Is an annual service needed

Hammyman

Bubby wrote: »

If I did it based on the mileage etc then it would be less than a year apart so I rang the head office once before and they confirmed that once a year would suffice. I would care if it fell apart its my pride and joy:D, however it is out of warranty and never (touches wood) has any issues with mot or services. Money is extremely tight for us and I am looking at ways of saving money, as it is a large car the service is very expensive:o (even with a cheap stand alone garage)

So you do enough mileage to need a service in less than 12 months.

And you basically want to service it every 2 years, doing around 20,000 miles between services and aim to do this is to save money.

OK, scenario:

You have a service and your brake pads are 50% worn, not enough to be notified to customer.

You then decide to do 2 years without a service. Brake pad thickness inspection isn't part of the MOT unless they're real easy to see so you won't find out they're too low at MOT time. For most people, the brake pads would wear down to metal within 20,000 miles. So then it scores the discs.

You're now in a situation where you need discs and pads changing instead of just pads and the money you'd saved on an annual service you've just blown on a set of discs you wouldn't have needed to replace had they been checked 10,000 miles after the last service.

Trebor16

Last time I had the car servced by a main dealer the told me in percentage terms how much the brake pads were worn, even though they were only 30-40% worn. I would think a good dealer would do this as a matter of course.

It's also possible for someone to wear their brake pads down in less than 10000 miles, long before a car might have to go in for its first serice, so an annual service won't help them at all, as the damage would have been done long before the car was due its service.
I had a guy turn up for a motorcycle CBT once on a Gilera 125 scooter. It had only done 1300 miles from new and his brother had been riding it. When we got to the maintenance part of the CBT I was showing him how to check the brakes for wear. The feel at the brake lever wasn't "right" and when I looked at the pads I found them worn to the metal. A mere 1300 miles. The bikes first service would have been due at 4000 miles or one year and his disc would have been totally stuffed long before that.

Hintza

oscarward wrote: »

The majority of Peugeots are 20k or 2 years service intervals, Diesil or Petrol

That is for the benefit of fleet accountants and not for the benefit of the car. Crazy!

Bubby

I do approx 12k miles per year and some years this means that my service is due early and some years it is due late therefore when I checked they advised me that to maintain a full service history they would actually recommend yearly servicing. The garage we use is extremely competitive and also very trustworthy, we get our tyres and our brakes checked free of charge whenever we are concerned about them in addition to our annual services.

On a slightly different note could I do a "half service" yearly whilst money is tight?

dzug1

hubert_cumberdale wrote: »

I always look at it that a person put it together so why cant i take it apart and put it back together.

Well it's more than likely a robot put it together:)

Hammyman

Trebor16 wrote: »

It's also possible for someone to wear their brake pads down in less than 10000 miles, long before a car might have to go in for its first serice,

Not from new unless they've been driving with their foot on the brake pedal.

Usual rule of thumb notification they'd need replacement before next service is 3mm or less of thickness.

I'll put my years of experience as a mechanic in main dealers against anything you've heard from your mates down the pub, just in case you'd like to dispute the vadility of my claim.

Hammyman

Bubby wrote: »

On a slightly different note could I do a "half service" yearly whilst money is tight?

You could get a basic oil and filter with free brake inspection and 20 odd point check job done - usually around the £50-£60 mark. If air filters are due within the time, you can easily change those yourself. The harder one is pollen filters and for some cars it is critical they're changed annually or as near as because the heater motor speed controller uses the fresh air intake for cooling so no airflow= fried speed controller, a common fault on many Fords.

Trebor16

Hammyman wrote: »

Not from new unless they've been driving with their foot on the brake pedal.

Usual rule of thumb notification they'd need replacement before next service is 3mm or less of thickness.

I'll put my years of experience as a mechanic in main dealers against anything you've heard from your mates down the pub, just in case you'd like to dispute the vadility of my claim.

I'll stick to whatI have seen for myself and also been told by a couple of very good friends who have several years in the motor trade under their belt as mechanics thanks very much.