Help Center

AutoEase is a free car maintenance app for iPhone and Android. Scan your car’s VIN once and enter your mileage. AutoEase then shows a green, yellow or red status for each service, reminds you before something is due, and checks for open safety recalls. There’s no account and no ads.

No. There’s no sign-up, no login and no email address. Open the app, tap Get started and scan your car.

About a minute. Scan the VIN barcode (or type the VIN), enter your odometer reading, and choose whether to allow notifications. Then you’re on your car’s dashboard.

Cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the US. AutoEase identifies your car from its 17-character VIN using the U.S. government’s NHTSA vehicle database, and it uses miles and gallons.

Yes. Everything in AutoEase today is free, with no ads. Your first car, its reminders, recall alerts and backup will always be free.

Not yet. AutoEase tracks one car per phone today.

On the Garage tab, tap your car’s name, then tap Remove this car and confirm. AutoEase deletes the car and everything kept for it from this phone: its schedule, service log, fuel log, to-fix notes and recalls marked fixed. It also cancels the car’s reminders. If it was your only car, you’re back at the first screen. AutoEase remembers the removal, so restoring an older backup on this phone won’t bring the car back, and with backup on, your next backup leaves it out. A backup file saved before the removal still has the car if you restore it on a different phone.

AutoEase is in testing now and is coming soon to the App Store for iPhone and Google Play for Android. This page will link to both stores as soon as it’s available.

Open the driver’s door and look at the sticker on the door jamb: it has the VIN as text and as a barcode. The VIN is also on a small plate at the bottom of the windshield on the driver’s side, and on your registration, title and insurance card. See Where to find your car’s VIN.

Tap Get started, allow the camera, and point it at the VIN barcode on the sticker inside the driver’s door. Once it reads the code, AutoEase looks up your car’s year, make and model and asks for your mileage.

Tap “Type it manually instead?” and enter the 17 characters. If you’d like to try the scanner again, wipe the sticker clean, find good light and hold the phone steady a few inches away. Older stickers can be too worn to scan.

Every VIN since the 1981 model year has exactly 17 letters and numbers. VINs never use the letters I, O or Q, so if you see an O, type a zero.

Only to read the VIN barcode. AutoEase doesn’t take or keep photos. If you’d rather not allow the camera, tap Enter VIN manually.

It sends the VIN to NHTSA’s free vPIC decoder to look up your car’s year, make and model, and stores it on your phone. Your VIN is never sent to us.

Green (Good) means nothing is needed. Yellow (Soon) means a service is due within 30 days or 500 miles. Red (Overdue) means it’s at or past its interval in miles or time. The big lamp on the Garage tab shows the most urgent one.

Oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and engine air filter. Each one is checked by miles and by months, whichever comes first.

AutoEase starts with conservative intervals that suit most passenger vehicles: oil change and tire rotation every 7,500 miles or 6 months, brake inspection every 12,000 miles or 12 months, and air filter every 15,000 miles or 12 months. The oil change is adjusted for some makes: 10,000 miles or 12 months for Toyota, Ford, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and 5,000 miles or 6 months for Nissan and Subaru. These are general intervals, not your car’s exact factory schedule, so if your owner’s manual says sooner, go by that.

AutoEase starts every service as if it was just done at the mileage you entered. If you know a service is due or overdue, get it done, then tap it on the Garage tab and tap Mark as Done so its clock starts from the right point.

On the Garage tab, tap Update Mileage and enter the number on your odometer. Updating every couple of weeks keeps your status and mileage reminders accurate.

On the Garage tab, tap the service, add what it cost if you like, and tap Mark as Done. Its clock restarts from today and your current mileage, and the job is added to your service log.

When you mark services done before they become overdue, AutoEase counts them. Once you have two or more on-time services in a row, a streak badge appears on the dashboard.

About a week before a service is due by date; right away when a mileage update makes a service due soon or overdue; and, if you turned on Weather Alerts, when a freeze or extreme heat is in the forecast.

No. Notifications are only about your car’s health. AutoEase never sends ads, offers or “we miss you” messages.

On iPhone, go to Settings → Notifications → AutoEase and turn on Allow Notifications. On Android, go to Settings → Apps → AutoEase → Notifications. AutoEase sets up your reminders the next time you open it.

Your phone can’t read your odometer, so AutoEase only knows your mileage when you update it. Mileage reminders arrive when you tap Update Mileage and a service crosses into Soon or Overdue. Date-based reminders arrive on their own.

Every service you mark as done: what it was, the date, the mileage, the cost if you entered one, and whether it was done on time. Recalls you mark as fixed show there too, with the recall’s NHTSA campaign number and the date you marked it; they have no cost and don’t count toward your total. The Service tab also shows your lifetime total spent.

Yes. On the Service tab, tap the share button to export your service log as a CSV file, including recalls you marked as fixed, and send it wherever you like. It opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, which is handy when you sell the car.

No. Cost is optional. Leave it blank if you don’t have the receipt handy.

On the Fuel tab, enter the odometer reading, the gallons you put in and, if you like, the cost.

It divides the miles driven since your previous fill-up by the gallons of this fill-up. For the most accurate number, fill the tank all the way each time. Your average MPG appears once you’ve logged more than one fill-up.

No. To update the mileage your service status uses, tap Update Mileage on the Garage tab.

A place to jot down small things you’ve noticed, like a squeaky brake or a rattle, so you remember them at your next service. Tap a note when it’s fixed: resolved notes move to a dated history below. Tap the trash icon to delete a note.

When you open AutoEase, it checks the U.S. government’s NHTSA recall database for your car’s make, model and year, and shows a banner if there are any. It checks again whenever you come back to the app, and you can pull down on the Garage to check right away. It’s a live check, not a saved list.

Not always. AutoEase matches recalls by make, model and year, not by your exact VIN, so a recall might cover only certain build dates or trims. Tap the banner for details, then confirm by entering your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls or calling a dealer. See How to check if your car has a safety recall.

Tap the recall banner and tap Mark as fixed on that recall. It moves to a Fixed section, the banner counts only open recalls, and the recall is added to your service log with the date you marked it. If you marked the wrong one, tap Undo next to it. Once every recall is marked fixed, the banner changes to “recalls marked fixed · View”; tap it to see them or undo one.

Usually not. Safety recall repairs are free at a dealer for your car’s brand, with limited exceptions such as vehicles more than 15 years old when the recall was announced.

An optional heads-up when the forecast near you shows a freeze (32°F or below), so you can check your tire pressure, or extreme heat (95°F or above), so you can check your coolant and battery. They’re off until you turn them on.

Tap the settings (gear) button at the top of the screen and switch Weather Alerts on or off. Your phone asks for location permission the first time.

Tap the weather banner and tap Done on the alert. It moves to a Done section. To bring it back, tap Undo before you close the list: once no open alerts are left, the banner goes away.

No. With Weather Alerts on, AutoEase reads your approximate location once to fetch the forecast from Open-Meteo, then discards it. Your location is never stored or backed up.

Backup is on from the start. On iPhone, AutoEase backs up to your own iCloud by itself; make sure iCloud Drive is on. On Android, tap “Link Google Drive to back up” on the Garage (or settings (gear) → Backup → Link Google Drive) once. After that, AutoEase backs up a short while after you change something and when you leave the app. You can switch it off in settings (gear) → Backup.

Yes, and it always will be. Losing your car’s history when a phone breaks is exactly what AutoEase is meant to prevent.

On a new phone, tap Restore from a backup on the first screen, under Get started. You don’t need to add your car first. On Android, link the same Google account; on iPhone, use the same iCloud account. Then tap Restore from backup. When your car comes back, AutoEase asks about notifications if it hasn’t yet, then opens your Garage.

On a phone that already has AutoEase, go to settings (gear) → Backup and tap Restore from backup. Restoring adds what’s in your backup and keeps the history on this phone. If this phone has an empty copy of the same car, with nothing logged, AutoEase replaces it with the restored car.

Yes. In Backup, tap Export backup file and save it anywhere you choose, such as Files, Google Drive or email. To bring it back, tap Import a backup file. Importing adds to what’s on the phone and keeps its history.

Google Drive needs your permission before AutoEase can save there. AutoEase asks only for its own hidden app folder in your Drive, not your other files.

Make sure you’re signed in to iCloud and iCloud Drive is on: iPhone Settings → your name → iCloud → iCloud Drive.

On your phone, and in your own iCloud or Google Drive backup. AutoEase has no accounts and no server that holds your data. On Android, if your phone’s own Google backup is on, Android may also save AutoEase’s data with the rest of your phone and bring it back when you reinstall or set up a new phone.

Only what a lookup needs: your VIN to NHTSA to identify your car, your car’s make, model and year to NHTSA to check recalls, and, if you turn on Weather Alerts, your approximate location to Open-Meteo for the forecast. Your mileage, service history, costs and notes never leave your phone except in a backup or file you choose to make.

No. The app has no ads and no analytics or tracking tools. This website uses Google Analytics for basic visit counts; the app doesn’t. See the privacy policy.

To delete one car and its history, see How do I remove a car? Uninstalling AutoEase deletes everything it stored on your phone. On Android, if your phone’s own Google backup is on, Android may also save AutoEase’s data with the rest of your phone and bring it back when you reinstall or set up a new phone. A cloud backup stays in your iCloud or Google Drive until you delete it there. See Delete your AutoEase data.

Yes. Tap the settings (gear) button and choose Light, Dark or System under Display. System follows your phone’s setting.

Yes. Your dashboard, mileage updates, Mark as Done and all your logs work with no connection. Looking up a new VIN, recall and weather checks, and cloud backup need the internet; backup catches up when you’re back online.

No banner means AutoEase found no recalls for your car’s make, model and year, or it couldn’t connect, or you’ve marked every recall as fixed. If you were offline, pull down on the Garage to check again once you have a signal.

On the Garage tab, tap Update Mileage and enter the correct reading. If it’s lower than the one you saved, AutoEase asks you to confirm, because odometers only count up; tap Change. Services that were counted from the wrong, higher number are counted from the corrected reading instead.

Email autoease-support@lixlink.com. We read every message.