Service Interval

If you ask this question to 100 people, you will probably get 101 opinions. And that's what they are - opinions. Here's mine:

Stick with what is recommended in the owner's manual. These are written by the engineers who designed, built, and tested these engines. To me (again, my opinion), that carries far more weight than what someone says on the internet or what some service writer recommends.

I usually subtract about 10%-20% just as a safety cushion. For example, if it recommends oil change at 7,500 miles, I shoot for around 6,000. FWIW - I use full synthetic oil and do all the oil changes myself. The only time I change it at less miles is when the time limit is up. (In 2020, I only drove about 3K miles, but still changed it just before 12 months.) If you tow, idle a lot, extreme weather, or some other "severe use" action, adjust accordingly according to the manual.

For your Toyota, if you are going close to 10K miles between changes, I would feel more comfortable using full synthetic oil. That's just me.

Your driving schedule appears to avoid the caveat of lots of short trips in cold weather where the engine never gets fully warm, so I'll skip that.

Tire rotations - I'm sorry to say I'm not able to preach "tire rotations DOUBLE the life of my tires." I'm not tied into the oil change schedule here, so I get it done every 10K miles or so, but notice no appreciable benefit. For our '19 Subaru Forester, I looked in the owner's manual to see whether the tires go front-back on the same side, or if the fronts come straight back and the rears go forward to the opposite side. It's the latter. I mark my tires before going in, and found that several times they just do front to back without crossing. Even when I asked afterwards - Did you cross the rears moving forward? - they swear up and down on the holy Bible they did, until I show them my marks. If you're going to get it done and pay for it, get it done right.

(Note: We own a '20 Soul LX and a '19 Subaru Forester AWD. We've had a '22 Seltos LX AWD on order since November.)

Again, this is just some guy (me) on the internet giving an opinion. Hope this helps.

Daddymem said:

Thanks for the reply.
I just asked a coworker about his Tacoma. He takes it to a dealer and they said once a year, which puts him near the 10,000 miles per service mark in the manual.

So I think that's what I will do, the 7,500, ask for the interval service including a tire rotation. Should be around twice a year then.

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For every new and new-to-me car that I've purchased, I've always done a used oil analysis to ensure I'm not going too long or potentially changing the oil/filter when there is still a lot of life left in the oil. I've also done an oil analysis after extreme driving events. Probably 20% of the miles on our sports car has been on a race track so I tested the oil after the first weekend event to find that it probably should be changed after that 900 mile weekend. I also found out that after a high speed road trip in our now-deceased Rav4, that high speed (90+ MPH) freeway driving over mountain passes really didn't degrade the oil any more than regular driving over the same distance. Another oil analysis told me that the engine on my first generation Miata was really getting pretty worn, with increasing amounts of metallic byproducts in the oil as time went along. It's really the only way to know for sure, though if Kia requires oil changes at a specific interval to maintain the warranty, then you've got to do for just that. I guess in this case a used oil analysis really just to make sure that the interval isn't too long.