How much do you spend on garage bills a year?

True, I guess then it'll be something like £500per month, going by PCP figures.

 

Going to a specialist and, given that I only have to do a major service (rather than just an oil change) only every other year because of the low miles I do the routine servicing costs of my M3 would be about £300 a year (in the UK that would probably be more like £600) but the extras come from the unexpected bills like the VANOS going and the cats needing replacing.

Michael.

 

Okay, but what's that got to do with garage costs?

 

Miaow!

 

Just under £1000, according to parkers..
Then it also needed 2 tyres (£70 each), then insurance at £190, road tax at £160, and 11000 miles worth of petrol at 32mpg (344 gallons - about £1270 at a guess)....
That's getting on for £2900! Which works out about 26.3p/mile.
I could walk it for less than that...

 

Just a question which is not worth starting a new thread over, my dads car has been very jurkey later, but the plugs are two years old, my uncle sand blasted them rather than replacing them as they were less than a year old when it was last serviced.

Do you think the jurkeyness is just becuase the car needs new plugs and a service?

 

AT spark plugs last about 10,000 miles before they need changing unless you have platinham tips. The last time i Cleaned spark plugs by sand blasting was in 1982, much better to use a wire brush gently.

 

Parts for your car are expensive Isaac, but there will be a garage who will repir it for less than the dealers as mechanics move around.

 

haha its been about 18,000 miles now so its no wonder the cars been a bit jurky we got a good 16,000 miles out of them without any sign of wear though.

 

you know since I've had modern cars i've never changed any spark plugs. 40,000 in the Nissan, and 30,000 each in a couple of citroens and never a problem. Sounds like it's due a service AT

 

Gazz - I've tried independant garages... they haven't got a clue either. If you took them a mundano or focus they'd be fine, they see them all the time. It's the unusual cars that cause them to come undone.

 

I know the oil needs draining, the head gasket seal went causing the car to leak loads of oil, so the there are two different oil types in the engine atm.

Its not a problem with the Zetecs but is not ideal.

 

The one thing that i do know about my last garage bill is that i saved myself about £100 - £200 by replacing my blown head gasket myself , I also took the trouble of re-grinding my valves, Checking/setting up all of my tappets, new Timing belt and tensioner pulley, clean, flush and new anti-freeze in the cooolant system too, along with new oil and water seals all round, oh yeah and that warm glow of knowing that everything was probably done with a whole lot more care and attention to detail than the monkey in the garage would have given me, mind you it did take up a big chunk of my 'off shift' days ( but i also managed to a big chunk at work too in the firms time , so thats Ok ).

I took it for its first drive today, no oil leaks, water leaks or big bangs , early days i know though. It also started and settled into an even idle at the first turn of the key, which i was kinda pleased with, especially as my wife and kids where looking on......

 

without ins, tax, petrol, the garage costs are in excess of 1k servicing mainly

but, i like my car

 

This is true with the lack of attention paid by garages. The last person to service my dads car was my uncle, we got sick of paying a garage £150 to service so he offered to it for free, when he removed the spark plugs to clean them he could not be believe that the gaps had not been set, he set the gaps correctly, changed the oil and the car was running like new, better than it was when we had that £150 service.

I am doing a bit of light work on my mates fiesta, replaced the wipers the other day and I am getting more confident. As soon as I get a car of my own I will practise changing plugs etc. At least in terms of servicing I will do it all my self, I am a banger man anyway, even if I had money I wouldn't want a new car I just prefer to spent my money on music and holidays.

Most my family are like this, quite a few own houses worth half a million but drive old cars because they are perfectly reliable and cheap.

Still I would like a Focus but by the time I pass my test you they will be going for less than £1000 anyway.

 

The older a car is, the easier it is to do your own spannering (and the more looking after it may need!)...
I do most of the maintenance on my Land Rover as it's 1976, which means the electrics are only there to provide heat to the glow plugs, light, and to turn over the starter... Which makes it all terribly easy - and you can actually get into the engine bay! Though I'm sure the designers had a laugh in some of componant positioning.. The only way to get at the oil filter is from underneath, (unless you want to remove the air intake) which guarantees a mouth full of old oil..
On my mosickle, I do most of the work - though I have to remove 17 allen bolts just to take off the sump to change the oil filter! But setting the valve clearance is a 10 minute job, as is removing the starter, carbs and alternator..
On the Skoda, however, I wouldn't dream of touching it - like most modern engines everything is controlled by a computer with sensors everywhere. Only way it can be looked after is if you've got the diagnostic computer. Even changing a wing mirror needs a degree in electronic engineering!

 

Its not always a problem though, my dads Escort has a lot of sensors although not as many as a modern Skoda. Much of it such as the lambda sensor etc is quite simple to repair its just costly.

The ECU is self learning it even says this in the manual so at least on zetecs you shouldn't have to reprogram it. Certainly you can do a full service without need to reprogram anything. If a strange ECU fault does happen all you need to is go to scrap yard and replace the chip for £20.

Its not always this simple though, my dads first punto which was hired and not owned was 6 months old, it some times wouldn't start first time, this was clearly an ECU fault.

The second Punto which we did own was fine.

My mates car seems like a good car to work on, its new enough to be reliable, i.e it has an electronic ignition system but old enough to simple, no fuel injection and you can get to everything. Even my dads Escort requires the air filter to removed just to get to the plugs, not really a problem but its all extra time and work.

With modern cars though such as your Skoda its not really worh doing home servicing as it will effect service history and dent resale values unless you intend to keep it until its ready to be scrapped.

 

My 31 year old Moto Guzzi has got electronic ignition - though it didn't until I put it in 15 years ago..
I do like carbs, though, if I've go to work on it- that way any adjustments are purely mechanical (though needle/jet sizes are a black art...). And pushrods make valve adjustment a joy (well, compared to shimming!)

 

I think his car is a pushrod, its basicaly a Ford Kent engine from the Anglia era, amazing Ford are still making these engines for the Ka. Although they have fuel injection now instead of a carb.

I guess fuel injection systems can be hard to fault find.

 

More like:

deprec ~ £500
5000

rtax 150

Insurance ~ 300
600

Bills ~ 400
600

Fuel ~ 500
2000+

Probably you guys with knobmobiles are more like £100??
The maths on mine seems a bit higher than £100! Not for a knobmobile either, just a new car at circa £25K handling commuting, family duty and a social life. This excluded the actual monthly costs of a 3-year exec scheme. I was extremely glad to get off the conveyer belt by keeping the car at the end of 3 years and buying it outright. Dropped the outgoings by £500 per month immediately. It all depends what you do for a living and what your needs are (or what companies insist upon) but I'm stunned at the low costs on this thread, perhaps a sign of age differences and lifestyles.

Paul