Servicing: DIY or professional garage?

egyptiancotton

When it comes to servicing, do you service your car yourself or do you book it in to a professional garage?

Do you think that stamps in the service book help with the resale value of a car or does a collection of receipts for DIY servicing go just as further when it comes to boosting the resale value of a car?

I'm slightly tempted by AA's parts & garage cover, but I've never had a breakdown and I've always serviced my own cars. So to be in-line with the parts & garage cover's terms & conditions, I'll need to have my car serviced by a professional garage. Or do you think that this parts & garage cover is not worth it?

EdGasket

If you can service your own car, stick with it. That's what I do and I get a much better job done at a fraction of the cost. I don't know about AA parts and garage cover but there have been a lot of threads on here re. warranties not being worth the paper they are written on; seems like everything can be attributed to wear and tear and they won't pay out without a fight. Less hassle to just fix it yourself.

londonTiger

I DIY service my car and go above and beyond what is required sometimes. Even drain and fill the coolant moe frequntly than specified.

Also some services like gear oil change that's never specified because VW have nothing to do with a car after it's hit 100K so they don't have any advice or comment on it. But I know that it's worth doing a gear oil change every 20K.

With regards to service, if you envision selling your car back to the trade again, it's worth getting a service from a garage. It makes the dealers job a lot easier to sell the vehicle with a official garage stamp than have mountains of receipts which the dealer has no way of verifying.

I like servicing my car, it's a fun hobby and can save a fair bob on it too.

Strider590

I do it all myself, bar anything requiring working under the car, not only do I not have a level surface to jack the car, but oil change is actually cheaper done at a garage because they get huge discounts on engine oil.

Weird_Nev

If it's an end of life banger, I service it myself. I can stay on top of things, learn a bit more, and not harm the cars value. Cheaper cars, people are often happy to know it's owned by an enthusiastic car nut who has overserivced it and used good quality parts. I can also sell a car with recent brakes, fresh oil etc, for a fraction of the cost, so the next buyer will see more "value" in that (as they themselves will likely be a bangernomiscist).

For cars with value, I feel it's worth getting stamps though. I find a trusted specialist and have often been impressed with their service and knowledge. Most recently, I found a really brilliant Subaru specialist local to me. Full service with full synthetic oil, new filters all round, £89. Who said performance cars are expensive to run?!

I'm mixing it up with the current car though: Mitsubishi 4x4 Pajero, cost more than any other car I've ever bought. But with 160,000km on it, and Aussies seemingly not bothered about service history (this was the only one I saw with a stamped up service book) I've decided to self service and make detailed notes in the service schedule.
This month I did front and rear diff and transfer case oils, plus engine oil, all filters, wipers, washer fluids and a general grease and check service myself for under $200 in consumables. It would have been at least $400, probably closer to $500 at a garage for all that. And it was easy. Really, really easy. Especially when you can do an oil change without having to jack the car up!

arcon5

Problem i've found with many garages is the service doesn't necessarily include the fuel filter. I have a MK3 Mondeo and last time I had it serviced I paid about £110 including VAT and this did cover fuel filter, oil & air filter and new 5/30 oil. My last service I paid £22 for oil from Halfords and £15 for the 3 filters.... took less than an hour. Although next time I think i'll pay a little more for the filters.

Depends what you value your car it - if it's a high value motor it may be a different matter.

Retrogamer

I recently bought a Seat Ibiza 1.9TDi with the 130Bhp engine. Fantastic car and advertised with FSH. It's on 95k miles.
I was reading through the service book the other night and noticed that despite it having FSH no one has ever replaced the brake fluid on it. Something that should be done every 2 years.

I'll be servicing it myself from here forward and keeping printed off documents of the work i've done coupled with receipts. Guess i'll have to replace the brake fluid myself now. joy of joys

Weird_Nev

Brake fluid flsh is really easy, you just need an easy bleed kit and if you can get someone else to help it's useful, so that you can keep an eye on the level in the fluid reservoir.

Start with the rear wheel furthest away from the reservoir, then next rear wheel, then fron on the opposite side to the reservoir, then front nearest. The first wheel takes the longest to pump through loads of fluid, plus what's in the reservoir (but not to empty). then everything being drawn through the reservoir is new fluid as you keep it topped up.
It can take about an hour, the hardest bit is jacking the car up and removing wheels if you need to to get access to the bleed nipples!

Retrogamer

Oh i've done it before. I usually do it with my old man rather than the self bleeding kits.
It's all good as long as the nipples aren't seized. When they are, it's not as much fun.

Gearbox oil change and coolant change is another thing often overlooked by most garages. Even some "proffesional" dealerships. It's often a case of top it up, rather than replace.

londonTiger

Retrogamer wrote: »

Oh i've done it before. I usually do it with my old man rather than the self bleeding kits.
It's all good as long as the nipples aren't seized. When they are, it's not as much fun.

It's always a good idea to go round and spray the nipple with penetrating oil at least an hour before you attempt to unscrew it.

vaio

and tighten *slightly* with a socket/ring spanner before you try and undo them