Advice about the cheapest way to service my car

forgotmyname

Age plays a part as well as the mileage. A car may have only done 5000 miles but if its 5 years old i would be replacing the belt.

Its ok if a drivebelt fails its inconvenient. But when a cambelt goes and the engine smashes the valves with the pistons the pockets do tend to suffer.

Similar way to the posts that say they couldnt afford to service the car and now something serious has happend. Basic maintenance is essential.

Filters you can do yourself fairly easily on most cars. Oil changes are crucial and not to be missed.
My last oil change it had done just over 6000 miles. Normally it would be around 4000 miles.
Short journeys are hard on the engine and oil.

Joe_Horner

For disposing of old oil, afaik all local rubbish dumps / "recycling centres" have facilities for free disposal in DIY quantities - ours is happy enough if I turn up with a years worth (usually about 25 litres between the cars)

In terms of prices, these are from Eurocarparts:

Oil (5l 5w40 fully synthetic for PD engines) £24.60
Oil filter (Crosland) £2.22
Air filter (Crosland) £6.23
Fuel filter (Crosland) £8.04
Pollen / cabin filter (Crosland) £3.59

Total £44.68

Note that you'll have 1.2l of oil left over for top-ups or towaqrds the next change. If you do decide to do the oil yourself then it's worth phoning the local dealer for a price - sometimes they can surprise you on prices!

It's also worthwhile picking up a tin of spray grease for things like door hinges / catches etc which often get "overlooked" by garages.

jimjames

The partsremembericing my golf TDI came to just under £50 too.

In terms of tools the one thing that is tricky on the TDI is removing the oil filter where there is a specific tool that makes it much easier.

I got the cambelt done at vw and seem to remember that came to around £450

StanwithaPlan

[QUOTE=

In terms of prices, these are from Eurocarparts:

Oil (5l 5w40 fully synthetic for PD engines) £24.60
Oil filter (Crosland) £2.22
Air filter (Crosland) £6.23
Fuel filter (Crosland) £8.04
Pollen / cabin filter (Crosland) £3.59

Total £44.68[/QUOTE]

Hi Jo, can I just check with you about the oil, I don't understand the rating system but I'm aware how important the right oil is - I do two 20 min journeys a day during the week, about half of that is through town so in a bit of traffic, and then a few long journeys a year - is that the best oil given my driving pattern?

Stooby2

Do a YouTube search on the various servicing jobs - you'll almost certainly find videos showing you how to do each one and you can gauge whether you think you can do it yourself.

Joe_Horner

StanwithaPlan wrote: »

Hi Jo, can I just check with you about the oil, I don't understand the rating system but I'm aware how important the right oil is - I do two 20 min journeys a day during the week, about half of that is through town so in a bit of traffic, and then a few long journeys a year - is that the best oil given my driving pattern?

I don't know the Golf intimately, but that's the recommended oil spec unless you decide to go for extended drain intervals. Extended drain on your driving pattern would be a bad idea in the long run - it may be fine for company reps who're doing all their miles on motorways but for relatively short trips more frequent changes are the key.

To be honest, if you change it often enough then virtually any oil of the right weight (5W40 in your case) would be fine, but you're not going to save anything using a basic mineral if it means changing it every 2 or 3 k miles.

That oil with 6k changes will keep the engine almost new for a very long time, and your total cost will be about £30 every 6 months or so for oil and filter. Add the air and fuel filters every 2nd or 3rd oil change and you can see how cheap it gets to look after your car well!

The rest of a service nowadays (apart from scheduled belt changes) is basically going round looking at things, checking levels (screen wash, brake fluid, power steering, tyre tread and pressures etc) and oiling / greasing the moving bits like hinges and catches.

When you spot developing problems like brake pads, rusty exhausts, worn suspension bushes etc, you can then make a decision whether you feel confident to tackle them yourself or take it to a garage knowing what you want done. The more you know your car, the more likely you'll become to feel confident with some of those jobs.

One big advantage of home servicing like this is that you get to know your way around your car, which makes it far less likely that a garage will be able to bend you over for stuff that doesn't need doing when you do go to them!

StanwithaPlan

Brill, I only do around 6k miles a year anyway!

I have been looking on the Europarts website and STP do an additive that you add to the old oil before you put the new in - it helps break down the gunge and gunk before you drain it - does anybody know if this is actually worth it? It's only a fiver a bottle and as I've left servicing it for so long I wondered if it was worth chucking that in too!

Joe_Horner

Probably not worth the flush because any gunge is happily sitting where it is at the moment and, if it's not going to drain normally, then it'll continue to sit there forever left to itself.

If you loosen it up with a flush and it fails to come out with the old oil then it's circulating with the new oil and potentially ending up in places that you don't want it, like clogging your nice new oil filter prematurely.

benson1980

DIY servicing is a long term money saver I would say. Its all very well saying 20-30 quid for a basic tool set but it would be this for a basic socket set, then its plus jack, plus axle stands, plus oil filter removal tool, plus extension bars for stubborn bolts etc. Definitely 100% worth doing and learning yourself. Over recent years I've saved a fortune by learning my way around cars, sourcing parts and doing 90% of the work myself, but wouldn't say its a short term fix. I remember the first time I tried doing a basic oil change myself and couldn't get the bolt undone with the short socket ratchet, so off to the parts store for extension bars etc and so it will go on, building up the tool collection gradually. Hardest part of working on cars I find is undoing stubborn/rusted bolts and screws so its just being armed with the right tools. Then its just a case of taking bits apart and putting it back together again, which a haynes manual will walk you through.

Joe_Horner

Agreed that tool buying can go on indefinitely, but for basic servicing one of the simple Draper kits like this one:

http://direct.asda.com/george/george-home/draper-diy-socket-set-tool-kit-107-pieces/001235700,default,pd.html

will cover almost everything you need. Similar kits are available from most of the usual suspects, but I quite like Draper stuff having abused a lot of it over the years - 3/8 drive ratchets with a scaffold pipe to undo head bolts anyone? :P

Add a suitable socket for the drain plug (assuming it's not a normal bolt head) and you're good to go. Looking at the filters on Europarts, the oil filter is a replaceable element type rather than cannister so a specific wrench probably isn't needed.