Oil change intervals

Thanks Pop, i will talk to the dealer about the warranty side of things. You are right in saying that it is cheap insurance, cars are so expensive these days, it pays to do the right thing. 5000kms it is.

Thanks Bantam for the insight, it all makes sense. I suppose if you cant afford to drop the oil at 5000 kms , you cant afford the car.

If you want to push it to the limit you could take a small oil sample after 5000 k's and have it analysed. You would them be sure that you could push the oil change intervals out a bit to suit your circumstances.
With a small capacity sump such as the engine you have mentioned I would just follow the manufacturers recommendations. With large engines that may hold well upwards of 20 liters and clock up more distance and operation hours in a week than you and I would clock up in a month having the oil sampled and determining a suitable change point makes good economic sense.
Many large engines have fine micron bypass filters, centrifugal and magnetic particle separation in addition to the very large capacity full flow filters. There's a fair bit of difference in the sophistication between the average 4WD engine and those found in large trucks, earthmoving equipment, work boats and the like.

Cheers
Pop

Thanks Leanne, it leaves ya scratching ya head at times. Different cars different kms. I wonder what you could really get away with in the real world. I will just play the game and play safe.

I remember the local taxis used to do monthly services as well years ago and boast about the big miles they got out of them because of it. thanks Mike

My first car back as a teenager was an LH Torana. Not knowing any better, and lack of money back then, the poor car never had a change of oil, filters of any description, etc, for the time I had it. 50 odd thousand km. Poor car. I know better now.
Wish I still had it though.

Thanks Peter that explains it more clearly. I was going to approach the dealer about the car tomorrow and ask about the services at the same time. Im sure you have answered it for me. Can i ask what sort of run you have had with your D40? Im pretty sure im going to buy this car but one last opinion wouldnt hurt. thanks again

I have had what may be considered a poor run with it. Both front wheel bearings have been replaced and a diff whine have been attended to but there has been no problems getting them done under warranty.

2008 Ford Focus has 15,000 km recommended.

I do mine every half way ie 7,000 the first part and then 8,000.

The 2008 Prado has 7 litres of oil in it but I do it every 5,000 even if only driving around town.

bill