should be in the owners booklet

 

Sure is...and there's more than one!

 

If you follow the manual and using the "Severe Maintenance" schedule, you'll be needing service at 5,000 miles (oil).

 

yea i get my oil every 3500 or so. and do the other stuff when it says

 

mind if i ask why 3500?

 

I've always done my cars at 3500 same with my bikes.

 

interesting... i was a fan of the 3,000 mile oil change, but with all the new detergents and stabilizers i'm happy with a 5,000 mile oil change.

 

I just took my car in for service the other day and when it was done they put up one of those little decals that tells you when you should bring it back in and it said 6,300 miles. It had about 3,300 miles when I brought it in. So I'm assuming you should do it every 3,000 miles?

 

The "every 3,000 miles" oil change is a hold over from the days when all motor oil was simple mineral oil. If you still run straight mineral oil (non-synthetic) then yes, change it every 3,000 miles or six months whichever comes first.

If you run synthetic engine oil, then it's different. 5,000 miles is easy, probably 99% like new oil still. 8,000 to 15,000 miles is the kind of range you can have on synth oil. It's hard to say how often you should change synthetic if you don't have a true oil life monitor built into your car (like the ones from Cadillac and Mercedes, they're amazingly accurate). Very safe rule of thumb is 6,000 miles, your oil WILL be fine at that interval.

Also, oil change places want you to change your frequently, don't they? So the only guide they use is 3,000 miles regardless of whether you're synthetic or mineral.

Brief rant--USE SYNTHETIC! It's so much better for your engine. Unless you're on a 2 year lease and don't care, your engine WILL last longer and run better on synthetic oil. Use synthetic, change oil and filter every 6,000 miles (except for the for the first and second changes, ideally they would be around 500 and 3,000 miles) and your car will purr dang near forever.

By the way, changing more often can actually be bad for your car to say nothing of the environment. The worst wear your engine gets is the first 15 seconds after an oil change.

As to other maintenance, read the manual. Follow the normal or severe duty schedule based on the description of these in the manual. Since I drive hard and our cars see a lot of city miles, I use the severe schedule.

 

Basic maintenance:

1. Change oil every 3,000 (mineral) or 6,000 (synthetic) miles.
2. Every oil change, inspect the air filter. Unless you have unusual dust conditions, change it every 24,000 miles or 2 years.
3. Every few weeks, open the hood and check coolant, power steering and brake fluid levels. Top up when needed.
4. Every 5,000 miles, rotate the tires. You'll get longer life out of them if you do.
5. Every 15,000 miles, have the brakes inspected. If they start to squeal, get a brake job.
6. Every two years or so, change the cabin air filter. A nice upgrade is to use a carbon impregnated one, these help scrubs odors out of the air as well as particles.
7. After 120,000 miles or 10 years, whichever comes first, drain and replace the coolant.

That's about it. Modern cars don't need much.

 

Manual say service 1 schedule is 7500 miles. Why does dealer say 5000?

 

It depends where you live and the conditions. If you live in nice sunny land where winter hardly exists and no dusty conditions, schedule 1 is fine.

I live in Ohio, where there is a good few months of snow/salt on the roads, so we do schedule 2.

I believe they also recommend if you do frequent short trips around town to do schedule 2, as that is much harder on the engine than easy highway driving.

 

I live in southern Ca. And drive 100 miles per day. Few short trips.

 

While it is possible they have other reasons, generally that just means the dealers wants the extra $$ from you. I would follow the mazda schedule 1 and not worry about it personally.

 

removed by JWhite

 

I put about 6,000 miles a year on a car and no way I'm going a full year without an oil change so I'm just going to change mine twice a year.
In my Cobalt I found that the cabin air filter really needed to be changed once a year. I let it go for 2 years once and it was just disgusting. I wonder if it's easy to change it in the 3, I'll have to check the manual

 

Agree. I wouldn't go a year either. 6 months max on oil regardless of mileage.

 

I also expected the dealer to tell me to come back within 1,000 miles for the first oil change but he said to wait 5 1/2 months. That would be around 2700 miles for me.

 

If you're DIY'er, check and replace the fluids at your own schedule that you feel comfortable with. I do 5K for oil change using synthetic. For those living in salt-belt states, i would also recommend checking the caliper sliding bolt - that's partially exposed on Mazdas - every year to prevent seizing.

For Skyactiv 2.0, manual, I would recommend changing out the MT fluid OFTEN. I replaced mine at 6K (I know, I know, it's too early), but the fluid was black, totally opaque, and had some what thick layer. I changed it due to harsh shifting from 1st to 2nd.

 

Not to hijack the thread, but what fluid did you use? Oem or something else? Did it feel better afterwards? I ask as I believe we have the same 2.0 MTX and I notice on cold startups that 1st to 2nd shifting is a bit ehh, and occasionally harsh like you said.

 

Red Line Synthetic Oil - Gear Oil for Manual Transmissions - MTL 75W80 GL-4 Gear Oil

Feels completely different. I don't feel the initial slight resistance before going into the gear, but I do feel metallic contacts while going into the gears. So far, no more clanky noise when shifting from 1st to 2nd.

Misc FYI:
Even though the manual says Skayactiv takes approximately 1.8 us quarts, mine did not overflow from the fill hole when I poured in 2 full quarts when parked on a level ground. To make me feel better, I poured in a bit more until it overflowed and let the overflow stop dripping before I closed the fill bolt.

 

I haven't had my first oil change yet on my 2012 but am about ready to do it at 3000 miles of mostly short work trips over the last 5 months. Do most of the Mazda dealers use Castrol synthetic oil? I've always been a fan of Castrol.

 

The dealer I go to im pretty sure uses Castrol edge. It always says something like that on the receipt. Maybe call and ask them what they use

 

I did my first oil change at 3k. Guy looked at me like I was crazy and kept telling me I didn't need to do it till 5k, but I told him to do it.

I'll have to check my MT fluid. I'm at 15k, I might go ahead and change it out.

 

Heck, I'm trying to hold back from doing my first oil change at 1000 miles

 

I heard there are additives in the factory fill. I wouldn't change the oil at 500 or 1000 miles. I also prefill my oil filter before I screw it back on. I notice that the oil light barely comes on at startup. If you don't prefill the oil filter the oil pressure takes an extra few seconds to come up. Probably not a real big deal but it might make a diffirence over the life of the car.