Diesel oil change every 6K? Warranty?

Stevie Dakota

I have a six month old Focus 2.0TDCi. I've always changed the oil every 5K or so and would like to do the same. The car is under warranty so I don't want to void it by doing anything myself, yet Ford want around €100 for a simple oil change.

Does anyone know of a south Dublin non Ford garage that could do it?

As far as protecting the warranty am I right in thinking that genuine parts must be used and the garage must be VAT registered, anything else?

Thanks.

alias no.9

Genuine parts and manufacturer specified oil, all itemised on the invoice from a reputable garage and you should be fine, particularly if you're getting all scheduled services done by ford.

Seth Brundle

Genuine parts are not required to keep a warranty valid.

Ferris

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

I have a six month old Focus 2.0TDCi. I've always changed the oil every 5K or so and would like to do the same. The car is under warranty so I don't want to void it by doing anything myself, yet Ford want around €100 for a simple oil change.

Does anyone know of a south Dublin non Ford garage that could do it?

As far as protecting the warranty am I right in thinking that genuine parts must be used and the garage must be VAT registered, anything else?

Thanks.

I don't think that €100 is that expensive tbh. It'd cost twice that in an Audi/VW/BMW garage. Bear in mind that your car probably needs a thin fully synthetic 'Long Life' oil that will cost at least €40 for 5L. Add in a filter at say €10 and that leaves 50quid for labour. Not excessive in my book.

BrianD3

As already stated 100 quid for an oil change from a main dealer (esp in Dublin) is cheap. An independent using the correct oil won't be much less.

What are the recommended oil change intervals anyway - surely at least 12k miles? Changing every 5 or 6 k because that's the way you always did it sounds like overkill.

A possible compromise would be bring it to the dealer every 12k (or whatever the recommend interval is) and change the oil yourself between each dealer service. That way you'll have a full dealer service history but you won't be bringing it too often and you'll know in your own mind that the oil is being changed twice as often as the manufacturer recommends

Henry Ford III

Unless you're clocking up big mileage the 12 monthly oil change is fine. 5k changes are a little ott.

Ferris

To be fair the OP has good intentions as regular oil changes under the manufacturers specified limit this (obviously) will really extend the life of his engine and turbo. Also if by bad luck his engine blows outside warranty than Ford will most likely offer goodwill repairs as his car has clearly been well looked after.

IMO 5k oil changes are ott though, personally if the service interval was 12k then i'd change the oil every 10k. Same principle applies to the timing belt in my book, I tend to change them 10k early.

Stevie Dakota

I appreciate that 5-6K may seem OTT, but the oil is pretty black and I bought the car second hand so don't know how it was driven during the last 6 months. Also given that the engine needs 5K to run in this would be a good time to clear out all the old oil.

When you spell it out, €100 is not bad from the main dealer.

Ferris

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

I appreciate that 5-6K may seem OTT, but the oil is pretty black and I bought the car second hand so don't know how it was driven during the last 6 months. Also given that the engine needs 5K to run in this would be a good time to clear out all the old oil.

When you spell it out, €100 is not bad from the main dealer.

Fair play, it is a good idea to change the oil then. Oil gets black in diesels very quickly though so get used to that. €100 is defo not expensive.

maidhc

Ferris wrote: »

Fair play, it is a good idea to change the oil then. Oil gets black in diesels very quickly though so get used to that. €100 is defo not expensive.

€100 is quite good. The Oil and filter are about €50 from the dealer.

The TDCi takes 5w 30 semi synth, and goes black very quickly as with all diesels. I do my focus every 7k or so.

OldmanMondeo

A good synthetic oil will last for up to 30,000 km's.. to change at 5kk kms is way to much. The new ford diesels require service at 20k kms, so if you want to change early, try change at 10k kms. Why not do it yourself? Should save a few quid.

Darsad

The 5W 30 low saps oil used in modern Diesels is very expensive aprox
€ 10 a litre trade so the € 100 price quoted is not bad considering.
You will also not void your warranty on any make of car provided it is serviced or maintained by whats known as a equal standard workshop and equal standard or original spare parts are used. TBH I would use only original oil filters as the filtration area of spurious filters is far less than original filters and the bypass valve pressure of the spurious filter will open at a much lower pressure and I have seen many an engine die with cheapo oil filters fitted.

OldmanMondeo

Darsad wrote: »

TBH I would use only original oil filters as the filtration area of spurious filters is far less than original filters and the bypass valve pressure of the spurious filter will open at a much lower pressure and I have seen many an engine die with cheapo oil filters fitted.

Crap, OE filters, and most OE parts are made by "spurious" manufactures. The parts are usually re-boxed and sold as OE. Just seen the cheapo filter bit, yes you get what you pay for..

Darsad

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

Crap, OE filters, and most OE parts are made by "spurious" manufactures. The parts are usually re-boxed and sold as OE. Just seen the cheapo filter bit, yes you get what you pay for..

Incorrect go compare many spurious filters to an original manufacturer and you will see up 10 times filtration area difference but you will have to get the technical spec sheets to do it

maidhc

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

A good synthetic oil will last for up to 30,000 km's.. to change at 5kk kms is way to much. The new ford diesels require service at 20k kms, so if you want to change early, try change at 10k kms. Why not do it yourself? Should save a few quid.

But the oil still picks up gunk and soot and gets thinned from unburnt diesel seeping past the rings.

I think 5k is probably overkill, but I wouldn't trust 20k.

Ferris

maidhc wrote: »

But the oil still picks up gunk and soot and gets thinned from unburnt diesel seeping past the rings.

I think 5k is probably overkill, but I wouldn't trust 20k.

Personally I wouldn't let it go past 10k miles, 20k Km is a lot, besides whats the difference in cost of servicing a car every 10k vs 15k miles over the period you own the car, probably one service every 3 years for the average driver. Not a lot for a bit of security and piece of mind.

A mate was told by a bmw specialist that he didn't trust the longlife servicing offered by BMW and he would recommend 10,000mile service intervals regardless of how the car was driven.

E92

maidhc wrote: »

I think 5k is probably overkill, but I wouldn't trust 20k.

The OP has a UK car, so that would be 5k miles rather than 5k km.

The Focus requires servicing every 12.5k(miles) anyway(or 20k km), so surely it makes sense to change the oil at 6k and then get it changed again at the service, cause otherwise you're gonna be changing it at 5k, then at 10k, then at the 12.5k service it'll be changed again, then again at 17.5k, 22.5k, again at the next 25k service etc?

Well wear OP, the Focus is a lovely car as it always has been.

Do diesels need oil changes as often as people say they do?

Because between this and r3nu4l's thread, diesel motoring is starting to look like those 1c flights that Ryanair sell you that turn out to cost €100 after all the taxes and charges are added.

I could never see what people saw in diesel powered motoring, but this only adds to my opinion that diesel is compromise engineering, and thus not as good as petrol.

My old man has had a brand new 520d for 6 weeks at this stage; I've driven it several times and while it has made a total convert to the E60(I was adamant that the E60 was very disappointing until that point) as a car, it has done nothing to change my very vocal dislike of diesel.

maidhc

E92 wrote: »

I could never see what people saw in diesel powered motoring, but this only adds to my opinion that diesel is compromise engineering, and thus not as good as petrol.

You are correct about the miles, every 6k miles would be alright.

Do diesels need their oil changed more or less than petrols? Probably not is the answer. Should you change the oil in a diesel or petrol more often than the manufacturers recommend? You probably should.

Manufacturers set their service schedules based on more criteria than what is best for the engine long term.

What people see in diesel motoring is 1000km, or close to it. Owning both a thirsty petrol and a thrifty diesel I see the attraction.

Stevie Dakota

Thanks for all the tips, I'll follow my gut instinct and get the oil changed at 6K miles, Ford dealers are quoting sub €100 so it's a no brainer really. My e34 BMW runs like new after 13 years, I put a lot of that down to the same regime.