Practically Classics Forum

im afraid it doesnt work like that chaps.. as i was just over the limit & outside of town its less, in town or higher its increased.. depending on how much money the government want to squeeze out of the motorist .

hello chaps!! another trip to blighty finished & i am well stocked with tea & cheddar only minor problems with car were front sidelight went (remove front light to fix ) alternator belt pulley tensioner was squealing like a piggy under 2000 rpm & rear brake pads fell apart..
our local mechanic has replaced the tensioner & has suggested that as galaxy is doing 25k+ a year we could get away with doing the oil change every 30k if we use a long life oil... im not keen on this as i find an oil change cheaper than a new engine... id like your thoughts chaps!
oh & happy new year to you all

I think everyone knows my opinion on variable service intervals. IMHO, it cost me £3500 or so last year when the Golf's engine expired due to a seized oil pump drive (the first sign of that was a rumbling BE bearing). It had been on variable service intervals and did 117K before the engine "blew up".

I prefer to use a good oil and change it at around the 10K mark on a modern petrol and around the 6K mark on a diesel. As I am hardly using the car at the moment, it's fine with an annual oil change, but I was changing the (diesel) Passat's oil about three or four times a year when I was doing 16k a year (mainly commuting).

As you say, even the very expensive oils are cheaper than a new engine!

I would go for decent oil and change every 6k too, way cheaper than an engine rebuild.

Kev

I do 8k pa on my Matrix. I make sure that the oil does no more than 12k and ideally gets changed by the 10k. She was serviced annually whilst under warranty and I still have seen no use of oil at just shy of 90k. (touch nice pine desk!!!!) I think I`ll keep on with that regime...

One of the Girls in the office had a very similar conversation with me. She`s from Grenoble and her English is passable. When she asked what happens when you get flashed by a Camera I told her that she`d get 3 points. Excellent she said that will give me 15... What, I exclaimed , you`ve already got 12, you should have been banned!!!!! No she said and explained that the French work things the other way around. Typical!

I think that the whole lot still remains outstanding and whilst she may have paid the fine the points on her licence remains outstanding.

Likewise I got flashed in France back in July 90+ clicks in a 90 zone? may have been 70? the limits were so close that if you didn`t know they were there you wouldn`t be able to slow quickly enough... Have I had a letter from Le Plod... Non.

I do 30,000 miles a year in my focus and change the oil every 6 months. It hasn't blown up and has almost 170,000 miles on the clock. Being a diesel the oil is black after a weeks driving, it has had it's share of problems but touch wood no major engine related expenses. It will be comfortably over 200k by next Christmas and I will start thinking about replacing it then.
The mog gets an oil change every year or 1000 miles, the range rover every 3000 and my "spare" focus every 6000 or annually.
Modern engines do need fewer changes but as you get up in miles all need more not less frequent changes.

As you say, oil is cheap but engines are not. I have done an engine and gearbox swap on a focus with a friend in a weekend but it's not fun. (that was due to a supercharger being fitted and running too much boost rather than lack of oil changes)

Focus...//..supercharger.

More of this please!

I am going to have to dig through some old photos but if you google powerworks supercharger ford focus you will get the idea. A handy way of doubling the power output (or going too far and melting it). My 2.0 MK1 has had some head work and a remap by superchips which got it up to 160 horses on their dyno when it had 20k on the clock, 120k later I suspect it is down a tad on that.

JPB wrote:

Focus...//..supercharger.

More of this please!

+1

I'm developing a really worrying fondness for the shape of the earliest style of Focus.