Engamax — Car engine maintenance schedules: service | engamax.com
Normal driving buys you 10,000–15,000 km or 12 months between oil changes; severe duty cuts the distance in half.
The normal schedule — 10,000–15,000 km or 12 months — assumes the engine regularly completes a full warm-up. That means coolant in the 90–105 °C operating range, the thermostat open at 80–95 °C, and enough running time at temperature on each trip. Cars used this way can run the full interval safely.
Severe duty is the other column, and it is defined by three conditions: regular short trips, towing, and dusty roads. Any of them halves the oil interval to 5,000–7,500 km. The 12-month cap does not move — time counts against the oil even when distance does not.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Viscosity choice sits next to the interval, not inside it. The W grade is a cold-crank limit: 0W-20 flows down to −35 °C and 5W-30 down to −30 °C, so the grade is chosen for the coldest start the car will face. It is not an operating-temperature rating, and it does not extend or shorten the change interval.
Capacity is the last number in the job. A typical passenger-car engine holds 4–6 litres, and that figure assumes the filter is replaced at the same time — the filter is part of every oil change, not an occasional extra.
For the parts that outlast oil by an order of magnitude, see the companion guide to spark plug and timing belt service life; for the job itself, the step-by-step home oil change procedure lists the correct order and the classic mistakes.
Further reading