Thread: keeping on top of servicing

Originally Posted by Firko

Well on average I eat one sandwich a week , and if I was to buy a loaf of bread I would imagine once I took out my 2 slices for that week it would be another week before my next sandwich, there is a good chance that loaf would be stale and yes would end up in the bin.

I do all the maintenance and servicing on thevehicle myself so the labor cost is not a problem , I am lucky enough to get my oils through a sponsor and have a contact at Land rover so I get filters for a reasonable price.

After forking out heap of cash for this vehicle I want to keep it in top condition, I think a simple way is to change fluids before they start to deteriorate "Control the controllables".

I for one would rather over service the vehicle then have to fork out for new turbo's, engines, gearbox ect ...

I can understand totally if it's not costing you anything (or very little). If I were in that lucky situation, then I'm sure I would be servicing a lot more often than manufacturer recommendations.

However, for most people who actually have to pay, what is the point of choosing a service schedule that is 5 times more strict than what the manufacturer recommends? If the vehicle manufacturer and oil company decide that a vehicle can last 26000km between services (and I am assuming that there would be a margin built into that as well), what point is there in choosing an arbitrary schedule at one fifth of the distance that the manufacturer deems is safe, without testing?

These are the recommended service intervals from my Indy guys.

Originally Posted by Firko

Well on average I eat one sandwich a week , and if I was to buy a loaf of bread I would imagine once I took out my 2 slices for that week it would be another week before my next sandwich, there is a good chance that loaf would be stale and yes would end up in the bin.

I do all the maintenance and servicing on thevehicle myself so the labor cost is not a problem , I am lucky enough to get my oils through a sponsor and have a contact at Land rover so I get filters for a reasonable price.

After forking out heap of cash for this vehicle I want to keep it in top condition, I think a simple way is to change fluids before they start to deteriorate "Control the controllables".

I for one would rather over service the vehicle then have to fork out for new turbo's, engines, gearbox ect ...

I can understand your thoughts there, but 5000km oil changes on the disco motors is really excessive. On the older indirect jap diesels they would put a lot of soot into the oil which was the main factor in the short 5000km factory change intervals. I run my old 80 series landcruiser out to 10,000km intervals and the soot levels where still acceptable. All modern common rail and direct injection diesels are so much cleaner and dont soot up the oil nearly as much. Compared to the jap diesels the disco has a fairly small sump so that works against it somewhat. I've found will towing the engine oil runs up around 112deg - (rule of thumb, oxidation will reduce the life of a lubrication by half for every 10deg over 60) so the use of synthetic oils helps out here. With all these factors the oil life in the disco engines is far greater than the old diesels from years ago. Also worth considering the the enviromental aspect of throwing out oil thats still perfectly good for service. Disposal of used oil isnt so straight forward so its worth a thought to use it rather than waste it

Originally Posted by plusnq

These are the recommended service intervals from my Indy guys.

I have seen that on their invoices,and it should have a time schedule on it as well.

As an example a vehicle that does 5000k in a year needs to be serviced at 12 month intervals,at least,not wait for however long until it clocks 12000k.

Originally Posted by Firko

hmm yes I can understand that how can I do an oil analysis on my vehicle ?

What I have done is use thin polytube,suck the oil up the dipstick tube with a large syringe.That is if the vehicle has a dipstick.

From memory you will only need approximately 100 ml.

Oil test kits are available from many suppliers,Google is your friend.

just some more info, or rather IMHO.....

*To believe manufacturers engineers are somehow given the final say on the service intervals laid out is pretty hard to believe. Longer service intervals meet better environmental requirements and no doubt some other benefit to the corporation, the final say on service intervals are likely set by bean counters. I've mentioned this before, but to believe a large corporation has your best interest in mind is simply pie in the sky.

*The filters needing to be partially blocked before it filters is simply a bit of an old wifes tale and certainly doesnt apply to fuel filters. The link below shows filters suffering what I call logbook servicing....
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/...gbook%20aztech

*Yes modern engines are made to better tolerances (in general) and oil is way more advanced in every way when compared to oils of old, and although oils that are labeled "full synthetic" or "semi synthetic" are simply not synthetic oil, they are so advanced now that they might as well be synthetic, again if compared to oils of old.

*5000km - Its wrong for any mechanic to suggest if you dont do 5000km oil changes you will wreck your engine. 10,000km is perfectly acceptable and more environmentally friendly. An engine that is running correctly because its serviced regularly, I believe is also more environmentally friendly.

*A higher mileage engine can be improved on by reducing service times down for a bit, essentially due to the cleaning effect of new oil. doing 5000km oil changes is not going to be to the detriment to the engine in any way. Some of my customers insist on engine oil changes at that interval, my Pa is one of them.... I'm simply not going to tell people to do it. If you think somehow you are being a environmental vandal by doing it, then think about most mining sites are 5000km service intervals on all their light vehicles.

*Coolant changes at 2 year intervals, I like most repairers will tell you that the coolant concentration level does reduce over time, again doing a 2 yearly change keeps it within spec and will show over the years with less cooling system related issues. Plenty of examples of vehicles I've serviced since brand new that have either never had a water pump changed or it was done at a very high mileage. Keep in mind your prolly going to change out the odd rad hose before that anyway, so the point is almost moot.

*Either do oil changes at 10,000km or 6 monthly, if you dont do the km's then acids and contaminants do build up in the engine.

*Cost, (maybe a blatant plug for indys) but as an example I service a new Discovery 4 for $440 or a new Defender TDCi for $360, I'm sure most good independent repairers do it for a similar cost, some of the dealer prices I've heard from customers are round $900 depending on the model, so servicing twice as often is still cheaper (in general), yes I've also seen a recent service offer on Discovery 3 or older at a dealer for $299, which doesnt include a fuel filter or air filter, I'm sure thats where the "up-selling" comes in, which I've mentioned is not actually a legal thing to do. (each to their own on that).
(end of plug, maybe).

*yes testing oil can be done, google it to find a place near you to take a sample to, some places you can get a sample kit. Is it worth the effort though? I charge out oil at $10 per litre, so round $60 on your bill, I dunno if I would even bother personally.

At the end of the day, its your vehicle, your choice, each to their own.

Regards
Daz

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

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*Yes modern engines are made to better tolerances (in general) and oil is way more advanced in every way when compared to oils of old, and although oils that are labeled "full synthetic" or "semi synthetic" are simply not synthetic oil, they are so advanced now that they might as well be synthetic, again if compared to oils of old.

Hard to know if the oil you are getting is a true synthetic or not nowdays as a class III base stock oil can be marketed as synthetic - class III is a highly refined mineral oil that nearly matches full synthetic class IV oil. Alot of oil manufactures wont tell you which one they use.

Have a 2007 D3 2.7, synthetic 5/30 oil and Mahle filter every 10,000k.
Has covered 355,000k so far and neither uses oil between services nor smokes and no engine rattles.
I'm optimistic of it going to 400k, and figure clean oil has a lot to do with it.