My god, passed MOT first time

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
18,604
Location
Finchley, London
I keep my old Peugeot 307 HDi regularly serviced every 6K with my mobile mechanic, and take it to the same MOT place each year and this is the first time it's not failed. Usually there's something (minor) that lets it down. I like that place as I know they'te honest and they'll never look for unnecessary work.

There are always advisory notes though.

3 tyres close to legal limit. To be honest I'm surprised, I thought at least two were a fail. I'll get them replaced.
Shock absorbers light misting of oil or has limited damping effect offside rear.
And play in steering rack inner joint(s) nearside front. He suggests getting the steering rack done but not to worry about the shock absorbers. Anyone know roughly what it should cost to fix the steering rack play? The bloke at the MOT place quoted about £300 and I'm not sure if that included new tyres.

And I read that nothing is going to break or fall off if I don't get it done?
 
What year 307 is it? My 2006 petrol facelift has proven reliable, I think it’s asthetics have held up quite well too :). I don’t service it every 6k but stick to the 10-12k/1 year recommended by the manual.
 
If you have three tyres near the limit I'd just replace all of them. That way you have a matching set and (unless there was a random replacement tyre in there) the fourth one is not going to be much better than the other three, even if it hasn't been picked up yet.
 
Yeah, it would make more sense to replace all of them.

My manual says servicing 20K petrol and 12K diesel, and intermediate servicing respectively 10K and 6K. I always get mine done every 6 to 7K for a basic oil change, air filters, check brake pads and discs and whatever else he does. Charges me about £78. I do a lot less mileage in it now. Used to do over 12K, now about 9K a year.

I bought it on 52,000 miles in 2007, longest I've ever kept a car, and it's now on 152,000 miles. The car is a 51 plate. I guess keeping the oil changed regularly has really helped, I don't really get any problems with it. Probably will now that I've said that!
 
Unless the oil is dirty, cheap stuff, or non-synthetic just stick to what the manual says tbh.

Or an rx-8 I suppose, can't forget that one :D
 
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Nasher said:
Unless the oil is dirty, cheap stuff, or non-synthetic just stick to what the manual says tbh.
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I don't know what oil he uses tbh. Found an article asking about when to change oil on a diesel and it says this,

'If you insist on using a cheap, low quality oil of the type used for a franchise $25 oil-change, renew the oil every three thousand miles. (& make sure the oil IS actually changed!).

If you use a decent, manufacturer's recommended oil, stretch that to 6,000 miles.

If you use an expensive, fully synthetic oil formulated for diesel engines, 10k miles will be fine.'
 
Americans seem to be obsessed with changing their oil at crazy low intervals. Part of that is that a lot of the cars for that market do state oil changes to be done at lower mileage than what we get over here and part of it...well I have no idea why, they just seem to think 6k+ is excessive which it clearly isn't.

The reality is that the manufacturer stated service intervals (along with oil/oil filters meeting manufacturer specifications) are fine, otherwise they wouldn't be able to state them in the first place. One of my old cars, a 1.6 petrol Fiesta, was owned by me from 7.5k miles on the clock and I changed the oil every 12k miles as per the service schedule. I still own it and while it gets a lot less use now, it's on 146k miles and has never had any engine related problems.

My 320d stated 20k mile service intervals and right up to 60k miles it was changed at every 20k. After that it was done more like every 12-15k but only because I know the engines on those are fragile beasts and figured any little to help it was worthwhile. It probably made absolutely no difference but at least the engine never gave me any hassle and was still working at 162k miles.

My current car's service schedule is every 12k miles and I had it changed a few weeks ago when it was at 12k. If I was using crappy oil I'd probably get it done sooner but I use good stuff so manufacturer stated intervals it is.
 
Phemo said:
Americans seem to be obsessed with changing their oil at crazy low intervals. Part of that is that a lot of the cars for that market do state oil changes to be done at lower mileage than what we get over here and part of it...well I have no idea why, they just seem to think 6k+ is excessive which it clearly isn't.

The reality is that the manufacturer stated service intervals (along with oil/oil filters meeting manufacturer specifications) are fine, otherwise they wouldn't be able to state them in the first place. One of my old cars, a 1.6 petrol Fiesta, was owned by me from 7.5k miles on the clock and I changed the oil every 12k miles as per the service schedule. I still own it and while it gets a lot less use now, it's on 146k miles and has never had any engine related problems.

My 320d stated 20k mile service intervals and right up to 60k miles it was changed at every 20k. After that it was done more like every 12-15k but only because I know the engines on those are fragile beasts and figured any little to help it was worthwhile. It probably made absolutely no difference but at least the engine never gave me any hassle and was still working at 162k miles.

My current car's service schedule is every 12k miles and I had it changed a few weeks ago when it was at 12k. If I was using crappy oil I'd probably get it done sooner but I use good stuff so manufacturer stated intervals it is.
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I'll try and find out what my mechanic uses. I suspect it's synthetic 10/40. I really wouldn't know what is regarded as good or poor quality. But from what you're saying, with decent oil I can afford to go 12K before needing a service. What about other things like brake pads and filters, assuming there's no obvious problems, do they not need to be checked before 12K?
 
bremen1874 said:
Don't you see them every time you check the pressures? Or is that a once a year thing as well?
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Yeah I see them every time I check the pressures. Ok? When I say I thought they would be a fail, I actually thought they seemed very borderline but that I might be wrong and they'll fail then. As it happens, that's what they are, borderline. Don't need your dumb sarcasm either with 'is that a once a year thing as well?'. If I'm getting my oil changed more than people are saying is necessary, then at least I made the effort to make sure the car is running efficiently.
 
I tend to go a little overboard with my servicing as well. The filters don't need changing at every interval, but a set of filters (air, fuel, oil, cabin) only costs me like £20, so it's a case of might as well.
 
bremen1874 said:
Changing the oil regularly doesn’t seem to have prevented almost bald tyres, failing dampers, and excessive play in the steering.
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Boyfriend just left you or something? :D Every car has wear and tear. There are plenty of new cars that break down more than mine, and in fact, mine has never broken down. I've not needed to spend lots of money replacing things. These are minor things to fix when you consider it's a 17 year old car, and even now they're only advisory. The tyres I buy are always budget ones but they're at the end of their life and need changing. Go ahead, find something else to bitch at me about.
 
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