Can’t any auto repair shop do that?
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Any quick oil change shop can do that.
I couldnt find a chain shop that had it listed as a service anywhere. Transmission flushes are listed but my understanding is that most places charge a hefty price for what amounts to ~ 50% flush. I would rather just drain and refill x 3 myself and get ~98%. (old fluid is recyclable)
I don’t trust quick change services and I don’t think they change transmission fluid filters anyways.
I also wanted to replace with amsoil so that complicates it.
So what’s the prevailing wisdom on tire rotation and balancing?
How important is it to actually do these things? And if you do them how often is really necessary?
When I get an oil change, I get a sticker telling me to get an oil change by a certain date or mileage. Usually, I blow past the mileage well before the date, but I have not been driving much in a time of COVID. What is more important in determining when to get it changed?
Rotate and balance should be done every 5,000 miles or so. Rotation helps even out wear patterns, balance eliminates heavy spots that keep the wheel from spinning true. At higher speeds you can get vibration and accelerated tire and suspension wear. It’s an easy relatively cheap maintenance item and you should have it done.
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Tires that wear unevenly eventually throw the tires out of balance which will cause the car vibrate usually at highway speeds. It’s more important to rotate tires on FWD vehicles because the having the power and turning causes those tires to wear faster than for RWD. Yeah, its definitely a good thing to do and it’s super easy, ldo.
I usually do my maintenance at the auto dealer. I do rotations and balancing when they say to do it. They show me numbers that tell me that I should have it done.
Driving conditions are the most important factor. Hot, dusty, stop and go conditions, load pulling, etc. (high rpm, high heat) lead to oil breakdown and it should be changed more often. The 3,000 mile recommendation assumes you’re driving in tough conditions, so it’s not a huge deal to go 5,000 miles between oil changes if you’re driving under easy or moderate conditions.
Synthetic can go longer also.
I’ve never done it even once. Maybe that’s why my tires don’t last as long as they should.
I’ll guess I’ll do it this week.
My owner’s manual says either once a year or every 15K miles, whichever comes first for oil changes.
The mechanics always lol at that (i.e., 15K) and recommend more frequent changes. It’s hard to tell how much of that is based on self-interest.
The 3,000 mile recommendation is overkill for most people. 15,000 is pretty extreme the other way. I’m completely ok going 6,000 between changes, but 15,000 would make me feel like I was guilty of neglect.
That’s what the owner’s manual says, though.
Maybe they just want the car to wear down faster so you need to get a new one.
Or they marketed the car as low maintenance and a 15K interval helps sell it. One of my cars had a 100K interval for spark plugs. I was happy to leave them alone for that long.
Yeah. Some argue the manufacturer’s recommendation is self-interest in the other direction. I’m on the lax end. The Car Talk guys on NPR used to be pretty lax too. I’d go with the manufacturer’s requirement with a car under warranty and go longer after that but most people are pretty dogmatic about more frequent changes. That said, 15K miles seems like a lot.
A mechanical engineer co-worker told me about a study the military did where they drained oil from vehicles then drove them 500 miles and did a comparison to control vehicles and found little difference [eta meaning they took the engines apart and measured wear]. I couldn’t find the study though and even if it was done, it was a while ago. Parts and materials are probably under significantly higher stress in modern cars. But then lubricants are better too.
Yeah, I think it came with maintenance included for the first four years or so. I never come close to 15k/yr, so I only got the free ones once a year.
I have gotten the dealer invoice price through edmunds or kbb a few times and it has been accurate to the penny each time. Knowing what the dealer has invested helps a lot. Once I have that I let a few dealers fight for the sale.
My $0.02 on the tire and oil question, based on having worked at a Les Schwab for a year and then been a mechanic for about 10 years…
Tire rotation on some sort of schedule is a good idea, especially on a front-wheel drive car as noted. The way I personally determine if I want to rotate the tires is to compare the tread between the front and rears. If the front has noticeably less, or is showing edge wear or cupping, I want to rotate. Simple front-to-back is fine.
I don’t think of balancing as something that is routinely redone after the tires are mounted. Unless something goes wrong with the tires, or you observe symptoms like a vibration or shimmy, I don’t think you should need to rebalance.
On oil change intervals, this subject can become a holy war topic on car and bike forums. You’ll read a ton of different opinions and factors brought into the argument. Generally I’d say you can’t go wrong just doing what the owner’s manual says.
Where it gets trickier is if you do a lot more or less miles per year than the manufacturer anticipates in their recommendations. As noted by ripdog a lot hinges on what kind of use the engine is seeing. I’d add another thing that’s harder on oil/your engine is a lot of short trips, where the engine and the oil can’t get up to operating temperature. You really want the oil to get good and hot to evaporate any water moisture out (water is a combustion byproduct).
All that said, in a modern car with an engine in good condition, with modern oil, I personally feel that changing the oil every 3000 miles is gross overkill. I feel fine with 10K miles for my car, but as they say on the forums, oil is cheaper than therapy, so do whatever makes you feel good.
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I usually do every 10k, but I was putting on 30-40k per year basically forever until cv-19. I would probably do every 5k if I did average miles. Every 3k is a totally old school recommendation that I haven’t heard for like 20 years. (Except from the people profiting from oil changes.)