Car service / checkover

Pipcas

So, I'm planning on driving my 8 years old car to the West coast of Scotland, travelling around a little and returning back to north east of England after a few weeks. Could somebody tell me the most essential things I could replace, update/change in the engine for optimum performance. I was initially thinking of new tyres, oil change.   Thankyou in advance. 

Ayr_Rage

Has the car been serviced at the manufacturer's recommended intervals?

If the trip mileage will take it beyond the next due service get it done prior to your travels.

Tyres only need replacing when worn out, check the tread depth and go from there.

If it's not due any of the above just make sure the oil and coolant are topped up and the tyre pressures are correct.

You'll need to make sure you have decent screenwash too in the West of Scotland.

WellKnownSid

A decent map.  Yes - paper thing, looks like a book, often has AA on it in big letters.

I remember - 2pm on a Sunday - bus to catch, trying to get to London and then Eurostar on from SPI to Paris for a super-important Monday morning meeting.  I met a family in a camper van who had followed his sat nav - then decided it was all too scary, tried to turn around and managed to bump the wall tripping the fuel cut off in his Fiat.  The guy couldn't give a stuff "but we're on our holidays" and "well, it's not my fault, the sat nav said it would be okay".

I pushed that van with some helpers off the road and into a field... he's probably still there now 

fordyms

Pipcas said:

So, I'm planning on driving my 8 years old car to the West coast of Scotland, travelling around a little and returning back to north east of England after a few weeks. Could somebody tell me the most essential things I could replace, update/change in the engine for optimum performance. I was initially thinking of new tyres, oil change.   Thankyou in advance. 

I am doing Yorkshire to NE Scotland very shortly. We go to Scotland every year!
1. Midge repellent :-)
2. Full service if anywhere near due.
3. Check your breakdown policy!
4. Set of good tyres if anywhere near due to be replaced & wiper blades.
5. Check Tyre pressures & fill up the screenwash.

My extra checklist when I had a diesel car:
Fill up with premium fuel & chuck a bottle of fuel additive in. The long run will do your engine the world of good.

CliveOfIndia

WellKnownSid said:

A decent map.  Yes - paper thing, looks like a book, often has AA on it in big letters.

I'll second this.  Quite apart from anything else, there are still places where mobile phone signal can be flaky to non-existent, so never rely solely on being able to use your phone.

Aside from that, the other posters have given good advice.  There's no need to put new tyres on, unless they're very close to the limit or very old, in which case it's probably worth doing.  In a similar vein, get the car serviced if it's coming up to needing its routine service, otherwise just do the standard checks - oil, fluids, tyre pressure, etc.

As long as the car has been well-maintained and serviced in line with the manufacturer's schedule, there's very little to worry about.  At 8 years old it's barely run in by modern standards

Ayr_Rage said:

You'll need to make sure you have decent screenwash too in the West of Scotland.

I couldn't agree more with this one.  In fact, I might even suggest going one step further.  Get an old 2-litre lemonade bottle, fill it with water, and keep that and an old cloth in the car.  If you find your windscreen getting splattered with a million midges which are too much for the screen wash/wipers to handle, you can at least pull over and give the screen a quick wipe over by hand.

Actually, on that note - make sure you've got plenty of midge-repellent with you

daveyjp

And if going to more remote areas once you get to half a tank of fuel fill up the next time you see a fuel station. 

It could be dozens of miles before the next one (which may not have any) and once you get to the low fuel warning that needle moves quickly!

Also please read about and fully understand how single track roads work.  Even A roads in some areas of Scotland have single track sections.

https://www.scotlandinfo.eu/driving-single-track-roads-in-scotland/

The key one being if someone is behind you and you feel they are harassing you they aren't.  They may well be a local (doctor, vet, emergency response volunteer)  who knows the road better than you trying to get somewhere, so please let them pass asap. 

Car_54

WellKnownSid said:

A decent map.  Yes - paper thing, looks like a book, often has AA on it in big letters.

If it looks like a book, it's not a map, it's an atlas.

Betterthanlife

Tin of car sweets and a tartan rug

born_again

TBH. A car should need nothing more that it usually gets if it looked after in it's normal life. When going on holiday. Just as likely to breakdown on local trips as any other.

CliveOfIndia

Car_54 said:

WellKnownSid said:

A decent map.  Yes - paper thing, looks like a book, often has AA on it in big letters.

If it looks like a book, it's not a map, it's an atlas.

Blimey, talk about bisecting rabbits !

Sorry, no offence intended, all of the posts I've seen from you are nothing less than super-helpful and very knowledgeable.  This one made me chuckle though

WellKnownSid

born_again said:

TBH. A car should need nothing more that it usually gets if it looked after in it's normal life. When going on holiday. Just as likely to breakdown on local trips as any other.

Agreed "in theory".

If a car normally covers 50 miles a week on local trips and is now covering 500 miles in a week, it could be argued it's ten times more likely to break down in that week.

If you factor in that the car may never fully warm up on local trips, so with a bit of sludge or a fan that hasn't kicked in for a few years, then running hotter could lead to overheating.

If you factor in that the car may never carry anything more than a week's shopping vs fully laden with luggage on a bumpy track (Failte Gu Alba) those corroded springs might suddenly check out, or that corroded brake pipe - or the brakes may boil because the fluid never got changed.

I cannot tell you how many cars I rescued off our track when we lived on the West Coast - either the car or the driver or both totally unprepared.