My god, passed MOT first time

[Merlin5]

I tend to go a little overboard with my servicing as well. The filters don't need changing at every interval, but a set of filters (air, fuel, oil, cabin) only costs me like £20, so it's a case of might as well.

Exactly, it can't hurt.

 

[sigma]

Exactly, it can't hurt.

It's a bit wastefuL though isn't it?

 

[[TW]Fox]

I think I'd rather have decent tyres than oil that's changed every week personally.

 

[Nasher]

I don't know what oil he uses tbh. Found an article asking about when to change oil on a diesel and it says this,

'If you insist on using a cheap, low quality oil of the type used for a franchise $25 oil-change, renew the oil every three thousand miles. (& make sure the oil IS actually changed!).

If you use a decent, manufacturer's recommended oil, stretch that to 6,000 miles.

If you use an expensive, fully synthetic oil formulated for diesel engines, 10k miles will be fine.'

OEM stuff is usually pretty good quality. Normally I just stick with that since it's what the engine has been tested on.

I've always done mine at 1 year or the stated mileage, never had any issues in any cars I've owned. The manufacturer service interval is preventative maintenance, it will actually go a lot longer without one and still be ok.

 

[Amp34]

Americans seem to be obsessed with changing their oil at crazy low intervals. Part of that is that a lot of the cars for that market do state oil changes to be done at lower mileage than what we get over here and part of it...well I have no idea why, they just seem to think 6k+ is excessive which it clearly isn't.

The reality is that the manufacturer stated service intervals (along with oil/oil filters meeting manufacturer specifications) are fine, otherwise they wouldn't be able to state them in the first place. One of my old cars, a 1.6 petrol Fiesta, was owned by me from 7.5k miles on the clock and I changed the oil every 12k miles as per the service schedule. I still own it and while it gets a lot less use now, it's on 146k miles and has never had any engine related problems.

My 320d stated 20k mile service intervals and right up to 60k miles it was changed at every 20k. After that it was done more like every 12-15k but only because I know the engines on those are fragile beasts and figured any little to help it was worthwhile. It probably made absolutely no difference but at least the engine never gave me any hassle and was still working at 162k miles.

My current car's service schedule is every 12k miles and I had it changed a few weeks ago when it was at 12k. If I was using crappy oil I'd probably get it done sooner but I use good stuff so manufacturer stated intervals it is.

This. Ignore the stupid American insistence on changing oil every 5 miles. Do what it says in the book, or what the car tells you (if you have an oil change indicator). It's based on old engines and is constantly repeated by American equivalents of Quickfit and Halfords, along with people still living in the 70's. It's a mindset that just won't die. Point out that their Ford truck says to change it every 12k and they'll still waffle on about how they've always done it at 3k since they got their first car in the 80's and there is no way an engine could last that long with such a long change etc etc.

In part it's also because conditions are quite often harsher in the US compared to the UK, with a lot more COLD starts in some parts of the country, but it's largely to do with old adages used on modern engines.

 

[geekman]

This. Ignore the stupid American insistence on changing oil every 5 miles. Do what it says in the book, or what the car tells you (if you have an oil change indicator). It's based on old engines and is constantly repeated by American equivalents of Quickfit and Halfords, along with people still living in the 70's. It's a mindset that just won't die. Point out that their Ford truck says to change it every 12k and they'll still waffle on about how they've always done it at 3k since they got their first car in the 80's and there is no way an engine could last that long with such a long change etc etc.

In part it's also because conditions are quite often harsher in the US compared to the UK, with a lot more COLD starts in some parts of the country, but it's largely to do with old adages used on modern engines.

It’s not just the US, there’s the same myths in the entire American continent. I stopped using a local mechanic as he told me that my car’s engine would fail if I went more than 5k KM between oil changes. It’s a cheap, mass produced Dodge Caliber - every 15K KM is obviously not going to do any harm, but these garages continue to perpetuate such myths which result in many people never bothering to service their cars at all.