What is the factory maintenance schedule for my car, and when is each service due?

A car's factory maintenance schedule is the manufacturer's own list of what to service and when, and for your specific car it is derived from the VIN: the decode resolves the car to its year, make, model, engine, and trim, and the factory specs behind those facts supply the schedule interval by interval — every item traced to the source it came from. You read it free, with no account, by pasting the number at maintenance.vin/{VIN}. Each interval carries its item and its source, so nothing shows up that can't be traced back to the book. Where odometer evidence exists on the car's record, the due-at-mileage reads right beside the interval; where it doesn't, that slot stays a dash rather than a guess. That is the whole answer: the schedule is the book's, keyed to your VIN, and when a service is due is a function of the interval the book sets and the mileage the record can prove.

The rest of this is how the intervals are structured, how "due" is actually determined, and where the honest edges are.

How the schedule is built from the VIN

A maintenance schedule is not one number; it is a grid. Down one axis are the intervals — the recurring mileage or time points the manufacturer defines. Across the other are the items due at each. The VIN is what pins that grid to your exact car, because the same model can carry different schedules depending on engine, drivetrain, and trim.

• The decode names the car. Seventeen characters resolve to the year, make, model, engine, and trim. That matters because a 2.0-liter and a 3.5-liter version of the "same" model do not share an oil-change interval, and a car sold with a severe-duty package may carry a tighter schedule than the base build. The decode is what keeps the schedule from being the generic model's instead of yours.
• The specs supply the intervals. Behind the decode sit the factory specifications at specs.vin — the manufacturer's own numbers. The schedule renders from those, so every interval and every item has a source you can point at. No line renders without one.
• The record supplies the mileage. An interval is a threshold; whether you've crossed it depends on where the odometer is. Where the car's record carries odometer evidence, the due-at-mileage posts beside the interval — this item was due at that reading. Where the record has no odometer fact to stand on, the slot stays empty rather than inventing a mileage.

What the intervals actually contain

Factory schedules are organized around recurring service points, and the items fall into a few honest categories. The exact mileages and the exact items are the manufacturer's, and they render live at the address for your VIN — this page describes the structure, not your car's numbers.

The regular-interval items. These recur on a fixed cadence — engine oil and filter, tire rotation, cabin and engine air filters, and the multi-point inspection most schedules fold in at each visit. They are the backbone of the schedule and the ones that come due most often.

The milestone services. At larger intervals the schedule calls bigger jobs: brake fluid, coolant, spark plugs, transmission fluid where the manufacturer specifies a change, and timing-belt replacement on engines that use one. These are the intervals people miss because they arrive years apart, and they are exactly where a schedule you can read beats a schedule you're remembering.

The time-or-mileage items. Some items are due at whichever comes first — a mileage or an elapsed period. Fluids that degrade with age and not just use fall here. This is why "I don't drive much" is not the same as "I don't need service": the calendar can trigger an item the odometer hasn't.

The condition-flagged items. Manufacturers distinguish normal from severe service — short trips, towing, extreme heat or cold, heavy dust. A car driven under severe conditions may hit tighter intervals. The schedule states what the book calls for; how your car is actually driven is a fact you bring to it.

How "due" is determined — the precision ladder

The honest version of "when is it due" runs on a ladder, and each rung is more accurate than the one below it. This is doctrine here, not a sales funnel — the free rung leads, and every deeper rung is a real gain in accuracy, never a teaser.

• The anonymous base. Anyone can read the whole schedule for a VIN with no account — every interval, every item, every source. This is the free floor: what the book calls for, laid out in full. It is complete on its own.
• The account layer. Signed in through your account at auth.vin, the record can hold your car's odometer evidence in one place, so due-at-mileage fills in against a reading the record actually carries rather than one you estimate in your head.
• The kept record. The deepest rung is a service history that lives on the record: as work is completed, each completion posts back — order id, item, timestamp, invoice line — so "due" is measured against what was genuinely last done, not what you think you remember doing.

That ladder is why the free schedule leads. You do not pay to learn what the book calls for; the accuracy you add is the accuracy of your own car's mileage and history, and that is yours.

From the schedule to the work

Reading the schedule is the free face. Ordering the work is the deepening step, and it runs on the services chassis: due work quotes from the VIN at a stated price, with the vendor's cost and the margin shown as separate lines, and every completion posts to the record. That is what turns a shoebox of receipts into a service history the next buyer can read — a maintenance record that is attested, not remembered.

One honest limit stated plainly: paid maintenance orders on this door run behind a compliance gate while the service-vendor agreements clear. The schedule is live today — free, no account — and until the gate opens, due work quotes from the VIN through the services.vin counter, one VIN, one order, one invoice. The schedule states what the book calls for; the record states what actually posted. A gap between them is a fact, not an accusation — and any receipts you already hold are still yours.

Read it

• Read the schedule: maintenance.vin — the factory schedule for your VIN, interval by interval, each item with its source, free and no account.
• Order the work: services.vin — due work quoted from the same VIN, at a stated price, one invoice.
• Read what the car has actually had done: vhr.vin — the history the next buyer reads on the same record.

The schedule, then the record. The record, then the resale.