Derek M

have a mate who doesnt give a monkeys about his car.

Its a MY99 Renault Laguna he bought it from dealer with 22K miles. He never checks tyres, oil or water etc. Only thing he puts in is petrol when the light comes on. He is doing quite big miles about 100 miles a day!!! He hasnt bothered to keep to the service intervals either cause it now has 42K miles with no service thats 20K miles with no service. He doesnt even know what the intervals are!!! I think it is every 12K mile but its certainly less than 20K miles.

A while ago he had to get front discs and pads replaced cause he didnt replace pads and ended up braking on metal destroying the discs!!

I have tried to tell him about the importance of servicing and maintenance but he doesnt listen and just says "ahhh wont do it any harm!!".

I dont think French cars are bulit to last at the best of times but with abuse like this I wonder how long before he gets real problems.

Anyone know people like this who dont bother with proper maintenance or serviceing and have then had any problems as a result?

I cant wait to say "I told you so when his goes wrong!!"

tiggers

Yep,

My mate bought a 91H Jag XJ for £500 at an auction 2 and a half years ago - had most of the history and looked OK. All he ever does is change the oil himself when he can be bothered.

I told him Jags need loving care and attention at the best of times, but especially when he's doing 500 miles a week commuting.

I warned him time and time again.

Would he listen - would he hell?

And you know what? ...


















It's never gone wrong in two and half years of ownership!!!

Bugger

tiggers.

P.S. Hate to think what my car has cost me in servicing in that time let alone depreciation.

pugoetru

well i just buy em cheap and run them till they die

it can take a long time

my curent daily driver is a 205XS bought for £50 1 yes 1 owner from new was neglected a little by said 1 owner

only 62000 miles when i got it hitting 70000 now revs to 7k(red line at 6)

put a drive shaft and wheel bearing on it thats it

does 400 miles a week

Derek M

But the thing is this car wasnt cheap. It cost him over £6000 from renault dealership.

Still has some warranty left but probably invalid now cause it hasnt been serviced properly.

NACRO

Have done over 60,000 miles in our MK2 Golf Gti with nothing other than air/oil filter changes which I do myself once a yr. It now has just under 100K miles and still runs like new. I presume in the yrs we've had it there should have been brake fluid/coolant/cambelt changes all costing £1000's. Haven't done any of that and don't intend to as the car is now worthless.
It still refuses to die and is on the same set of goodyears it came on (unlike your friend I like to save money so check the tyres monthly).
An added bonus is that we can come back to it to find that someone has dented the side and we don't give a toss.

the only reason I bother with on schedule servicing with my Impreza is because of the performance loss if you don't change stuff like plugs and the prospect of wasting 3K or so on a rebuilt engine.

BOB.T

I like to run mine untill parts fall off, that way you can avoid wasting money on replacing things that might break!

I think my gearbox is currently complaining of being overworked:rooleyes:

I'm a city and guilds trained mechanic btw

pugoetru

typical mechanic

we all drive sh1ters/wait till they break

Derek M

Its not so bad not worrying too much about cars that are mainly run abouts, but this gut is doing over 2000 mile a month!!

No oil changes or nothing in last 20K miles and dear knows when it will get the oil changed could be 25K or 30K miles.

DAC

once knew a girl - 3 year old fiesta 1.1 - no oil change or services for 3-4 years (only did about 100 mile a week - still thats 20,000 +)

no problems until performance dropped off - oil was like sludge.

she just part-ex'd it

paulr

I have an Astra,done 130,000 miles,all i ever do is change the oil and filter,runs great.
Now i've bought another car(BMW) but i'm reluctant to get rid of it.

Derek M

Changing the oil is the most important thing, and it seems that those who don't bother sevicing will at least change the oil.

If the oil is not changed fairly regularly surely the life of the engine will be reduced if its doing big miles??

brickboy

I have often wondered -- just how long could you run without an oil change? Assuming that it doesn't burn / lose any, at what point will the oil stop protecting & lubricating?

IIRC the US oil company Amsoil claims that its top-of-the-range synthetic can withstand 100,000 miles of "typical" road use and still be within its stated API / CCMC specs.

I suppose it must depend on the engine, type of driving, usage etc but it would be interesting to know. I'm a saddo, I even top up oil on holiday hire cars

Things like spark plugs and air filters do have long service lives (often 30 - 40K miles) so you wouldn't expect problems with them too quickly ...

Reffro

Just be happy to know that he's well on his way to having a dead catalyst.......

Derek M

Reffro what effect on the catalyst will it have?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I've got 4 good examples of cars that have "broke" through lack of servicing.

1st was a Peugeot 406 2.0 petrol. It was a company car, but the employee was an alcholic (car stunk and glovebox was full of bottle tops and re-gurgatated red wine...it was disgusting). Seeing this person was probably barely able to drive (scary). It never got serviced. He didn't survive (sorosis apparently), and the car came in to be serviced. It Rattled big time (big ends, tappets etc). So much in fact we stopped it and checked the oil! about 1/4 full of very thick black stuff. Suffice to say the big ends and mains were stuffed, Luckily the crank survived and it just had a quickie bottom-end re-build, flushed through twice with motorflush and a full service and off it went!

2nd was a Mondeo, went for 2 years and 50K without servicing. Came in when headgasket blew. Top end rattled like crazy and drank oil ever since 'till they sold it. The sludge out the sump was handy for paining fences with

3rd was a Rover 216 (honda engine) was serviced, but never had the coolant changed in 6 years. Blew the head gasket when the coolant had decided to go acidic and eat away the cylinder head.

4th was a Range Rover. 40K never serviced since new Now I know Rover V8s eat camshafts...but this had No lobes on it at all ...as for the bottom end - it had spun almost every single bearing, meaning the block was knackered.

So, if you value your car, service it properly (not just the oil and filter - coolant does go acidic over time). If its a banger, then at least make sure the brakes are safe.

[Edited by ALi-B - 12/15/2003 5:50:27 PM]

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Btw Catalyst was fine on all the above, so Im not sure where you got the dead catalyst thing from (unless you have a serious missfire )

Reffro

Well the spark plugs, filters and ingition leads all need to be within tolerance otherwise the fuelling goes to pot. Throw in also the lack of oil changes which will also be causing some further damage. It won't happen straight away, but the cumulative damage will take care of the catalyst quite happily.

I'm very surprised the Peugoet above didn't have any problems catalyst wise, you only have to have dirty air filter and old oil in the sump on some PSA engines, and it will stuff up the emissions. I know this from painful experience.....

[Edited by Reffro - 12/15/2003 5:54:30 PM]