Having a newish car is all well and good BUT...

[Bailes1992]

Just sent a service request to a local ford dealer to get it done.
If it fails prematurley I will have them to go back on and get it fixed.

Expecting it to be around £500.

The part is £130 from Ford just for the cassette, £70 for the cam belt plus labour.

[Bailes1992]

Oh and I've decided I'm going to service the car by myself.
I'm going to do exactley as Dai says and print off a sheet of everythign that needs doing off ETIS and make notes and then staple my receipts to it.

After all, get the timing belt changed and hopefully I probably won't have to do it again while I own the car.

[rwb]

[steve_earwig]

Pass the popcorn...

Speaking of insane developments in automotive engineering, does anyone else have misgivings about this one? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19979380

Be afraid!

[lozz]

ithink id rather 'Rely on a normal steering rack,
idont trust electrical things,

icouid just imagine a Voltage spike at 70mph in that critter,
iwonder if its like that car out of total recall thatd fill up with polystyrene inside if you had to crash it,

[jasper5]

Oh and I've decided I'm going to service the car by myself.
I'm going to do exactley as Dai says and print off a sheet of everythign that needs doing off ETIS and make notes and then staple my receipts to it.

After all, get the timing belt changed and hopefully I probably won't have to do it again while I own the car.

Are you absolutely certain yours is the oil bath type?

My timing belt book lists the chain type for 2008.

[jasper5]

Pass the popcorn...

Speaking of insane developments in automotive engineering, does anyone else have misgivings about this one? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19979380

Be afraid!

Yes, it's insane

[mjb]

I'd much rather buy a car from someone who knows their onions and has obviously looked after it than someone who hasn't got a clue but has got a book of stamps.

My coupé had a book full of stamps, and reams of main dealer invoices, and look at how shockingly bad that was when I bought it... I'm sure it still had the factory pollen filter, brake fluid and rear inner brake pads fitted.

I used to say having a full dealer service history didn't matter to me, but now it does. I'd rather buy a car knowing an independent (or preferably the owner) had taken care of it, rather than a dealer who knows the punter's too ignorant to know that you can take X brand cars to places other than X brand garages.

You should see the history of my bimmer. The owner before last spent something daft like £4000 in total over the space of a year getting the dealer to fix the abs/dsc light problem it had. They charged him for diagnostic after diagnostic and replacing every ecu they could find. At BMW prices. Yet the ECUs actually have bba-reman stickers on!!!

The last owner got an invoice for about £20 from an independent as soon as he got the car. That was for cleaning something (either pedal switch, or wheel sensor, can't remember) then erasing the fault code.

"Stamped up to xxxxx, then invoices for parts/work for the last N years" is what I look for when buying cars. Dealer servicing is less than worthless to me. Shame I'm a minority

[Bailes1992]

Oh and I've decided I'm going to service the car by myself.
I'm going to do exactley as Dai says and print off a sheet of everythign that needs doing off ETIS and make notes and then staple my receipts to it.

After all, get the timing belt changed and hopefully I probably won't have to do it again while I own the car.

Are you absolutely certain yours is the oil bath type?

My timing belt book lists the chain type for 2008.

All cars after 10/2007 with the 1.8TDCi had this belt in oil.
FordPartsUK can supply me with the cassette for £90.

[steve_earwig]

Knowing Ford of old it could be either (I'd say "or both" but I don't suppose even they could manage that one)

[Captain Jack]

New cars scare me. My mum's Sh!troen C4 1.6 HDI is nothing but trouble. Whenever I visit her, the car is in the garage. This time, it's the famous anti-pollution fault. The independent is saying that the wastegate is stuck open and the turbo is coked up in crap. So they want to replace the turbo and all the pipework on it.... etc... etc... Can you remove the crappy FAP on there (according to my step-dad, it has one) and reprogram it with ECU Safe? It's basically a 307 underneath isn't it, and we all know what problems it harbours.

Not such issues on my 406. Drove it up to Manchester a few weeks ago - 400 miles round trip, London trip x2 - 350 miles round trip each time and just now came back from Belgium. And it hasn't skipped a beat. What a car!

[Bailes1992]

No issues with my car. It's just maintenance. FAP can be removed but if they are doing such short journeys it's getting coked up then you may want to replace it with a petrol.

[Captain Jack]

Even maintenance is scary....

[steve_earwig]

CJ, I reckon you said it all there, your ma's HDi almost certainly (unless it has some major issues) only does short journeys to the shops & back, which would be bad enough on a "normal" HDi but death to one with a FAP.. My mate was saying they had a 1.6 HDi (can't remember which car it was in) in the workshop behind where he works and the pipes were so snotted up you could barely get a finger in them and it took a couple of hours with a hot pressure washer to clear them. If she really is mainly doing shopping trips in it de-fapping will hep but the best solution is what Sam said, get her to chop it in for a petrol.

[Captain Jack]

Yeah, the majority of her trips are to the shops, work (local) and back. She does travel around 40 miles at weekends but that's about it.

She didn't have many issues with the '98 normally aspirated diesel Clio. It was rattly but it moved.