Derek M

I 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!!"

dnb

My mother-in-law never checks her car's oil... It ran out one day - and nothing much happened!! Just topped the oil up and it was fine. A couple of months later, it melted an exhaust valve and because of the unburned fuel, the backbox popped. She wasn't amused at the time, as it cost the best part of £150 in parts.

I fixed both of these, and I now keep my eye on the car. There is a slight oil leak from somewhere not obvious, but not bad enough to fail a MOT, so I'm not rushing to find it.

brickboy

The bizarre thing is, if he's doing 100 miles per day in a fairly low-tuned car like the Laguna then it will probably not have a serious long-term ill effect on the engine ... providing it doesn't use any oil.

Of course it would benefit from an oil & filter change etc but it is surprising just how far a car will run without even basic servicing. Things like spark plugs and air filters have service lives of up to 40,000 miles in many cars, so they're unlikely to give problems.

I sometimes wish I could have as little mechanical sympathy as that, but I can't ... I even check and top up the oil etc on holiday hire cars

MarkCSC

My mate had an E reg 1.3 Escort. His parents bought it from new and never had it seviced. In fact the oil was never changed until 170,000 miles. 5000 miles later the engine went pop.
Still good to get your car serviced by sometimes you can be lucky.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

My brother in law got lazy with his BMW 320i (M reg) it stated getting noisy, light comes on and I put 4 1/2 litres of oil in, the knock didnt go, it was slow and he part exed it for far less than it was worth, service your car, if nothing else change the oil occasionally !

David_Dickson

The gimp I work with complained to me that his screenwash jets werent working well on his new (under 5k miles) Freelander.
I had a look for him - turned out the hose had popped off. Anyway, whilst under the bonnet I checked the levels etc (born tinkerer) and was mildly amused to see the oil level well below the minimum mark on the dip-stick. It was actually only just reaching the end of the dipstick!
I found some diesel oil in the workshop and was about to top it up when he stopped me. He had dug out the handbook and pointed out the oil I was about to put in was slightly the wrong grade. I told him this would be a hell of a lot better than no oil, but he didnt want it in his engine. Fine. I expected him to go out and buy some oil, but he ordered it from one of our supliers instead. It arrived about a week later and he topped it up, having done another few hundred miles with very little oil.

His sister has a new corsa 1.2 She asked me to check it over as she was about to go on a long journey.
I couldnt even get the dipstick out, it was jammed for some reason.
I looked in the oil filler cap to see a horrific white emulsion. She only drives about half a mile to work and back each day in it so condensation build-up in the engine was huge.
I eventually freed the dipstick with mole-grips. The inside of the dipstick tube had gone very rusty and the dipsticks seal had stuck to the rust.

I think they are company cars and the family/company is minted so I doubt they are really concerned.

Bobby Peru

Surely if a car needs oil, the oil light will come on?

trevkx125

the `oil light` is an oil pressure light, if that comes on then you are doing very expensive damage.


Trev.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

If the oil pressure light comes on...it's too late!!

[Edited by ALi-B - 12/15/2003 10:32:08 PM]

jackbrm

loads of cars don't have a low oil level warning light but just a oil pressure warning light. Seems bloody stupid to me!

Did something similar when I was younger. Bought a brand new Rover 200, did 9,000 miles in it's first 3 months didn't check the oil once, when I did it, there are just a small bit on the end of the dipstick!!! Had to top it up with 2 litres of oil!!! All was fine though and did 60,000 miles in it in 3 years and it never let me down, so engines are more robust than you think

brickboy

Mark Champion -- seriously, the oil in the Escort wasn't changed for 170K miles?

So what if the engine went 5000 miles later, 175,000 miles on an E-reg Escort is a bloody miracle anyway, with OR without oil changes

MarkCSC

Seriously 170k, although I think he must have topped it up now and again. In the end the big end went.
I had a E reg 1.3 Escort that had done about 180,000 (wasn't too sure as the speedo stopped working) it used to drink a litre of oil a week but was still going strong until I sold on Scoobynet for 50p and a pound of grapes

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Now that makes more sense

The only time I see those clatterbox HCS engine go bang is when they start burning oil (around 60-80K). And the numbnut driving it runs it out of oil

Strangely, they still burn oil like crazy when they ARE serviced properly

brickboy

Well, if it drinks a litre of fresh oil every week, not much point in changing it then ... it's not in the sump long enough to get dirty

pugoetru

Ther is not an escort in the world that can do 170k miles without using oil so although it wasnt changed it would have been topped up

so in reallity it was changed

170k on a escort is good going