Preventive Maintenance

When we talk about our vehicle preventive maintenance, some of us will get confuse because some of our car manufacturer recommend that preventive maintenance should be done every 5,000km, 10,000km and some continental car recommend that preventive maintenance should be done every 15,000km or 20,000km.

The actual fact, the duration of preventive maintenance should be done based on type of engine old that we used for our vehicle engine. There are 3 types of engine oils : Mineral / Semi Synthetic / Fully Synthetic.

Mineral Engine Oil : The engine oil must be changed every 5,000km / 3 months whichever come first.

Semi-Synthetic Engine Oil: The engine oil can last up to 6,000km-7,000km, however service centre still will recommend you to change it every 5,000km / 3months whichever come first.

Fully-Synthetic Engine Oil: The engine oil last up to 10,000km-15,000km. Based on Malaysia's climate and weather, it is preferable for us to change the oil every 10,000km / 6 months whichever come first.

My personal opinion, i prefer to use fully synthetic engine oil. The reason that i choose fully synthetic oil

is thinner than mineral engine oil but withstands high and low temperatures slightly better than mineral engine oil and therefore recommended for high performance racing engines or for use in very extreme hot very  climate. Fully synthetic engine oil takes slightly longer to breakdown before losing its lubricating properties which translates into longer time periods between oil changes but it still requires periodic oil changes.But fully synthetic engine oil is warned against using during a new engine's break-in period and also warned against using in engines prone to leakage because the thinness of the fully synthetic oil increases leakage particularly in older engines.