How Often Should You Service Your Car?
- How Often Should You Service Your Car?
- Most modern cars need servicing every 10,000 to 15,000 kilometres or every 12 months, whichever comes first. But the correct interval for your vehicle is the one in its logbook, because it varies by make, engine and model year.
It is the question we get asked more than any other, and the reason there is no single number is that manufacturers do not agree. Two cars of the same age sitting side by side in the workshop can have service intervals 5,000 kilometres apart.
What follows is how to work out yours, and, more usefully, why the interval in the book is a maximum rather than a target.
Start with the logbook, not a rule of thumb
Your vehicle's logbook specifies the interval its manufacturer set for it, in both kilometres and months. That is the figure that matters: it is what a warranty claim is assessed against, and it is what a buyer looks for in the service history.
If you no longer have the book, common on a second-hand car, the schedule is published for almost every model, and any workshop can look up what applies to your vehicle. If you cannot establish when it was last serviced at all, treat it as due now. That is far cheaper than assuming the previous owner kept on top of it.
Time counts as much as distance
This is the part that catches people out. Engine oil degrades whether the car is driven or not: it oxidises, absorbs moisture and loses the additives that protect the engine. A car that does 6,000 kilometres a year still needs its oil changed annually.
It is why every interval is written as "whichever comes first". A low-kilometre car reaching the time limit is not being over-serviced; it is being serviced on the only measure that still applies to it.
Short trips are harder on a car than long ones
A drive that lasts ten minutes never gets the engine and oil fully up to temperature. Fuel and moisture that would normally boil off stay in the oil, which dilutes it and accelerates wear. The odometer barely moves, but the oil ages faster than the kilometres suggest.
That describes most suburban driving in Melbourne's north, the run to the station, the school drop-off, the shops. If that is the bulk of your driving, servicing at the shorter end of your vehicle's range is genuinely worth doing rather than a workshop upselling you.
The opposite is also true. A car doing mostly freeway kilometres is running warm, at steady load, with far fewer cold starts. Those are the easiest kilometres a car ever does.
What actually changes between services
Not every service is the same, which is why "minor" and "major" exist. Some items are due every time; others are due at specific intervals and only get replaced when the vehicle reaches them.
- Every service
- Engine oil and filter, fluid levels and condition, brake and tyre inspection, and an inspection of the underside on a hoist.
- Periodically
- Air, cabin and fuel filters, spark plugs, brake fluid, coolant and transmission fluid. Each on its own interval.
- Long interval, high consequence
- Timing belts. On an interference engine a snapped belt destroys valves and pistons, so this is the one interval never worth stretching. Many engines use a chain instead, which is inspected rather than replaced on a schedule.
Signs it is overdue regardless of the number
Whatever the interval says, some things mean bring it in now: a service light or message on the dash, a drop in fuel economy, a new noise, smell or vibration, or oil that looks black and thin on the dipstick rather than amber and viscous.
The economic argument for servicing on time is simple. A service is the cheapest work your car will ever have done, and most large repair bills started as something a service would have caught while it was still small, a weeping water pump, a split CV boot, a coolant level slowly dropping.
Car Servicing in Craigieburn
Freddy's Auto Care provides minor and major car servicing at 14 Potter Street, Craigieburn, for all makes and models including petrol, diesel, LPG and hybrid vehicles.
14 Potter Street, Craigieburn VIC 3064
