Do people still have their car serviced?

[sierraman]

I was looking at an oil leak today, it had to be topped up for 2 litres just to MOT it, the rocker cover was leaking profusely. It hadn’t been serviced for years supposedly, the coolant was a mix of the proper OAT red stuff and some of the blue shit chucked in, oily film on the top presumably from where  the perennial Z18 XER oil cooler will be leaking. I did suggest a service would be wise but I don’t think people see the value in doing this? 

[Bren]

People wait for their engines to give up. Then think fresh oil will repair a blown head gasket or knocking mains.

[Soundwave]

Depends on the car. I always have my modern Skoda serviced annually, at a workshop, partly to help it keep its value and partly because I'd really rather it didn't go wrong due to its complexity and expense to repair.

My older cars get serviced still, although it tends to be on a more "as and when required" basis since they don't do as many miles and I usually do the work myself.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

"Isn't it part of the mot test?"

[RoverFolkUs]

A lot of it comes down to servicing standards. People will pay £120 for a full service from someone like servicing stop or who can fix my car but it's just an oil change. 

A proper full/major service where all the filters/plugs are changed and all the wheels off, brakes checked and adjusted will start at about £300-350 at an indy depending on area for a basic car, so people tend to be reluctant on this.  For a premium car where plugs are £10 a pop and there's 8 of them or the fuel filter which is £60 then the price goes up 

The problem is that full services tend to be advertised cheaply and then all the filters, plugs, brake fluid, coolant etc gets sold on additionally half way through. People book a full service, don't opt for the extra work so they've received an oil change but it's been called a full service and they think that's what it's had. Because they're none the wiser and they think the "extra work" was just being invented when it should be a minimum standard for a full service 

We do a lot of regular annual servicing, but there's also plenty of cases where I'm pulling out what appears to be the original cabin filter on a 10/15 year old car when someone's bought it with patchy history and wants to service it yearly 🤦

I swear coil packs wouldn't fail if people kept on top of spark plug changes... What happens is one of two things, the plugs erode away and have a massive gap to bridge which fucks the coil, or they don't get touched for years, the coil(s) get stuck onto the plug and someone has to gorilla it off which rips the insulation which causes a misfire later down the line

I've gone into a lot of detail on this in the motor trade moments thread so I'll spare you all of writing another wall of text but it's over there should it be of interest

[Rustybullethole]

Fuck that mate am stretched keeping up the pcp payments on the white range plus the mrs wants fake tits and lashes ain’t wasting money on oil. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Just now, Dick Longbridge said:

"Isn't it part of the mot test?"

One I remember where the brakes were grinding - "but the brakes are still working so why does it need new ones?" 

Ok, so you want to wait for your brakes to fail and kill yourself or someone else before you think about having them done? I can't predict the future and say what may or may not happen but if they're worn below spec and making all that noise, that's enough warning that they need to be fixed before a catastrophic failure!!

[RoverFolkUs]

I got into a sprinter the other day which needed some MOT repairs. "Service B overdue by 730 days" 

That's when the counter maxes out 🤦 so god knows how long it's been left 🤣

[Rustybullethole]

1 minute ago, RoverFolkUs said:

One I remember where the brakes were grinding - "but the brakes are still working so why does it need new ones?" 

Ok, so you want to wait for your brakes to fail and kill yourself or someone else before you think about having them done? I can't predict the future and say what may or may not happen but if they're worn below spec and making all that noise, that's enough warning that they need to be fixed before a catastrophic failure!!

Not worth doing if you’re tyres are bald too though.

[artdjones]

I was just informed by a 37 year old friend, who's been driving for over 20 years without realising that cars need the oil changing. I then proceeded to do an oil change on his car, only getting 1.5 litres out of a sump with a capacity of 3.5 litres. I told him it was time for a new car, which he has since bought, a 15 Dacia Logan diesel. 

[Split_Pin]

I was speaking to a contractor colleague a few months ago and he said his car had just had a service costing 4 figures, but it only needed doing every 2 years. He didn't let on what it was except that it was German so given he's a Contractor and probably on a decent daily rate its probably an X5 or large Mercedes.

I service all mine every 6 months, do the coolant every 4 years and auto gearbox service if there's no history of it. Generally I leave plugs alone unless the car isn't running well.

[RoverFolkUs]

One of my distant neighbours has had a Qashqai for about 5 years now, she realised her MOT had ran out a few months ago and was asking me about getting it booked in.

"Oh I thought they were all extended because of COVID but I couldn't tax it at the start of this month and noticed it's run out" 🙄🤣

Anyway, she says it takes ages to start and the engine light is on so wanted to know if that will get looked at and sorted during the MOT? (🤦)

I asked when she last had it serviced, she appeared to glaze over as if I'd just asked her to explain what Ackerman steering geometry was. Anyway, "the garage did it when I brought it" (5 years and 75k miles ago)  [note; brought and not bought...]

I don't hold much hope for how it gets on during its MOT ... 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I guess it depends on the age, complexity and value of the vehicle along with the mindset of the owner. In theory, if you ran a late 80s/early 90s Toyota, you could likely get away with barely maintaining the thing and it would still reward you with faithful, reliable service. 

Anything built within the last decade with one or more turbos and a long-life service schedule adhered to is likely to shit itself regardless of future kid-glove attention from a newly caring owner. 

Mrs DL's old 2008 Audi A3 CR tdi was six years old when purchased, with one owner and full history. 72k on the clock if I remember correctly. We'd looked after it well and the full history was maintained by us. It behaved impeccably until around nine years old and 115ish k. Anything that could go wrong went wrong. Dpf issues. Turbo issues. Water ingress issues. Fumes into the cabin issues. Central locking issues. It used oil too. I drew a line under the hateful piece of shit when my OH informed me of the fumes in the cabin becoming worse. She was pregnant with our lad at the time. 

We couldn't have done any more to have looked after that car. 

Moderns terrify me. 

[dome]

35 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I was speaking to a contractor colleague a few months ago and he said his car had just had a service costing 4 figures, but it only needed doing every 2 years. He didn't let on what it was except that it was German so given he's a Contractor and probably on a decent daily rate its probably an X5 or large Mercedes.

I service all mine every 6 months, do the coolant every 4 years and auto gearbox service if there's no history of it. Generally I leave plugs alone unless the car isn't running well.

My 530d has full service history but it's early BMW stamps are 2 years apart. Thankfully the last owner was more like me and serviced it annually.

I see an oil change as cheap insurance, my cars all get them annually. It's usually less than £50 to do so is a no brainer 

[sierraman]

Realistically if you are buying a ‘premium’ car and can’t foot £3-400 a year in servicing it’s not for you. I disagree about moderns not lasting regardless of servicing, its critical they’re serviced but they should* do the miles if they’re maintained properly but as we’ve said vast majority won’t service them properly.

[sierraman]

I heard a funny one a while back... ‘first I had to have an MOT, then they told me the brakes needed doing and NOW they’re telling me it’s going to need tyres. I am never buying a Vauxhall EVER again!’

[Dick Cheeseburger]

It's the long-life service schedules which have been taken literally which hurt. Cars can still be punted on with 'FSH' but have the increased potential of being money pits. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Just now, sierraman said:

I heard a funny one a while back... ‘first I had to have an MOT, then they told me the brakes needed doing and NOW they’re telling me it’s going to need tyres. I am never buying a Vauxhall EVER again!’

They got off lightly with that Vauxhall! 🤣

[sierraman]

Just now, Dick Longbridge said:

It's the long-life service schedules which have been taken literally which hurt. Cars can still be punted on with 'FSH' but have the increased potential of being money pits. 

Sense says that if a car does 5,000 miles a year it won’t go for FOUR YEARS without having the oil changed. Problem is many people haven’t the sense they were born with. 

[goosey]

My brother starts a new Job in The States next week, he had a message off the Lady in charge of the office that he will be working from that she had got his Company Toyota Camry valeted and had all the fluids and belts changed 

[JMotor]

It's mind boggling at how people treat a machine with working parts. Specially when it costs a lot of money to pay for the thing in the first place. 

It's the same in the industry I work in. Seen in agriculture side it can be extremes of how stuff is looked after. 

Some tractors and machinery has gone out with scant regard for the upkeep. Then cry "but isn't that covered by warranty!?" when something shits itself big style. 

Even though it's been out of warranty for at least a year. With sod all servicing done. Seen quad bikes suffer from this too. Quoted a customer thousands to rebuild an engine (parts and labour) , which if he had it serviced would have still been running. These things are near essential come lambing time. 

That said. You'll get some people who realise having their means of income shut down at the worse time is a bad thing. So at change the basic wet filters at their bare minimum. 

That leads me on to a saying that a customer told me once. 

"Grease is cheaper than metal" 

It was said in jest. But it's bloody true!🤣 

[RayMK]

Back in 2007,  I bought an ex-demo Mitsubishi I (3cyl, 660cc, automatic) from a Mitsubishi main dealer.  Service intervals were 6000miles and thus came round rather frequently at about £400 a time on average.  I ensured that the dealer also carried out the annual bodywork inspection and rectification in order to comply with the 12 year anti-perforation warranty.  What I got back for this diligence was several years of absolute reliability and excellent service from the dealers - until around 80K miles and six years old when I noticed the small front 'bonnet' (engine is at the back) panel swelling and blistering along the lower edge.  The rear arches were doing much the same.  The dealer agreed with me that this was a bodywork warranty issue. A full photographic report was provided by the dealer's bodyshop and submitted to Mitsubishi together with proof of annual bodywork inspections and a full Mitsubishi service history.  The reply was disappointing.  No holes so not covered.  The dealer was also somewhat shocked as the corrosion was coming from the inside. It was not just one or two pinprick stone chips.  We appealed and got nowhere. Religious servicing continued until 2014 and 83K when the car went into limp mode.  Investigation by the nearest garage found that the turbo had shed a blade which had also wrecked the waste gate.  The car was by now well out of warranty and the bill to rectify the turbo failure would have been £1200 approx.  I called it a day and told the garage to dispose of the car and also swore not to get another Mitsubishi.  Apparently, someone in the trade bought the car for scrap money, found a 2nd hand turbo, and it is still limping through MOTs to this day with around 110K miles recorded and a long list of advisories after failure rectification every year. Good luck to them.  

A happy period of having two older daily drivers lasted until 2017 when my increasing age and deteriorating health made DIY servicing impossible.  Garage servicing became too expensive to justify.  I therefore did the sensible thing, giving away one oldie and part exchanging the other one (which had a failed auto-box) and bought a new car after trying everything in my shortlist except for another Mitsubishi.  Hyundai, Kia, Suzuki and a Smart/Renault were test driven.  I liked some of them but not quite  enough to immediately blow £10-14K. I had been studiously ignoring Mitsubishi offerings because of my bad experience with them.  I was about to sign on the dotted for a cute Smart rear engined 4 seater thing when my eye caught a Mitsubishi Mirage Juro automatic. I thought I would give it a quick look as the Smart was a bit cramped.  The Juro won easily and I bought another Mitsubishi ex demo.  Bugger.  At least the service intervals are more reasonable this time but Mitsubishi dealers keep folding or going to different brands.

So short answer: yes, some people do still have their car serviced.

[hairnet]

21 plate transit at work

61k and only ever been serviced twice (as per frod) and had brakes in it inbetween those

never gone rong

conversely shit peugeot 8k miles when bort in 20 just before 1st mot

10k service on these and noticed in the history itd been serviced twice at 3.5k and 7.5k (!) i had it done at 10k and then at 15k cos of all the short stuff it does

seemed the prev owner did what we do - round the doors 96.4% of the time

 

[catsinthewelder]

Sort of,

I don't care what the MOT history looks like so happy to let the tester find all the wobbly chassis bits I haven't noticed.

I change the oil on anything I'm using fairly regularly along with its filter.  Lubricate hinges etc. Check the air filter and change it if it looks like it needs doing.   Consider changing plugs, checking valves etc.  Do the cambelt when it's due and the aux belt when it's noisy.

Completely ignore the cabin filter.

I keep meaning to ask the garage to change the brake fluid on my daily, might do it when it goes in for an MOT next month.  

[Low ontime]

I’ll service as required. Would hate a breakdown with all the family on route to something with it chucking it down with rain..

Ill change oil , oil fuel air and cabin filters  plugs leads etc 

brake parts too.

pay someone else to change suspension stuff as no fun doing it on jacks and stands for a daily if it goes wrong for whatever reason, same as  cam belt change (with a water pump change at the same time ) .

everything else gets fixed when broken/ mot time.

 

any maintenance is better than none

[colino]

I'm going to hazard a guess that everyone on here has an acute degree of mechanical sympathy:. However everything from lazy/cheap previous owners to fastidious, service book full stampers (the easiest to cheat, because they look after their cars so they'll, if too busy, just put white grease on the door hinges and do it "next time") really make all service histories a fable for the uninitiated.  The real reason allegedly good cars go pop unexpectedly, or no amount of catch up work goes unrewarded, the damage has already been done.

[captain_70s]

I reckon a lot don't, those that do pay £150 and get fresh oil and nowt else.

 

I have a service manual for the Austin A40, the original 40s/50s one.

Oil change every 2,000 miles, or monthly, whatever comes first. Every 5,000 miles you're supposed to drain and refill the gearbox and diff!

[RayMK]

2 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

I have a service manual for the Austin A40, the original 40s/50s one.

Oil change every 2,000 miles, or monthly, whatever comes first. Every 5,000 miles you're supposed to drain and refill the gearbox and diff!

Similar to the owners manual for my '61 side valve Reliant Regal.  Head off and decoke every 5000 miles.  I can't remember what the oil change intervals are but expect it should be done at least once on the way to the local Waitrose or every 3 days, whichever comes first. 

[Jazoli]

I do, plus fix any niggle that needs fixing, it drives me to distraction, I don't own new cars, but what I have has to be properly serviced and maintained, just this week I've fitted a new clock spring to my daughters i20, a new PAS pump to my E Class and a new door lock mechanism to the wife's RCZ,  none of the items were strictly necessary right now but they needed doing, they have all had their deferred servicing by their previous owners brought up to date (merc excepted as its had everything), I just like it that way, I have had very few breakdowns and i know nothing stupid is going to cause a FTP within reason, yes it costs money but its money well spent.

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, goosey said:

My brother starts a new Job in The States next week, he had a message off the Lady in charge of the office that he will be working from that she had got his Company Toyota Camry valeted and had all the fluids and belts changed 

That's fairly standard in the US though, Americans all seem to get an oil change every 400 yards or so.  Brakes, tyres and rust on the other hand...