Regular maintainence - yes or no?

[Volksy]

Like pete says, I think it depends on the car. I tend to fix mine on an as and when basis, years as a mechanic means I can tell when something is starting to fail long before it actually does. For example my Corolla will need a new power steering pump, as it has a bearing squeak when cold. It's not going to get one until it gets a lot worse.

The recently deceased Volvo only got a service once (in four years) and it's breathers cleared out, oh and a wheel bearing as you could hear it eating itself. It was always going to end up in the fragger, as it was a 15 year old highish mile thirsty saloon. It needed a cambelt, the other wheel bearing, two tyres etc etc. Just wasn't really worth it.

[Bren]

It's good to see that most people on the forum are for looking after their cars, but not surprising given the type of vehicles we all enjoy - to enjoy the chod we all obviously like requires more skill than simply waving a wet sponge over the bodywork.

 

Unfortunately it is a sign of the times (every thing is dumbed down) people have no interest in looking under the bonnet. I have spoke to work colleagues who think you should only top the engine oil up when the light comes on! People seem to think an MOT is a service as well, and nowadays when presented with a £500 bill for work they expect a full resto for that money.A far cry from 6/7 years ago when everything went on the flexible friend.

 

I was talking to an acquaintance who has a garage, he was telling me some of the things the hard pressed public are trying on at the mo - he told me about a chap who wanted a secondhand engine sourcing and fitting (the car is a modern by the way), he was told he would need £1500 up front due to people not paying up after he had done the work. He sends someone else with the folding, when checked it was £100 short. Cue lots of phone calls and raised voices, the £100 later turned up. I know the trade gets a lot of grief, a lot of it undeserved, however when times are hard the punter can just as bad, if not worse.

[r.welfare]

What I've spotted recently is the amount of late-plate expensive kit on cheapy Chinese tyres. A ton and a half of German executive saloon with 140mph potential and folk won't pony up the extra £50 per corner it costs to put the right OEM rubber hoop on. One wonders how well these cheap covers will tolerate being run at half pressure.

 

I had to chuckle the other day when I overheard a conversation at work. Some Brylcreemed nerk was moaning that his Audi Q7 needed four new tyres. Total cost? £1500. Makes me happy that my boring Anglo-Jap jalops, wearing 195/60-15s and 205/50-16s, can be shoed for about £60 per corner with either Pirelli, Goodyear, Avon or BF Goodrich.

[Lord Sterling]

...People seem to think an MOT is a service as well...

 

You wouldnt believe the amount of times I've heard this. What is it with people? Dont people learn about this these days? How is it they come to the conclusion that an MOT is some sort of annual service?

 

My Sterling had a service before I pressed it back into service, oil/filters/plugs etc... It also had a cambelt + waterpump change. The Micra does need a service, so it'll hopefully getting seen to soon.

[Pete-M]

Bloody he'll, the Škoda Superbs we have in work get Nangbang Teflon Ditchfinders when the original Michelins or Continentals wear out. They utterly destroy the handling and ride for the sake of saving £10 each corner.

[Polystratus]

 

Unfortunately it is a sign of the times (every thing is dumbed down) people have no interest in looking under the bonnet. I have spoke to work colleagues who think you should only top the engine oil up when the light comes on! People seem to think an MOT is a service as well, and nowadays when presented with a £500 bill for work they expect a full resto for that money.A far cry from 6/7 years ago when everything went on the flexible friend.

 

Haynes had to dumb down the cutaways on their manuals because they found people thought it would be too technical. Anyway my daily drive gets a main service every six months- oil and the filters (that equates to about 6k) plus usual stuff like brake fluid change every two year. Thats done between myself and a good indy garage when I don't have much time. Of course on a certain single car make forum I was told you make the car worthless by servicing yourself, seven years down the line i still have my worthless car, and the person who said that is on their umpteen new Audi or similar.

[Stroller133]

For the first 6/7 years of driving I didn't do any kind of regular maintenance, and I am not sure that I caused myself any major hassle as a result. I was absolutely determined not to spend any money at garages as I was convinced that they would rip me off and if I'm honest although I'll have a go - I am not that good at DIY repairs. I was so paranoid about garages that when I did have to take a car somewhere for any work I would never dream of leaving it with them and would sit in waiting room or in the workshop watching if allowed.

 

The car I had for the longest time during these years was a F plate Mk2 Polo Coupe, bought with 50k on the clock and over the next 3 years I put another 50+k on it, I think I did maybe 2/3 diy services on it in that time with no logic on when they were done and what was done, probably oil/filter/air filter & plugs and no cam belt change. They were done whenever the mood took me. I put it off as it didn't seem to matter how much care I took dropping the oil, I was guaranteed to spill at least a litre on the drive and get hassle from my mother! I was impressed with how this car faired up without proper servicing as I used to drive it hard, regularly red lining it in 2nd and 3rd gears and used to go as fast as the road or the engine would allow me to on the motorway. I think the only other work the car had was wheel bearings and a couple of CV boots.

 

I did have one major breakdown in this car - the vacuum advance was playing up, I removed it thinking the car would still run, but just not as well and set of from home back to uni, for reason still unknown on the way (about 25 miles) I became convinced the oil was low, so put some in and afterward then the car ground to a halt and a fire started under the bonnet and oil was forced out of the sump. A friend towed me home and whillst away at uni, my dad changed the oil and replaced the vacumm advance unit. I got home and asked how it was, he said he done those jobs but had not tried to run it, and he was not sure if it was going to be any good after whatever had happened. I went outside, turned the engine over and it started to clatter but after a few seconds once the oil had got around the engine it was fine and I used it for another year before giving to me brothers girlfriend. Not sure if this had anything to do with lack of routine maintenance though?

[HMC]

I once had a xj40 2.9 that was both painfully slow and thristy at the same time. Partly, i suspect through year of neglect and partly due to design. It was worn smooth and had no history.It was my first jag and looking back was quite unpleasant to drive (though being unused to jaguars I did not think it unpleasant at the time) Largely due to ignorance, and the fact that the car was clearly a terminal case, I did no maintenence whatso ever, apart from slinging in some 20/50 as and when it was required (required topping up quite often) I ran it for 5000 miles, and with short tax/ test and it needing a set of (metric and expensive) tyres, I advertised it locally and some banger boys took it away. I'm much kinder to cars these days, but looking back at that smoky old xj there was little point in doing it differently.

[Guest]

 

My Sterling had a service before I pressed it back into service, oil/filters/plugs etc... It also had a cambelt + waterpump change. The Micra does need a service, so.....

 

'Kin ell that's a lot of servicing. Hope it pays dividends.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Years ago I knew a guy who ran an R reg W123 Mercedes 250 (petrol) with about 200'000 on the clock. It absolutely caned through oil, so he used to add oil from cars up on the ramp for a service - on cars that had done only 5-6000 between services, it was still pretty clean.

 

What about the filter? 'Took that out years ago".

 

It ran for at least 5 years like this. Didn't smoke, but just used loads of oil. Free oil. Now that's value!

[Guest]

Years ago I knew a guy who ran an R reg W123 Mercedes 250 (petrol) with about 200'000 on the clock. It absolutely caned through oil, so he used to add oil from cars up on the ramp for a service - on cars that had done only 5-6000 between services, it was still pretty clean.

 

What about the filter? 'Took that out years ago".

 

It ran for at least 5 years like this. Didn't smoke, but just used loads of oil. Free oil. Now that's value!

 

WTF? Did he block the filter pipe off?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

No, it was an old style cannister with a paper element.

 

I did the 'part worn' oil thing myself back in the 90's with a 1500CL Scirocco that used an obscene amount of oil - 100 miles to a litre! That had a cocktail of engine oil, gearbox/diff EP and ATF, whatever was available basically. Car engines were a lot more hardy then.

[M'coli]

I've heard of "part-worn" oil before, but a more severe form of it - in the days when you could shine a torch into a car and see its mileage on the odo' - and also when cars would have their first oil change at about 1000 miles - the relatively new oil was dropped from cars with about 1500 miles on the clock and stuck into an old banger.

Fuck knows what happened when the owner of the 'donor' car tried to get the oil pressure light to go out the next morning... Oh, and not me, by* the way; someone fae Airdrie that I worked with.

 

 

*Pish spelling corrected!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

That's more severe than chatting up the fat bird in the Texaco petrol station forecourt whilst your mates raided the 5 litre bottles of Havoline from the display rack outside! 4 of us, and oil changes all round!

[MK5 Escort]

I've always been a fan of regular maintenance. It's paid off for me and whilst this isn’t strictly true, in my own experience if you look after a vehicle well, it tends to look after you.

 

Personally speaking, the Escort does have a full service history which is all neatly documented in hardback files. It's been serviced on the dot every time as a company vehicle and continued as so as a private vehicle. As the mileage started to build, we've set our own service intervals of changing the oil every 6k rather than 10k and cambelt done at every 20k or two years, rather than 30k or three years. I have since decided to drop the oil changes again down to 4k.

 

Basic maintenance I can carry out myself and anything I can't do is shipped out to my father's old friend - a former Halewood worker and someone who I can trust.

 

As a result the record still stands at:

 

Breakdowns : 0

MOT failures : 0

 

The gearbox issue it has now is the first time something 'out of the ordinary' has genuinely gone wrong. The very first symptoms were developing about four years ago, so credit where credit's due - it just keeps soldiering on...and on. Given a 21 year near blemish-free record and this being the first time it's perhaps 'asked for help', I think I it deserves it and it will get it when the time comes.

 

Cost really isn't an issue to it any more. Other than routine servicing, it's cost bugger all in it's first 15/16 years. I've spent considerably more on it than what it's worth (understatement) keeping it in tip-top condition over the last four/five years, replacing bits and pieces which I've decided to replace out of peace of mind rather than them actually going wrong/wearing out completely (wheel bearings, ancillary hoses, gaskets - even a full body respray in 2006). Average out all those costs over 21 years and it's still cost surprisingly little overall. Again, most of the costs we're my choice.

 

Most people would have long since given up most basic maintenance before this point and basically run it into the ground - the fate that most have had. Not me, of course... I know it's worth the square root of bugger all in terms of money and will never be worth 'top dollar' due to the mileage, but sentimentally it's another story.

 

Some cars refuse to leave the road.

 

Yep, I know that feeling all too well. Not that I'm complaining, like...

[Shep Shepherd]

I'm certain that my cars - The Volvos in particular - have led far happier lives as a result of me looking after them, servicing them regularly and attending to their faults as soon as they have appeared

[Guest]

Paid £150 for my 405 Td with no rent/test.146k on chassis but engine box box 75k and just had new belt, water pump, clutch.

One fuse sorted ABS.

Spent £35 on a ebay driveshaft as centre bearing dead.

Turned up boost and fuel a tad, cut baffles out of back box, (boosts sooner)

Done 13k in a year inc 700 miles in France before fuel light came on. Towing a laden trailer round the country UK. Up North from Kent twice.

Done regular oil/filter ran on three glow plugs til last weekend.

Treated to new discs and pads when it passed MOT as towing a lot.

Owes me pennies but I'll keep looking after it which flies in the face of the 'throw away' mentality but if you have a good car for £150 that owes you maybe twice that why abuse it?

I don't get the people who spend say £900 on servicing a 54 plate Audi that they're already lost £1000s on but I suppose that's the upper echelons of banger nomics?

[cort16]

I've been reading up on the buyhere payhere schemes that dealers in the U.S use to sell over prices cars to subprime customers on massive interest rates.

Anyway, this article on edmonds is quite refreshing as it says don't finance an overly expensive nearly new car just lower your expectations and buy a decent old snotter and have money to service and look after it.

 

http://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/how-to-buy-and-maintain-a-very-inexpensive-car.html

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Anyway, this article on edmonds is quite refreshing as it says don't finance an overly expensive nearly new car just lower your expectations and buy a decent old snotter and have money to service and look after it.

 

http://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/how-to-buy-and-maintain-a-very-inexpensive-car.html

 

Well, the very idea of paying interest on a depreciating asset is madness anyway.

[Justin Case]

As I see it there is a difference between maintainence and major repairs. I always try and keep up to date with the routine stuff, I check everything regulalrly and the cars go in once a year for full service and MOT. Brakes, tyres, etc get replaced before they get dangerous although the other minor repairs are delayed as long as possible. The payback is that the cars last longer and tend to be more reliable; I don't actually like hanging around in weather like this waiting for the AA to turn up

 

On the other hand if something big, like the engine or the gearbox, or nowadays the electronics, goes in a big way, or appears likely to, then I cut my losses and move on. This system works and buying cars about 3 years old and keeping them for at least five (usually) may well work out cheaper in the long run than a constant stream of cars hanging onto life by a thread until they finally expire.

 

Has anyone ever done such a cost comparison, it might be interesting? (but then it might not )