S40 (New) General : Sevice due

[06S40]

Hi chaps and chapettes,

I got a call from my local Volvo dealer today telling me my service was due. It is the 60000 one. I haven't done anywhere near that mileage but a year has passed.
The car is an '06 S40 (hence my login name). It is obviously out of the Volvo 3 year warranty and the 1 year used Volvo warranty has expired too.

The question is... what would be the consequences of waiting until the actual mileage had elapsed (this could likely be another year)?

In the meantime I would keep an eye on things like fluid levels and the MOT is due in december so that should catch any safety critical items.

[wingz123]

Honestly? Nothing.....

That new a car.....I doubt anything would happen.....you would probably notice it get a little bit louder (like fractionally louder)...If i were you I'd get someone to drop the oil quickly and pop a new filter on......would probably cost you about £20 if you buy the oil and filter etc.

Thing is I'm not bothered about keeping up a full service history considering my car has done nearly 202k miles!

just a thought....

[Ross1985]

Like Wingz123 said, most likely nothing too drastic, obviously when you come to sell the car on it couldnt be sold with FSH so may lose a little value, would recommend a oil and filter change, see what should be changed if you got it done at a garage and see if you can change yourself to keep costs down and car running as smoothly as possible.

If getting it serviced you may be better to look for an indy garage rather than main dealer as this will be a lot cheaper and you would then still get a stamp and it can then be sold with the FSH (opening up the sale later on to a wider audience)

Cheers
Ross

[DCN85]

I had exactly this problem in january. The light came on to tell me that a service was due despite being nowhere near the mileage. I left it a few of weeks after the due date and then decided I'd be better to try keep the Service History entact. Like these guys say, it depends on whether you're planning on selling the car within it's useable lifetime. I went to Ford with mine since they are used to servicing the 2.0d and it was literally half the price of Volvo (correct oil etc used). I came away satisfied with a ford stamp in the book.

Like you my car was already out of warranty, but where you take the car bears no effect on the warranty provided they're a registered garage who use the correct parts and follow the maintenance schedule.

As for what will happen if you leave it another year. It's difficult to say with these modern oils. They really are made for purpose. If you've done a lot of short journeys I would say get it changed. It's the cycling of the oil that has most effect on it (i.e. up to temperature and down again), and the 'warm-up phase' of an engine which results in the most wear. This is precisely the reason servicing schedules have a time limit and not just a mileage. If on the other hand you've just been doing long journeys you could probably leave it another few months but I wouldn't risk 2 years. The engine is unlikely to grind to a halt of course, but it will start to have a detrimental effect on wear and hence longevity. I would take even more care where there is a turbo involved.

[Welton]

It's not always the mileage but the time the car has been used. If you are using the car daily and on shortish runs then the oil suffers more contamination than a 'motorway' car and should be changed at least 12-monthly along with the filter.

Why not get the dealer to do an 'essential service' they still plug the car in for any software updates, change the oil and stamp the book. Make sure you ask what oil they propose to use as they tried to fill mine with semi-synthetic before I pointed out it had always been run on fully-syn! - this service costs around £150.00.

[v50inred]

As Welton has rightly said a car needs to be serviced by time aswell as mileage.

If you do low annual mileage then a lot more short journeys.

The most important thing is to keep the oil clean and filters fresh.

Would you buy a car that had done 12k miles between services but they were over two years apart?

Personally I wouldn't.

[7050man]

Yes I totally agree with last post.

Oil should be changed as a minimum, in fact this is the main reason for service.

The cabin filter would also be changed, but if car really has done a low annual mileage, and you don't live in a drydusty part of the country, then you may get away with this.


Incidently, your dealer may do an "essential service" which basically means a lot less cost. A way of keeping older cars serviced through dealer channels, by way of making service a bit more competitive.

Just seen that this has already been mentioned.

One thing to add; if anything expensive were to fail, you would get more sympathy and a possible something toward the cost from Volvo if you use one of their dealers.

I doubt you'd get this from anyone else.