maintenance schedules

[Pierre]

Hey Eric,
I’ve always been curious about why auto manufacturers came up with things like Maintenance Minder systems on their vehicles. I have one of these systems on my car and I really don’t trust it all that much and just change my oil every 5,000 miles. I really do think that the manufacturers just make these systems just so that their dealers can make profit on service. What do you think about these systems?

Topic

[Bill]

There are a lot of people out there that never look at the service reminder sticker in their windshields. I don’t think half of those people even know it’s there. When you have the CHANGE OIL reminder on the cluster staring you in the face it gives a little more incentive to have it done.

That said some are time/mileage based and some actually read the oil’s ability to do it’s job. Myself, I don’t believe in any of them and service my own car according to time/mileage intervals.

[dan]

check the fluids and wash the car every week.

i have always performed a LOF every 3,000-4,000 miles on 6 moths on all my cars, thats change the oil, filter, and grease the tie rod ends and ball joints, and do under hood inspection which is a rule of thumb

every 6,000-8,000 miles or every other oil change i rotate the tires, check the brakes and wheel bearings, and when i check the breaks this includes tearing them apart, cleaning the components and applying lubrication too the pins and anti sieze too the anti vibration clips and any other components that move and come in contact with one another too prevent rusting and the break pads and guide pints from seizing up, this insures longer break life. also sort of rule of thumb.

and 30,000 miles is a transmission fluid and filter change which is also rule of thumb, clean out the air filter check the plugs.

3 years change the coolant and do a cooling system flush and change the thermostat.

that is how i have always done stuff on my cars.

[Author]

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