essential maintenance? or something that you can wait until it

[Deleted User]

What do people consider essential to pro-actively replace? and what can be allowed to fail and fixed then? (excluding obvious things like tyres and lightbulbs). In other words, what items will really wreck your car, or be a danger if you don't replace before they fail?


My list is:


Essential:
Change oil
Change cambelt
Change brake pads/discs


What about changing brake fluid,?


As for changing coolant, fuel filters, injectors, plugs, I guess these can these cause slow long-term damage if neglected, but are they worth changing on a £500 banger?

caprikid1

I guess I am old fashioned and just follow the manufacturers recommendations.

I guess they drop millions of miles all over the world testing this list. I could be wrong could be a glorified Joy ride but from friends at Ford I reckon they are quite rigourous.

daveyjp

Brake fluid every couple of years. Steering and suspension components should be changed at the first sign of deterioration which could be a long way from failure.

Stoke

"As for changing coolant, fuel filters, injectors, plugs, I guess these can these cause slow long-term damage if neglected, but are they worth changing on a £500 banger?"

Coolant - Depending on your vehicle make and model newer engine coolants if mixed properly can last for up to 150,000 miles or 5 years. Perhaps do it once, then forget about it. Might be worth getting a cheap anti-freeze tester mind.

Fuel Filter - Depends how much you value your fuel pump. If you're on a diesel, I would recommend changing them as expected in the service schedule, or even more regular than that. VW used to claim a fuel filter on their diesels should only be replaced every 50k miles. That's ridiculous. Fuel filter should be done every 20k-30k miles, especially on a diesel.

Injectors - On a petrol I wouldn't, because they're normally easy to remove. On a diesel, I always recommend blasting a can of Diesel Purge through once a year. This can clean all the crap and filth that can coke up your injectors and mess up the spray pattern.

Plugs - When I owned a petrol, I changed them when they needed changing.

Stoke

daveyjp wrote: »

Brake fluid every couple of years. Steering and suspension components should be changed at the first sign of deterioration which could be a long way from failure.

The thing is what's the first sign of deterioration? A shock absorber can weep a little bit of fluid and still last for many thousands of miles without failure.

daveyjp

I'm talking about track rod ends, wishbone bushes, gaiters, ball joints, etc etc.

They are the items which can get through an MOT with an advisory, but lead to problems with handling, steering, tyre wear etc so changing them once at advisory stage is better than waiting until they fail.

Stoke

daveyjp wrote: »

I'm talking about track rod ends, wishbone bushes, gaiters, ball joints, etc etc.

They are the items which can get through an MOT with an advisory, but lead to problems with handling, steering, tyre wear etc so changing them once at advisory stage is better than waiting until they fail.

OK, well I always recommend checking your bushes every so often and even considering replacing with better quality polybushes. Factory ARB bushes are notorious for perishing, control arm bushes, wishbone bushes, all that. Track rod ends never had too much of an issue, check your CV joints as well, rubber boot splits, grease dries etc.

Geodark

[quote=[Deleted User];discussion/5019662]What do people consider essential to pro-actively replace? and what can be allowed to fail and fixed then? (excluding obvious things like tyres and lightbulbs). In other words, what items will really wreck your car, or be a danger if you don't replace before they fail?


My list is:


Essential:
Change oil
Change cambelt
Change brake pads/discs


What about changing brake fluid,?


As for changing coolant, fuel filters, injectors, plugs, I guess these can these cause slow long-term damage if neglected, but are they worth changing on a £500 banger?[/QUOTE]

Are you including oil filter in the oil change? As well as cambelt I would also change aux belt and coolant pump. Be horrible to change the cam belt only for the pump to break and throw the belt or the aux belt to snap and foul the belt.

chrisw

I wouldn't bother changing the cam belt on a £500 banger unless the car really was exceptional in other respects. Also cars like some of the old Fiat Punto's have a non-interference engine, so if a belt goes it's no real loss other than inconvenience.

motorguy

[quote=[Deleted User];discussion/5019662]What do people consider essential to pro-actively replace? and what can be allowed to fail and fixed then? (excluding obvious things like tyres and lightbulbs). In other words, what items will really wreck your car, or be a danger if you don't replace before they fail?


My list is:


Essential:
Change oil
Change cambelt
Change brake pads/discs


What about changing brake fluid,?


As for changing coolant, fuel filters, injectors, plugs, I guess these can these cause slow long-term damage if neglected, but are they worth changing on a £500 banger?[/QUOTE]

Oil and OIL FILTER
Cambelt if its nearly due - unless its a non interference engine then i'll take my chances.
Brake pads and discs - i will tend to do that reactively on a £500 car - when you can hear them when you brake OR if i feel there is a deterioration in brake quality.

Coolant. No.
Fuel Filters. Yes. As per service schedule.
Injectors. No. Only when there are indications they need done.
Plugs. Probably only when required - they're cheap.

Tyres - when required.

arcon5

This all depends on the car, age, mileage you do and your intentions with it. I wouldn't bother with a cambelt of a £500 car I see as disposable. I wouldn't dare not change it on a 2 year old BMW.

On a banger you could probably get away with replacing nearly nothing.