Hello Members,

This is my first post.

I have a 2008 Ford Focus 1.6d (DPF) - 110BHP and am due for an Interim service shortly. My current service intervals have been 17k (Interim), 27k (Major) and now approaching 37k my next Interim.

I was considering using an independent garage (£59.99) and Ford Garage (£249.99) - when I asked Ford why the interim service was so expensive I was told that my fuel filter needs changing and it's an expensive job ?

Is that true? The car will soon be 3 years old and would have covered 37k.

If I got this service done at an independent garage, what other jobs not included in a standard interim service should I get done ?

Thanks in advance.

welcome to the forum

Go to this Ford Website pop in your registration. When the page refreshes, it gives you some basic info, but it also enables you to download all the maintenance schedules.

If it is it's third annual service, being a DPF vehicle it will require it's Eloys additive reservoir topped up. [it aids passive DPF regeneration cycles]There is a charge separate and additional to the fixed service price, it varies garage to garage but it needs a main dealer ECU reset. Look to be charged £110 to £150 for this work.

Ignore doing it by being given bad advice, and you risk going into limp home mode, and then need to have a "Forced Regeneration" done by the Main Dealer. So in essence you will be saving nothing, as you will need the top up done and paid for, on top of paying for the forced regeneration.

Thanks that's just what I needed to know.

Thanks for your help.

Your other option is to get a Ford dealer to do the DPF top-up and ECU reset, and your local garage to do the run-of-the-mill jobs....

I recently bought a used focus and rang my local Ford dealer (T C Harrison in Huntingdon) about getting the (overdue) DPF topped up... they quoted £54 to just reset the ECU, or £95 for a top-up and ECU reset.

the fuel filter replacement does not cost alot and you can do it yourself for less than a tenner!

the main one is what people previously mentioned which is the refill of the additive and the cleaning of the dpf. you can do this yourself, if you can get hold of the fluid and competant at doing stuff like that. you will then just need to pay ford to reset the additive on the ecu.

if you want to know how easy it is to do a service by yourself...put it this way, im a computer geek in the RAF and i did mine. lol