6 months or 10,000km - whichever comes first?!

(funny story)
I had a holden vectra. $2000(****box)good V8 to expencive to run now
i was driving it home oneday and all the coolant leaked out. it started to overheat i kept on driving it as i pulled in the gate on ma property it was so hot that stuff was melting and smoking under the bonnet.
I decided to turn on the bore and proceeded to take of what i though was a coolant line going into the motor and run cool water thru it to stop the motor catching alight.. As i was filling it i noticed that there was no water coming out of the radiator.
I then realized that i had just fill the entire sump and motor up with water.

Anyways your car will only require an oil top up when you hear a ticking noise under the bonnet.
You can clean your air filter by removing it and hitting it on the bonnet (hammer like action)
service done.

Hi Doggie, many different chemicals (depending on the supplier who is the one adding to his specification) are added to the base oil product at the refinery. From memory I think there are only three main oil suppliers in Australia, from there the different proportions of chemicals are added to achieve a required viscosity, API rating and the ability of the oil to be used in petrol and/or diesel applications. Detergents are one of the products that can be used in engine oil manufacture and is there to clean the internal parts of the engine, soot and carbon deposits are then hopefully held in suspension and therefore not becoming an abrasive for internal moving parts. Oil will break down (sunlight will do it) but it is not designed to break down to do its job, if it's doing its job it should basically hold contaminants in suspension until its changed.

@ GPA It's even more important in 2011 than 1959 to regularly change your engine oil and filter with the correctly rated oil and viscosity due to the (over engineered) technology that is running the modern engine such as engine oil driving fuel injection systems. Low ash oils are also important to use in modern diesel engines so as not to block the ash filter in the exhaust system. Holden Astra is the prime example, note the extremely low soot emmisions coming from the exhaust of a diesel Astra, Peugeot, Citreon etc etc etc.

If you own a late model V6 Commodore with the cartridge style oil filter be sure to do all you scheduled services, it's cheap compared to replacing and engine because the oil filter catridge is blocked from sludging. I have lost count of the number of these I have seen.

Oils aint oils Sol

I'm thinking that might be an urban legend of the ice bath kidney degree...

I heard it happened at the servo down the road from me..
same merc, same hot day, same stupid lady

I like the ripoff of "tuning" an EFI engine

If the computer is not showing a fault code for a sensor it is fine, change oil and filters, now and then clean fuel system / change spark plugs, and it will run.
People still think they get a "tune up" like the old distributor and points day, when in fact they get oil change and the BS "100 point safety check" that they should do themselves

My cars only get fluids done and never a problem

Well my true story travelled far
It was a red 500 (SEL?) the 2 door softtop, Shell servo in Nedlands in 1991.

Or maybe there are lots of non mechanically minded rich ladies

I'll also confirm that most dealer service centres are straight up hopeless. Case in point, when I was 18 I bought a VL commodore and after a year of sweet general thrashing the clutch went. Now it was so bad that if you were driving up a gear in top gear and put your foot down the revs would rise and you wouldn't accelerate, the clutch was that worn. Anyway the time was against me so I decided to book it in at my local Holden dealer to get the clutch replaced, sweet I thought and drop it off

That afternoon I get a call "cars ready mate", so I go down to pick it up. When I get there the bloke behind the counter goes "yeah mate we couldn't find anything wrong with it, shes good to go". I must have had this look my my face that said "are you taking the piss" because he goes "yeah its fine, here are the keys".

Anyway I couldn't believe it, I got the service manager and took him out to the car. I started it, put it in 5th gear, revved it to 1500 and let the clutch entirely out...the car didn't stall. My simple question to him was "is that normal?" The look on his face said it all, "so you'll want to keep it overnight then?" I said..."yeah mate we'll get that fixed up for you".

I couldn't bloody believe it, I had booked the car in, told them exactly what was wrong with it and even then they failed. Maybe it was because I was 19 that they though I was some sort of idiot...anyway I never went back there and have serviced every car I have owned since myself (obviously haven't bought a new one).

Back to the original post, the 6 months is crap, if it only sees light duty and is a non turbo every 10000km is fine, do both oil and filter.

Thanks to everybody who has replied - great feedback and once again I've learnt something...or many things!!

For the record, I'm not looking to save money or avoid servicing when it's due - the question was basically what governs service periods - mileage (use) or time...

I'm going with mileage with the caviat that it will be done annually or every 10,000km as a minimum - whichever comes first.

Cheers to all...

If it just stopped and won't restart but everything else checks out, the crank angle sensor is a good bet. On the Ecotecs, and even the earlier V6s the CAS is just about a consumable.

Nah, still in NSW. I think I must have updated my profile while I was on holiday. It even says I am still aged 35, which is good, as it has been 4 years now I have been that age.


(Hah, you had to get a pink slip... welcome to the world of NSW motoring! You never had to worry about them in the ACT did you?)

Are you serious!!! Who does that? If a car did 100,000 to 200,000kms in 1st or 2nd at any speed the last of the problems on the vehicle would be an O2 sensor!!

No wonder qualified people with experience on specific topics usually do not give input on general forums.

ok my turbo deisel vito is recommended to be serviced every 30 000 km . i think thats to long and might change oil in between say every 10 -20 000.any thoughts

Maybe they'd also like to sell engine parts?

I'd do it every 15K, like doggie said - $50 extra once a year is cheap insurance

I'm guessing out of range, I've seen plenty of sensors out of range only to find the new part similarly out of range yet work fine, makes diagnostics difficult.

Bah. I blew my tire on the freeway at 110 driving a 1973 Land Rover with no power steering and very shoddy brakes. I managed okay

Ah good times.

I agree, but I think some things are hard to determine if they really need to be changed, unless it is the ECU that tells you. I hope that these days an oxygen sensor can be tested by the ECU to see if they are in range. I think there are even ways to tell if your leads (if you still have them) and plugs are running properly by measuring the current taken to fire them.

I had a manual VN commodore and I remember that it would trigger the check engine light every now and then when going on a really long cruise on the freeway in 5th gear. It did it because it figured that it had been running really lean for too long and assumed that there was something out of whack. If they can do that on a 1989 model car, I hope that they are now able to pick up on a sensor that starts to fail.

After all, if you have 4 sensors, you have a good chance on picking up if one of them is out of range to the others, even if they are all on different manifolds.

Timing belts are a very different story. A lot of engines now are interference designs, so when the belt lets go, you have an expensive fix on your hands. I think Holden got caught with a model of theirs when the belts were letting go earlier than expected so they reduced the service interval. I think a few of these engines require major work to replace the belt, so you wonder if they really thought that through.

I do get worried though that some newer cars appear to need to be babied so much, yet a car that was made 30 years ago seems to run despite the owners lack of maintenance. I know there is a huge difference between the quality between then and now, but why does a car need to be serviced every 5000km? Unless a timing belt is showing major damage, you would never know if it was just about to break or if it would last another 100,000kms. A regular service is not going to prevent that breakage, although not replacing it at its scheduled interval would be flirting with danger.

Having said all this, I am the sort of person that when I get a faulty radiator, I replace all the hoses at the same time. It doesn't take that much extra time or money and I see it as insurance against a failure later on.

Was it a newish low mileage car, or an old warhorse that had seen better days?