If you aren't driving 5000 miles every 6 months, do you still do the service at 6 month intervals?

Does oil life, and other parts for the more major services, degrade more-so with time than miles?

For the services that don't include oil changes, it seems like it's not quite necessary if the only non-inspection work is tire rotation -- which should have no relationship with time.

 

I drive less than 10k miles per year as well. For the 5k intervals, I don't sweat it too much and just squeeze them in when I have time. For the 10k intervals, I do them at 12 months.

 

I think it is a case of which-ever-comes-first

I never cover the distance in the time so I do the oil changes and maintenance anyway. I drive my car hard and really for me it only will work out to a few extra oil changes in its lifetime. Not that much money to worry about for me if they are getting done ahead of time.

 

I typically wait until I actually hit 5K, 10k, 15k , etc miles before I go service.

Like right now, my car is already 8 months old. But, only has 4.5k miles. I will be doing my first service when it hits 5K.

 

I'll be damned if I'll change synthetic oil after only 5,000 miles. Or after only one year, for that matter, as if that's some magic amount of time for oil chemistry.

Every 10,000, for me.

 

Well he said service. I think the first Lexus service doesn't include oil change. I believe it's at 10K.

 

Every 5K is a "check up". Every 10k is oil change and all the other goodies.

 

I share a dirty secret with you - do everything by miles, not time and skip those 5k 'inspections' (except the very first one).
Instead keep your eyes and ears open - and make sure your fluid levels are OK and nothing is dripping under the car.

 

this works, unless you happen to drive really infrequently and thus put a very minimal amount of miles on the car. in that case, it's best to go by the time intervals because one shouldn't wait until the oil is two years old, as an arbitrary example, to be changed when the car finally has 10k (or 20k, or 30k, or 40k, etc.) miles on the clock.

 

Agreed. I had my car for about 11 months now and only have 4215 miles on it. It would take me 2+ years to hit 10k so I would not go by mileage but by the time intervals.

 

You should ask BMW how that theory worked out for them.

It's your car do what you want, but don't be surprised when your engine is all gunky and Lexus doesn't give you warrenty due to a lack of maintenance.

 

I just do every 10k miles or 12 months, whichever comes first. I use the Lexus recommended intervals.

 

In my case, it's been 1yr and 6mths and I only have 11,000 miles!! My commutes are very short and I've only gone to NY and Boston once. For the 5K intervals, I don't sweat it. My 10,000K service was done when the car turned one year old (miles at the time were around 7000). If you don't drive much and miles are extremely low, schedule your services according to time (in months). That's why it's a miles vs. months thing! Whichever comes first!

 

I just went for my first 5000 check up 3 days ago. I've only had it for 4 months, I find any reason to drive my car considering I don't take it to work hah but yeah the maintenance is basically the same as toyotas. Oil change every 10,000 and just alignments and tire, fluid checks every 5-7 depending on how you feel when it's needed.

 

You could ask me instead - I own 2 BMWs (both over 14 years old).
It worked well for me - one of my BMWS is now at 205K miles. My wife doesn't put more on the car than about 7K miles.
We wait with oil change till lights show us to do it - 15 K miles. At those high miles that car needs some 3-4 qrts of oil
to replenish oil level in between oil changes.