[sgiitk]

Many dealerships have the habit of calling up and almost scaring customers to go in for far more frequent service than necessary.

During warranty you must stick with the recommendations in order not to have hassles.

Some dealers try and get customers to sign up for Decoking and Radiator flushing. Hyundai are particularly notorious for this.

Th customer is called up every three months (Honda, Hyundai and maybe others) with a dire warning that the service is overdue, even though the Owners Handbook may not support this antiquated view. Let me add my views and experience from over 40 years of motoring.

1. Oil change is not required for 10,000km or 12 months as long as you use API-SF or higher. (Petrols). Honda suggests 10,000/12,months with synth, 6 months with semi-synth or mineral. I do not think any oil (maybe some PSU oil) in the market is even API-SF, they are all API-SG or higher.

2. If you are a low mileage motorist (under 10,000km per annum) one service a year is what is needed.

I have followed this for over two decades (even since modern engines became available) with no reasons to complain. Remember the old Amby used to be 1600km / 3 months!

I am starting this to encourage members to post the currently recommended oil change and service intervals for various cars / brands. I hear that some have switched to 12 months and 12,000km or something like that.

Cost and frequency of maintenance are increasingly becoming major parameters in the choice of cars.

[rajshenoy]

Same with Maruti as well. Though the owner manual of my swift talks about 10000 or 12 month interval, i keep getting calls from my service center to service every 5000 kms or six months. I politely ignore them.

First 3 years of usage, my running was fairly low 6-8000 kms per year so i was leaving the car for service once every year along with oil change at say 8K.

But from last couple of years my usage has shot up and i now drive 15K+ and in the last 6 months itself i have driven close to 10K. so I know try to service my car when its nearing 9500-10K and also do oil change(every 7-8 months)

If i were to service my car every 5000kms it would be like 2-3 months, 4 services a year is like what .. a Moped or something ?

So far my car has been running fine with mineral oil only. Maruti recommends mineral oil change every 10000 kms.

[Honda Monk]

A question of mine for suggestion
I have an Honda City 2002.
Had an extensive service with all oils flushed and refilled in April'12
Engine was flushed thoroughly using a air pressure gun and filled with castrol magnatec.
It's been 6 months and I have only managed 4K run, my office being quite near.
What is recommended? Should I go for engine oil change?
Also looking to use Shell Helix HX5 this time.

[sgiitk]

@Honda_Monk; I will let it run for 12,000 (or at least 10,000) or 12 months. I love Magnatec myself. Only watch out there is both an SAE30 and an SAE40 version. My Santro needs the latter, so have to ask for it since modern engines are happy with 30!

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Honda Monk

Engine was flushed thoroughly using a air pressure gun and filled with castrol magnatec.
It's been 6 months and I have only managed 4K run, my office being quite near.
What is recommended? Should I go for engine oil change?

Didn't you read the original post? Even if you had cheap mineral oil (say castrol GTX or even cheaper liked MGO), you don't have to change oil after 6 months. Doing so after putting in Magnatec last time would be a true waste.

[rrsteer]

My experience with Toyota -very new & so far- has been very good. Infact after the completion of first 1500kms, I volunteered on my own for an engine oil change in my Innova and the service adviser quietly pressed on me 3-4 times that Toyota doesn't recommend the practice and that an oil change every 10k kms is suffice to keep my Innova in good stead.

Overall its still early days, but I found that the Toyota guys so far have been verbatim sticklers to the owner manual of my Innova.

[Rufus_M]

Fiat recommends use of

* Selenia K SAE5W40 for its petrol engines.

* Selenia WR SAE5W40 for its diesel engines.

According to the owner's manual 'The engine oil must be changed along with oil filter every 15,000 kms or 12 months whichever is earlier from the previous replacement'. The MJD engines take up 3.2 litres of engine oil.

[sgiitk]

@rrsteer; I have also heard good stories about Toyota service. Also, some cars come with a special fill for the initial running in and it may be better to leave the oil there. Modern engines are much better made, so the 1000/1500km oil change is not required.

I remember the joke - they will drive the Amby or FIAT from the factory (900 / 1200km) and then insist on an oil change after 500km!. What a traversity!

[rohan_iitr]

Service interval (along with reliability and niggle free running) is a very important criteria for me, while purchasing a car.

Unfortunately, I was not so well-informed at the time of my first car purchase and ended up purchasing a Hyundai i10. I love the car, but the 6 month service interval on Hyundai cars is unreasonable, especially for someone like me, whose running is < 500kms per month.

I sticked to the 6 months service interval as long as the car was in warranty and extended warranty period (I took 2 years extended warranty, making it total 4 years warranty).

Now that the car is out of warranty, I am getting my car serviced after 9-10 months.

I think that this aspect of car ownership has been completely neglected or purposely ignored by the car companies.

I feel that longer service intervals should be used as a selling point by car companies to get an edge against their competitors.

For the average car buyer like me, these practical aspects of car ownership matter more than the bhp figures and fancy features of the car.

And its not just the question of service charges and engine oil cost. Having to visit the service centre every 6 months and being without the vehicle for one whole day causes unnecessary inconvenience to the customer.

And don't even get me started on engine oil flushing and other unnecessary items that are shoved down the unsuspecting customer's throat at the time of servicing.

Rohan

[carboy]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Modern engines are much better made, so the 1000/1500km oil change is not required.

I think it has more to do with the modern oil than the modern engine. Though modern engine may also play a part.

They have tested modern regular mineral oils (not synthetic) which is 15000 kms old & seen that it's still usable. For people using synthetic oil, it should last even more.

[audioholic]

For people with less running, six month service interval is like going overboard, that too with modern cars. We follow a one year interval for both our cars, each running around 8k kms max within that time. Add to that a good grade of oil as SG sir has said, I don't think there would be an issue. Still, the MASS where I got the car serviced has written next service due six months or 5k kms later. Think its a measure to fleece the customer. What would they do in the mext service! My car would have barely completed around 3000 kms by then. They would charge a massive labour and do additional work like engine decarb and other crap just to get a bill in front of us.

[highway_star]

Santro Xing has a recommended service interval of 10,000 km. However, the manual states that engine oil and filter should be replaced every 5,000 km under 'severe driving conditions'. Conditions of severe driving listed for this purpose are:

• Repeated short distance driving
• Extensive idling
• Driving in dusty, rough roads
• More than 50% driving in heavy city traffic during hot weather above 42 degrees C

Driving conditions in many of our cities would meet at least one of these criteria. I keep my service intervals closer to 5,000 than 10,000.

[gpa]

I have always believed in a once-a-year/10,000 kms service. When I had the Santro, I complied with the 6 month service intervals prescribed by Hyundai until the car was in the warranty period after which I switched to a service every 10,000 kms which came up in roughly about 10-11 months.

My Alto was a high-mileage muncher for the first 3.5 years of ownership during which I covered about 50,000 kms and so that necessitated a service every 6-8 months. Since the past year, I have clocked only about ~3,500 kms. The last service was in Dec 2011 and I will service the car again this December.

My Brio has covered about 3,600 kms so far and is yet to go for an oil change which is due at the 6 months/5,000 kms mark. I intend to stick to the change intervals prescribed by Honda until the warranty period is completed after which I will follow the once-a-year/10,000 kms routine.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

Now that the car is out of warranty, I am getting my car serviced after 9-10 months.

Do what I do, once a year. My cars do a total of about 14000 per annum between the two so 10,000 is never hit.

Originally Posted by carboy

I think it has more to do with the modern oil than the modern engine. Though modern engine may also play a part.

Agreed. Let me add one thing, once in the sump the oil oxidises, so extending the change beyond say, 15 months (some say 24!) even with a synthetic may not be a good idea. If I were a high mileage motorist I will happily extend the change to 15,000km (or even 20,000) but not beyond 15 months.

When API-SF was launched the oilcos advertised it as 12,000 miles / 12 months ( I was the the UK at that time).

[anujmishra]

Tata Safari recommends 1 Year/15000 Kms service with oil change. I mostly service my car with respect to KMs than Months/Years. With my Maruti 800, I was logging less KMs, so went ahead with KMs for service. Never had any issue. Maruti 800 recommends 6 Months/5000 Kms which ever is earlier.

But, with my Tata Safari, I am doing appx same 15000 Kms avg an year, there is no issue.