:) Hi. Just bought my first Hyundai (2008 Santa Fe SE, 3.3L) in April. I am loving this car. I have reviewed the service schedule for the vehicle, but can't believe that I can go 7000 miles before my first oil change. Called local dealer and they said to come in between 3000 and 3500 miles (I'm at 3800). Why the difference in recommendations? Did the vehicle come with synthetic oil in it? Dealer said he'll put in conventional Mobil oil. Is that okay? Don't want to void the warranty.

Thanks!

I comes with conventional 5W-20 oil. You can follow the owner's manual for 7,500 mile oil changes. Of course the dealer wants to make as much money from you as possible, so they want you to come in twice as often. If you drive in severe conditions as defined in the manual, 3,500 miles is recommended for oil changes. See the maintenance table in your manual for all maintenance frequencies.

I'm using 5W-20 Mobil 1 full synthetic and going about 5,000 miles between changes, just to be safe. I do it myself and the oil is about $25 for 5.5 quarts and the filter (Fram CH9999) is about $6.00. So for $31 I know it's done right and I have full synthetic. Who knows if you take it in and pay for synthetic that you're actually getting it.

Welcome to the club! We just bought our first Hyundai as well, in January.

Conventional oil is fine, in fact that's what Hyundai uses at the factory. The only real advantage to synthetic is that it takes longer to break down, but ANY oil will get dirty and need changing long before it breaks down. Save your money.

The owner's manual permits long maintenance intervals for "normal" driving, however this does not include short trips, extremely hot or cold weather, extensive idling, towing, etc. Doubling the frequency, as per your dealer's recommendations, is a good idea for most driving conditions and/or people who want to get maximum engine life.

So here in the UK my family has 2 cars. Mine obvously the Santa goes in for an oil change every 3 or 4 months as I do approx 30K miles a year. service interval 10K/12 months

My other car, a vauxhall has a 30,000 mile!!!/24 month service schedule with no need to change the oil in between services.

How come one manufacturer can offer 30K beween visits and another recommend just 7K? for all intesive purpose the engines are the same, they are both virtually 2 wheel drive - (4WD is rarely used) both engines are 2.2 Turbo diesels with approx 150BHP?

I use synthetic oil and it's the same stuff that goes in my other car so go figure?

Does it really matter how many miles between oil changes as long as you change it every 24 months nowadays?

:liebe011:
Thank you to all who weighed in on the first oil change for a 2008 Santa Fe. I will be getting my oil changed this week at 4300 miles, after my second road trip to OH since getting the vehicle. Seems like a good interval for a change and check-up.

I look forward to future input/recommendations in this forum. Thanks to you guys I was convinced into trying a Hyundai Santa FE over a Honda CRV this year. So far I am very pleased with the decision. (It was time to say good bye to my trusted, 13 yr. old Mercury Villager LS, which had served me well - 170K miles.)

Here's to another 100K+!

http://www.synthetic-oil-tech.com/d.cgi/14...kept_secret.htm

Read it, 3500 mile oil changes are a myth created by teh greedy Americian oil comapnies. the UK guy is right, over there they easly go double our intervals.

One other consideration is time, should be every 3 months.

Think about this.....you might of bought yuor Santa fe 2 months ago, but when was the car actaully built.

That oil could be sitting in there for 3-4 months before you even get behind the wheel.

:57:

MY DEALERSHIP JUST SENT US NOTICE THAT WE ARE REQUIRED TO GET OUR FIRST OIL CHANGE NOW AFTER 3 MONTHS AND ONLY 800 MILES. What a waste, in review of my owner manual it tells me that I will need a second oil change in another 3 months.

Can it be that we are reading it wrong? That is what we thought when we got the notice from the dealer, but it seems clear to us, that is what the warranty requires to not to void it.

This is our first and last new car, so it is not as if we have done this before.

Feed back welcomed

Follow the book, teh dealership is just tryign to get your money, They'll tall you come in ever 3,500 miles, use thier filters, etc etc. It's to get your money. And the answer is NO they can't void your warrenty for doing yoru own oil changes or using other filters. As long as you get a filter made for or exceeds the requirements for you SantaFE they can't do anything. That goes for the type of oil as well, use what ever you wish, as long as it meets or exceeded the requirements of thier oil, which is easy, any certifed oil, even dino oil meets those requirements.

There is NO WAY you should go 30K between oil changes. My wife's former Audi went 10K, and that was with synthetic.
I would check on that. 7K for regular oil is getting pretty standard.
No way you should have oil for more then 10K
Maintence and oil changes are different. Maintence is checking the belts and stuff.

WHy can't you go over 30k on an oil change? is there something lubrication engineers don't know? If the oil can do it so can yoru engine. I ge tthe oil tested every Oil Filter change, which happens every 25K, and I've never had any issues, the oil and folter has always passed. Mind you once I go turbo I'll be doing the oil changes at 25k like the oil manufacture states to do so. As long as your oil and filter states that you can go a certian number of km/miles or month on the oil you can do it. THe myth about 3,500 or 7,500 miles is just that a myth. Maybe if your using dino oil you need to go 3,500 mile becuase most dino oil just can last. But a good synthetic can last a lot longer. If fact I got it in writing if my engien gets damaged within the 50k or 1 year oil change intervals withthe 25k filter changes AMSOIL will pay for all costs to fix the engine. You can go even longer if you use a device called a Bypass Filter. I have trucks running in the range of up to 140,000km per oil change, they do filter changes but that's it.

Dude, I'm only teling you what my Vauxhall manufacturer (Subsidery of GM Motors!) is tellng me in the handbook.

If they say the car can go for 30K or 24 months between oil changes and services then thats fine by me. I imagine it must be backed up with some technical knowledge from somewhere otherwise they wouldn't sell it like that? Time for ppl to start living in the real world, Oil is scarce, Vauxhall have my vote for trying to do something about it... :thumbsup: Perhaps the truth hurts the already struggling dealerships a bit? I dunno??

Trust me tho, I have triple checked it.

You are absolutely correct. In fact, sone Vauxhalls can go up to two years or 40,000 miles before changing the oil.

Very impressive.

Check out the enclosed link.

http://www.06vauxhall.co.uk/service.html

David <><

This is one of those arguements that no one ever wins. This topic could end up having hundreds of posts, and no one will ever agree in the end.

You guys do what you want, but even with synthetic I will never go past 5 or 6k miles on an oil change. I've seen time and time again here in the shop what sludge will do to an engine from lack of oil changes. To me frequent oil changes are a very small price to pay in comparision. It's not like oil is $10 a quart... come on now.

The dealer is not trying to "steal" your money... most vehicles fall under the severe service schedule because of city driving, therefore the dealer goes by the 3k mile oil change interval. You admitted that dino oil will only last that long, and I don't know any dealer that uses sythetic for oil changes unless the customer requests it, so why whould they increase the oil change interval being as most customer use conventional oil?

As for the notice you received for the dealer about your first oil change after 3 months but only 800 miles... the deaer uses a database that sends out oil change reminders to customers based on time, not mileage. They are assuming that since it's been three months that you would have at least 3k miles on your vehicle. If you don't, they don't know that. Most people put more than 800 miles on their vehicle in three months time.

Lil Bean,

I wasn't aware that this WAS an argument.

dansaaf simply stated that his Vauxhall Owner's Manual says he needs to change his oil less frequently than what is average. He is correct, no argument there, check the website.

As far as when we choose to change our oil is strictly a personal preference.

My personal preference is to use 100% synthetic and change anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000, whichever is convenient for me. Again, this is a personal choice.

Anyone who has different habits are also correct, for them, no argument.

The main thing is to change your oil at some reasonable interval, whatever it may be, according to your preference.

I do find it interesting, however, that Vauxhall recommends such long intervals. Keep in mind that the majority of Vauxhalls are going to be driven in one of the most populus cities in the world, London.

London driving conditions are definitely hard on an automobile, considering the humidity, traffic, etc. Still, Vauxhall believes their automobiles will stand up to 2 year or 30,000 mile oil change intervals.

I don't intend to follow Vauxhall's recommendations for my Hyundais but am enthralled by their philosophy.

I would really like to hear from someone who works for Vauxhall to learn why they have those long intervals.

I do know that the Vauxhall is a very nice automobile. I would love to have the new Vauxhall Insignia coming to the UK showrooms soon. It is a great looking car.

David <><

I meant argument as in debate, not argument as in disagreement or fight.

This subject is indeed personal preference, I agree, and I never said otherwise. I was simply trying to make it clear as to why the dealer recommends 3k miles as the oil change interval, and not longer as some suggest should be done.

I was not aware until I read this thread that Vauxhall had such long oil change intervals. I too would be curious to know what they know that we don't and what if any differences there may be.

This post has been edited by LilBean: Jun 30 2008, 01:48 PM

Thanks Davd. You know, I was wondering if:

Vauxhall have made these claims because it only offers a 3 year 60K miles Warranty on it's vehicles? Perhaps they have done the maths and worked out that in those three years they will (on average) see their cars back in the shop twice?

Maybe they are making statements like 30K service intervals as a tool to introduce more customers and gambling on the fact that no matter how many times you change the oil the car will last 60K miles?

What happens after that to the engine is no longer their concern??

Here lies my original issue. How or why are both manufacturers so vastly different? I LOVE the idea of a 40K service schedule, but not if I have to throw the car away after 65K...? I will continue to change my oil at each service approx 10K but am I just throwing my money away...? Who knows.

It's sort of a crap shoot, isn't it?

Like they say, "Buyer beware".

"Trust nothing, doubt everything"

This is a tough way to live not being able to trust anything you hear or read, but as far as oil changes are concerned, I think I would trust every 18 months or 6,000 miles, using 100% synthetic.

If you are primarily driving city, I would change every 4,000 miles or 12 months, whichever occurs first.

Just my personal preference and just as wild of a guess as anything else we can come up with. :)


As far as the warranty is concerned, you are not required to have the dealer perform the service. Just keep your maintenance records up to date according to what Hyundai considers appropriate. :innocent:

I do my own service work in my own garage and keep a written logue in my Hyundai maintenance manual.


David <><

LubeReport6-11-08

Even GM says 3,000 or even 5,000 oil changes are a myth. It's a new world man, as long as you buy a good oil you can extend your drain intervals by alot. I'm currently following my oil and filter specs or 25,000km oil filter changes and 50,000km oil changes All which is covered by a warranty. I also get my oil tested about every 15,000km just to make sure.

I've always gone by the school of 6000kms or 3 months whatever comes first. Since 90% of my driving tends to be city I usually don't rack up that many clicks so I end up doing mine at the 3 month. By this point I've usually done about 5000kms(3000miles). If I was doing the opposite and mostly highway I would be extending it.