Hi all,

 

My car is out of warranty, and getting on a bit at 66k miles.  I plan to keep the car for the foreseeable future, unless of course this idling vibration doesn't quit...

 

Anyways, how many on here service their own cars? How do you meep your FSH if you do it yourself? Probably a naive question, but I'm curious if servicing it yourself makes the car harder to sell or lose value?

Hi,

I service my Fiesta myself, and have done since I bought it 3 1/2 years ago at about 65,000 miles. My VRS isn’t yet old enough for me to consider it! In terms of keeping a record, I keep all the receipts for the parts I buy and I have an Excel spreadsheet which I use to keep a written record. I record the date, mileage and what was done each time.

 

In terms of making it harder to sell/less valuable – I haven’t come to sell it yet. I think that on an 11 year old car it isn’t going to make much difference, and I have the written record to back up what I say has been done. Yes someone may not believe it, but then you could say that about a stamped record if someone wasn’t squeaky clean. If anything it may show that I have cared for the car more, and you wouldn’t expect it to have a FDSH at its age.

 

Matt

I serviced my Fabia myself for 3 out of the 4 years I had it.

 

I simply wrote in the service book the mileage and what had been done, signed it "Self Service", and kept all the receipts for oil, filters etc.

 

It didn't negatively affect the cars value as it still had a full service history.  As I could prove the correct oil went into the car, it probably had a better service record than simply a receipt from a backsteet garage stating "oil change".

 

When I sold the car, I showed the buyer all the receipts for parts and he was more than happy enough.

 

 

I'd be more than happy buying a car that was DIY serviced, providing it's got receipts etc, and the owner didn't seem a complete mechanical numpty.

On variable servicing. Has been back to a main dealer's for each service. Car will be 5 years old next year, it'll get it's final "dealer service" at the end of this year.

After that I will price up indi garages, however I've found in the past that main dealers are competitive or will price match.

If my car needed servicing more often then the intervals would be set lower. Parts are designed to last a long time these days, so cannot see the point in replacing parts far from the end of their prime.

Full service history is important to me, but it does depend on how old your car will be when you want to move it on.

As I'll possibly be looking to change next year then I know that a 5 year old car with full dealer service history will get me more than one without such history.

I change the oil and filter in the VRS every 5000 miles. Shell Helix Ultra 507.00. Runs great. I note all services and any other work done in the book. Plan on keeping it for many years to come.

Edited 14 October, 201510 yr by FatblokeVRS

Depends on how long are you planning to drive that car. For ten years old car service history is not a big deal actually and price difference between car with and without service record book can be less than dealers fee for servicing cars all these years.

It's different with a newer car. Buyer of an 4 years old car might wish to see the service record book.

 

By the way, servicing by yourself has one big advantage. You know exactly what has been done. I've read lots of stories about "being changed only if needed" - it means that some air filter might be changed only once in a 3 years.

I service mine myself and having read of several garage serviced cars on here that have leaked diesel from the filter housing after a fuel filter change I think I'm better doing it myself. I've changed it 3 or 4 times without any problems and think it must be shoddy workmanship to get it to leak.

Service it yourself then you'll know it's been done and done right. Like mentioned above, my old mk1 Octavia Vrs was running well with 120k on it having been srviced by myself for the 8 years i owned it. The bloke who bought it was over the moon with the car especially when he seen all the reciepts it came with. I certainly don't feel it hindered my sale whatsoever. And as for dealers, they won't give a s@*t wether the books stamped or not because if the car is petrol/diesel/hybrid/black/red/white/silver/3wheeled/4wheeled/3door/8door you'll get the usual no market for these mate no one wants them nowadays pal!! So imo get the trolley jack out get your hands dirty and save yourself loads of money.

I'm in the same boat. Once the warranty ran out I decided to service myself.

 

I don't intend on selling the car for the foreseeable future. And when that time finally comes it will be at an age/mileage where DIY vs dealer service history isn't going to make a difference anyway. The amount of cash I'll save doing it myself up to then will probably far outweigh the difference in resale values.

 

Plus you get the knowledge that it's actually been serviced properly.

 

In 2 oil/filter changes and a DSG oil and filter change I've saved over £200!

My son in law is a mechanic and I get him to service all my cars, past and present. TBH, he is the only one I trust to do it properly.

I service my cars myself. Apart from the obvious money saving, i get quite a nice feeling of satisfaction doing it myself. I wont do things like cam belts etc, but simple stuff i'll do. Just bought an oil suction extraction thing. Hope its not a load of s...e....

I service my cars myself. Apart from the obvious money saving, i get quite a nice feeling of satisfaction doing it myself. I wont do things like cam belts etc, but simple stuff i'll do. Just bought an oil suction extraction thing. Hope its not a load of s...e....

just make sure it's hot   and it's a good idea the first time with any different model to pull the drain plug after (for the first time)   to see how you've done (only had one failure 1600 megane)  p.s good for those deep  vag filter housing/oil coolers too

Do it on my Octavia and S2000.

You never know what these dealerships are putting in or on your pride and joy, so best be safe and do it yourself

Did mine today. Cost me about £45 for oil and filters.

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Used to do it all on my old golfs but nowadays I just take mine to my local bloke literally down the road for all of it. Bit lazy possibly, but I know what he's putting in there and he's got the equipment to clear any faults as well as tell me what it's reading and other stuff so it's just peace of mind that he's checking stuff I wouldn't see.

just make sure it's hot   and it's a good idea the first time with any different model to pull the drain plug after (for the first time)   to see how you've done (only had one failure 1600 megane)  p.s good for those deep  vag filter housing/oil coolers too

Thanks for the advice, will try that, cheers.

I did mine a few weeks back long life oil,oil filter,air filter,pollen filter, sump plug and washer, fuel filter all genuine parts from tps cost around £70 ,    

Using OEM filters and oil to the right spec you can save a fortune on service charges. A basic oil and filter change would take you less than an hour to complete with nearly half the time spent on getting tools out and away again, which shows how much the dealers are ripping you off when they get the parts and oil at cost.

You are also ensuring you are getting the service done correctly. On a major service including timing belt on another car it soon started to run rough afterwards. Taking it back to the dealers I was told the ECU needed replacing which I wasn't happy about. Less happy when it was still running rough after an expensive part fitted. Decided to start investigating it myself with the help of forums for advice. In a nutshell the spark plugs hadn't been changed when they should have at the major service and were failing. This caused the coil pack to work harder and also start to fail. New spark plugs and coil pack and problem solved. It took me nearly a year to get the money refunded from the dealers for the service and ECU.

I had similar problems with a motorbike that was supposed to have had a full service before I picked it up and since the side stand kill switch was fitted incorrectly I knew nothing had been done to it so sat in the workshop making sure it was serviced before accepting the bike. Got a new Arai helmet for free for my troubles.

Servicing it yourself you know what's been done, the engine has been warmed up and all the old oil removed and the quality of the parts fitted. Glasses quoted that a full service history was only worth £500 on the value of a 4 year old family car which can soon be recouped by doing the labour yourself. Documented receipts and work performed is worth more to me than some stamps in a book.

I'm self servicer when I can be bothered.

I have a trusted mechanic that would do oil and filters for about a tenner more than I can get the parts for, so always used him but I moved about 450 miles away.

I have trust issues with garages so would rather do it myself and know that it's done right.

Last time our TT went into Audi for a service and brake fluid change they wanted £700 to replace the master cylinder. Turned out their pressure bleeder was set too high and forcing the fluid out of the seals between cylinder and t reservoir. I cleaned it all up and in normal use there's not a drop of fluid on it.

It took about an hour of messing about at the dealer before anyone could even tell me why they wanted to do the work and where it was leaking from.

I always service cars my self.

 

I used to say in UK that I won't pay 200£ for a fancy stamp in log book and if they want service book full of stamps I can ask my friend or put my HAJES RACING stamp :-D

 

It was funny how people forget about log book and rather look how car looks like.

 

I told them what I did and showed them all bills.

 

Honest seller is someone who tells everything about its product to sell and don't lie about it. No need fancy words and people will rather buy a well serviced car without log book.

Thanks all.  Guess I'll do it myself this year, as I've already had to shell out a small fortune for parts, tools and a new IM.

 

If I remove the oil filter for access, will it need replacing regardless of age?

I bought the oil, filter and air filter for my car from Euro Car Parts and my local garage changed everything in under 45 minutes for £20 for me.

Edited 10 March, 201610 yr by labman1001

Thanks all.  Guess I'll do it myself this year, as I've already had to shell out a small fortune for parts, tools and a new IM.

 

If I remove the oil filter for access, will it need replacing regardless of age?

I would.

 

What would you be accessing that requires removal of the oil filter?  (sorry, if this is a stoopid question)

Cool. I've ordered one anyway. Besides the one fired isn't oem VW anyway. I'm replacing the intake manifold and removing the carbon buildup whilst it's off.

Am I right in saying 5L is needed for a change?