Factory vs Dealer recommended maintenance
03-13-21, 06:17 AM
#16
Driver School Candidate
So I was looking to schedule a 15,000-mile service on my 18 gx460 and I took a look at the maintenance guide and found that it was basically a glorified tire rotation. When I called the dealer for a quote on a 15,000-mile service they tacked on wiper blades, engine air filter, and cabin air filter. Quoted me 400$ for this service. Adding in an Oil change takes it to like 650$ lmao. The factory maintenance guide only recommends a tire rotation. Would y'all follow the dealer's recommendation or just follow the factory maintenance guide (doing just a tire rotation). Also as a side note, are y'all changing oil every 5,000 or 10,000 miles? My 14 GX (different car) has been dealer serviced its entire life up to about 141k which is where it's at now, never asked any questions so whatever the dealer recommended was done. I am wondering if that's really necessary lol.
To your specific questions, engine and cabin filter are 30k or 36 mo items, but I would definitely inspect them at 15k and replace if warranted. Wiper blades replaced when worn. All 3 of these are easily done yourself. Oil/filter are 10k or 12 mo items. But some folks might be better served with a 5k or 7500 mi interval. If you're late on a 10k interval, you're pushing it. Late on a 5k, no big deal at all. But if you're never late, manufacturer intervals are fine. Plenty of used oil analysis show life left in oil at 10k miles. And there are plenty of pictures of engines taken apart after 200k miles with 10k oil changes on 0w-20 oil that look perfect. The problem is for many people a 10k interval ends up turning into 12k. For that reason alone, for the average person who doesn't do their own maintenance, I think 5k or 7500 would probably be a better interval.
03-14-21, 08:41 PM
#18
Intermediate
Thread Starter
Are you planning on doing the Diff fluid soon? IIRC it is at 60k in the manufacturer schedule along with a handful of other service items.
03-15-21, 02:19 AM
#19
I will probably do the Diff Fluid at some point but in my manual it says to "inspect" diff fluid. It also treats the floor mats the same way - "inspect and adjust" the floor mats. Generally I do not keep cars past 100K miles and had a lot of good luck for 30 years just changing oil and air filters. I forgot to add i did just change out my battery at 4 yrs to an interstate brand from Costco for $89 as the last one seemed weak after I drained it by accident. Just did a search on lexus diff. fluid and there is a lot of discussion out there on lexus and toyota's with some suggesting 120K change in the manual or longer if you do not tow or go off road.
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