Six Monthly Servicing, or every 5,000 km's, Good Idea or Waste of Money ?

[The FOMOCO]

I voted a waste of money over servicing your car is just going to make your mechanic rich. nearly all cars now are every 10000 or 15000 ks the Manufactures know what they need better than average guys like us .

[99AUXR]

Originally Posted by Raptor

I voted 'Waste of Money', unless your engine is highly tuned and/or you drive like a maniac.

Australia's taxi fleets seem to get a decent life from their Falcon engines and I don't expect they change oil more frequently than advised by the mfg.

This...

[Wolfinsheepsclothing]

Originally Posted by The FOMOCO

I voted a waste of money over servicing your car is just going to make your mechanic rich. nearly all cars now are every 10000 or 15000 ks the Manufactures know what they need better than average guys like us .

sorry but I beg to differ , most manufacturer's know how to get your car through it's warranty period and beyond that they don't give a toss, 15 000k's imo is a joke

[MITCHAY]

If it needed to be done every 5000kms they would schedule closer intervals. It makes them money so why wouldn't they?

Mine is 10 years old so it gets done whenever I can be bothered to get someone else to do it :

[99AUXR]

Originally Posted by Wolfinsheepsclothing

sorry but I beg to differ , most manufacturer's know how to get your car through it's warranty period and beyond that they don't give a toss, 15 000k's imo is a joke

Depends what how those 15000 are driven, City should be 10000 imo and Highway 15000k would be fine and with good quality oils they are fine. Taxis aren't serviced every 5000km and they have good life span. . . .

How many people here get their oils sampled and have compared that to fresh oil sample as IMO there are to many other factors that can cause engine wear. I have lead foot in my turbo which now has 177000km and uses no oil. Service intervals werent 5000km either.

[SumoDog68]

There are many variables in this exercise . Such as type of car , oil , operating conditions including temperaturs and number of cold starts .
Only way to do it is to take an oil sample for analysis and interpret element traces in oil to determine engine wear .
Some combinations of engines and oils can only demand one oil change in 100 000 km , not that many will believe it :-)

[zilo]

I voted good idea, cause I drain the oil out of mine every 5-7000k's and re-use it.

I use it in the son's R31 Pintara that loves burning it all up anyway.

Just a win/win for all concerned...he gets his oil for free....

[Wolfinsheepsclothing]

I've got no problem with 10 000k service intervals, as my daily commuter is a old corolla which recieve's this, but the Gs is mainly driven on the weekends and I can afford to spoil it, I also like the idea of an extra eye looking it over every 6 months or so

[mr smith]

Most modern cars will fall apart before the donk dies.

[davids_gxl]

my last au did over 500.000 ks motor still strong,used very little oil,auto gave in.changing oil every 5-7000ks made this possible.easy to do on the au.

[calais]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

There are many variables in this exercise . Such as type of car , oil , operating conditions including temperaturs and number of cold starts .
Only way to do it is to take an oil sample for analysis and interpret element traces in oil to determine engine wear .
Some combinations of engines and oils can only demand one oil change in 100 000 km , not that many will believe it :-)

Post of the thread!

I understand that people love the warm and fuzzy that new oil gives them but theres no disregarding the science of oil technology that has been proven time and time again in the trucking, plant and agricultural plant industries.

Modern oils have been proven to last in the harshest of circumstances for what would seem like ridiculous amounts time. 80,000 plus kilometres in some instances for heavy trucks. With routine oil sampling you can really get a feel for how much life you can get out of each batch. This technology really comes into its own when the dollars stack up for group five synthetics (ie; redline,amsoil or royal purple etc) that I have seen thrown away after 1500km in a street car. Its nothing but a waste when looked at from a scientific viewpoint.

But hey, if you have the dollars, more power to you.

It must be noted here that my own personal preference is that of religious preventitive maintenance. And if that means dropping 40 dollars of oil every 12 months, then so be it. I never make the 10,0000km anyway. It also gives me good reason to inspect the rest of the car in a far more thorough manner.

[wrongwaynorris]

I change the oil and filter every 5000 Km's religiously and I have an EF on 390,000 plus k's that still runs like the day it was bought .

[burnz]

15,000 for me, 8ltr sump synth oil... why wast money when not necessary.

[Rodge]

Some interesting posts, thanks guys. As many have noted there are a range of variables particular to each individual user to consider.
I had a few beers with my good engineer mate last night and he knows my pattern of usage of my SC FPV, (lots of cold starts, heaps of short urban trips, extremly hilly terrain and the way I drive it).

So I explained the debate, the type of oil used in these engines, 5W-20 semi synthetic e.t.c., the size of the sump 8.5 litres e.t.c. and Pete said, mate those engines are making close to 400 kw's at the crank and with the lunatic way you drive it I'd be changing the oil every 1,000 km's
After having a bloody good laugh about that he said, I'd go with every 5,000 km's Rodge if you're looking to keep it for ages, after all shortly they won't be making them anymore. For me the cost difference between servicing approx every 8 months or 5,000 km's isn't all that much different to 12 montly or every 7,500 km's which is my average annual use, but I can completly understand those doing 15,000 km's per annum plus esp[ecially on the open road taking a quite different approach.
My engine uses a bit of oil too so that's a sure sign that all the cold starts, short trips and extremly hilly terrain and the way I drive it is working the oil and engine fairly hard.

[chopstar87]

With my old BA XR6 falcon, i use to service it every 12months or 15,000kms which ever came first.. never missed a beat, but at 157,000kms when i let it go to upgrade, it was running a bit rough and had lost some go.. it did live a hard life, especially the first couple of years, considering i got it when i was 19. i had it for 6yrs 9months.

My 300, the service books says every 6months or 12,000kms which ever is first... i wouldn't get near 12,000kms in 6months... i generally do 15,000kms a year. so i would be servicing it every 7,500kms, which i was planing to do any ways, as the falcon did get rough by the end.

If i was running a S/C FPV or Turbo Falcon, I think every 5,000kms / 7,500kms would be a good idea to improve long jeopardy of the engine for sure...

[T4ME]

Take out the guess work with oil analysis otherwise yous are all guessing.

[mik]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Most service records have a section for extreme driving or conditions and provisions for additional servicing to suit.
Unless you were flogging the guts out of it or driving around in +45* temps I wouldn't bother with 5k servicing.

Having said that, I couldn't bring myself to leave it for 15k regardless of oil quality.

Something to remember is that oil can break down even in an idle engine due to contaminants present in fuel, air etc. within the engine.

If it were mine I would stay with the 7.5k or 12month scenario for peace of mind.

My2c.

"Oil can break down" that is the theory i go on too, and the type of use the vehicle gets you would think must have some bearing on that factor imo, in my own case as an old fart pensioner, my cars get a lot of short trips and cold starts , at times they barely even get to operating temperature and not getting hot enough to burn off contaminants(did i mention at times sitting in melbourne traffic jams idling for long periods :( ),
also running on cold start for more of the engines running time unless i'm mistaken with these modern engines still means a richer mixture, some of which does not burn completely and eventually dilutes the engine oil,
also the state and mileage of the engine i believe comes into play , both of my cars have over 200,xxx k's on them , cylinder/piston ring sealing you would think won't be optimal, so oil degradation would occur faster, and as i'm hoping to get another 100.000 + ks out of the engine before it needs a fresh'n up i'll stick with my servicing even if it costs a bit more, rightly or wrongly it makes me feel better .

[Kil4Collingwood]

I do mine every 15000, BF3 egas wagon.
I do big k's around 1600 per week almost exclusively highway at least 98%.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2

[comagutsa]

if you dont do the kms every 7500kms or once a year..oil these days will last longer than that

[THE SLUG]

My AU's been with me for over 8 years, and on average it's probably been serviced every 20,000kms. It didn't come with any log books, and since my Dad was in charge of it's maintenance for quite a number of years, it rarely got done. On one occasion, it went un-serviced for well over a year, driven daily, and the oil was still a nice gold colour when I changed it. Still runs great and goes hard.

I'm all for regular service intervals, and if I owned a high performance vehicle I'd service it every 5,000-7,500kms just for peace of mind. But for something like my AU, bit of a waste of time.

[Winter XR8]

I wait until I have done 7500 km regardless of time and change oil and filter myself. Then wait until 15 000 km for the scheduled servicing and take it to my mechanic for the log book services.

[302 XC]

AU I6 gets oil dropped every 10 K, 97 patrol every 5 K
Patrol has 230 K on an unopened, untouched engine, its the tow rig so regular oil changes

[TC200six]

For the classic toys that don't get used every day and wouldn't reach 5000kms in 6 months, I have no set time. Usually less than 6 months, or maybe once a year atleast.

[big_landau]

I change the oil in all my cars bikes every 5,000km's plus I do all the other service work on them.i have been doing this for many years and I have never had a problem,the jeep we own has just clocked up 250,000km's and its still like new,never blown a head gasket dosnt burn oil etc etc.
a lot of people never change the coolant in there cars but it should be flushed and changed,i do it every 12 months.i find this easier to do than the head/gasket etc.

[2002au]

I service my xr6 every 10,000kms with nulon fully synthetic oil and motorcraft filter. oil still comes out slighty golden diff and tranny etc every 30k doesn't use a drop of anything!

[GazzF6]

Originally Posted by Loud_Noises

The reason the factory service interval is 15,000km is due to the larger sump capacity, not the use of better synthetic oils.

There's a lot of merit in what you say! The F6 has close to 7L sump!
As a "general" guide see below;

Straight Mineral Oil 5000km's max or 6 months
Semi-Synthetic Oil 10,000km's or 12 months
Full Synthetic 15,000km's or 12 months (Best Oil for FPV's)

The above is based on car being used daily, and travelling enough km's to ensure the engine gets well into to normal operating temperature, if it's only used every other weekend use either a Semi or Full Synthetic and change the oil every 12 months, regardless of km's covered.

I have used a full Synthetic engine oil to 60,000km's changed at every 15,000km's. No top up, no smoke!

[302 XC]

Originally Posted by WWF6 310

There's a lot of merit in what you say! The F6 has close to 7L sump!

Does oil amount have that much to do with it,morso than correct filters and oil ???
AU I6 takes 5.5 L of oil, the patrol is up near 10 L, the patrol filter is nearly 4 times the price for the filter on AU, yet it gets changed twice as often
They both use ryco filters and penrite oil

[big_landau]

this thread is a great example of how important it is to buy a car with service history so you know how many corner have been cut or if the car has been serviced to an acceptable level.

[mac_man_luke]

I get my ranger serviced every 6 months which works out to about 8000km

I find any longer than 6 months is a long time for a potential issue to hanging around eg worn brakes, loose bolts etc

Ford recommend 15,000km and 12months
Mazda recommend 10,000km and 6months
Same engine! tell me how they work that out....

[T4ME]

Its purely Fords attempt at displaying to a buyer you don't need to service our cars as much hence saving them money.....its normally the 2nd,3rd and 4th owners that cop the garbage though from the said car.

Hate to see some of the chip oil at some peoples places