Service intervals.

[Grassland]

Admin, feel free to move this to fireside chat if you think it belongs there.

What are the intervals people on this forum are using for service on modern vehicles? (Last 15 years)
Do you follow the OEM general service interval? Severe/commercial service? When the vehicle tells you to?
Something else?

Or do you follow the advice of a quickie oil and lube chain employee?

Ontario man who missed oil changes responsible for $19,000 engine replacement

An Ontario man who missed his oil change is now on the hook for a $19,000 engine replacement despite the vehicle being under warranty.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

We've been following more or less the severe service intervals or commercial use schedule. Our climate is severe (30+ celsius summer (high 80s) and -30 winter (low -20s and colder) plus our vehicles tow and haul a lot.

 

[STREGA]

I would do what you are doing in the conditions you have. I tend to service my truck on the early side of recommendations and don’t have repair issues like engine failure. Pay up front or pay later generally up front much cheaper.

 

[jadmt]

.

 

[Todd780]

When my oil life indicator reaches 25% oil life remaining, I change the oil.

Also kind of doubt his story about a 3rd party oil change place saying he could go 24,000 kms between changes.

Every window sticker I've ever seen from a 3rd party oil change place has said 5,000 kms till your next change. They want you in and changing your oil as often as possible!!

 

[Grassland]

When my oil life indicator reaches 25% oil life remaining, I change the oil.

Also kind of doubt his story about a 3rd party oil change place saying he could go 24,000 kms between changes.

Every window sticker I've ever seen from a 3rd party oil change place has said 5,000 kms till your next change. They want you in and changing your oil as often as possible!!

And if you're lucky the drain plug didn't go on with an impact

 

[DRAX]

For oil changes I follow the computer, for transmission I go based on fluid condition. When it starts to look rust-colored then it's time to be serviced. Diffs and t-case generally every 45k miles unless there's a high risk of water intrusion with the diffs and then I'll inspect the fluid. Brake fluid every 5 years, coolant on schedule, air filter depending on condition, fuel filters when life shows < 10% remaining. This has worked well for me and my vehicles have had no issues that could be attributed to poor maintenance.

 

[Explorerinil]

I change my oil and filter every 5k, with motor craft syn blend and a motor craft oil filter, the rest of the maintenance I follow the book. I’ve seen squad cars go 200k plus on regular oil changes using motor craft oil and a motor craft filter. On my wife’s Tahoe, when the oil light says 0 percent left, it gets changed.

 

[Dances with Wolves]

And if you're lucky the drain plug didn't go on with an impact

And the oil filter has an O-ring. ****** quick lube joints.

 

[2025 deleted member]

5 to 6k with semi synthetic changes. That’s what my local tire shop uses. They got away from even having conventional oil and 3k changes.

 

[displacedtexan]

My engine is making more than twice the power it was engineered for.

I change more frequently.

 

[Alloy]

I've never used the oil monitor.

Oil gets changed around 4k never past 5k and use a fuel additive in the hopes of preventing a CP4 failure.

Also use Forscan.

 

[tacollie]

I pretty much go by the book. Change the oil when the light comes on. When I was driving a lot I would actually do longer oil change intervals. Now that I drive less I run extended performance oil so I can go more than 6 months before I need to change the oil.

 

[Grassland]

Since the pandemic my F150 sits more than usual. So it's been 8000km oil change on full synthetic, buuut that takes about a year to get that recently.
Hopefully now that I closed my business and won't work 6-7 days a week I can put some klicks on it again.

 

[Todd780]

Since the pandemic my F150 sits more than usual. So it's been 8000km oil change on full synthetic, buuut that takes about a year to get that recently.
Hopefully now that I closed my business and won't work 6-7 days a week I can put some klicks on it again.

8,000 per year? That'll keep the kms low for you.

I'm putting on 2,000 + per month just back and forth to work. So not including any other running around...

 

[Grassland]

8,000 per year? That'll keep the kms low for you.

I'm putting on 2,000 + per month just back and forth to work. So not including any other running around...

The Transit gets all my KMs and let's be honest in MB everything revolves around Winnipeg, and you don't go all that far.

COVID killed multiple road trips the Fiddy would have been used for. And the hot summers had air conditioning demand higher than I've ever seen it in 17 years. Hence almost living in the van. The truck had 99k in December 2019 and it's at 112k now...
The van was put in service end of September 2018 and is almost at 60k.