My car manual says to change the oil at 15,000 km intervals. People online often say 10,000 km is safer, specially if you drive hard. But every car shop I go to get an oil change put a sticker saying the next change should be after 5,000 km!
I didn’t bother with it because I thought it was an Autobacs thing. But recently I’ve been taking my car to the official dealer and they also do the same thing!
Why? The mechanic says it’s safer like that, but my oil is still clear at 10,000 km! Changing at 5,000 km is nonsense (even if it wasn’t clear)!
14 comments
Because they make more money if you do it 3 times as often as the manufacturer recommends?
Idk why but my (Japanese) friend says people tend to change every 5k km or even 3k km which to me is absurd unless you have a hypercar of some sorts or a sports car and drive very hard.
I think its because people tend not to drive much and 5k is what they would do in a year or two and you generally should change oil once per 12 months. That would be my guess at least
(sorry for my bad English)
mechanic here, I drive a Nissan Xtrail T31 with 126,000Km milage, and service manual says change oil every 15000km but even Nissan dealer in Sapporo says change it every 5000 km and change oil element every 10000 km their reason is because my car’s milage is so high so the engine produces more fine metal dust ( this is true because I have seen how bad it is after 5000km )
my coworker changes his car’s oil every 3500km because it’s milage is 250,000km+ 😅.
and there’s another friend that waits 15000km to change oil and his car runs fine too.
my opinion is if your car has low mileage you’re probably good on changing oil after 10000km, put a good engine oil though.
Better be safe than sorry.
I change mine every ~15-16,000 km.
Had several cars that my family purchased with 0km and drove to well over 300,000km. We changed oil approximately every 10,000 miles (16,093 km) across the 10-15 year lifetimes of these cars and we never had *any* drivetrain issues.
These 5,000 km suggestions are too frequent for most cars (check your owners manual) but
(many) Japanese consumers will just follow what a shop recommends, so they make more money on a simple procedure.
change it at least twice a year regardless of mileage
Different oils and different work loads. You have to work out what’s best for your vehicle. My old diesel Hilux is strictly 5k. My little nissan march is 10K. My friends LPG Ford is 15k. There’s no rule.
The real answer is car manufacturers choose a longer service interval because it’s more attractive to prospective buyers and appears to cost less during the warranty period. They don’t care what happens to the car beyond the warranty period.
A lot can go wrong in 15,000km, as an experienced mechanic/business owner I absolutely agree that 10,000km interval is the sweet spot. My wifes car is a late model Euro SUV with a 20,000km interval. I can say for sure the tyres would be bald and unsafe in 20,000km and if she wasn’t married to a mechanic she’d very likely drive on bald tyres, low brakes etc.
I do mine once a year with synthetic oil but only about 3000 km per year
I drive my car (Subaru Impreza 2.0 4WD) everyday for short distances with a lot of start/stop due to traffic and red lights. I change my oil every 6 months and I have changed the CVT fluid after 60000 km. I also change my air and oil filters every year.
My guess is that the 3000km oil change interval was a case of “lost in translation”. I think they must have thought 3000 miles was kilometers. Profits are better so why change it? Lol either way, stick to the mfg recommended intervals.
Oil degrades over time, even if you’re not driving. So if you drive very infrequently or only for short distances (or both), it’s better to go by time than mileage, because the oil is likely to go bad long before you reach 15,000 km. Conversely, if you’re driving hundreds of kilometers a day, every day… better to go by mileage because you’re going to reach that mileage a lot sooner.
Based on typical driving habits in Japan, it seems reasonable that the recommended mileage for oil changes is on the low side, reflecting the fact that most people don’t really rack up the mileage very quickly at all.
It’s so hard not to be snarky about this because there is only one reason the manufacturer would say 15,000km but places that benefit from you changing oil 3x as often say 5,000km. It’s money. It’s always money.
If you drive a taxi, a police car, go up and down mountains all day long or perhaps drive only a teensy bit use the severe duty schedule that many try and make the default. Otherwise stick to the regular service schedule and save the planet while doing so.