The regular standard of a service maintenance is every 6 months or 10,000 KM.  If your vehicle requires a fully synthetic oil to change, it should be performed about every 6 months or 10,000 KM whichever comes first. If your vehicle requires a semi synthetic oil to change, it should be performed about every 4 months or 7,000 KM whichever comes first.

Changing Oil is Cost-Effective

The main objective of having your oil changed regularly is to keep the oil that you are running in your engine clean.  Engine oil is the lifeblood of your engine, the oil function is to clean, cool and lubricate, so obviously if the oil is dirty, the performance of the oil is compromised. The best oil you can use in your vehicle is fresh clean oil and we recommend using the grade and weight of oil that your vehicle was designed for.

Dirty Oil Can Do Real Damage

Allowing the engine oil to get excessively dirty, allows the suspended particulate to become abrasive and cause accelerated wear to the crankshaft, bearings and the valve train.  Some of the newer engine designs are equipped with variable valve timing, this produces increased mileage and performance.  These variable timing components include solenoids and actuators that are oil fed and do not tolerate dirty oil, nor do turbocharged engines.  Dirty oil can cause internal coking, clogging and sludge issues in those components.   Engines that have too much sludge build-up can also develop oil starvation/pressure issues which leads to further wear and degradation of the internal engine components. We have literally seen vehicles with less than 50,000 KM on them with severe engine damage due to not changing the oil regularly on their vehicle.

Another quick point to ponder is that most vehicle manufacturers feel that 1 quart of engine oil consumed every 2,000 KM of driving is normal.  If your vehicle consumes 1 quart of oil every 2,000 KM and you have your oil changed every 10,000 KM and the engine of your vehicle only holds 5 quarts of oil. Either you will need to check your engine oil level regularly between oil changes and top it off as needed or have them performed more often.

Our Recommendation: Every 10,000 KM

So how often should you have your oil serviced on your vehicle? We recommend at least having it inspected every 10,000 KM for proper level and potential contamination.  If you want to keep it clean have it serviced then too.  If it is still full and clean then have it checked every additional 2,000 KM of driving until it either is dirty or needs changing or you reach the manufacturer recommended oil change interval.  It is a lot less expensive to have it serviced every 10,000 KM then to perform a major engine repair or to replace the engine prematurely.  Once a major component like the engine of your vehicle has damage, the value of your vehicle is extremely diminished.