has never has an engine get less then 200,000 (or the car fell apart around the engine at 175,000, but it was 20 years old, so I won’t worry.)
One thing to remember, when you read the manual, pay special attention to the type of driving you do. Most manuals have a “normal conditions” and “severe conditions” maintenance schedule. More people drive under severe conditions than you might expect, lots of stop and go driving, short trips, etc. can put you in the severe category, it’s not just towing a boat or going offroad.
Frankly, I’m surprised that the interval is only 5,000 miles, I thought most new cars today were up to 10,000 or so.
In the real world, very few people stick to the oil change intervals. Most go past them alot. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who suffered an internal engine problem because they went past the oil change interval all the time. I don’t know anyone who said, “Gee, my engine wore out. Guess I should have done the 5k change instead of the 7.5k change intervals.”
Engines will lose compression at some point, but the likelihood anyone will ever see that day if they change the oil w/in any reasonable time is almost nil.
I once knew a woman who professed to seriously believe this. Her rejoinder to skeptics was “Well, how do you explain the fact that there hasn’t been any new oil created since the dinosaurs went extinct?” No one had a satisfactory answer.
This is incorrect. Car dealers see on a regular basis engines that need serious repairs due to a lack of oil changes. Such damage is not covered by warranty. Turbo charged engines can lose a turbo quite easily if the oil is not changed on time. If you doubt that oil changes are important, here are some cites cite 1 cite 2 cite 3
Oil sludging is not pretty. Change your oil when you should, and use the correct grade and quality.
