A thought passed through my grey matter the other day while working at replacing the discs and pads on my sons Volvo C30. The car came with a full service history and I had to replace one front caliper as the piston rubber boot was badly torn (not a split, I mean destroyed ) which must have been done by a careless mechanic and presumably the reason the disc was warped. Then on the opposite rear brake, the upper slider pin going through the caliper into the carrier bracket was knackered. The thread had been so badly damaged that it pulled what thread was left in the carrier out as I wound it out rendering the carrier U/S. Those slider pins are hardened steel and how the butcher damaged it so badly and then thought it was fine to force it into the carrier is beyond my reasoning. So a trip to a scrapyard to buy a good used carrier and pins got me to the end of this job. But it got me thinking about how much stock or faith people put in ‘FSH’ history of a potential purchase.
My MX5 didn’t have a FSH when it was bought. It had missed one service, but the mileage was very low between the previous and last services before it became mine and I reckoned the owner just decided to forgo said service because of the limited miles done. It certainly didn’t bother me in the slightest.
Since being in my ownership, I’ve never had the 5 serviced by Mazda. I’ve carried out most of the servicing and the bits that are beyond my capabilities, I leave to my trusted mechanic who does all the work on all the cars in my family. Virtually every part changed by him is left in the car for pickup, a full rundown on what was needed/done too. Anyone who knows me knows me as a very fussy owner, everything kept as perfect as possible and I’ve never had a problem selling any car (or bike) that I’ve owned.
My time with my vehicles says that a FSH isn’t worth the paper it’s written on and my latest experience has backed this up. I understand that there are people who are mechanically inept and a FSH is like a comfort blanket to them, but there are some real ‘trained bodgers’ working in main dealerships.
I agree almost completely, I have no faith in most dealers. But, I do like paperwork that demonstrates that a previous owner was willing to spend money, which hopefully means the car has had some measure of ‘care’.
That said, I bought my NC with zero history at 70000 miles. A good look round and everything looked ok. Subsequently went to Mazda and was able to get most of its history off their computer records.
We don’t get Dealer “mechanics” with an iota of empathy for the vehicles.
They are basically trained fitters…totally different.
QuickSpitters with a (perhaps) better attitude.
Problem is, buyers of newer cars with a “Two keys & FSH” blind faith in the mythology regard it as a Holy Grail.
I’d be just as content see a sheaf of bills for products and consumer durables fitted by a decent owner.
Not as if we lift heads off every 5k miles to decoke is it?
Oils & fluids, pads, filters, plugs. Big deal.
Main dealers are balloons ,they do oil changes at 18k and then have to change cam chains under warranty , they never remove wheels at service so they end up welded on . Brake fluid change is done with a syringe , a full dealer history may be good for selling yr car but it’s not good for your car
Totally agree, basically full dealer history hopefully means the oil has been changed occasionally. Regards Brakes the Manufacturers rarely schedule a brake service/ strip / lube, just visual check too recommend changing pads & discs way before necessary or due to lack of their non scheduled preventative maintenance.
I lost confidence in garage mechanics decades ago after being in a vehicle that suffered total brake failure immediately after a garage had been working on the brakes. We narrowly avoided being killed! The gorilla who worked on it only had to fit a new master cylinder and bleed the system. He managed to destroy four brand new wheel cylinders and the brand new brake shoes just fitted by us, simply because he tightened the bleed screws so tightly that he split all four of them. Another “specialist” fitted new discs and pads to my mother in law’s car. Their stupidity resulted in the discs being destroyed very shortly afterwards because they fitted the pads inside out, causing another partial brake failure. They tried to tell her the severe scraping noise (metal to metal) would subside once the pads bedded in. I took one look through a wheel and saw what they’d done - idiots. They then tried to hide their error and charge her again for the job.
I now do almost everything myself on our “family fleet” of half a dozen vehicles, including one car I built from a bare chassis, plus my two classic motorbikes. Over the last six years I’ve done everything required to keep our very early NB in top condition, including a few repairs.
One recent exception was having a new clutch fitted to my wife’s work van (Renault Trafic diesel) and having the gearbox reconditioned by a specialist. This was because I don’t have a vehicle hoist to gain enough access underneath and it’s a two person job. However, I did fit a new cam chain kit on the same vehicle, plus a new driveshaft, battery, brakes all round, handbrake cables, aircon pipe repair as well as routine oil and filter changes.
My preference is to buy any special tools needed to do the job, which usually costs far less than having the work done at a garage. Then next time I’m all set. An oil and filters service on any of our vehicles normally costs me about £35 to £40, the price of parts and oil from my local motor factor. The Trafic van costs a bit more, because it takes 7.7 litres of engine oil!