Second annual service (little early) yesterday (free service plan with the car), engine oil/filter and brake fluid replacement. Done at the local AC super center, can’t fault them, very good people and environment, I know they have had their detractors though which large garage chain hasn’t.
Looking at the ND service schedule and some of the intervals are quite incredible compared to older cars:
- Spark Plugs - 75,000 miles. - Gearbox oil - 5 years, maybe that’s not so unusual. - Coolant, 125,000 miles or 10 years - Differential oil, never, only if diff has been submerged.Â
Last one seems the strangest, never as a routine change?
Arnold Clark multi franchise service center, so main dealer here in Aberdoom… bought the car there so tied with the free service plan that came with it.
Not so far from you Barrett’s have a reasonable reputation I believe.
The spark plug change has gone up from 62.5k to 75.0k from the NC but none of the NC owners I change plugs for at 62.5k on NC’s said they noticed and difference with new plugs.
Gearbox oil change is the same interval as the NC.
Coolant change interval is down from 11 years to 10 year change interval on the ND but the same mileage interval.
The diff is a bit more complicated depending what country handbook you look at, Mazda suggests 50k to 60k miles for a diff oil change on the NC but on the ND only if they diff has been through water otherwise no oil change. I wonder if they changed the NC diff oil change interval on the European Portal repairer service sheets for the later NC cars.
On the other hand Rodder’s has measured high temperatures in the ND diff which has a small capacity of only 0.6 litres. At around £12 or less for a litre of GL5 I would change the diff oil the next time the car ended up on a two post lift and there will be stock there!
Ian, re the ND and my RF, I have just taken out the service plan for the 3 yearly services, includes all fluids etc (expensive oil !) but on a sheet the Mazda dealer has it showed (will get confirmation later) that there should be a service/check over at 6 months ?, am a bit concerned that a new car is expected to run 1 year / 12 months on the original fluids, would have thought at least a filter and oil change on the engine, thinking about all that manufacturing crud floating about after initial bedding in, what’s your thoughts ?. Paul H
12 months seems to be normal now before a car is touched. I remember a previous car (Fiat I think) going in at 500 miles for an oil change, this was about 30 years ago though.
I’m not aware of a 6 month check, maybe in other markets, though why that would make much of a difference I’m not sure.
Our new Suzuki went in for a 2 months check, yes a check, no oil changed just blts checked for tightness. check for leaks leaks and the Suzuki laptop connected to look for faults and download any new firmware.
My on-board maintenance monitor says my car will be due an oil change in about 1000 miles time, my car is currently on 5,400 miles. This oil change is seemingly separate from the 12k / 1 year service.
Are people changing there oil in line with maintenance monitor or leaving it till the 12k / 1 year service?
Have a look at the manual, section 6-3 in the edition I have, “Scheduled Maintenance”. It clearly shows 12 months/12,500miles/20,000kilometres as the fixed service interval.
In relation to oil changes, it shows both “flexible” and “other than flexible” servicing and there is a footnote:
SKYACTIV-G 1.5 and SKYACTIV-G 2.0 vehicles can select flexible setting only some countries in Europe. Consult an Authorised Mazda Repairer for details. Flexible setting can be set if the vehicle is operated mainly where none of the following conditions apply. a) Purpose of vehicle use is police car, taxi or driving school car. b) Driving in dusty conditions c) Extended periods of idling or low speed operation Once the flexible maintenance is selected, the vehicle calculates the remaining oil life based on engine operating conditions and lets you know when an oil change is due by illuminating the wrench indicator light in the instrument cluster. Replace the engine oil and filter when message/wrench indicator light is ON. And they must be changed at least once a year or within 20,000 km (12,500 miles) since last engine oil and filter change. The system must be reset whenever replacing the engine oil regardless of the message/wrench indicator light display.
It sounds as if your car might be set to flexible servicing, either by accident or design. I would speak to the dealer. Something similar happened with our Skoda - with that car there is a choice of flexible or fixed servicing and we opted for fixed - the dealer failed to set it correctly.
I intend to change the oil and filter at about 6,000 regardless.
Ian, do you know if AC Mazda Aberdeen use the genuine Mazda engine oil or generic 0w20? I am a fellow resident of Aberdeenshire and got mine from AC (Reflex Blue 1.5 SE-L)
I am UK. I had a look at the manual but it seemed odd that it would have fixed and flexible at once, though I guess the annual would still be separate anyway. I think I will change it in line with the monitor this time to get rid of any run in detritus and talk to the dealer about it.
If you do a lot of stop start and waiting in traffic that will put the light on earlier than if you do say a 30 mile commute either way mostly on the open road.
The onboard systems remove points for lots of starts and lots of engine on but no vehicle speed therefore run out of stored points earlier. On the open road you lose less points per journey. Some cars have a sensor in the oil system that attempts to measure some property of the oil.
No idea if Mazda have a sensor on the ND.
If anyone is going to change oil early from what I have seen in various used oil analysis results, I would go for the diff before the engine especially due to the tiny 0.6 litre diff capacity, very high wear metal deposits up to 400ppm and the diffs tend to rip the oil apart even with the EP additive. They soon lose the viscosity rating well before the gearbox or the engine.
Section 9-10 is also useful as it shows the settings that you can personalise and how to. Be aware that some settings require the ignition to be in the fully on position or the engine running.
The one I like is the fuel economy screen that appears for a few seconds after you turn the engine off. How sad an I?
An old thread, however regarding Aberdeen Mazda.
Where do all the Aberdeen people get Mazda parts?
I’m not impressed with the current one in Aberdeen. Small part ordered 10 days ago, firstly, they claimed to know nothing about it…i have a record of the sale/payment. After getting the runaround for 40 mins, having to give my name and reg details 4 different times, I finally got a member of staff who could trace the transaction. The result, my part arrived, sat about for a number of days in the garage and then suddenly disappeared.
So who/where is the go to place for sourcing parts that we can only get from Mazda in the Aberdeen area?
Without knowing the actual part number for the tiny part, I could only get from Mazda. Plus, if this is the situation with something so minor, I wouldn’t be very trusting for anything major with this particular dealer.
A trip to Perth, Dundee or online for Mazda specific parts. I suppose any AC parts dept could order from the Mazda catalogue so maybe a better experience elsewhere in the area.
For routine services also people go to a variety of places, I and others have had good results from Jim King Autotune at Lethenty. The team there run a couple of MX-5 hillclimb cars so know their way around them.