How are you all handling oil changes during the pandemic? My leased car (QX60) requires a full synthetic oil change every 6 months / 5K miles. I’m at 6 months and have driven 2,300 miles in that time. The lease expires in 5 months and I doubt I’ll get to the full 5k miles before the end of the lease.
Are you required to still follow the oil change timing? Or is just doing miles OK?
Go by the dash light telling you when to change it. You bring it back with that light off and you are fine.
I go by miles
The dash light on the QX60 goes by a manual maintenance reminder that I can set to whatever I want
Mine says whichever comes first. I am in the same situation, I’m just going to get it done and avoid any issues.
5K miles or 6months for a full synthetic oil??? Is that right? I thought most were 7,500-10K for full synthetic?
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I thought it was overkill too based on the quality of modern day engine oil
Interesting. I did find this as well so it’s touch to see what has changed. Maybe call the dealer to confirm what the oil change schedule is. How Often Should I Have My INFINITI Oil Changed? | INFINITI Service.
My MDX lit up a maintenance minder a month or so before the lease turn in, I just reset it and returned the car like that. But that’s the risk you are taking if your engine blows up between now and then, although realistically I personally don’t see a few miles being an issue unless there is sludge instead of oil in there. YMMV
I think its upto you how you want to handle it. If you feel that treating a lease as though you own it, is the respectable thing to do, get it changed (indy or dealer). If you feel that YOLO, then ignore it. While most oil mfgs state their oils can last an entire year and then some. The only negative is if the mfg has an electronic active monitoring system on oil life and at lease end they slap you with some fees.
at which point you can claim you did it yourself in your garage. What are they going to do, send it to the lab to prove that the oil is older than X?
at which point they may ask for receipts for either indy work order or bottles of oil and filter…
Drop off at dealer. Pick up loaner.
Return loaner, pick up car.
I am sure this is not going to happen but can’t prove it.
If the oil would start detoriating after only 6 months / 2300 miles, that oil brand would go bankrupt. Even off-brand synthetic oils are proven highly protective after longer periods of use. Check your oil level and color and you can take your time.
I know this off topic, but oil color is no indicator of oil life. Oil level checks are cheap insurance from running an engine dry (big no no). The nitty gritty benchmark I guess, is run a oil analysis on clean oil, and then at oil change over a fairly long period and then compare samples to other owners. But whose really that invested in doing work the mfg probably has already done.
I am not privy to why they changed the oil interval to 6 months/5k, could be as simple as helping dealers move more service tickets or something their engineers found was necessary to prevent warranty costs. The end result tho is the same if its required, do it, regardless of where you get the service done.
Depends how they designed the oil life system, if at all.
Some makes, oil light is active, some are passive (reminder only).
We had a similar thread of, for I believe BMW lease turn in the any service lights are turned on, they bill ya.
Normally I would agree with you, but with the pandemic I can totally see people not wanting to add unnecessary exposure to do an oil change when they know they won’t drive that much. You do bring up a good point about running it dry and it should be checked (also I’m fairly sure the car would check oil pressure for you and shut off long before dry, but that’s car dependent).
Everyone’s comfort levels are different, but I know for myself if I can avoid dealing with something right now, I will avoid it.
I think the biggest point here is comfort level during a pandemic, as OP specifically mentioned that.
+1 on the pandemic changing folks comforting levels.
Infinti and alot of other brands/dealers groups are doing drop off and pick up services to avoid contact.
If you have a local indy at the gas station, they can do it.
If you are good with tools, DIY it.
And if you dont really want to, you are free not to do it as a I said earlier.
The oil sender pressure light depends as you said. I have yet to see that system successfully shutdown the motor though. Usually most folks end up ignoring it or wondering what that indicates…