Maintenance is always time or mileage based, which ever comes first. Certain fluids degrade over time...

 

Thanks so much for your reply.
I do get the oil changes when recommended so I am up to date on that. I’ll talk to my service advisor (great people and never recommend anything you don’t need).

 

Hi Cheryl... welcome to the forum....

Yes, you should have it done. Mind you, you can use any qualified service center (dealership, local mechanic, whatever) for the work.

If you look at your maintenance schedule booklet, you'll see it's based on miles OR Months... 12 months or 12,0i00 miles, 48 / 48000 , etc....

My 2014 Forester has under 65000 miles, but I'm at 10+ years old (120 months).... I've had lots of services done well early of the mileage trigger.

 

I agree, if you aren't driving much, follow the time based recommendations. That is why they are there.

 

The only things I see in the Maintenance chart is eng oil/filter and Cabin air filter. The rest is inspect. So ask what they want to do.

 

Some dealers (and some independent shops) definitely make recommendations that can be valueless profit-padding items. The key advice is to know the specific maintenance actions which are truly required - engine oil being #1. Things like air filters are less susceptible to degradation based on time alone, and you can more safely wait for the miles to accumulate. Yet other things, like brake fluid, need flushing based only on time not miles, and you MUST get them attended to even if you've hardly driven. Being even one leg up on topics like this will consciously or unconsciously encourage the service shop to not try to pull anything over on you, even the stuff that requires "two legs up" to be knowledgeable about.

 

Semantics.

Services performed at 24 and 48 months are exactly the same.

Get the service done and ask them why they don't correctly identify the service interval while you are there.

 

You only need to do it if you feel sorry for the service writer and want to help him pay his kid's tuition

 

I'm going to be playing devil's advocate and say that I believe the time-based service recommendation/requirement is overrated. Yes, sure, things do degrade over time, fluids age etc., but I'm convinced there's a huge margin at play. Certain things, such as the brake fluid, age over time and may degrade with age just as they do with mileage. Others, like the engine filter, don't. I'm willing to bet an engine filter that has been sitting in a car that hasn't been driven for 5 years is indistinguishable from a new one. Moving parts wear by mileage, not time. Your CVT doesn't care how long it's been sitting in the garage. It cares about how much of its lifespan it has spent doing work.

So, I'd say everything within reason. Use your own judgement and common sense, and don't let the dealer trick you into believing that your car is no longer safe to drive after 6 months even though you barely put any miles on it.

 

... Certain things, such as the brake fluid, age over time and may degrade with age just as they do with mileage...

Opened but unused, brake fluid gains water and motor oil loses volatiles. This is a problem for brake fluid but I don't see that for oil. However, someone in the Scion xB forum fifteen years ago did warn that a half-used bottle of oil would lose its "lubricity" . Imagine what must happen to old but low mileage oil in the crankcase ;-)

 

Why is this dealer skipping over the upcoming 30K service which is one of the major 30/60/90/120/180 etc "milestones"?

 

Does the dealer have your actual mileage recorded correctly? It could be sending you this notification because they may have approximated the amount of miles you have incorrectly, if you haven't been there in a bit

 

Severe Service typically halves the service interval. Mostly short trips? That's severe service.

 

It could also be some sort of automated system based on the industry average of 12K/yr. Two years ago I was getting 60K service emails from SOA on my old '17 when it actually had nearly 100K and was documented as such in SOA's records. I had the 60K done not long after I bought it in '21.

 

If your Starlink subscription is active, the mileage is updated each time you shut the car off.

I would venture to say it is being tracked even if you don't.

The dealer knows how many miles you have, if they use the tools available to them.

It doesn't rule out automated systems though.

It comes down to how diligent the service marketing person is at their job.