I'm slightly confussled. My car had it's 2nd service done back last October (I got the car last November) but annoyingly the mileage wasn't noted down in the book, although my car does show around 3500 miles left until the next service. It's nearly got 27,000 miles on the clock so I'm quite a bit away from the 36k service as I only average around 150 miles a week. I'm not sure about what service it needs? I know the service schedule is either every 18,000 miles or 2 years.
Shall I just take it for an oil, oil filter change along with a brake fluid change to keep it going until early next year for an early 36k service? Or...something else haha? As I've said, I'm confused so if I'm sounding a bit dumb, I apologise. Suggestions will be appreciated
They'll obviously be a few opinions on this. Brake fluid should have been done at the two year point according to the service schedule. A good independant may not charge much more than about 40 quid (depending on where you live of course!) to change the fluid outside of a service schedule, just make sure it is recorded in the service log. (To put things in perspective, the brake fluid on my Cadillac was changed this year using genuine GM fluid. 40 minute job, which cost me £40). Spark plugs
might be past their best at 11 or 12k on a 1.2 and probably advisable to change at that mileage and not 18k intervals. As loveshandbags posted, brake discs and pads will most likely need to be inspected at the least to make sure all is well.
If doing 6k or less a year, then Fiat do offer a low mileage service plan, oil, oil filter and pollen filter and general healthcare check, but clearly, a good independant can probably do it cheaper. Looking at your posted mileage, you are exceeding this mileage anyway. Our own POP had the low mileage service done last February and Stoneacre charged us £82 inc vat.
Think carefully about diagnostic hook up's (if offered, check you won't be charged extra for this during a service, sometimes (allegedly) included in the cost but after the checks I did with at least six dealers earlier this year, the sums just didn't add up with some, with a £60 difference over the cost of a service from one dealer over another. This seemed to make sense when the dealers who wanted more, admitted that they charged £60 for an ordinary diagnostic hook-up but some then claimed that the hook-up was included at no extra cost in the price of the service! Very odd! I would still ask the question anyway. Critical updates can be checked on VOSA website if there are any and obviously if yours needs one, then get it done.
If your car is over two years old now and you didn't purchase the 3rd year warranty for the princely sum of £27, I'm assuming you're out of warranty? I'd be thinking, as long as your oil is ok and your brakes aren't giving you too much cause for concern and there aren't any issues you have which you know should be sorted sooner rather than later, I'd probably wait until January and get the whole shebang, service/MOT done together, but obviously, it will be just after Chrimbo and you may have spent out! There are garages that offer a 'Free MOT' with a service (one of my local garages does anyway), but of course, I have no idea how much they charge for the service or the quality of the parts they use.
