Oil change this year ?
Discussion
Hi all, and in common with a few of you perhaps, I haven't done many miles (about 1500) in my 2006 Vantage this last 12 months, so am thinking of passing up the normal annual service. However, I will get its MOT done at Aston Martin Sevenoaks, and the question is, should I do my own oil and filter change ? I have a ramp and enough experience, and for the price of 10 litres of synthetic, is it worth doing in terms of the good health of the car and future values ? My car, probably unusually for its age, has a full set of stanps at main dealers or authorised specialists.
I am also a low mileage owner, Richard.
This year it will be ridiculously low, but every drive has been more than 25 miles, so no cold engine running.
I left main dealers for servicing a few years ago, to have the work done by an independent specialist. It is now on a bi-annual basis, as approved of by Mercedes-Benz, for low mileage cars using fully synthetic oils.
Car has always been a keeper, so main dealer stamps are of little consequence.
I went to AM Sevenoaks on one occasion for an MoT. Their workshop was located at Dryhill, but the MoT certificate revealed the test was actually done by another garage, which is just a few hundred yards away from the AM showroom on the other side of the railway. Some time later, the other garage told me they had lost the AM MoT contract, because Lancaster went for a cheaper deal. As you can imagine, they were not paying anywhere near £50 in the first place.
Did a main dealer fit new spark plugs for you as scheduled, at the 7th year service (assuming you had not done 40,000, or so miles by then ?
By a coincidence of timing, with the COVID-19 six month MoT extension and also my winter AM lay-up, I don't need an MoT this year.
Edited by Dewi 2 on Monday 26th October 16:25
Hey Richard, there`s always going to be two trains of thought on the service interval question, so ultimately you won`t have a conclusive answer, but I kinda broached this topic a few months ago, and my experience went like this;
When I picked it up my `07 Vantage from the AM dealership in 2015 it involved an extensive Q&A, and on the subject of servicing the coffee peddler said that servicing every two years is absolutely fine for the car, and of minimal if zero impact on resale within their network.
Despite this I did my 2016 and 2017 services at the dealership. In 2018 I took the car to Bamford Rose for mods and decided at this juncture of taking the car outside the dealer network, the servicing would be a 18 month to two yearly affair.
I planned my first "extended duration" service at the end of 2019 in what would have been a bit over 18 months, but circumstances and the Covid-19 situation meant that by the time I had the service a few months back it was over two years since the previous one.
Not ideal I know... When it is your car you generally know if anything is out of sorts, and I felt no ill-malice in driving the car as everything operated as it should and the oil, while not golden, was still looking OK on the dipstick, and these modern oils are the good stuff, evidently... however I am well aware of the circumstances and it changed my mindset, as I only drove around 2000km (1250 miles) in the six months prior to this years service.
It clearly plays havoc with the service history from an inspect-the-book-for-stamps perspective. I think if you are keeping the car, common sense dictates that an oil change every 18-24 months is adequate. If you are planning to sell soonish, common sense dictates that regular service stamps will work in your favor. When two cars are side by side, both 15 years old and with similar mileage and condition, I am not sure how much those yearly stamps will earn you.
When I picked it up my `07 Vantage from the AM dealership in 2015 it involved an extensive Q&A, and on the subject of servicing the coffee peddler said that servicing every two years is absolutely fine for the car, and of minimal if zero impact on resale within their network.
Despite this I did my 2016 and 2017 services at the dealership. In 2018 I took the car to Bamford Rose for mods and decided at this juncture of taking the car outside the dealer network, the servicing would be a 18 month to two yearly affair.
I planned my first "extended duration" service at the end of 2019 in what would have been a bit over 18 months, but circumstances and the Covid-19 situation meant that by the time I had the service a few months back it was over two years since the previous one.
Not ideal I know... When it is your car you generally know if anything is out of sorts, and I felt no ill-malice in driving the car as everything operated as it should and the oil, while not golden, was still looking OK on the dipstick, and these modern oils are the good stuff, evidently... however I am well aware of the circumstances and it changed my mindset, as I only drove around 2000km (1250 miles) in the six months prior to this years service.
It clearly plays havoc with the service history from an inspect-the-book-for-stamps perspective. I think if you are keeping the car, common sense dictates that an oil change every 18-24 months is adequate. If you are planning to sell soonish, common sense dictates that regular service stamps will work in your favor. When two cars are side by side, both 15 years old and with similar mileage and condition, I am not sure how much those yearly stamps will earn you.
I change my oil and filter every year because I actually find it therapeutic to do it myself and get close and familiar with the car. The fully synthetic, longlfe oils now are "supposedly" good for 18,000 to 22,000 miles but in any car, I replace at 10,000 maximum.
The oil drains from my engine, still golden like a fine brandy, and gets recycled in my 2001 BMW 330i runaround, or my 2002 Merc Sprinter van that extend its use to the 10k miles. That gives me the satisfaction of not wasting a very high quality oil, whilst still giving the Aston a much un-needed oil change.
A thorough once-over with all the other points checked on an annual oil service and thats about it.
The oil drains from my engine, still golden like a fine brandy, and gets recycled in my 2001 BMW 330i runaround, or my 2002 Merc Sprinter van that extend its use to the 10k miles. That gives me the satisfaction of not wasting a very high quality oil, whilst still giving the Aston a much un-needed oil change.
A thorough once-over with all the other points checked on an annual oil service and thats about it.
I don't see the point of very low miles, less-than-2-year-old oil being poured into the bin at the recycling centre. I hope it's 10W60 btw...
If you change it yourself, you won't get a stamp (unless you ask VERY nicely after a specialist inspection service as noted elsewhere).
But if it will bring you peace of mind, why not? If your mind is at peace with 2 year changes, all good too.
If you change it yourself, you won't get a stamp (unless you ask VERY nicely after a specialist inspection service as noted elsewhere).
But if it will bring you peace of mind, why not? If your mind is at peace with 2 year changes, all good too.
macdeb said:
AstonV said:
I change once a year regardless of miles. It’s cheap easy insurance and piece of mind.
^^^^ I'm with this guy, change the oil and filter as it's pennies in reality and treat it as a flush. Peace of mind if a dealer's done it or yourself. Pennywise, pound foolish. Very low mileage likely means the engine has not always got up to working temperature. This increases condensation in the engine as it is not boiled off, which you certainly do not want. There will be contaminants in suspension in the oil. Stop start driving increases wear on engine parts and each time the engine is started after a week or two or three or more, there will be a delay until oil circulates fully around the engine.
I've done probably less than 500 miles since last year but I changed the oil and filter regardless. Cost? about £55.
N7GTX said:
Very low mileage likely means the engine has not always got up to working temperature. This increases condensation in the engine as it is not boiled off, which you certainly do not want. There will be contaminants in suspension in the oil. Stop start driving increases wear on engine parts and each time the engine is started after a week or two or three or more, there will be a delay until oil circulates fully around the engine.
If an infrequent use, very low mileage car;
Always has oil pressure built up prior to an engine start.
Every time the engine is started, it always reaches full working temperature, because all drives are minimum 25 miles.
No stop start driving.
Would that safeguard the valid points which you have made?
4,500 miles, mostly driven quite hard and two track days in the last year in mine so it's definitely getting a full service this year as it does every year. I even had to top it up once between services this year which is the first time that's been necessary.
With very low annual mileage I can't see what physical harm an extended interval will do but try telling that to the person battering the price down if/when you come to sell. For those that do it themselves what "proof" do you have that it was done when you sell / trade-in?
With very low annual mileage I can't see what physical harm an extended interval will do but try telling that to the person battering the price down if/when you come to sell. For those that do it themselves what "proof" do you have that it was done when you sell / trade-in?
V8V Pete said:
With very low annual mileage I can't see what physical harm an extended interval will do but try telling that to the person battering the price down if/when you come to sell.
That’s where I am with mine. Potentially false economy not to do it so the Astons get serviced every year (one of them managed fewer than 1000 miles) but am much less religious with my station car. Sorry, but if I went to purchase a car and saw a car being serviced at extremely low mileages, it would just show the previous owner was getting shafted by the dealer who was laughing all the way to the bank, or someone who had little of no knowledge about cars and blindly went where the dealer told them. It would not insinuate the car had been particularly cared-for, and I see it daily with cars with a full main dealer history, (we have even seen it here on this very forum), where the dealer themselves have skipped service tasks, and this would be even more likely on a very low mileage.
I can hear it now, "jeez, this cars only done 1000 miles since its last service, just top off the levels and pump up the tyres, it won't need anything".
I can hear it now, "jeez, this cars only done 1000 miles since its last service, just top off the levels and pump up the tyres, it won't need anything".
V8V Pete said:
4,500 miles, mostly driven quite hard and two track days in the last year in mine so it's definitely getting a full service this year as it does every year. I even had to top it up once between services this year which is the first time that's been necessary.
With very low annual mileage I can't see what physical harm an extended interval will do but try telling that to the person battering the price down if/when you come to sell. For those that do it themselves what "proof" do you have that it was done when you sell / trade-in?
If I do an intermediate oil/filter change, I always keep the receipts for the parts and oil which at least show that you purchased it. All the dealer stamp "proves" is that they put a stamp in the book.With very low annual mileage I can't see what physical harm an extended interval will do but try telling that to the person battering the price down if/when you come to sell. For those that do it themselves what "proof" do you have that it was done when you sell / trade-in?
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