I have a 2021 Kia Forte I purchased in January. Its now 8 months since purchase and I have about 2300 miles on the car but the car is saying it’s time for an oil change and service check. Is this needed with only 2300 miles on my car?
Yes it is time for an oil change if for no other reason to keep from voiding your factory warranty . I would also use the dealer just to have it on record that you did it.
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The owners manual will reflect the required service intervals required by the manufacturer.
Not the dealer.
Tester
“Time or miles”. Rubber and fluids deteriorate over time. Cut open a bottle of engine oil and let it sit in the basement for a year. Tell me what it looks like.
The car has a computer program that determines the oil change point based on how you drive. 2300 miles in 8 months is very hard on engine oil and your car knows this.
Change your oil now.
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What will the oil look like in an open container after 1 year? I have never tried that experiment.
Let’s not get into a ridiculous discussion about how motor oil ages. This person has a car with a computer that uses all sorts of history to light up the “Change oil soon” light, and it’s generally reasonable to just do it. Why do we have to ask for second and third opinions about everything? Lots of short, stop and go trips never let the car warm up fully, and the lubrication doesn’t circulate as well as it does when it’s warm. Just do it and save the receipts so you can prove it later if the warranty comes into question.
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At a less than 300 miles per month average you are going to need to change the oil more often.
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New vehicle , dash warning says change oil soon , The owners manual will explain that , it also will list when services should be done , a phone call to the dealer would have answered this question , so why does this require a forum of unknown people.
Of course this is the person who wanted to drive a uninsured vehicle with expired tags on the public streets .
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considering it’s heat and combustion byproducts that break down oil, I doubt that this static experiment would show hardly anything at all…
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My local Hyundai dealer charges $39.95 for an oil change, worked out to $4 per month, less than the cost of a cheap 6 pack.
A few years ago the 3 year old Sonata’s engine blew due to a manufacturing defect. The dealer replaced the engine with a smile for a factory new one and provided a new Sonata for 2 weeks while the work was being done, probably at least a $5,000 job but it was covered by the warranty so it didn’t cost me a cent.
So do the math.
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We get questions here all the time from people who (barely) have enough money to pay the loan/lease payment each month, and want to “cheap out” on maintenance.
For example, people ask if it’s ok to drive on worn out/damaged tires or to buy just one tire, delay changing the oil on their new car, DIY change the oil on their new car, whether they really need to change the transmission fluid and filter, etc. No wonder so many cars that are only a few years old have costly mechanical problems.
There is no need to use the dealer. You can do it yourself or any mechanic that does oil changes. All you need is the receipts.
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There are too many possible reasons for your service light to be on too soon. A new car is too big of an investment to disregard it’s messaging at this point. It is well worth servicing it now, even if there is a fluke. Afterwards you can check your manual for maintenance procedures and if there is a problem with the interval system it’s best to hash that out later. But chances are about none that there is a problem with your system.
I just looked at the 2021 Kia Forte owner’s manual on the Kia website.
It says to change the oil and filter:
- Every 7.5K miles or 12 months, whichever comes earlier, for non-turbo engines.
- Every 6K miles or 12 months, whichever comes earlier, for turbo engines.
It then adds a section about severe driving conditions. If your driving habits include Kia’s definition for severe driving, (repeatedly driving short distances, towing, etc), then it says:
- Every 3.75K miles or 6 months for non-turbo.
- Every 3K miles for turbo independent of elapsed time.
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Over the past 8 months I basically drive the car once a week in rare occasions twice. I have made 4 trips from indy to cincy which account for about 1000 miles of the present miles on the car. All other done in city going to grocery and such on saturdays.
Its been giving me a countdown for the past 2 weeks with it now showing 2 days left.
It’s your car, you can ignore the oil change if you want to. You may very well void the warranty by doing so. Me? I would get the oil changed.
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OK , now you 2 days to find a place to change the oil or buy all the stuff ( ramps - jacks - oil filter wrench - filter - oil of the right kind ) and do it yourself.
You qualify for severe service it is that simple.
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+1
Back in–I think–the '90s, when Mitsubishi sales really declined, they started offering financing deals to people who really shouldn’t have qualified for financing. The result was a LOT of Mitsu cars being sold privately, after 2 or 3 years of use. The surprise–for all too many of the buyers of the used Mitsus–was that the car they bought had never been maintained, and was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode in their wallets.
Naturally, Mitsubishi denied warranty claims for these badly-maintained/unmaintained cars, but the lasting result was a stain on that company’s reputation after the second owners of these cars had such a negative experience.
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