Kia Telluride Oil Changes: 5W-30, About Seven Quarts

Ask a parent in South Reno or Somersett what they drive and a lot of them will say Telluride. The three-row Kia arrived for 2020 with a single engine, a 3.8L V6, and it has kept it. That makes the oil side simple: one engine, one grade. The interesting part is how much of what a Telluride does around here lands on Kia's severe list.

What goes in it

The recommended lubricants page of Kia's online 2025 Telluride owner's manual lists the engine oil at about 6.87 US quarts, full synthetic SAE 5W-30, ACEA A5. That is a heavier grade and a European performance rating, different from the 0W-20 in Kia's four-cylinder models, and we pour a full synthetic carrying that rating.

The automatic transmission holds about 7.4 quarts. AWD Telluride models have a rear differential and a transfer case, each listed at about 0.74 quart of 75W-85 GL-5 hypoid gear oil.

Kia's schedule, set against a Telluride's week

Kia's manual also says that after 10 years or 100,000 miles it recommends the severe schedule. Severe conditions in the Telluride manual include towing or camping, roof loads, short trips in freezing weather, heavy traffic, repeated mountain driving and dusty roads.

Picture a Telluride on a ski Saturday: kids and gear, a cargo box on the roof, the climb up the Mount Rose Highway in the cold. That is three severe conditions before lunch. A summer trip pulling a small trailer toward Lake Tahoe or the Eastern Sierra is a fourth. We put the 5,000-mile sticker on a lot of these, and on the ones that only commute we will set 8,000 if that is your call.

Coolant and filters

• Coolant: first replacement at 120,000 miles or 120 months, then every 24,000 miles or 24 months, per Kia's normal schedule.
• Engine air filter: Kia says to replace it more often in dust, and Reno averages only about 7.35 inches of precipitation a year (NOAA 1991 to 2020 normals).
• Cabin air filter: three rows of passengers notice it first in wildfire smoke season.
• Battery check before winter at participating locations; the Reno airport averages 122 nights at or below freezing (NOAA).

Telluride at our service centers

Pull into any of the four: Mae Anne Avenue in northwest Reno, Longley Lane in south Reno, College Parkway in Carson City or US 395 in Gardnerville. No appointment. We drain the V6, fit a new filter, refill with a full synthetic 5W-30 of the right rating, run the multi-point maintenance check and reset the reminder. If the AWD fluids or the transmission are near a line on your schedule, we tell you, and you decide. Our differential service and transmission fluid service use the fluids Kia names.