Is car servicing really necessary ?

goldspanners

anewman wrote: »

Don't they have about 12 litres of oil in there or something crazy anyway?

it needs it though seen as its double the size of a normal engine.

goldspanners

moonrakerz wrote: »

Yes I am totally serious - a well maintained car will rarely fail on the road. I have nearly 40 years driving experience to back up that statement.

As for you saying : "engines burn oil,this is fact,if you drive a good distance you may need to top it up when you get there." If I left Lands End, drove to John O'Groats and found I needed to put oil in when I got there I would be more than a little concerned about the state of that car's engine !

so can you explain why it is so wrong to carry a few consumables in preperation for the rareness of a failure?
have you ever drove from lands end to john o'groats? your engine would use oil.

i service mostly vw engines,when these are new straight from the factory within the first few hundred hours of use they will have burned a lot of oil,infact up until they are serviced at 1000 hours they still use quite a bit of oil,after this it slows down but they do need to be regularly checked and topped up.
this includes both diesel and petrol.
i dont care if you have 40 years driving experience,i have 10 years mechanical repair experience,i see a lot more engines in a week than you will have in your life.

goldspanners

CloudRuler wrote: »

Have to get my car serviced with Toyota for the first 3 yrs to keep the warranty. Bit of a pain seeing as my parents know a mechanic who used to service my old car for only £30.

no you dont,you can get it done by an idependant garage,as long as they use the correct oil and genuine toyota parts and are VAT registered your warranty will still be intact.

CloudRuler

goldspanners wrote: »

no you dont,you can get it done by an idependant garage,as long as they use the correct oil and genuine toyota parts and are VAT registered your warranty will still be intact.

Really?
I'll be looking for one soon then, they quoted £185 for my 2 yr service when I called yesterday, almost died.

Conor_3

goldspanners wrote: »

so can you explain why it is so wrong to carry a few consumables in preperation for the rareness of a failure?
have you ever drove from lands end to john o'groats? your engine would use oil.

My lorry does over 2000 miles a week and doesn't use any oil - daily checks are mandatory so I definitely know. It's lucky to need a litre inbetween safety inspections which are 12,000 miles apart and has in excess of 100,000 on the clock.

My MK3 Mondeo has done 4000 miles since it's last service including doing a 600 mile round trip in a day and hasn't used any oil.

My 22 year old Ford Capri doesn't use any oil between the 6000 mile service intervals despite at one point doing over 160 miles per day 4 days a week commuting.

I no longer carry any consumables other than a bottle of water in the Capri (it's not a sealed system) because if it suddenly develops a leak to the point where it won't make it to somewhere I can buy oil etc, being able to top it up isn't going to make a jot of difference. Vehicles aren't like they used to be 20 or so years ago.

HOWEVER I still check them all regularly because there's always a chance that a small leak could develop which could go unnoticed. All you need is the crank, camshaft or valve stem seals to wear sufficiently and you're using a pint every 1000 miles and it'd run out before it got to the next service.

molerat

goldspanners wrote: »

i service mostly vw engines,when these are new straight from the factory within the first few hundred hours of use they will have burned a lot of oil

I love new VW's. I sell oil and they take the most expensive oil we sell :beer: I also love the way that VW dealers say that they do not use much oil. I also am amused by the fact that very few VW owners know which service cycle their car is on so haven't got a clue which oil to use.

tomstickland

I've never been bothered by engines consuming oil. I tend to drive petrol engines hard and run them up to 250,000 miles, so everything is well loosened up. They get taken to the redline several times on every journey. Oil is cheap and I like to change it regularly anyway. A small amount leaking out of the bottom is good rustproofing.

I carry spare oil, water, tyre weld, tools and useful things like string, cable ties etc. I've never had to use any of it, but it'd be a real nuisance to be unable to fix a minor problem.

goldspanners

Conor wrote: »

My lorry does over 2000 miles a week and doesn't use any oil - daily checks are mandatory so I definitely know. It's lucky to need a litre inbetween safety inspections which are 12,000 miles apart and has in excess of 100,000 on the clock.

My MK3 Mondeo has done 4000 miles since it's last service including doing a 600 mile round trip in a day and hasn't used any oil.

My 22 year old Ford Capri doesn't use any oil between the 6000 mile service intervals despite at one point doing over 160 miles per day 4 days a week commuting.

I no longer carry any consumables other than a bottle of water in the Capri (it's not a sealed system) because if it suddenly develops a leak to the point where it won't make it to somewhere I can buy oil etc, being able to top it up isn't going to make a jot of difference. Vehicles aren't like they used to be 20 or so years ago.

HOWEVER I still check them all regularly because there's always a chance that a small leak could develop which could go unnoticed. All you need is the crank, camshaft or valve stem seals to wear sufficiently and you're using a pint every 1000 miles and it'd run out before it got to the next service.

regardless,you always check it and im sure you always have some oil there to top it up just incase.

goldspanners

molerat wrote: »

I love new VW's. I sell oil and they take the most expensive oil we sell :beer: I also love the way that VW dealers say that they do not use much oil. I also am amused by the fact that very few VW owners know which service cycle their car is on so haven't got a clue which oil to use.

you know what i mean then!

pingu

i was told by an insurance estimate man(the ones who come to check your car when you had an accident)

that as long as you change oil and filter regularly you don't need service etc...

i understand that for new cars its different!