Servicing car late - how many miles over is OK?

Most main dealer warranties allow you about 1000miles.

Andy

If the car is under warranty, then whatever the warranty says....

If it is not under warranty, then it's not so clear, and a function of time as well as distance. 1500 motorway miles in a week may well be no problem. 300 town miles, taken largely in 1.5 miles chunks over 3 months, with a perpetually cold engine, will prove much more damaging, IMHO.

Ian

I always service my car in accordance with manufacturer's recommendations but my brother-in-law owns an 'H' reg Sierra that has done over 100k miles. I reckon its been 'serviced' about twice in its life. He checks the oil every now and again and tops it up, and replaces things as they become necessary but he takes the 'if it aint broke don't fix it' maxim to the limit. Funny thing is - it runs as sweet as a nut and has given him less trouble than my two previous cars which were serviced regularly but hopelessly unreliable!

Kev

My brother took the same view with his old 309. He bought it at 66,000 miles

9 years old with no service history. I changed the plugs one day when it wouldn't start, changed the oil a couple of times when he left it with me to go on holiday, and he ignored it the rest of the time! The worst MOT failure involved 4 tyres and a new indicator switch, the rest it passed with only very minor fettling. He gave it away to a friend at 135,000 miles when it was 14 years old and I've never seen it or heard about it since. It had at most 4 oil changes in 70,000 miles and was still on the original clutch. He has a 2001 Puma now, and I beat it into him that he should adhere to the 10,000 mile intervals. Fortunately he has a very good Ford Rapid Fit nearby who have looked after it very well, without any sign of ripping him off.

ISTR one of the regulars around these parts mentioning that they adopted the exact same attitude to an old Volvo, and had done a ridiculously high mileage as a result, not having changed the oil in something like 100k!! I can't remember who it was - speak up if you're there!

About 15 years ago, a guy working for an engine recon Co next door to my w/shop, ran an old MM van. In the 6 years I knew him, the van had never had an oil change. A round trip of about 35 miles, 6 days a week, to and from work plus weekends, evenings etc. As I say, no oil changes, and to make things even worse, he topped up the engine, with old oil from exchange engines. On the dipstick, the oil was completely black. Nevertheless, AFAIK it never let him down once. Apart from sounding a bit clattery, like most MM engines, and burning a bit of oil, It sounded quite healthy. Typical though, isn't it?. A guy who reconditions engines for a living, couldn't care less about the state of his own. Mike.

What's the odds this is a CVH engine with it's 'total loss' lubrication system? ;-)

The message from snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) contains these words:

Odd how in this instance "total" is a synonym for "dead".

Depends on the terms and conditions of the warranty. 1000 miles is allwoed in my warranty; if I go over that I have to get the servic completed, pay for any remedial work required and then I can revalidate the warranty for £25.

Andy

I did this to my old Toyota, ran it from 20,000 to 140,000 miles with one (involuntary, they just did it) oil change at 97,000 and the rest of the time the car persisted on a total of 6 litres of oil - a gallon container plus about a third of the next gallon, dropping in a litre or so when the light came on, which was very rare. I'm guessing it got a new filter on that oil change at

97k, don't think it got any others.

That would be about it for the servicing, e.g. the plugs would be original, etc. Used to test the filter from time to time, e.g. every few years, by taking it out and seeing if that made any difference, but it never did.

The rest was just fix what broke / was needed for the MoT. Big error with using jollop to seal the rad which had a pinhole leak from when I got it, the failure to replace it until it failed (after several years) meant a sort of rust zone centred on the leak, which was the real reason for getting rid.

Other than being totally stupid it's pretty amazing! I wonder whether it's actually economical to service them? 14 services at a main dealer (one every 10k) would've come to over =A33000, at =A3300/service, but it's more likely to be =A34000+ at their prices. At a small garage you'd probably be looking at around =A31000 - =A33000. That's about half a car's worth!

But if you're gonna get over 140,000 miles anyway it's hardly worth oil changes. 140,000 miles isn't bad even for a car that gets serviced. I wonder what the previous owner was like, could it have been due to being run in really well or something? I suspect that running in may've had something to do with them.

In America they'd think you were mad if you left an oil change for more

5000 miles lol. Some people like Honest John recommend oil changes every 5000 miles, 6500 max if you're using fully synth. Is it really worth doing it every 5000 miles? I think I'm going to be changing my oil every 6 months.

Well, you do see an awful lot of mega-mile cars in the US that are still running fine. Also keep in mind that there are a lot of drive-in type oil change places that charge you something like 20 or 30 bucks for an oil change so it's a fairly cheap way of extending the life of your car.

Erm, 140k is going to be coming to the end of the life (and very lucky to have survived that long) for a car that's never been serviced, whereas most modern regularly serviced cars should easily do 200-300k and still be going strong.

My Rover got me a third of a million miles before being pinched.

I

One of the guys in our US office has a Volvo with over 2 million miles on it. Changes the oil every 3000 miles and it hardly ever rains so there's little rust problems.

Some people like Honest John recommend oil changes

Only if you change the filter as well.

filter, doing

But if you're gonna get over 140,000 miles anyway it's hardly worth oil changes. 140,000 miles isn't bad even for a car that gets serviced. I wonder what the previous owner was like, could it have been due to being run in really well or something? I suspect that running in may've had something to do with them.

In America they'd think you were mad if you left an oil change for more

5000 miles lol. Some people like Honest John recommend oil changes every 5000 miles, 6500 max if you're using fully synth. Is it really worth doing it every 5000 miles? I think I'm going to be changing my oil every 6 months.

Personally I've always considered the Yanks to be dreadfully wasteful. The manufacturers are hardly going to recommend a servicing schedule that causes damage to your engine so if they recommend every 12k miles or every 12 months then it's wasteful and unnecessary to do it more often. I did read an article some months ago written by an oil company technician who stated that modern oils were perfectly capable of efficiently lubricating a car engine for several years without change - although he did recommend replacing the filter regularly to remove the gunge.

Kev

Assuming that it actually *does* extend the life of your car and is not just a money making exercise for the lube shops. They frighten the yanks into thinking that they need to change their oil frequently just to keep themselves in business.

Kev

If only there was a way of replacing the filter without having the oil piss out all over you.