No service this year.

Soldato
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Also amusing when you then see Americans who think we're mental for going as far as 10,000 miles without an oil change, whilst they're changing their oil as often as they fill with fuel*

*may not be entirely accurate :p

AAA:

Americans do it excessively for some reason. Maybe garages push the myth because they don't get constant business from MOTs like ours do.
 
Caporegime
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I’m having my Volvo V70 serviced next week, it was last serviced a year ago but then stood at a dealer for six months due to Covid etc, in the subsequent 6 months since I’ve bought it, I’ve done just over 5k miles in it.

Still decided to get it done, at the very least I service my car once a year, regardless of mileage.
 
Soldato
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I'd only be comfortable staying on 2yr/18k if all the journeys making up the lower mileage were still long individually - based on VWs advice (my car being a Skoda) that such a schedule is aimed at people doing predominantly long journeys, fully warmed up, not pushing the car hard etc.

You don't need to worry about what the journeys are, the 2yrs 18k is a max span. If you do short journeys as we did in our Audi 2.0TFSI it calls for the service earlier, 9k miles in our case.
 
Caporegime
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My M3 is on 2year intervals

The issue is that changing oil every 2 years is okay as it won't start causing issues until it's older than 6 years and possibly a lot longer than that.

By then it's out of warranty and been sold on by the original owner from new. So the manufacturer don't really care if it lasts 8 years or 30.

So they don't care about it lasting any longer than 6 years until their original customer has sold it on and it's no longer under warranty. Until then they recommend the bare minimum to get it to the point it's no longer their problem if something goes wrong.

Change the oil every year and yeah it will prolong the life of the engine exponentially along with other regular maintenance and servicing.

So it entirely depends on how long your planning on keeping it for. If you bought a brand new M3 and plan on keeping it for 15 years then yeah get the oil changed every year. If you bought a brand new M3 and plan on keeping it for less than 5 years then just stick to what they recommend.
 
Soldato
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That's not true CBS service intervals have been used for years now and how many cars have engines that have worn out rings, valve guides worn or high oil consumption. In fact how many people do you know that have needed an engine rebuild on a non tuned up car. They are all pretty much a thing of the past, materials, oils and the technology has all moved on.
 
Caporegime
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The issue is that changing oil every 2 years is okay as it won't start causing issues until it's older than 6 years and possibly a lot longer than that.

By then it's out of warranty and been sold on by the original owner from new. So the manufacturer don't really care if it lasts 8 years or 30.

So they don't care about it lasting any longer than 6 years until their original customer has sold it on and it's no longer under warranty. Until then they recommend the bare minimum to get it to the point it's no longer their problem if something goes wrong.

Change the oil every year and yeah it will prolong the life of the engine exponentially along with other regular maintenance and servicing.

So it entirely depends on how long your planning on keeping it for. If you bought a brand new M3 and plan on keeping it for 15 years then yeah get the oil changed every year. If you bought a brand new M3 and plan on keeping it for less than 5 years then just stick to what they recommend.
Sure mate...
 
Associate
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The issue is that changing oil every 2 years is okay as it won't start causing issues until it's older than 6 years and possibly a lot longer than that.

By then it's out of warranty and been sold on by the original owner from new. So the manufacturer don't really care if it lasts 8 years or 30.

So they don't care about it lasting any longer than 6 years until their original customer has sold it on and it's no longer under warranty. Until then they recommend the bare minimum to get it to the point it's no longer their problem if something goes wrong.

Change the oil every year and yeah it will prolong the life of the engine exponentially along with other regular maintenance and servicing.

So it entirely depends on how long your planning on keeping it for. If you bought a brand new M3 and plan on keeping it for 15 years then yeah get the oil changed every year. If you bought a brand new M3 and plan on keeping it for less than 5 years then just stick to what they recommend.

What makes a year magically okay? Why not once a month?
 
Caporegime
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What makes a year magically okay? Why not once a month?

It depends on your mileage too. 10k or 1 year whatever comes first.

I wouldn't change it in a month as it's still in great condition it won't have turned black. It won't have started to degrade to the point it needs replacing. It won't have moisture crept into it.

You could change it monthly but it's going to cost you what £500 a year to do if you do it yourself or £2500 at a garage. And it won't prolong the life of the engine enough to warrant doing over yearly when you add up all the costs.

That's why you wouldn't do it monthly. It's just not worth it for as the oil will still be pretty sound after a month.

For example why do air purifiers say change the filter after 6 months? Yet your going to keep your car which is worth 500 times more running the same filters for 2 years?

If you want you can check your oil on your dip stick after a month. Then take monthly pics of what you wipe off onto the kitchen towel and see what happens to the colour and degradation. What would be better though is if you drained some and topped it up every month and keep what you drained in a clear bottle in the garage and labeled them and see what happens to the oil every month and build up a chart.
 
Soldato
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My thought as well. Who needs oil analysis when you can use a kitchen towel and a colour chart.
Seems there is a lot of experts in here, I guess I should ignore Castrol and Ford and trust them.
I'm starting to think 12 months is too long 11.5 months is the optimum I'm sure.
Some people just talk carp.

Going to follow expert instructions and service it at 18k or 2 years which ever comes first.
 
Soldato
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I normally do mine every 12 months, but last year was about this time of year, I've only done about 3500 miles, so I am going to wait a few months and do it when the weather is better maybe June. I'm sure a few months won't do too much harm.
 
Soldato
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Once you go BEV you can stop getting lubed up for your yearly/interval service. Kick the tires, changes the pollen filters, and erm... nothing else to do other than look at he brakes which will probably last longer than the car.

Dealers/manufacturers are going to have to find some other way to rob you blind. :D
 
Soldato
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The issue is that changing oil every 2 years is okay as it won't start causing issues until it's older than 6 years and possibly a lot longer than that.

By then it's out of warranty and been sold on by the original owner from new. So the manufacturer don't really care if it lasts 8 years or 30.

So they don't care about it lasting any longer than 6 years until their original customer has sold it on and it's no longer under warranty. Until then they recommend the bare minimum to get it to the point it's no longer their problem if something goes wrong.

Change the oil every year and yeah it will prolong the life of the engine exponentially along with other regular maintenance and servicing.

So it entirely depends on how long your planning on keeping it for. If you bought a brand new M3 and plan on keeping it for 15 years then yeah get the oil changed every year. If you bought a brand new M3 and plan on keeping it for less than 5 years then just stick to what they recommend.

Building to survive the warranty period does seem to be the focus now for so called "premium" brands :/

E.g. Take Audi from 10-15 or so years ago. They started blowing up due to timing chain defects years down the line. Audi did not GAF because the warranty was long gone. It's criminal that they didn't have to recall them and fix it.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
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Even if it's due at less than a year, that sounds like a stupid way of timing your services.
I wrote that in haste and perhaps worded it incorrectly, if something is due earlier then of course it gets done. On the other hand however I would never run my car for 2 years without servicing even if the handbook said to do so.
 
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