How Often to change the Oil

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (Andy Hewitt) saying something like:

The very words uttered by the Ambassador when he saw the bill for it.

LOL.

But do they? I thought that ABS equipped cars you didn't need a means of adjusting the front to rear pressure (forgot what the valve is called) as the ABS would take care of it.

With ABS disabled, doesn't that mean your more likely to lock up the rear wheels??

Steven

Steven ( snipped-for-privacy@toyland.demon.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Very few cars have a load-sensitive rear brake proportioning valve.

No.

Cynical me says that the main dealer has taken the money but not actually done the work. It's happened to me...

It's quite common in the US to get oil analysed. And all the reports I've read say the oil is still fine at the change interval. Not specific to Ford, though.

Well, my '84 SD1 has 12,000 mile service intervals. And the BL literature from that time says most of their other products have too - with the exception of some bottom range ones presumably still using points. So it looks like the service intervals before this were determined by other factors than the oil - mainly ignition related.

Bult oil still costs around 60p a litre. Add the VAT and the cost of the non-genuine cheapy filter, tank (probably a new bunded one), dispensing equipment, VAT etc and there is precious little profit.

Alan

Huw (hedydd[nospam]@tiscali.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Cobblers. Fleets look at the on-fleet lifetime cost balanced against the resale value. If 30k services means that the car costs £500 less over the lease (say 60k) than 10k services, and affects the resale value by £250, then they'll do 30k.

They won't tend to run them to 90k, because there's no value in doing so - the lower resale will not balance out against the higher on-fleet costs.

Very high mileage car fleets may be different, but they'll be doing far less stressed mileage - it's difficult to do much cold start/short run abuse when you're doing 50k+/yr, but easy at 15k/year.

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

I'm cynical too. That's why I've always put a tiny mark somewhere on the oil filter when I used a dealer for servicing. The work was always carried out. I'm sure there are dealers who will rip you off but I would imagine that over 95% of them actually do at least change the oil and filter.

I used to make use of Millers oil analysis service when I used their diesel XFE oil and the oil was always fine after 12k miles but the Millers XFE is a higher spec ACEA B3 oil compared to the cheaper ACEA A1/B1 Ford economy oil.

Not when you buy 10,000 litres at a time.

Do you know what a loss leader is?

It means they hope to sell you something else with a higher profit margin. However, someone taking their car to a fast fit place for just an oil change is unlikely to be conned by this. If a *service*, possibly.

I got an oil change for the SD1 done at the local Kwik-Fit. They used Mobile 1 semi synthetic. Oil filter was in a Fram box. Cost less than buying similar from the Halfords across the road. And they were happy to let me watch them do it.

Cobblers. Ignoring taxation issues then it pays hands down for any fleet to actually run cars until they are uneconomic to run any more. You may have a limited number of fleets that change regularly at low mileage, I know of several others that do the same but many more that run vehicles to high mileages. To get to 200,000 miles means 10 years at 20,000 miles per year and I know of two nationwide fleets that aim to achieve this. They seldom do because they keep a close eye on individual vehicle costs and the average replacement is at around 145,000 with a few running over 200,000. It is seldom an engine wear issue that causes their replacement. I had two such vehicles, a diesel astra and vectra visit me regularly until they were replaced last year, one due to imminent cost on a clurch and the other due to an accident. Both on the same fleet, the astra visiting farms on short stops and the other repping on cold calls. Neither had seen much dual carriageways.

Many many more examples. You just cannot generalise about the way fleets are run in the way that you do.

Huw

"Huw" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net:

An alternative example of fleet management:

My dad used to work for a certain major UK banking establishment. During one period of a few years, he got a brand new company car (repmobile - Mundano etc) every 6 months! *Apparently*, the fleet discount was so large, they could sell the cars on after 6 months at no loss! No servicing costs, no depreciation. Hence the short change interval. That was 10 years ago, so it may not be applicable now. But it has to be the best way to run a fleet, if you have the buying power!

It's how most hire companies operate as well.

OE tells me that line 3 is too long so please excuse the broken sequence of messages.

Stu wrote:

Yes indeed, we cannot generalise. However, these cars are then sold through dealers to private owners. There is no advantage to the fleet from long service intervals in this case and even the first service will be done while in the second owners hands so the service interval is certainly irrelevant to the initial purchase decision. The service cost in this case is only important to the second owner.

Huw

I've also heard this. After all its only a regular mineral oil. Not semi or anything better.

I also change at 6k intervals.

Tim..