Oil Change and Tire Rotation Interval?

115

Asked by SaratogaPaul Dec 26, 2008 at 08:40 PM about the 2006 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited Wagon AWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Okay...the owner's manual says to change the oil and rotate the tires every 7500 miles unless your in extreme conditions. I'm in the Albany, NY area (I won't classify the area as extreme cold weather) and I do mostly highway communitting driving with the car (50 miles round trip per day in light to moderate traffic).

I have been getting the oil changed every 5000 miles and tires rotated every 10000 miles. Is that too infrequent? Or should I really be changing the oil every 3750 miles and the tires rotated every 7500 miles?  

5 Answers

750

if youre using synthetic oil, its probably fine. if youre using regular oil, id go with 3000.

30

If your using synthetic and you are going to go 5000 miles then you should probably have the tires rotated every oil change. besides most good shops will rotate them cheap or free.

47,960

Hi Paul, You're fine. What's important is to change your oil when it's DIRTY, not as a function of distance nor time. Since cold starts contaminate oil, I suggest clients change it each 100 cold starts, or every 3 months. Dino or synth doesn't matter (except for hot turbos)! Subies are in a way MORE subject to tire rotation in asubtle way because the trans wants to "see" equal rolling radii. Since there's a 60/40 weight distribution, front tires wear more quickly; that fact plus the downward mass squashes them smaller than the rears. The tranny is NOT happy about this stress, and beats up its ATF trying to accommodate. So rotate your tires to always keep the TALLER tires up front. That's the only car-related requirement. Then there's the issue of tire-specific wear. Some tires scallop (or "cup") very quickly...especially when insufficiently weighted in the rear. (This is a more serious with very light rearends of front wheel drive cars.) To even out this noisy condition one can REVESE the direction of (direction-less tires only!) rotation, which may even out the scalloping over time...if it's not too late. If your tires are directional then you can't help this condition. If your tires are asymmetric tread there's no problem cross-rotating them. That's one reason I eschew directional tires: they usually get discarded because of vibration and noise well before they wear out. GENERALLY, I suggest that Subie owners of new tires cross- rotate a first time after about a year or 15k miles, then see if needed a second time a year or two later. Just remember the golden rule: keep the taller treads up front! Your tranny will thank you.

2 people found this helpful.

The stock tire came with subaru was Goodyear Fuel Max. The mpg was good but ride comfort was horrible after a year. So changing those from Costco. They do free rotation for the entire tire-life. You can say your vehicle needs 6K mile to rotate the tires and they are very nice person in tire center and follow what you say. And do it for free. Dealer charge was $25 for rotation, so saving $50 per year. Invested that extra bucks in having some good brand tires.

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