Info about servicing?

[rvm]

Hi All,

I bought a Y reg Fabia Comfort 1.9 SDI last year at 39.5K. Just had my 1st MOT done with nothing needing to be done. I am now getting the service reminder on the dash now that the car has done approx 50K. When i bought it the skoda dealership gave it a full service and changed the V Belt on it.

With this being my 1st car i dont know much about servicing and whats checked/done when this is done. I was wondering roughly how much i would be looking at to get a full service done and what gets done for the money?

Some friends have suggested I may just want to get an oil and filter change and redo the coolant etc. I dont really want to fork out cash just for a dealerships stamp on a book to say its been serviced. I remember a friend swore by getting his vectra serviced once or even twice a year as he was confident that when he came to sell the car he would get a good price for the car due to the full service history. I remember his dissapointment when he sold the car and got no more for it than what he would have if he had partial history.




Any information or advice anyone can give me about servicing would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[ap0gee]

What sort of mileage do you do? My wife's gets serviced once a year by a local place that also runs a fleet of Skoda minicabs, and this year it cost £150, including a complete sets of brake pads / shoes. As a rule of thumb, you should change the oil every 10,000 miles, get a full service every year, and then things like coolant and brake fluid follow on every couple of years. My wife's is an MPi, so it doesn't have a timing belt, so this would be an extra cost for you at around £200 every 4 years or 60,000 miles. The V belt is the auxiliary drive belt I think, which is something different - the timing belt is also described as a 'toothed' belt, and is considerably more important (if the auxiliary belt goes, your car breaks down and you get it fixed; if the timing belt goes, your engine falls to bits and you need a new one ) It's definitely worth checking which belt was actually changed! Your choice of servicing place should be made more on what you're happy with rather than trying to preserve the resale value, as using a main dealer as opposed to a decent local garage probably isn't worth the extra expense for a car that's more than a couple of years old.

Hope that's not given you information overload, and welcome to Briskoda!

[ap0gee]

Oh, and get a new air filter. Don't worry about anything 'high performance'; just a standard paper one. They don't get changed nearly enough on the Skoda service schedule, and a fresh one will make your car less smoky and give you better mpg.

[fordfan]

Small service at 10000, 30000, 50000,70000 and 90000 miles, medium service at 20000, 60000 and 100000 miles, large service at 40000 and 80000 miles. In addition cambelt every 4 years or 60000 miles, brake fluid every 2 years and coolant change every 5 years. Yo may want to change the coolant when the timing belt is done, as most places would recommend that the water pump is replaced at the same time. The V belt is the auxiliary drive belt that drives the alternator, often referred to as the fan belt.

[blued]

General service items, say every 10k

Oil + Filter
Fuel Filter
Air Filter
Inspect v-belt

That'll cost about £45 (excluding v-belt) if you do it yourself and its easy enough even for a beginner. You could have a knowledgeable friend to help the first time you do it.

As said above have the timing belt changed every 60k and every 120k change the timing idlers/pulleys as well. Preferably by a VAG specialist.

Brake fluid and coolant I'd probably have a local garage do because its messy and doesnt require a specialist imo.