Servicing

[Merv53]

Hi, need some help with servicing times for my 2016 VF2 SSV. I mention that I am not mechanically minded so any servicing has to be done by a mechanic.
The 3 year new car warranty has just expired and Holden is about to do the 45000k service despite the car only having done 35000k. This was due to me travelling in the vehicle at less than average K's but getting a service done every 9 months to comply with Holdens warranty/Service requirements. Now the car is out of warranty, I do not have to strictly service it in accordance with Holdens rules, but, I want to maintain the vehicle properly as this car is a keeper.
If I were to continue servicing the car at 9 month intervals, I calculate that, based on current average mileage of 8000k per year, the 60,000k service would be done when the car has gone 43000k and the 90000k service would happen at 60000k actually travelled.This would continue to blow out with time. That doesn't seem right to me so I was thinking that, because I keep reading that the oil has a 9 month life, I should have the oil and filter changed every 9 months and the general service done in accordance with kilometres travelled ie the 90000k service at 90000k on the clock.
Would that be appropriate for proper maintenance of the car?

Merv

 

[Forg]

It’s not really the “45000km service”, for you. It’s the “27 month service”. This is the way the service schedule has been written, and you’re not going to break anything following the standard schedule.

However, it’s true you might be wasting money chucking stuff away before you need to.

You can do exactly what you suggested and replace everything that’s got a time component to it’s degradation according to the time, and everything that’s purely a usage component based on distance. A bit of a pain to track it, though.
What you can also do, which is simpler, is to do the services according to the manual based purely on distance; and do an oil+filter change in the middle. You don’t need to be particularly mechanically-minded to do the oil change yourself, the biggest hurdle is somewhere to do it, and you’ll save time compared to messing-around getting the car to & from a dealer or (preferably) a trusted mechanic.

 

[shane_3800]

I would change the oil and filter every 7,500km at the harsh condition intervals and not worry about the time based servicing. I also would do trans and diff oil at every 45k. The trans is "filled for life" but I would change the oil then do the filter every 100k.

Also what I do to my cars is cheap as I'm a professional technician so others might not do the same due to cost.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

If you are doing oil changes yourself which is cheap I would just do it every 6 months. The rest as per distance interval in the service book or common sense I.e. air filter and pollen filter when they look filthy, brake fluid every 2 yrs. Coolant at 5 years...etc

 

[stooge]

Now the car is out of warranty, I do not have to strictly service it in accordance with Holdens rules

the "3 year" warranty might be up but you are still covered under australian consumer law on the provision that it is maintained correctly so if you have a major fault holden would have to fix or replace it free of charge but if you go outside of the proper servicing schedule and give holden "a way out" you will end up having a problem because they will try and claim that not servicing it properly was the cause.

continue to service it properly until it is at least 5 years old.

 

[Skylarking]

Yep, as already stated by others.

And once you decide you no longer feel like you need to rely on your ACL statutory warranty, which only you can decide since it’s like deciding you don’t need comp insurance on a clunker, you can drop by the book servicing and go DIY and using Holdens schedule and common sense.

About the only things that need time based servicing are;
- brake fluid (it absorbs water just sitting),
- coolant (it reacts with metal changing its properties till it doesn’t work as it should)
- rubber belts (can degrade while just sitting under tension)
- tyres (can degrade with weight of car on same spot from lack of use)
- oil (manufacturers say it has a shelf life of 5 years before additives can separate* see two posts down)

Pretty much everything else degrades with use so has a life measured in kms.

So for older cars very much out of warranty, I’d address the time based items separately form the distance based items. Keeping track is the challenge which in this day of computer based calendars ain’t that challenging.

 

[shane_3800]

Yep, as already stated by others.

And once you decide you no longer feel like you need to rely on your ACL statutory warranty, which only you can decide since it’s like deciding you don’t need comp insurance on a clunker, you can drop by the book servicing and go DIY and using Holdens schedule and common sense.

About the only things that need time based servicing are;
- brake fluid (it absorbs water just sitting),
- coolant (it reacts with metal changing its properties till it doesn’t work as it should)
- rubber belts (can degrade while just sitting under tension)
- tyres (can degrade with weight of car on same spot from lack of use)
- oil (manufacturers say it has a shelf life of 5 years before additives can separate)

Pretty much everything else degrades with use so has a life measured in kms.

So for older cars very much out of warranty, I’d address the time based items separately form the distance based items. Keeping track is the challenge which in this day of computer based calendars ain’t that challenging.

Oil shelf life and working life are totally different. Oil in an engine is exposed to fuel which degrades the oil faster than oil in a bottle on the shelf. But still two year intervals would likely cause no damage.

 

[Skylarking]

^ true but petrol is also much more volitile and would evaporate from within the oil reasonably quickly.

Fuel in an ICE engine getting into the oil is a known quantity which must be factored into the service sechedule of 9 months or 15,000kms. So the real question is whether the time or milages aspect is more important. I'd tend to think milage is more of a factor as it's the combustion cycles that result in fuel & water getting into the oil and acid formation occuring. But it's a guess, I'm not an oil engineer.

So, for someone who does 5000 kms per year, that's probably a three year oil change frequancy, and well short of the oil makers shelf life of 5 years. If one does 3000 kms per year, that translates to a 5 year oil change frequency which is the oil shelf life. What to do? I guess where it gets complicated is those who don't put on many k's and just take their car out for short drives whcih are more damaging to an engine. As such, I'd either modify driving habit to get everything up to temp and drive it for a while longer OR do more frequent precautionary oil changes.

But your implied point stands, don't leave it in too long without consideration towards the operating parameters / driving conditions. It also wont hurt to do some initial oil analysis to get a handle on what is an "optimal" oil change frequency for ones usage.

As I'm doing around 5K per year, yearly basic oil/filter changes won't hurt the bank.