Servicing your own car vs garage
Discussion
Perk of running the business lolI do to a point. I galls me to give someone money for something I can do myself. I was out this morning changing the thermostat housing on the Mrs KA to try and stop a coolant leak it had. Ballache fiddly thing to do, but I'd rather spend some time on it than give it someone who'd charge me £100 to do the same thing
Timing belts, engine swaps, clutches, those days are behind me
Timing belts, engine swaps, clutches, those days are behind me
Goes to a garage.
- I have a trusted one near me who charges a V. Reasonable rate
- No driveway / space / tools to jack the car up and do fluid changes. Sort of the opposite of "all gear, no idea".
I do check / top fluids where I can and try to do basic maintenace/repairs myself
Also, this - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
- I have a trusted one near me who charges a V. Reasonable rate
- No driveway / space / tools to jack the car up and do fluid changes. Sort of the opposite of "all gear, no idea".
I do check / top fluids where I can and try to do basic maintenace/repairs myself
Also, this - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Edited by KarlMac on Monday 20th July 16:15
SteveSteveson said:
Pay a garage as:
1) I don't have space to do it
2) Modern cars require more and more specialist, marque specific tools
3) It's just easier and a specialist indy garage knows far more than I ever will.
They might require more electronic tools but spanners are still spanners , servicing is the biggest money spinner for main dealers £300-500 for 6 litres of oil and a few filters.1) I don't have space to do it
2) Modern cars require more and more specialist, marque specific tools
3) It's just easier and a specialist indy garage knows far more than I ever will.
It's contract hire/lease that's bought these prices about, when it was your car you could decide whether you wanted it servicing or to do it yourself, now it belongs to the hire company they decide who services it out of your pocket but people are sucked into the £300 a month to drive a new car.
I bought a fiat doblo van but didn't have it serviced by them, at 23 months something stared clonking underneath, took it in and they fixed it, didn't even ask to see the service history because fiat were paying, if they didn't fix it there was no way they'd get the work
Always service my own cars, but drive older ones, so FSH not paramount. Always keep receipts for oil/filters etc to prove the work.
I figure a garage can charge £200-£300, whereas the parts can be bought for around £50 usually. (oil/filter/air/plugs)
Once you get to know the car, takes around 45 minutes to do the whole lot, and you know it's done with correct grade of oil, correct plug gapping etc.
However, I don't really have the room to do anything other than that, so for anything else goes to my indy.
I figure a garage can charge £200-£300, whereas the parts can be bought for around £50 usually. (oil/filter/air/plugs)
Once you get to know the car, takes around 45 minutes to do the whole lot, and you know it's done with correct grade of oil, correct plug gapping etc.
However, I don't really have the room to do anything other than that, so for anything else goes to my indy.
Acidrop said:
Do you service your own car or pay a stealer or specialist just for the stamp?
False dichotomy.Where's the option for: "use a garage (marque specialist) because I trust what they say and do and they do an infinitely better job than I could, plus the service stamp is a bonus."?
Combination of both for me. Routine servicing, brakes, I'll do myself using good quality parts. Clutch or gearbox work will go to an Indy I know well, just because I can't be arsed doing that on my driveway with just ramps and axle stands. One of my cars I've had from 6 months old and its never been dealer maintained. I keep all parts receipts for both my cars showing brands bought etc, and write the details in service book with other work written in the notes section at the back.
I do all the servicing and almost all of the repairs on our cars. Very occasionally I'll take it to a garage if there's something that I can't fix, but that's gradually becoming more and more infrequent.
As we tend to keep our cars until they die, stamps in the service book are fairly meaningless, although I do still fill the book in with details of what I've done and keep all the receipts for parts - for my own benefit as much as anything.
As we tend to keep our cars until they die, stamps in the service book are fairly meaningless, although I do still fill the book in with details of what I've done and keep all the receipts for parts - for my own benefit as much as anything.
I have a new-ish car (BMW) so get my local specialist to service it for the stamp and re-sale value.
He's also very experienced and does a cracking job.
I do however get interim oil changes (every 6 months) done a at national tyres as they use decent oil (Fuchs) and with a genuine filter costs me £55.
For me home servicing on my car is a big no no. For the cost for me to buy 6.5L of oil then have to crawl around on my back and find somewhere to get rid of the old oil, it works out miles easier and cheaper to get national to do it.
For my OHs car (51 plate Corsa) we used to get our local garage to do the servicing as they did a deal when it's MOT is done at the same time.
Now I get the MOT and Oil change done at national (£70 all in), and change the rest of service items myself as I resent paying over inflated prices for filters etc when I can easily fit them myself.
He's also very experienced and does a cracking job.
I do however get interim oil changes (every 6 months) done a at national tyres as they use decent oil (Fuchs) and with a genuine filter costs me £55.
For me home servicing on my car is a big no no. For the cost for me to buy 6.5L of oil then have to crawl around on my back and find somewhere to get rid of the old oil, it works out miles easier and cheaper to get national to do it.
For my OHs car (51 plate Corsa) we used to get our local garage to do the servicing as they did a deal when it's MOT is done at the same time.
Now I get the MOT and Oil change done at national (£70 all in), and change the rest of service items myself as I resent paying over inflated prices for filters etc when I can easily fit them myself.
I have an 84k mile E39 and a 96K mile E36 Cabriolet. When I bought the cabriolet I decided that I could either have one car and pay someone else or have two cars and DIY. I have a council lockup garage to keep the E36 in over winter, but it isn't really big enough to work in, and it isn't that near my flat so the tools go in the boot and I do the work in the residents parking. I keep the receipts if I ever need to prove the work and given the value of the cars (the E39 does 25k miles a year with me) I'm more bothered about not spending cash on labour than I am the £100 - £300 a few stamps may add to the car's values when I come to get rid, especially as the three cars I had as dailies before the E39 were weighed in rather than sold.
DIY is great in theory. I did find it hard to keep motivated by the ££ from labour saving when I had to change the E39 radiator on 23rd December last year.
DIY is great in theory. I did find it hard to keep motivated by the ££ from labour saving when I had to change the E39 radiator on 23rd December last year.
Acidrop said:
I service my own cars.
Fluids and brake pads fair enough. But with all the modern electronics I reckon it's often best to stick the car straight into a dealer/specialist if anything goes wobbly. There are endless threads on here where people start swapping expensive parts without taking the sensible step of proper diagnosis. Very often it seems the car knows what's wrong with itself and for the experts it's remarkably easy to fix.andy-xr said:
It galls me to give someone money for something I can do myself.
My thoughts exactly, plus I find it rewarding to plan the work (thinking about what bits you need to remove, what parts are needed etc) and then spending an afternoon doing the job.I posted this in an earlier thread-
Here is an example of some of my service history. The car is a 2003 E46 330Ci M Sport, currently at 122k miles. When I bought it a couple of years ago it had a mix of BMW and Renault (?!?) servicing. Ever since it has all been maintained by me, except a couple of bits (e.g. seized door lock, which a German car specialist did for me). I have the receipts, dates and mileage for everything done during my ownership.
First example, leaking radiator:
I bought a high quality replacement, fitted it and obviously changed the coolant. Money saved and job done.
Oil filter housing gasket:
A source of oil leak, but not many look at this gasket. A relatively big job to change. Mine was leaking, as it happens. Again, even more money saved (radiator took about 1.5 hours, this took 2 hours) and job done.
Finally, a major job and common fault with these cars. The crank ventilation valve:
As you can see, only £70 in parts. Now, if I had gone to a specialist for this job then we are looking at more for the parts plus 6 hours labour.
Add just those up and I have saved myself about 9 hours in labour. I have serviced the car meticulously and so have a huge folder of receipts, plus a number of other jobs (new expansion tank, brake fluid change, discs and pads all round etc).
If someone wouldn't buy my car because BMW haven't carried out these jobs then so be it. I've saved well in excess of a grand during my ownership. Perhaps the car is devalued somewhat, but the savings will offset those.
Personally I would prefer to buy a car where the owner could explain every job done, as I could with my own car. My last car sold with a similar packed folder of receipts and the buyer commented 'now this is what I like to see'. So not all people care for FDSH.
Obviously if the car was 3 years old then it would be a different story, but my car isn't exactly shed territory either.
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