Diesel service intervals?

[Matt76]

I know a lot of you guys are religious about changing your oil at 5000km intervals, and I have with mine so far aswell, but I am continually wondering if it is really necessary? Our sevice book only has 10,000km set services with an optional intermediate one. To my thinking they should either set it at 5 or 10, why give us an option?

Anyway, I have been looking into a 7 seater vehicle to replace our Rav, and came across a Holden Captiva turbo diesel which has 15,000km service intervals! Surely if holden will warrant the diesel engine only getting oil changed every 15,000kms it can't be terribly bad for the engine could it?

Thoughts?

 

[alphabet]

I have serviced my d22 every 10,000 and I have questioned my mechanic and few others on the intervals of servicing. I've been told it's personal preference and it comes down to what oils you are using. Mine hasn't missed a beat ( except for getting 2 flats on the freshwater track yesterday!) touch wood

 

[Krankin]

By the book its 10,000k for servicing.
5000k oil change/service by the book is for SEVERE condition driving as stated in the book,
and,
NOT needed otherwise.
Those that change everytime at 5000 thats their choice.

Those 15K service vehicles you will generally find will have larger sumps in the order of 7-8 litre capacitcy, and with full synthetic oil will give the longer service intervals.

 

[KraftyPg]

I don't think 5K servicing is needed under normal circumstances and those who do it really only do it as a personal preference. Many of the car companies these days are extending servicing periods, some claim it's a mistake, some claim it's ok, as far as I am concerned if the manufacturer is happy to space them to 15K then they aren't expecting problems at 10.5K so following their guidelines is adequate.

Subaru are 12.5K, Commodores are 15K and we used to run out old trucks a minimum 15K between services so it's entirely achievable.

 

[Krankin]

By the book its 10,000k for servicing.
5000k oil change/service by the book is for SEVERE condition driving as stated in the book,
and,
NOT needed otherwise.
Those that change everytime at 5000 thats their choice.

Those 15K service vehicles you will generally find will have larger sumps in the order of 7-8 litre capacitcy, and with full synthetic oil will give the longer service intervals.

PS.....keep in mind though servicing is calculated over 'time' as well as 'distance',
which ever comes first.

 

[Al]

10K here, never seen the need for 5k, better to spend that extra cash saved on more mods. I use heavy duty diesel semi synthetic oils, which will perform well after 10k easy. I think some people go overboard which it, i've heard of some ricers changing oil, filters and PLUGS every 5K. such a waste.

so generally its 10K for oil, filter, rotation
40k for other oils, brake fluid
coolant if you do want to change it it will last 80-100k

 

[KraftyPg]

PS.....keep in mind though servicing is calculated over 'time' as well as 'distance',
which ever comes first.

That's true enough too, although they were both petrols I know that both the Subbie and the Commodore had 12.5 and 15 respectively but the time frames didn't get extended. So manufacturers maybe aren't expecting us to travel further between services they are following a trend that says we drive more for the same periods of time.

 

[Dave]

Steer clear of Holden Captivas.

Have heard some bad stories about them.

Dave.

 

[KraftyPg]

Go the Comby van, they can go 35 years without servicing, or do they just sound like that?
When they do stop duct tape and a screw driver usually fixes them.

 

[Krankin]

You'll find also with the vehicles that have 12.5k or 15k intervals,
the book still recommends shorter service periods for "severe use conditions".

My nav comes under the 'time' service interval as atm I dont travel the K's

 

[KraftyPg]

You'll find also with the vehicles that have 12.5k or 15k intervals,
the book still recommends shorter service periods for "severe use conditions".

My nav comes under the 'time' service interval as atm I dont travel the K's

Ditto on both comments. In most books they even go to the trouble of defining "severe" to give the owner an idea of which servicing schedule suits them best.

 

[tweak'e]

you have to be careful, "severe" can be your normal driving !

 

[KraftyPg]

Nah that's just how other road users explain it

 

[Krankin]

you have to be careful, "severe" can be your normal driving !

regardless which it is, the servicing instructions are there to cater.

 

[Wolff]

i find my air filter only last 5-7,000 km's so i do the oil at the same time.

 

[Matt76]

i find my air filter only last 5-7,000 km's so i do the oil at the same time.

Welcome Wolff

 

[Old.Tony]

Severe driving conditions was described to me as "extensive off-road, dusty use, or extensive city traffic jam, or extensive use with large payloads".

That means anyone towing 2T+ on a regular basis would qualify. Anyone living in Sydney using the car as their daily driver would qualify - stop-start traffic puts more of a load on the vehicle than you might first think.

Is it essential? I think Nissan could just use it as a means of avoiding warranty if they put their minds to it. Is it advisable? Yep.

The key thing is how good the remaining oil is. In the diesel, blow-by contaminates the oil fairly quickly. This causes a black taint to appear in the oil - normally you'd think that the oil is useless, but for a diesel it's fairly normal. It's the concentration of contaminate that is the issue and that's dependent on usage.

The harder the diesel has to work, the more it's going to contaminate the oil. If you're towing, climbing lots of hills, going off-road a lot (and driving it hard), then you would be better off servicing it more frequently. Otherwise, 10K is probably more than acceptable.

 

[KraftyPg]

i find my air filter only last 5-7,000 km's so i do the oil at the same time.

Like Matt said, welcome to the forums. What sort of conditions are you driving in that air filters only last that long. I get mine cleaned every 10k (got 2 filters getting changed over) but that's only because I don't pay for the cleaning, but even the filter I pulled out after crossing the Nullabour was still acceptable for the 20K range Nissan suggest.

 

[Krankin]

Maybe a snorkel will help..

My work ute's filter (no snorkel) didn't last a week when I was working on Eastlink before the black stuff went down.