Maintenance Schedule Question

[jackman61]

Hi everyone,

I purchased my '10 Corolla in May of 2009 and have been following the service schedule diligently. I basically drive the car to and from work and have only 16,000 miles or so on the car. Following the 5,000 miles or 6 month recommendation, I have had 3 scheduled oil changes and one tire rotation, with the last oil change being in November. Of course, I haven't reached 5,000 miles yet, so I'm wondering if I should stick with the 6 month rule. What does everyone else on the board usually do regarding routine maintenance? I ask this because I have the big money, 15,000 mile maintenance coming up and am not looking forward to forking over $200 plus dollars for nothing. Anyone have any experience with the 15,000 mile maintenance? Any advice would be appreciated.

[toyotas4all]

I bought my car in December of 2010 and I don't even have 4000 miles on it yet. However I keep being emailed by Toyota saying its time for my first service.

I have done the following:

At 3000 miles, change oil out to get rid of the new engine break-in period debris. I have heard of others do the same on this forum except at shorter intervals. 500 miles, 1500 miles, 3000 miles, and finally at 5000 miles. On hindsight I wish I had done the same because at 3000 miles my oil was as black as a used car my friend bought...whose previous owner had not changed the oil for a couple thousand miles. Now roughly 1000 miles in with the oil change, my oil is still a nice yellow.

What kind of oil are you running? If you are running fully synthetic I would stick with the 6 month rule just to stay under warranty. Though some may argue that fully synthetic oils allow you to go up a few thousand miles more than what the manufacturer recommends.

Do you know what goes into the 15k service? If you're having to pay anyway....why not do it somewhere cheaper......or....do it yourself!

[SuperchargedMR2]

I've got 27k miles on my car now. I've just changed the oil every 5k other than the first change at 1k miles. When I hit 5k I changed it again & every 5k since. I've never paid attention to the 6 month interval since I'm always close enough & with synthetic oil I'm not that worried about going a little longer in time. I also rotate my tires with every oil change but I've done all my own maintenance since there is nothing at the 15k miles service that you can't do yourself.