I have a 2015 Toyota Corolla with 6900 miles. Since I drive my car very infrequently, I thought that it would be OK to have an oil change (full synthetic with filter) once a year. What would you recommend in my situation?
Thanks.
Your owner’s manual will have maintenance recommendations. Typically you should change your oil by either mileage or time, something like 5000 miles or 6 months whichever comes first. In your case I’d change it twice a year.
Isn’t that exactly what the maintenance schedule calls for?
If the owners manual says max elapsed time is 1 year, then you’ll be fine. If it says max elapsed time is 6 months, then do it every 6 months
One year is fine. The oil change interval is 10k miles or 1 year. You MUST use 0w20 synthetic oil.
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I would change the oil per carmaker’s recommendation - probably every 6 months is what they say in your manual. A new filter every 6 months is overkill in my book. If the car is out of warranty, it’s entirely up to you.
Keith is correct. Toyota has been using the 10k oil change interval and 0W-20 oil since 2014.
It amaze’s the number of people that want to extend oil change’s one of the cheapest thing’s you can do to keep car in good shape, I also wander if these are the same people that never raise the hood I can’t remember the last time at a fuel stop that I saw anyone checking their oil.
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The Corolla oil maintenance has been 10,000 miles/12 months since 2010 (for the 1.8 L engine). I believe many people rely on the oil change reminder sticker that the oil change shops place on the windshield and have not checked their maintenance guide for the correct schedule.
A lot of people rely on the Oil Change Monitor systems.
No Dollar General oil??
Make sure the oil meets your specifications, how much damage are you willing to risk to skip a $45 oil change?
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IIRC It was still 5,000 miles/6 months when the Owner’s Manual for my 2009 was printed. The service reminder comes on every 5,000 miles. That schedule strikes me as sensible and I have the user-selectable reminder in my wife’s Hyundai set up for 5,000 miles/6 months as well.
Drivers don’t necessarily check oil at the gas station. The station I frequent is rather busy, and I’m sure I would tick off a lot of people waiting in line if I were to check it there. I DO check it at home, where I have a stash of a few one quart bottles of oil. When I go on a long trip, I put a bottle or two in the trunk, in addition to tools.
The reason I notice no hood’s raised is a couple of fuel stop’s I use is on a major N S highway from the MW to Fla. I check mine at home but there is quite a lot of out of state car’s that should be checked a fuel stop’s.
I can’t speak for anyone else but I check mine with the car sitting in the driveway. I prefer to check it cold when the oil has drained into the crankcase.
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Look at my comment above.
And look at @tom418 's comment above mine.
I saw tom418 comment I was refering to the out of state car’s that I see.
I see lots of out of state cars because St. Louis is on the state line and gas is cheaper in Missouri. I don’t necessarily expect all those drivers to check their oil at the gas station.