HGerchikov

We have a Mazda 5, the Handbook, has two service schedules, one for moderate climates and one for extreme. Ontario comes under the extreme, and needs more regular oil changes according to the manual. Ours is a 2007, it gets serviced when the radio can't be turned up loud enough to cover any weird noises. If you have a newer vehicle you might want to be careful following the UK schedule. Our other two cars are new and get serviced on schedule.

Novocastrian

Well put.

I have a reasonable amount of confidence in modern automotive technology and don't change oil at all. If the oil pressure warning light comes on, I just pour in a litre of top up oil.

Works for me.

Yorkiechef

In the UK I drive a VW Passat. Service intervals are 20000 miles or every two years, whichever comes first. My car is three years old, oil changed only once at 16000miles, it now has a total of 21000 miles on the clock and will be serviced next at 4 years old with probably under 25000 miles on her. Weather won't be much different to Vancouver. Oil is fully synthetic, seems to me the service intervals are very frequent in Canada to cover the extreme conditions, though I wouldn't have put conditions in Vancouver as extreme

MarkG

Starting at -40C in the winter is much harder on an engine than starting at 0C. Also, direct injection petrol engines seem to have issues with fuel diluting the oil if they're not driven until warm in the winter... one reason we got a non-turbo Forester when we bought ours this year.

So I'd expect to change oil more often, but not every three months!

magnumpi

I always wondered if a Oil Changers or Jiffy Lube business would work in the UK, or are Brits just that bit more educated about service oil change intervals

scrubbedexpat091

The book appears to not break down the US/Canada by weather, appears to lump the entire continent into the same pot.

I am going to follow the book for US/Canada and do it every 6 months, I don't plan to follow the UK schedule, just found it interesting the difference.

Suppose the winter is not as extreme in Southern BC either, -40C, not sure it's ever gotten that cold around here...lol

I do recall how much my Sunfire hated Edmonton when I lived there and didn't like to start, but partially my fault as I forgot to plug it in most of the time....No block heater on this car.

Do block heaters come standard in other regions of Canada or do you have to pay extra for them as an option?

Novocastrian

**** BLOCK HEATER ALERT ****

Yorkiechef

Oh yes, this when i ask, what is a block heater and is it fitted after purchase!

Shall we have a winter tyres thread too?

MarkG

Ours, at least, warm the coolant, and only indirectly warm the oil. I think you can get an oil pan warmer, but I've never known anyone who installed one.

iaink

Winter Driving-Canada : British Expat Wiki
The wiki has it covered, lets skip it this year

Tirytory

Oh so the message on my computer screen telling me I need to change my oil is likely preset by a garage trying to get me pay more money? I'm not exactly a high user and it was new and I've had it for 10 months..

See that's the problem with all these new fanged car things it makes you worry about stuff that wouldn't have crossed my mind with my very old fiesta back home and it just ran and ran and ran....

iaink

If its coming up on the car display then its nothing to do with the dealer. Whether its monitoring engine loads and running times and is a pretty sophisticated judge of when service is needed, or whether its just a simple monitor for the time/ number of km since it was last reset depends on the manufacturer.

Its actually the low milage , 10 minutes here, ten minutes there users who never get the engine warm enough that are the car killers... They are the ones that probably need to change oil more often.

Ive heard tales that certain german cars will simply not go if you ignore the maintenance reminders long enough, but I dont know how true that is.

Just cos your Fiesta went and went doesnt mean that it couldnt have used the occasional oil change.... it just didnt nag you to get it done...

scrubbedexpat091

My car isn't sophisticated enough to have maintenance lights..

It has the problem lights obviously, just not the oil change and scheduled maintenance type lights.


My first new car in 1999 was a Chevy Cavalier, (well only new car ever bought) and I had it for 3 years and while it was leased being 19, I really didn't care about oil changes, and I did maybe 3 oil changes in 3 years....Probably should have done it more often, but didn't seem to hate me and never had issued for me.

I was living in San Diego/Phoenix at the time. Not in Canada, so only hot weather, no cold weather.

sharkus

Coming in late to this one, so sorry if it's all been said before.
I've pulled this from Mazda's website. Granted it's for the 2014/2015 car, but I cannot see why it would not be the same for yours.

It does indeed say 8,000kms or 4 months, whichever arrives sooner.

One thing worth remembering is Canada is usually seen / classed under the "harsh environment" listing, and I think that applies country wide, rather than to specific provinces, though it could be different for different car makes. This means that you can find different schedules mentioned.

I have to say I find Mazda's schedule a little odd. My local Kia dealer is listing it as 6k and 6 months, which seems sensible, and I'm fairly sure my Hyundai was on the same schedule too. In fact, my car has a schedule indicator in it, tells me how many days and KM's it is until the next service, which is a "dumb" display, as in, it's not basing it on info from the ECU, it's purely a time and distance countdown. If the car tells me when to do it, that's when I'll do it.

As others have said, following the schedule for a new car is something you do want to do until the warranty ends, simply as the dealer could refuse any warranty claims if a problem were to arise and you did not follow the schedule.

MarkG

That depends. The Civic just does its own thing, whereas the Forester's seems to have been set to 8,000km by the dealer.