DBunX
New member
Well I change the oil and filter in my Saab 9-3 1.9, every 5000 miles without fail. It takes me around 7 months to cover 5k. I carry out the oil and filter change myself, very easy job now that I have spent £25 installing a Fumoto quickvalve:
http://quickvalve.co.uk/
5 litres of 5w30 ACEA C3 low saps oil for my car, of which I use 4.3 litres (not for 500's), costs me no more than £20, buy it off ebay and that includes postage. A genuine Mann Hummel oil filter costs £4.50. Fuel filter, £15, but that only gets changed every 15 to 18 months.
Upshot of my 'overkill' oil changes, are a very clean engine, virtually no soot build up in the EGR, no DPF problems and the car passes its emissions test with a virtually nil reading on the analyser, every year.
Servicing your own car can be done very economically and I could easily carry out a intermediate service on a 1.2 500 having bought all the service items and parts myself, for less than £100, to include all of the parts that John202020 listed, minus wiper blades.
The only reason I would ever take a car outside of warranty to a main dealership, would be to have safety recall work done, diagnostics (updating software/ECU) or, if I didn't have a full dealership service history, I might 'treat' the car to a one off visit to ensure that everything was in order.
This isn't a moan, just an observation, as I have the same opinion of people using IT, as its my day job and I still get surprised at how some people just don't get or can't do the most simple of things. I've built and repaired 1000s of computers and only ever had one made for me once (a boutique gaming PC).
I've only been driving just over 3 years, and my 500 is my first new car and about to have its 3rd year service. I'm going to take it back to the dealer to do that (and the MOT that's due 19/9) as to be frank car stuff scares me, and I have no idea what I'm doing. It's easy to say these things can be done for a lot less by the user or some other garage somewhere but not everyone has the aptitude, confidence or is able to know if they are being fed BS.
Apologies for the slight hijack of the thread btw.
I had my 1st year service at 6,953m, 2nd at 13,186m and this year I've only just topped 18,000 miles. Both of the previous services have ticks in the oil/oil filter change boxes.
What should I be expecting them to do me for this time? It's a 63 plate 89hp TA. Stuff like spark plugs etc spring to mind.
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