5K free service - what if I exceed by a few hundred miles

no prolemo. it's only a problem if you want it before 5k.

 

I don't think 250 miles or so either over or under will cause you any issues at all. It is practically impossible to get in to the dealer right on the mark. I think they realize that.

 

However, they want it in every 6 months even if you have considerably less than 5K since the last service. It seems there could be warranty problems if you go much longer than 6 months. Here is a quote from Toyota when I questioned them on this matter.

"The Scheduled Maintenance Guide is designed to help you make sure your vehicle receives proper and timely maintenance. Maintaining your vehicle according to the factory recommendations ensures that your warranty coverage remains intact, since damage or failure caused by lack of proper maintenance are not covered under warranty."

I imagine they get to define the cause of the failure. Of course none of the service in the manual has anything to do with the major electrical parts.

 

Scheduled maintenance is distance OR time. That kinda breaks down if you've got next to zero miles. Honda has a contingent for the latter, not sure with Toyo.

 

Its pretty obvious they don't because I asked them if 8 months between service would be okay if that was 5000 miles. Their response is shown a couple of postings above.

 

That was no problemo for me. I even had an actual oil change, normally intended for 10k, performed before 5k. (I normally get the first two oil changes performed early, before going for longer intervals.)

My only problemo was that the services cannot be performed out of sequence, so skipped services are lost. I.e. the free 5k no-oil-change service I skipped cannot saved for later, such as after first oil change that I actually had to pay for.

(Reminder to newbies who haven't been through this: on the free service plan, oil is changed only at the 2nd and 4th services, not the 1st, 3rd, and 5th services. So I used the 2nd, 4th, and 5th services, all early, and threw away the 1st and 3rd ones.)

 

As others have quoted its either time or mileage. But please check with your dealer on the very first service. I suppose its at 5 months. That's what my dealer told me. Here's excerpt from the email the sales guy sent to me -

1. First Service- Remember, your first service is due at 5000 miles or 5 months. It is a good idea to call for an appointment one week in advance of the date you would like to come in if you don't have an appointment set already.

 

Call service adviser and ask him.
He may give you option of coming in early if you wish. My first service was approx. 4350 miles and they did not say a word about it being early.

 

The first service at 5k miles consists of rotating the tires and checking fluid levels. You can check the oil yourself, something one ought to do anyway before a trip of 1000 miles. An extra few hundred miles shouldn't cause any problems. As for the warranty, in order to deny coverage Toyota would have to prove a late servicing was the specific cause or contributed to the failure of a part or system. Have a good trip!

 

No harm in skipping the 5,000 mile service. It is just nothing. The purpose of that is after the free service ends they would like you to get in the habit of going in every 5,000 miles and spending some money.

 

My dealer says 500 mile leeway is OK to be over your scheduled maintenance interval. I've even been slightly over that with no problems from the dealer.

 

I had a 2012 Prius that I only brought in at 10K and 20K ( I did all other maintenance till 65000 miles when I bought my PIP). I drove the care about 2500 a month so I never went more than 4 months between going back to the dealership.

You should always check your fluids and tires at every gas fill up ! Do not wait till the 5K, just measure the pressure yourself in the tires and look for abnormal wear. Always check your fluid levels every 500-600 miles...

they said I should of brought it in at 5K and 15k but I told them that they do not do anything at those but look at the car and needlessly rotate the tires.

They still did the 10 and 20 K oil changes and tire rotations.

On my regular Prius, I noticed the tires in the front and rear wore at the same rate and figured out that you do not even need to rotate the tires for tread wire life (do at your own risk). I will have to check to see if the extra 90lbs of batteries in the back change this equation any.

 

Back in the old days (50s and 60s) we used to do this. Cars starting needing repairs at 40K to 50K miles even though they often got serviced every 2K or 3K miles. I suspect that today 95% of folks never do any checking/inspection other than regular 5K miles service and cars regularly go 100K miles with few if any repairs. I can't remember a car that I owned in the past 30 years that needed any repairs that were in any way associated with something you could check when you filled the tank.

 

I hate to pay $20 to rotate tires every 5K when Costco does it free. Is it cost effective to pay for rotation for the tires that are on my new 2014 III? My next set will be from Costco.

 

Moving out towards the end of the complimentary service, don't do what I did! I was busy/lazy and waited until 26,664 miles to take my PiPA in for its last free service. Nope! Too late. Toyota is strict when it comes to the 25,000 miles. I didn't argue with the service manager because it was my fault. I can imagine them allowing for a few miles over 25k, but not nearly 2,000 miles over. My bad.

Instead, I jumped to the first service in my paid-for ToyotaCare Plus plan, which I bought in April 2014. I like this plan, which cost me $299. It includes four services at 5,000 mile intervals, up to 45,000 miles. At the 26,667 service, we bumped it forward to the 30k plan service, which was the "major" service with oil change, cabin and engine filter change. Yes, I know I can do the four services cheaper myself, but not by much.

 

I hadn't thought of it that way, but I suspect that you will pay the dealer more for rotations, including the ones at 10 k intervals than you get out of extending the tread life. Lots of posts in other threads about the OEM tires lasting only 30k miles. But if you get into the 60k+ miles as I have done on my two Gen IIs, the costs for dealer rotations adds up. I preferred to do the rotating myself, so I didn't spend that money. On my PiP, however, I got new tires at 19k because two of the OEMs were ruined in an accident. The tire dealer who worked with the body shop gave me a good deal on the two I had to pay for, and gives free rotation and balance as often as every 3k miles. I had planned to buy replacements at Costco, where I usually get them for one of my other cars. But this works out about the same. I think the tire dealer, an independent shop, knows he has to compete with Costco.

 

I usually go to Discount Tire when I buy a new car and buy lifetime balancing and rotation with them. Y

When I buy a new car I usually go to Discount Tire and buy a lifetime balancing and rotation. It is worthwhile. You can have your tires balanced and rotated as much as you want. The LIFETIME is for the life of the tires that are on your car. You may consider that. It will also help to keep you out of your Toyota dealer service department after the free stuff there ends.

 

How much do you pay for the lifetime balancing & rotation?

 

I bought mine from Discount Tire for my 2011 Prius three years ago. I have since traded the Prius for an Avalon and I do not have my receipt but It was just under $100.00 at that time. Haven't bought it yet for the Avalon because of the Toyota free service.