My Fabia has full service history, 7 stamps IIRC.

Now I've always serviced my previous cars myself, I feel that by living with them day in and day out, I get to notice the little niggles etc of which need attention.

Just wondering could it stray future buyers away by me servicing the car myself as opposed to paying a garage to do it?

Obviously I keep hold of all invoices and all mods so far have been done by myself or with the help of a mechanic friend etc.

The last 2 services were done by the previous owner which I know but he was something to do with a race team and has stamps etc of his own which state he does race car preparation and servicing.

Also by doing it myself I get to know my car even more and know the quality of the parts / oil used.

I've no intentions of getting rid of the car any time soon, I've got plans to go hybrid car is on 78,000 miles FYI!

Cheers

It depends, if I turn up to buy your 6+ year old car and you've got a file full of paperwork in date order an inch thick I'm probably going to be more impressed than finding some Micky Mouse stamp in the book and nothing else. You'll probably find some 'special' person who thinks franchise dealers are the second coming of Christ but as cars get older this is less of an issue as people tend to be a little more forgiving. As with modifications your probably past the point of a franchise dealer p/x then personally i'd not worry, I'd certainly never pay more for FSH or MDSH over independent or a car that's got a load of history with it.

The only other consideration is when my Octavia was written off my my last insurer attempted to be clever by insisting I had to have had a service from a VAT registered garage within the last 12 months or they'd deduct the value of a service from the payout. They backed down when I asked them to reconsider and then refer it to the ombudsman if they continued to disagree. They also upped the offer when I decided to insist the car was repaired as we both knew it was the more expensive option for them and they wanted to stop paying storage on it ASAP.

A nice folder of invoices of a service book any day.

Great stuff, I think I will just buy the parts and service it myself, should be able to do it for around £60 which is much better than paying garage prices.

Obviously the major things such as cambelt & brake fluid changes etc will be done professionally

I have one simple rule when it comes to brakes: I'm the only person who works on my brakes or my wife's brakes.

If you are capable of doing your own service work then you are capable of doing your own BFC. It's quick, cheap, easy and fits in with the other work you'll probably be doing anyway eg wheels off to inspect discs/pads/tyres/wheels properly.

All you need is a bleed kit that includes a one way valve and tube, Halfraud's of all places sell them for £5, a brake spanner which should cost you £3-4, you can use a normal spanner but I'd advise against it, and £4-5 of brake fluid. Start at the wheel furthest away from the ABS unit and work towards it. Make sure the reservoir doesn't run low enough to pull air in and it helps if you have someone to pump the pedal and top up the res but it's perfectly doable on your own. Technically you aren't removing the small amount of fluid in the ABS unit by doing this but it'll be mixed the first time you use the ABS or you can trigger the ABS via VCDS or similar.

Either way don't be put off, it's probably the best value brake upgrade you can do and so often overlooked by garages.

When you pump the pedal you cant press it down the full way!

Only go half way (stick a block of wood under pedal) going the full way can knacker the master cylinder

I can only really speak for myself obviously, but I personally might be put off.

I realise their are some duff garages out there too, but i would still feel safer with garage stamps & invoices to prove, than a random stranger offering me a wad of ancillery / part invoices and his word for it that he knew what he was doing when he fitted them. Mechanic friend or not.

That might be narrow minded but possibly the viewpoint of many other non technically minded people. Just my 2p

I realise their are some duff garages out there too, but i would still feel safer with garage stamps & invoices to prove, than a random stranger offering me a wad of ancillery / part invoices and his word for it that he knew what he was doing when he fitted them.

Look at it another way. If an owner produced a stack of invoices to prove work they did on the car, it is 100% likely that the work would have been carried out....who's going to fake invoices for work they did at home?....if you were going to go down the faking route, you'd just fake stamps in the service book (very easily done).

Another thing to consider.....an owner with basic car maintenance skills doing their own work on their car will, without any doubt, carry out servicing work to a higher standard and with more care and consideration than any garage......I don't care what anyone says.....this is true.

I don't mean they would fake the invoices Bookie23, im talking about being competent to carry out the work & then going a step further, being able to demonstrate that competence to a potential buyer.

I would think in my opinion that doing it yourself saves money at the time, but it may have it's drawbacks when coming to sell

All IMO obviously

If you are doing your own servicing get a Haynes manual.trolley jack, axel stands...etc etc...........and for the best way to bleed ABS systems get a Gunsons Easi-Bleed kit which uses the air pressur from a tyre.......cost about £20-30..........much safer than pumping the pedal full down and flipping (inverting) the ABS valve seals.............

I'm going to stick to doing it myself, I have loads of tools etc, 3 sets of axle stands, 2 jacks and all sorts! I'm more than capable of doing it myself and I know I can do the brakes too. I get worried about things like that as to how important they are but I'll never get any confidence unless I try it! Me and a mate fitted my 312mm upgrade and that was easy!

As for re-sale value. At the end of the day it's an 8 year old car with coming up to 80,000 miles. It has been modified so the future owners who would be interested are greatly reduced for this matter any how.

I suppose we are generally stereo typed as boy racers by some people but in fact we are enthusiasts! All of my mates take the mick out of me as I don't drive my car fast / won't rev it over a certain rev until its up to temperature and take really good care of it!

I didn't lower my car because I wanted it to handle better - I lowered it for looks! Most of the mods are pointless but I enjoy spending money on my car!

I would think in my opinion that doing it yourself saves money at the time, but it may have it's drawbacks when coming to sell

I don't dispute that......it may well put some buyers off, and the younger the car the more buyers it will likely put off.....but if you think about it, it shouldn't put people off.

I wouldn't self service a car that was still in warranty or a car that is under 5 years old, where a missing stamp may effect resale. but in my experience with selling cars privately (usually cars that are 8-10 years old), the vast majority of people are not bothered about who did the servicing......as long as it has been done.

Sorry but stamps are worth nothing, I can fake a dealer stamp that would be indistinguishable from the origional from start to finish in about 10 minutes. Not everyone has laser engraving equipment but even if you don't for a very small sum like most things you can obtain your your own. Even if they are genuine they can still be worthless.

My car had a MDSH for it's early life, then a local VAG 'specialist' for the next 6ish years before I got it, the 'specialist' had ignored the drop links, console bushes, angle sensor, aux belt, rocker cover gasket, cabin filter, and brake fluid for at least 7 years (he was happy to tell me as much on the phone) and left the plugs for the same time, as it did 2k a year so in fairness they weren't technically due but he fleeced the previous owner for 5x the cost of the oil change he seemingly carried out every year.