Hi everyone,

what's the rule of thumb on getting your car serviced. It's my wife's car, a 2013 model. The sticker the servicing guys put on it said 6 months or 20,000 km's. It's nowhere near the 20,000 but we are at the 6 month point, so is it advisable to stick to every 6 months? Or follow the odometer milestone which could possibly be 1 year on from it's last service, based on her average going rate?

Thanks.

When given both distance and time variables, the rule I have always understood was 'whichever comes first'.

Yeah in my car as opposed to my wife's, the sticker actually says that, but I was a bit cynical, as it is at the end of the day the garage that did the service that have put that sticker in....

My mechanic boyfriend said odometer reading. His analogy is that if you change the oil today but don't drive the car for the next 6 months the oil isn't going to be dirty or need to be changed.

Well Dorothy that's the kind of well informed info I'm after. Thanks

No worries.

If the dealerships had their way they would have you in there spending $400 on a service every week, so their guidance/stickers need to be taken with a grain of salt. My preference is for 'about' every 15,000km or 12 months, whichever occurs first (always the latter in my case).

If the vehicle is still covered by a warranty then that should inform your decision as you could invalidate it if you do not adhere to the minimum servicing requirements.

thanks for that reminder DC. It is under warranty so I best check that too.

If its still under warranty, follow the schedule in the owners handbook to keep the warranty intact. After that 20k or 1 year would be about right. Oil does deteriorate with time as well as use, but not in 6 months.

Another option is to change the oil and filter yourself every other service, it will save you a lot of money and it can be fun to do - depending upon what type of car you have.

Put full synthetic oil in the engine and it will easily be good for 12 months/ 15,000km. Our local Honda dealer always wanted us to come for a service every 5,000 miles, which would have meant almost every other month! We got it serviced every 10,000 miles and it ran for 295,000 miles! (We owned it from new.)

For "full synthetic" oil, get Mobil1 if you can, it is the only oil that is widely available that is truely fully synthetic, other companies' "full synthetic oil" is specially treated mineral oil blended with some synthetic oil.