5 years

In news:ce98ae$op6$ snipped-for-privacy@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk, jezz decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

In a car hire firm I used to work for (not the one I work for now, I hasten to add), we had about 8, 3 yr old Vectra 2.0 GLSs. (S reg) At least one of which had never been in for a service in its life other than to the local back street Bodgit and Scarpers for a cam belt at around 75000 and again at

150k ish. It'd done 160000ish very hard miles, when we checked the oil it was a case of "remove dipstick, try and work out where the sludge was wet". Strange thing was, none of them ever died and they didn't even get noisy. A couple of them are on the local taxi circuit even now, although I'd not get in 'em.

At least he must have been topping the oil up which is more than a friend of mine was doing. About 15 years ago a friend had a Reliant Scimitar SS1 with the

1600 cvh engine. He picked me up in it one day and I commented on how harsh the engine sounded. I asked when the oil had last been changed and he worked it out as about 17k miles ago going by the service history. When did you last check the level then I asked. 'Ummm, I'm not sure if I ever have'

When we got back to my house I had a look at the dipstick but it was bone dry right down to the bottom. I stuck a tray under it and pulled the sump plug. All that came out was a couple of cupfuls of something resembling black treacle. With a sumpful of fresh oil it ran very nicely surprisingly enough.

Which begs the question. Why service an engine at all. Over say 100k miles you service every 10k say. I am guessing a main dealer service costs what

100quid at least? So engine goes bang at 100k, you have saved 1k on servicing which you can spend on fitting a good second hand engine (with some change probably) and look forward to another 100k miles!

Will

Assuming that secondhand engine has been serviced...

there was a thread a while ago about non servicing of one of two identical vectras, one had the muck knocked out of the air filter every few years and any necessary mot work, total costs were a few hundred, the other had dealer servicing at about 3000 pounds, they both sold for very similar amounts, neither broke down, so the saving was over two grand before end of use.

mrcheerful

And assuming your original unserviced engine has scraped through emissions tests, and / or hasn't gone pop in the fast lane at 80mph.

I guess Will's suggestion isn't entirely serious, not when servicing can identify any number of safety-related problems.

Service intervals on modern cars are generally 1 year/xxx miles - so most people have an annual service I would guess.

Once the vehicle is over 3 years old you have - the annual MOT which is a good safety check.

So - DIY serving by-the-book or more often, coupled with the annual MOT, plus keeping an ear open for strange noises and the usual tyre and brake wear etc. should be enough - apart from manufacturer recalls etc.

My cavalier survived on this quite well, with a garage doing some of the trickier bits (cambelts etc.) and some of the heavier bits (suspension lumps when bushes got tired) - and, to my shame, the alternator belt (it goes around the engine mountings!)

My first car cost me £400, a ten year old renault 11. The previous owner had obviously not changed the oil for some time. First I knoew was when I took it to be tuned, and when I came back, the tuner showed me some stuff that looked like black silicone sealant chunks in the bin, it was the "oil" he scraped off the crank lid. He said I got my money's worth (it was a fixed price tune up). When I changed the oil, I got another 10mph on the top speed!

Bob