Longlife service intervals - do you trust 'em for used cars?

[Jaguar steve]

muthaducka said:

Fish said:

And that is assuming they even fit a bloody dip stick...

My fathers CL600 doesn't have a dipstick by design - £90 from Mercedes if we wants one LOL. That's the first car we've seen without one

Have you got a car without a dipstick? Would be interesting to know what car..

None of the "sealed for life" autoboxes in the post 1997 V8/V6 engined Jaguars have dipsticks. You can - and will have to buy one if you're doing an oil change for the Mercedes 5 speed box on the supercharged cars which are filled from above in the engine compartment - however the ZF 5 and 6 speed ones are filled to the correct level by initially half filling the box then getting the correct level by pumping more fluid in with the engine running and whilst cycling through D N R via a wier/filler plug conviniently located hard against the transmission tunnel right next to a hot exhaust pipe.

[PJ S]

Jaguar steve said:

Dispite several failures and it being well known through the trade and Enthusiasts' clubs that changing the transmission oil on a semi regular basis can easily double or triple the life of the gearbox all post 1997 automatic boxes are still regarded as sealed for life by Jaguar today.

Not sure if that is absolutely the case - I recall looking at ZF's UK site, and read they, along with Jaguar, Land Rover, and GM (?) are all singing from the same 60K mile hymn sheet.
BMW North America recommend 100K, but yet Munich or just the UK, still advocate SFL policy, even though you can buy the oil & filter/sump from the parts department.

I'll see if I can find the page referred to above.

[muthaducka]

I meant dipstick for the engine oil. It's an 05 model. You have to trust the onboard computer!

Sounds like you've had a play changing gearbox oil before. Something I've only done once before.

[B'stard Child]

AcidReflux said:

Longlife service intervals - do you trust 'em for used cars?

Yes provided the cars have racked up a regular mileage and had regular services but as I've only purchased a very small number of cars still under warrenty (most of my cars have been 4-8 years or older) - I adopt my own DIY schedule, mainly based on quality semi synth oil and regular changes 3000 miles or 1 year whichever comes first.

My average anual mileage is 10-12K and it's spread accross 3 cars so I stick with that and I'm happy about it too - and I don't believe I'm tearing up £50 notes either - A regular oil change is cheaper than an engine rebuild IMHO.

Sealed for life auto boxes - I've said my bit on that and done a how too thread on here - it can be done as a DIY at home and I've yet to be convinced that it does more harm than good (provided the gearbox doesn't already have a serious fault already in which case changing the oil won't fix it).

Edited by B'stard Child on Wednesday 21st September 23:03

[Jaguar steve]

PJ S said:

Jaguar steve said:

Dispite several failures and it being well known through the trade and Enthusiasts' clubs that changing the transmission oil on a semi regular basis can easily double or triple the life of the gearbox all post 1997 automatic boxes are still regarded as sealed for life by Jaguar today.

Not sure if that is absolutely the case - I recall looking at ZF's UK site, and read they, along with Jaguar, Land Rover, and GM (?) are all singing from the same 60K mile hymn sheet.
BMW North America recommend 100K, but yet Munich or just the UK, still advocate SFL policy, even though you can buy the oil & filter/sump from the parts department.

I'll see if I can find the page referred to above.

Be interested to read that. Sealed for life is the best information I have which I confirmed with Jaguar UK Technicial Services a while ago. The UK edition JTIS (factory workshop manual) also says "sealed for life" and none of the technician service sheets for the 1997-2003 XK or XJ which go up to 100k call for a gearbox oil change. The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club has also covered this issue repeatedly over the last few years.

If the situation has changed more recently however that can only be a good thing - personally I'd be reluctant to go over 50k.

[maniac0796]

morgrp said:

Personally, anyone who thinks that an Air filter will still be clean and working effectively after 6000miles let alone 18000 is frankly a mug - also I think castrol oil is a pile of st and would always use shell in preference and change it 4 times as often. Long service intervals frankly, are just another marketing exercise to sell cars

Depends how what conditions you drive in. I would say if driven on normal roads, an air filter will last about 2 years or 20k. Most filters are pretty restrictive, and on modern cars, rather large, so it takes alot for them to get blocked up.

As for oil, well, for the person who wanted to look big for buying his at £20 a litre, your loss. And as with most of PH, the search for rarer and more expensive items rears its head again, people trying to say their oil is better than someone elses.

[Prof Prolapse]

morgrp said:

Personally, anyone who thinks that an Air filter will still be clean and working effectively after 6000miles let alone 18000 is frankly a mug - also I think castrol oil is a pile of st and would always use shell in preference and change it 4 times as often. Long service intervals frankly, are just another marketing exercise to sell cars

"Personally I think anybody who services his Volvo with expensive oil every 6000 miles is frankly a mug.

The promoted benefits of changing premium oil in short intervals on cars that are designed to run on a wide range of tolerances is just a marketing exercise to sell oil."

See what I did there?

[Rovinghawk]

As is so often the case, I'd suggest that the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I use decent but inexpensive full-synth & change at half the manufacturers' intervals. Gearbox oil/ATF get changed at 60ish thousand intervals. As many have said, it's peace of mind and cheaper than a rebuild.

Filled for life, refilled for longer life.

RH

[HellDiver]

If the manufacturer's warranty is 60k, then they only care that it lasts for 60k. If the fluid totally degrades to the point where the box eats itself at 70k, then the manufacturer is happy, because they get to sell a new box out of warranty.

GM and Ford are good for this. Take the M32 box in Astras. It a weak box to start off with, and the fluid they put in (filled for life) is more akin to brake fluid or diesel. It's watery st. I replaced the fluid in my Astra's M32 at 35k and it was brown and burnt. Put in proper fluid, and the box was instantly quieter, slicker and easier to change gears, and didn't crunch in to 2nd.

Same with the Mondeo - at 55k/5 years old I replaced the fluid in the box. I can only describe the "stuff" that came out as burnt treacle. Filled with a semi-synthetic 75W90, and again, box is far quieter and smoother.

[The fatboy]

Just service it every time when you your MOT every year or every 12500 miles. The oil did often goes black quite quick.

[philmots]

I service both ours every year regardless of miles. They both cover 6-7k a year.

Although, I'll be doing oil/filter on mine every 6 months basically because it's a turbo and doesn't get used for particually long journeys.

[Defcon5]

Some seem an awful long time. The C2 has 20k intervals, yet the Saxo with the same engine had 10k intervals.

Is a better quality oil all that is required?

[Ozzie Osmond]

HellDiver said:

If the manufacturer's warranty is 60k, then they only care that it lasts for 60k.

In much the same way that my Panasonic TV sold with a 12 month warranty was supposed to fail after a year is still going strong. And my Zanussi washing machine is 5 years old. And I think the computer must be coming up to 3 years now.

But I'm sure you're right about cars.......