What Mileage/time Intervals Should I Get My Car Serviced?

[freeman3030]

Hi,

I bout my '58 Fiesta Titanium in Sep 2010 from L. S. Eaves Ford in Colchester.

When I bought it they serviced it and at the time (according to the service book) it had done 11,885 miles - this is the one and only service stamp the book has.

Nearly 2 years later (I've had no problems with the car) I've thought that I really should get it serviced, not only because it's been 2 years since it was last serviced, but because the car has now done 33k.

I feel bad because aren't yet supposed to service a car every 12.5k?

I'm just wondering about what is done in a service and what I should make sure gets checked/changed. Is it a major service or a sort of check over service?

I've been looking on the Ford website and they offer a fixed priced service for £99 which I think is good value. The one thing I am mainly concerned about is the cam belt because I've heard that if this goes it ruins everything and you've pretty much lost your car... will Ford check this and when should it be changed?

As you can guess, I'm pretty clueless about this sort of thing!

Any help much appreciated.

[GSM]

You should be servicing at least once per year, preferably once every 6 months, or every 12k/6k respectively. So you're a bit late, but if you haven't had any problems so far, then it's not a big deal, especially as it's a relatively new vehicle. Get it serviced ASAP (just the basics) and then do it at least once a year from there onwards.

For most of these services you can do it yourself quite cheaply (sub £50 I'd say) and it's really easy - you can get away with just buying a can of oil, an oil filter, an oil plug/seal and an air filter and replace them all on your vehicle. Slightly less frequently you'll want to change your coolant, brake fluid and brake pads, and maybe the fuel filter. Brake pads replacements are slightly less straight forward than the rest, so you might want to leave that to a professional... one that you trust.

Ford recommend that you change the cam belt every 100k miles or 10 years, but to err on the side of cauation, most people change it well before that (at say 60-80k). Ford should be checking your cam belt at every service for signs of premature wear and impending damage, but I wouldn't trust them to be doing that (I wouldn't even trust them with changing the oil properly). And yes, the cam belt keeps the timing of your engine so that the correct valves are moving in and out at the correct time, etc. If that goes, then your engine will pretty much destroy itself (bent valves, destroyed pistons, contaminated cylinders, cylinder head gasket gone, etc, etc, etc), requiring almost a completely new engine, which will cost and amount pretty close to the value of the whole car! But as you've only done 33k miles and the car is only 4 years old, I very much doubt you'll need to change the cam belt with any sort of urgency atm. But in another 33k miles or another 3 years, I'd start thinking about getting it done.

[iNath]

You car is now due it's 3yr/37.5k service which will be in the region of £200-£250 at a Ford dealer. (You've skipped the 2yr/25k one)

The Fiesta has major & minor services in the pattern; minor(1yr/12.5k), minor(2yr/25k), major(3yr/37.5k), minor(4yr/50k), minor(5yr/62.5k), major(6yr/75k)...

Shop around for prices or go to an independent garage that will follow Ford's schedule.

[sambooka]

You car is now due it's 3yr/37.5k service which will be in the region of £200-£250 at a Ford dealer. (You've skipped the 2yr/25k one)

The Fiesta has major & minor services in the pattern; minor(1yr/12.5k), minor(2yr/25k), major(3yr/37.5k), minor(4yr/50k), minor(5yr/62.5k), major(6yr/75k)...

Shop around for prices or go to an independent garage that will follow Ford's schedule.

So you need a service every 12500 miles I thought it was every 9000 was about to book mine in again as it had its first at 9409(stupid service notice did my head in on the car) nearly at 17000 now

[eyemdee]

I just had my 2nd year service done for £148.50 at my Ford Dealers, which included 4,592 Nectar points (£23 worth) (double points + double points again in August + Nectar voucher for 4,000) AND 12 months free Ford Roadside Assistance including Homestart & Relay which they assured me is with the AA. I think the £99 service is for 3 year and older cars but still includes the other offers.

That's what I call value - beat my usual local garage hands down this time.

[iNath]

So you need a service every 12500 miles I thought it was every 9000 was about to book mine in again as it had its first at 9409(stupid service notice did my head in on the car) nearly at 17000 now

Just throwing money away :P it's 12.5k miles or yearly, whichever comes first ;)

[Magenta]

INath is right about the service intervals. I know the service book takes some interpreting on this score. You don't have to use a Ford garage either, just one that is VAT registered and says they do it to the manufacurers specification (allegedly !). All good advice.

What is also (I think) important is the resale value of your car if you have a full service history. It's certainly something I always look for when buying a newish car.