Thread: Is 12,000 km for the 1st service Excessive?

Originally Posted by MuzzyDelta90

I was always under the impression that a new engine needs it's first service after a few 1000 km to flush out all the stuff from the engine slowly wearing in. I realise that a lot of factories run the engine in on test beds these days, but still 12,000 does seem a long time to wait.

Change the engine oil after 1 or 2 thousand kms, everything else should be ok until the first service.

The official service interval is heavily dependant on the conditions the car operates in.

In the UK every drop of fuel is regulated and ambient temperatures are significantly lower than elsewhere in the world. The vast majoroty of UK Defenders are bought by farmers and they don't do long distances, hence the 12,000 mile service interval.

City driving, long distance driving, ambient temperatures above 40 celcius and dusty high reving environments needs that interval adjusted to suit the perceived average environment of each individual car.We've had threads about this before and every dealer seems to have their own interpretation.

My car's official interval according to the dealer's sticker is 12,000km and those are done either back in Perth or Broome (closest LRA approved service centres). The service manager does however know I live in the Pilbara where a "Sunday drive" quickly turns into a 400km round trip and the average teperature hovers around the 38C mark. I buy filters from Southern Land Rover in Perth and I sourced the correct Castrol oil from the Reliance Petrolium to change the oil every 6000km to fit in halfway between the "book" services.

The next challenge is to get them to change to gear oils sooner than the book says...