Servicing - Long Life / Variable

[golfwannabe]

Hi,

Had a search around this and I can't seem to quite get the answer I want.

Basically I got the car last saturday and I know that the last service to be carried out was in July last year but when I start the car up it screams 'Service Now' at me - I'm guessing this could simply be a case of not having the service indicator reset? The car was serviced on a 102,000 it's now on 105,000 so it hasn't even been 10k yet. The last service was just at a normal garage and not VW.

Whats the score with this long life / fixed servicing? Do I need to ring up a dealership and find out what my car should be on? I won't even do 10k a year so would rather be on fixed yearly servicing. I can't understand how people are experiencing problems with there cars rattling on start up when suddenly changing between service types because a longer / shorter life oil is used? (is it because your car gets used to a certain kind of oil?) How can you change between the two?

I'm having my car serviced at a local no VW garage on tues and to be honest I'm sh!tting my pants after reading the amount of threads on oil on this forum  Do I buy the oil myself? If so which one do you recommend? I don't want him to use the wrong stuff and for my car to sound horrendous afterwards!!! I always thought that as the engine aged you should use a thicker / thinner oil - can't remember which to be honest...

Any help / advice on this would be really appreciated.

[golfwannabe]

So, just called VW and was told that the car is on Fixed Yearly servicing - or at least it was in 2002 / 2003 as that was the last time they saw it. Asked them for a quick quote for a service and cam belt change etc and this is what they quoted (bloody astonishing)

£295 for a major service inc fuel filter (like thats some really expensive part!!!)
£126.46 for brake fluid and coolant change (crikey - my local mechanic does them at £20 a piece)
£325 for cam and tensioner change (special offer as it's normally at £420) I don't think £325 is that bad really is it?

[Jay]

£325 isn't bad, but ask if that includes the water pump, they're only an extra £30.

£126 is probably because they use the correct VW coolant, not some cheapo stuff from a motorfactors, the G12+ stuff is quite expensive but recommended.

£295, find out what's included in that it might also include brakes, oil, oil filter, air filter, pollen filter etc which for brake parts alone just cost me £60 for the rear discs and pads, still need brake fluid and easibleed kit to DIM, local mechanic said he would charge £150 for rears only inc, parts. Price up the parts then factor in labour, it sounds right. My brother in laws Passat was £395 for his yearly service.

[golfwannabe]

Fair point but compared to my local who will do a full service for around £120 - the £295 screams excessive to me. I have to agree that the cambelt and tensioner does sound reasonable at £325 (it won't include waterpump though)

I'm more concerned about the quality of oil the local mechanic will be using - can't see it being Castrol Edge!!

[Jay]

I'd go back to them and ask for a price breakdown on their quotes, do the same for the local mechanic and you'll see where the difference is.

Changing oil is easy and only costs £25-£30 for 5L and ~£10 for a filter, not sure why you want a mechanic to do it  Is it just that you want to keep a service history from garages rather than DIY service history?

[golfwannabe]

Erm, not really to be honest as the car hasn't got great history with it anyway. I just don't have any jack or axel stands and I like the piece of mind of knowing it's been done by someone in the know.

I went to VW and bought the parts myself for piece of mind  - local mechanic is going to fit them. Just a smidge under £60 for the oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter...

[Jay]

You can get a 2 or 3 tonne jack from http://www.machinemart.co.uk/  for under £30, stands are about £15-£20 most.
Small set of spanners, wrench & Sockets £20.

Then you have most of the tools to DIY. It's not that hard, trust me - if I can do it anyone can 

[golfwannabe]

I may give it a crack next time then... I just don't trust myself...lol

Would prob end in a big disaster!!

[Jay]

You'll be fine, my first time changing oil, oil filter, spark plugs, air filter etc was done in the rain (wouldn't have had time for another month otherwise), pain in the arse getting wet but was well worth it and felt good afterwards for actually doing it.

Just make sure you have all the tools to hand and nothing can go wrong, except over filling the oil, but then you undo the sump plug a little to slowly drain the excess out.

I just don't like seeing people hand a mechanic £50 p/h for something they can learn themselves 

I'm crapping myself because I'm changing my brakes, I've done loads of research on it and it's actually easy by the looks of it. So gonna have a crack this weekend.

[golfwannabe]

Fair point you have there mate!

It does seem like money we just hand over when in actual fact you can do it yourself...

Will prob try getting the stuff in and doing it myself at some point in the future!!