If you continue to follow the recommended maintenance schedules, I can assure you your car will be running smoothly for the next 5-10 years! Here is my recommended maintenance guide to motivate everyone! I have noticed pretty much everyone nowadays buys a new car and continues to neglect them! We rely too much on lube shops, and I assure you they don’t really go over everything!
Engine Tuneups are a must, every 30-40K miles! Spark Plugs, wires, PCV valves, distributor cap, fuel filter should be changed.
Rotors, brakes every 20-30K!
Struts/Shocks every 50K, and check to make sure the ball joints are good
Tires need to be rotated, check tread wear and YES most importantly get the 4 wheel alignment done!
Transmission Fluid Flush every 60K (if you drive in severe climate) and 80-100K otherwise! Remember, if you dont do this you are lubricating your transmission with metal shavings! You dont want your transmission to go out!
Coolant change every 100K!
Timing Belt change every 90K, this is critical or you might end up dead in the road and with an interference engine you will end up with damage too! Change this belt to save towing, engine repair costs!
Clean your car every once in a while and wax it! This takes care of the paint.
Check the battery, clean and grease the terminals.
And yes, the 3500 mile engine oil changes are a must! Check, power steering oil, clutch fluid, brake fluid windshield fluid etc!
Every once in a while use a fuel additive and fuel system cleaner!
If you do this, your car will always be happy and wont complain!
Don’t go for cheap offers from local workshops, I went to Firestone once for their $79 brake change and they put really cheap brake-pads which were as noisy as worn-down good-brake pads. I complained to them and they were like “yeah, this is what you get for this price”, I took the matter to their upper management and they ended up refunding the money back. I then went to better workshop and replaced with little more expensive ones.
This is very expensive maintenance IMO. Shocks/struts costs around $100 apiece if I am not mistaken.
Newer cars are now coming with timing-chain which you only change if broken.
Specifically NOT RECOMMENDED by the manufacturer. Or at least by Volvo. Car manual clearly says DO NOT use fuel additives
I dont know about Volvo, but the Honda manual welcomes it, with the fuel. The only thing they said about additives was that adding additives to the engine oil wont do you any good, except paying more for oil.
Also, alot of gas stations (atleast in N America) now sell gas preloaded with STP fuel additives.
I agree, even if someone goes to firestone, they should ask about what parts are being put in. One can also order OEM parts, available readily from dealerships and have them put by these workshops too. This way we can make sure we’re putting in the best parts in the car.
True about the shocks/struts, I just got my front ones changed, one of them was leaking and it cost me $450 for the whole thing, both of them. What makes it impossible for us to do it ourselves, in the case of struts is because we have to use a spring compressor. If we’re not careful, we can kill ourselves with that!
Synthetic oil is def recommended for cars with higher mileage! I am actually thinking of getting that in my next oil change. Speaking of oil changes, does anyone here do their own oil changes? I think if we invest about $150 (50-75 in the ramps, the rest in tools) its a very easy job and I see no reason paying $30-40 to shops for this simple job. The only thing that irks me is the fact that we’d have to drive to a recycling center, or shop with all that dirty oil in the pan to dispose off, since its against the law to dump it.
However, the best thing to do is to follow your owner’s manual, as the recommended services vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Just like Mad Scientist said, Volvo specifically mentions not to add fuel additives - so does Nissan.
My sister got a Honda CRV a couple of years ago and it requires an oil change every 5,000 miles. However, mine (Nissan Altima) requies it every 3000 miles. So she won’t be getting any benefit by changing it every 3000 miles. On the other hand, if I wait 5000 miles to get it changed, I would be hurting my car’s engine.
Also, another very common myth is that using a higher octane gas improves the engine’s performance or give you better miles. This is absolutely not true! Again, everyone should follow what the owner’s manual recommends. If it says 87 octane (regular), use regular! You will just be wasting money by buying a higher octane gas as the engine will not get any additional benefit from it.
My owners manual says 7500 miles for my accord, but I still get it done after 3K miles, as its cheap to do so and gives me a peace of mind.
True! I did alot of research on that too, and you are right, if the manual states 86 or 87, using 89 or 93 is just a waste! However, for a car like yours (the bimmer), I’d go with the higher ratings
Wow! 7500 miles? Is that for normal driving conditions or sever coditions? Mine also says that you can change the oil every 7500 or so miles but that’s for normal driving and by that, most manufacturers mean if 90% of your driving is highway and not short trips. Most drivers in the US fall under server driving conditions since most of our trips are short and we are frequently in stop-and-go traffic.
True! I did alot of research on that too, and you are right, if the manual states 86 or 87, using 89 or 93 is just a waste! However, for a car like yours (the bimmer), I'd go with the higher ratings ;)
Yaar, it's a 2003 Altima and it definitely won't benefit from anything higher than 87 octane. :)
I use “synthetic blend” oil which I think gives you a good balance between quality and price. Full synthetic oils are quite expensive! According to jdpower:
There is little doubt that synthetic oil offers superior engine protection under extreme operating conditions. However, many owners may not operate their vehicles in conditions that warrant the additional engine protection of synthetic motor oil. For most owners, petroleum-based motor oils are just fine. Change the oil at the manufacturer’s recommended interval (found in the owner’s manual) and your vehicle will reward you with a long service life.
For me, the time and effort required to change the oil yourself is not worth it. Oil and filter alone cost about $20, so I think it’s definitely worth getting it done from a good, reputable shop.
Speaking of reputable shops, a must watch video about Jiffy Lube:
It's funny how service intervals are different in car manual in North America versus Europe. My Honda Civic's manual in England specified oil changes every 12,000 miles; in North America Honda specify much shorter periods.
Though because my Volvo has a turbocharger, I'm more careful about oil changes. Usually every 6000km (4000 miles) I change with Mobil1 fully synthetic oil.... don't want burnt oil caking up my turbo!
True, but it says 7500miles for normal driving conditions. I know on the tranny fluid they have a note for severe conditions. One would expect them to be overly conservative so that their cars last longer.
I believe, servicing the car has to be done at a genuine centre,if possible from the same place where one bought the car(if available ,depending on place to place),because they will give more care to it and also since after sales income is a good thing for them,they will try to give a good valuable support for the money we pay.Two months back I ended up giving my car at one service station other than the place where I used to give(I always used to give my car for servicing,at the very showroom from where I had purchased it) and ended up in a mess.Still bear the miss.Now I need to take it back to the same earlier place.
^ gesto, what exactly did that service station do to the car? I test drove a corolla 09 recently and the dealer told me that as a perk I can get the oil changes for that car (provided I buy it ofcourse) for only $10, every 3K miles. Now thats a pretty good deal, considering it would be done by a toyota dealership.
^ I wanted them to change the head light bulbs,because the company fitted was not that powerful(The showroom where I purchased it,declined it saying that they would fit only company prescribed bulbs).So after some times I approached a service station nearby where I stay and they agreed to fit powerful bulbs.What happened was in about week's time after fiting the powerful bulbs, both bulbs were off .Also car's mud guard flaps got loosened and came off.Then I came to know from somebody that the particular service station where I had given my car was just cheating people including me.
The sad part is that they charged a pretty big amount too. :(
^ I wanted them to change the head light bulbs,because the company fitted was not that powerful(The showroom where I purchased it,declined it saying that they would fit only company prescribed bulbs).So after some times I approached a service station nearby where I stay and they agreed to fit powerful bulbs.What happened was in about week's time after fiting the powerful bulbs, both bulbs were off .Also car's mud guard flaps got loosened and came off.Then I came to know from somebody that the particular service station where I had given my car was just cheating people including me.
The sad part is that they charged a pretty big amount too. :(
I usually buy the prescribed headbulbs, but a different setting. For example, my car uses the 9006, but what I do is get the 9006/st2 which is the increased silver halogen version which gives better visibility. Honestly, the service shops just fit them in (thats the easy part). You might also want to look into HEDs.
^But here the problem is high intensity bulbs are not allowed(though some use it,but I avoided because that would obstruct the opposite coming driver's vision).So I gone for much lesser intensity one.
How much you payed for it?Is that company subscribed?
^ gesto, what exactly did that service station do to the car? I test drove a corolla 09 recently and the dealer told me that as a perk I can get the oil changes for that car (provided I buy it ofcourse) for only $10, every 3K miles. Now thats a pretty good deal, considering it would be done by a toyota dealership.
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j/k
Is that for normal driving conditions or sever coditions? Mine also says that you can change the oil every 7500 or so miles but that’s for normal driving and by that, most manufacturers mean if 90% of your driving is highway and not short trips. Most drivers in the US fall under server driving conditions since most of our trips are short and we are frequently in stop-and-go traffic.
