Day 246 / 2016 - The Black Art of Servicing the Car

I have been considering taking up the black art of servicing ones own car while on the road... well changing the oil and filters at least. At around $300.00 to $350.00 for just a basic service it is getting expensive and they don't even change the fuel filter for that price. Time to review the worth of doing our own servicing.

One of the unavoidable tasks when owning a car is regular vehicle servicing. We do this to maximise the life of our car and reduce the risk of unexpectically breaking down especially in a remote location. When we were living at home before each trip the vehicle would be serviced before we left then return home before the next service was due.

The options for vehicle servicing are get someone to do it for you or do it yourself. The upside of someone doing it for you is you drop it off then at some point pick it back up. They have access to all the relevant technical data and experience needed to maintaine your vehicle. The downside is you pay a premium for this service, trust someone to do a good job and will use quality parts. Now I am not saying the person servicing your car is incompetent or out to take advantage but even the best of tradesmen can make mistakes especially when they are under the pump to get 25 hours of work completed in a day. Doing it youself you have control over workmanship quality, choice of parts and save money in labour costs. The downside is you may not have the expertise or access to technical data to do the job indeed you can just as easly make a (costly) mistake.

While travelling you canot carry a workshop around with you loaded with tools you have built up over time (although I have seen travellers attempt to do this). Its a lot of extra weight and convincing the better half she has to leave her craft tools at home so you can fit in your workshop tools is not going to bode well (I think she mention something about "the equality"). You will also need to have a suitable area to work and someway of catching then disposing of waste. Some caravan parks don't like you pulling you car to bits while staying there for some reason so finding working space is not always easy. Oil and filter changes are relatively easy and can be performed by most competent people but when it becomes more technical then unless you have access to a manufacturers resource manual how to do something can be a mystery.

So what do we choose to do? Perhaps I could perform the simple servicing then leave the more advance servicing to the professionals. To change the oil you need to buy the parts then have a clean dry spot to work. Tools to do the job, a suitable container to catch the oil and a place to dispose of the waste oil and filters. Personally I would rather leave it to the service guy but the cost is starting to mount up especially if you have to change oil every 5,000km. A couple of times I have asked for an oil change quote they priced it around $180.00 to $200.00 but when we get the car back it has never been less than $300.00. We have priced the parts and for genuine it cost about $120.00 for oil and about $39.00 for a filter. Non genuine parts is about $25.00 for a filter and $80.00 - $100.00 for oil. 

Recently I have learned accurate pricing depends on the service agent. A quote from the Atherton Dealer was for $180.00 to $200.00. Against buying the parts if his quote is true then we are really only saving about $80.00 doing the service ourselves so once again decided to leave it to the service centre. After our service the good news the agent actually charged around what they quoted addtionally they even checked fluid levels along the rest of the driveline without charge. I am not against paying the higher prices as each business has different running cost so they have a right to charge acordingly. My problem is when you are given a quote especially for a job that has a known quantity you expect to pay that price or close to it not have the cost rise significanly. When the costs fluxuate so much how can you determine if its worth doing your own services.