Maintenance schedule

Discuss any maintenance you've done to your Vibe & Matrix and ask how to perform maintenance on your vehicle
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leopardgirl88
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: Sacramento, CA

Maintenance schedule

Post by leopardgirl88 »

Hello everyone. I have a 1.8l 2009 Vibe with a little over 99,000 miles on it. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what maintenance schedule is on these cars. At how many miles/years should these things be changed: coolant, transmission fluid, brake fluid, spark plugs, air filter, and the cabin air filter. If I'm forgetting anything please let me know. I change the oil between 3k-5k miles, depending on the type of driving I do. I use Mobile 1 fully synthetic.
Caretaker

Re: Maintenance schedule

Post by Caretaker »

This is my schedule, not what it says in the manual or what a dealer would tell you, or anyone else looking to do unnecessary repairs in order to make money off of uninformed customers:

oil: every 5,000 miles with conventional oil. New oil filter every time. Comment: unless you are running your car as a NYC taxi, changing out fully synthetic at 3-5,000 miles is a waste of money. It isn't harming your engine, but your change interval is way too aggressive. I'm not a fan of synthetic, especially in these oil burning Toyota engines. Synthetic is much thinner and susceptible to getting around piston rings where it ends up burning into your exhaust.
transmission fluid (automatic): flush out/full fluid transfer every 60,000 miles, and in your model using World Standard (WS) fluid
coolant: flush out every 50,000 miles using Toyota Super Long Life equivalent such as Xerex Asian formula
brake fluid: full fluid transfer (ie: drained at the brake line) every 3 years. Heck, for $35, get it done at Sears and get it done more often.
tires: every 5 years (if they last that long), consider replacing due to the sun degrading the rubber.
spark plugs: Denso iridium plugs are good for at least 100,000 miles. That is the mileage I would change them out.
ignition coils: these are supposed to throw a check engine code when they go bad. Consider changing them out at the same time the spark plugs are done.
engine air filter: check at least once a year. Driving in desert/sandy areas will reduce its life, as will high humidity/mildew areas. Change at least every 25,000 miles and more often if it looks dirty.
cabin air filter: change every 6 months. Instead of buying OEM filters, just cut up furnace filters and place in the slot. It will be much cheaper and you can replace it more often without burning a hole in your wallet.
russki1990
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 11:31 pm

Re: Maintenance schedule

Post by russki1990 »

Caretaker wrote: I'm not a fan of synthetic, especially in these oil burning Toyota engines. Synthetic is much thinner and susceptible to getting around piston rings where it ends up burning into your exhaust.
Synthetic viscosity is the same as conventional viscosity as long as it has the same numbering on the bottle. if its 5w30 then its 5w30 no matter if its regular oil or synthetic. its blowing by your rings because your engine is tired and worn out.
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joatmon
Posts: 10018
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 5:19 am
Location: SMC MD

Re: Maintenance schedule

Post by joatmon »

The owners manual has the factory recommended maintenance schedule in it. I don't particularly follow that myself

Any or all of the Vibe owners manuals can be downloaded as PDFs from viewtopic.php?t=755
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