Nissan Kicks Oil Change: The 1.6L and the 2025 Redesign

The Kicks is a small, light crossover that a lot of people in Sparks and the North Valleys drive for errands, school runs and the commute down I-80. Nissan redesigned it for 2025 with a bigger 2.0-liter engine and available all-wheel drive, and with the new engine came a longer oil interval and a monitor that tracks it. Owners who moved from an older Kicks to a new one sometimes carry the old habit over, so here is what each manual says.

At a glance

• 2018-2024 HR16DE 1.6L: 0W-20 SP, 4-3/8 qt with filter (2023 Kicks Owner's Manual)
• 1.6L schedule: 7,500 miles or 6 months; 5,000 miles or 6 months for severe use
• 2025 MR20DD 2.0L: 0W-20 SP, 4-3/8 qt, 10,000 miles or 12 months
• Cabin microfilter at 15,000 miles on both

Two engines, one grade

Both manuals recommend Genuine NISSAN Motor Oil 0W-20 SP or an equivalent 0W-20 GF-6 SP oil. Without a filter change the capacity drops to about 4 quarts. The grade is the same, so the difference that matters is the schedule.

Is your Kicks on the severe schedule

Nissan's manuals list the conditions that call for the severe schedule: repeated short trips under 5 miles, short trips under 10 miles in freezing weather, hot stop-and-go traffic, long idling, dusty conditions, rough or muddy roads, and using a car-top carrier. A Kicks that does three-mile runs between Spanish Springs and the shopping centers on Pyramid Way, through a winter of freezing mornings, checks more than one of those boxes.

On the 1.6L that means the 5,000-mile column. On the 2025 2.0L, the Oil Control System displays the distance left before the next change and adjusts it to the driving, and the manual says to change the oil as soon as possible once the replacement indicator appears.

Wind, dust and the cabin filter

Spring afternoons in the Truckee Meadows often bring wind, and the dirt lots and open desert around Sparks put that dust in the air. Reno's 7.35 inches of precipitation a year on the NOAA normals does little to settle it. Both Kicks manuals schedule the in-cabin microfilter at 15,000 miles, and the 2023 manual says to check and replace the engine air filter more often in dusty conditions.

We pull both filters and show them to you. If the cabin filter is gray and full of grit at 8,000 miles, that is your local answer, not ours.

CVT, AWD fluids and coolant

Every Kicks uses a continuously variable transmission. The manuals schedule a CVT inspection and say to replace the fluid every 60,000 miles if you use a car-top carrier or drive on rough or muddy roads. All-wheel-drive 2025 models add differential gear oil and transfer fluid, replaced every 20,000 miles or 24 months under those same conditions. We check for leaks and can quote a transmission fluid service with Nissan's specified fluid.

Nissan fills the cooling system with its blue Long Life Antifreeze/Coolant and gives the factory fill a life of 105,000 miles or 7 years.

A Kicks visit, item by item

• 0W-20 to the listed fill, a new filter, and the maintenance or Oil Control System reset
• Cabin microfilter and engine air filter pulled and shown
• Coolant, brake fluid and washer fluid levels
• Battery test at participating locations and a look at the terminals
• Tire pressure, wipers and every light