Maintenance - Time vs mileage

[Magsrx8]

So my ridiculously low mileage 2006 S1 has been very well kept during it's life, fair play to the previous owner, but im wondering whether changing all the fluids is necessary or just overkill at this point. Yes the car is 16 years old now, it's virtually stock, its only done 12K miles and ive had an oil change done already.

Am stuck in the middle of its not broke so dont touch it and the fliuds will be past their best now and need changing. Will check the service history to see what was done when of course but im interested in all your knowledgeable thoughts...

My search skills seem to leave a lot to be desired, so i look forward to the answer being presented to me in a forum link i should have found myself in no time at all to make me feel even more techy

Cheers.

[kopite72]

Change everything, all the fluids ASAP especially the FL22 coolant as its only got a life of 11 years.

If it was me I'd change the pads and discs too and the brake lines for braided ones.

I'd even change the oil again and do a double flush, basically anything you can change do it

[79398]

Draw a line in the sand and change everything, you can then decide yourself the best schedule for the car based on usage and finances.
My advice would be change everything considered consumable.

[ChrisHolmes]

When replacing brake fluid, to also flush the clutch line.

Most garages, even Mazda dealers, "forget" to do this, though many just suck out the reservoir and replace, without bothering to flush the lines at all, which is even worse

[Paul_13]

When I bought the stagea the car came with a load of spares including coil packs. The car had only done 80k, yet the coil packs had all failed. The timing belt was on the verge of falling.

In my experience, age matters more than mileage

[Jester*]

Always age (unless you do the mileage between annual services obviously) plus it is piece of mind.

I am sure I am not the only one, but I don't do huge mileage on my 8, I think last year was roughly 3k. But no one ever complained due to over servicing a car, especially a rotary

[Magsrx8]

Cheers all, 10 litres of FL22 coolant ordered, along with 2 litres of Redline MTLV GL-4 gearbox oil and 5 litres of Mazda Dexelia 5w30 engine oil for a second oil change for peace of mind. The rear diff oil was only changed last year so that's all good, so just brake fluid to go now.

[Magsrx8]

10 litres of FL22 coolant delivered this morning, which is impressively quick and pretty cool.

[New Duke]

Just a reminder to drain the FL22 out of the engine block as well as the radiator. There a guide in the DIY section that shows a picture of the engine drain plug. Enjoy the smell, it's sweet!

[WildMan10]

I stick to the recommended schedule regardless of mileage as fluids and many components decay with age and I believe to do otherwise is false economy. The only change I’ve made for my low mileage of the last 2 years was to miss out my pre-winter 6 month old change, leaving an annual post-winter change.

[Delanor]

I stick to the recommended schedule regardless of mileage as fluids and many components decay with age and I believe to do otherwise is false economy. The only change I’ve made for my low mileage of the last 2 years was to miss out my pre-winter 6 month old change, leaving an annual post-winter change.

By personal experience with low mileage at some Mazda dealers they don`t change the fluids but just record that changes have been completed, I actually stopped Mazda servicing on my RX-8 and now do it myself for that very reason!

I wonder how many low mileage cars go into dealers with clean oil etc and actually come out with the same oil they went in with, I have had it happen with an engine at Ford, a gearbox at Suzuki, an engine at Mitsubishi and a back axle at Mazda


I once bought a Ford KA Sport demonstrator I test drove it and bought it noting the mileage and that it had a 3/4 tank of fuel, when I collected the car the mileage was the same the tank was nearly empty of course they denied that the fuel had been syphoned out when questioned it was "we wouldn`t do anything like that sir!"

Used Alloys repainted to look like new replacements, damaged new tyres leaking that had been glued to the rim to stop the leak (it didn`t work)

Nothing surprises me anymore what dealers are capable of but Mazda have been by far the worst!

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Del.

[Cscameron]

There are a lot of questionable dealers out there but not all bad

[Delanor]

Well I bought four RX-8`s three new and one used and dealt with seven Mazda dealers in total for servicing etc and six of them I wouldn`t return to due to various shoddy/dishonest service.

After that little lot I gave up.

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Del

[Cscameron]

Tarring us all with the same brush is a bit harsh

There are plenty of main dealers out there that are sketchy (I’ve worked at a few) but there are also plenty of us that aren’t

[Delanor]

I am not tarring all dealers just the six out of seven Mazda dealers I have come across!

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Del.

[New Duke]

It's not just dealers, plenty of indie garages are charging for work they aren't doing and parts that aren't replaced. Then when the car has an issue, the garage gets to repair it. It's a genius scam. Bill a service just for filllng in the service book as a fiction novel.

I've seen it so often. Most recent example was servicing my eldest niece's car only a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't seen it since she bought it 3 years ago when I did the first service.

Since then she's had a 'full service' at 2 different garages at a few hundred quid each time.

The parts I took off a couple of weeks ago were the exact parts I fitted when she bought the car. Even the oil filter. I'm dubious whether they even replenished the oil.

That's just one of my random sample stories.

Super appreciate there are some great garages out there. Thing is how to identify them as I've known even friendly, knowledgeable garages to be on the con. By the time you've checked their work you might as well do the job yourself.

[79398]

There are a lot of questionable dealers out there but not all bad

There are far too many bad ones to make the main dealers reputable places to visit for back up service.
I have dealt with Ford ( Wigan and Chester) Volkswagon (Shrewsbury and Chester) Peugeot (Stockport) Mazda (Chester Shrewsbury) Mercedes (Liverpool) Toyota (Birkenhead) and Lexus (Chester)
The only one I would return to is Lexus, ironically the same guy owns the Mazda dealership but the service is chalk and cheese.

[Delanor]

The problem as I see it is that the majority of the car owning public don`t know one end of a car from the other and if they buy a new car it is the main dealer they trust and have to rely on, the trade know this so it gives them shall we say scope to cut corners, I have seen it too many times over the years with friends,neighbours,family etc that have been ripped off.

There really should be no need for Trading Standards to set up a sting with one of our local Ford dealers to expose they were charging £40 a time to change customers brake fluid but were not doing it!

And again I am not saying it is all of the trade just that it is more endemic than most car owners realise, I mean would anyone on here believe that a Premium Land Rover dealer who were also Mazda and MG Rover at the time because they had ripped a chunk of bead out of a new tyre they had fitted they obviously decided they were not going to stand the cost of a replacement expensive premium low profile tyre on a 145 mph Mazda sports car so they decided to fill the missing chunk with rubber solution along with the rest of the bead in an attempt to stop it leaking!

Really?

This was one of the brand new replacement alloys that the Mazda trained technician had fitted new tyres to, and it was all four damaged like that!

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Del.

Nearside alloy.JPG

[79398]

Between home and work we have 10 vehicles that are meticulously maintained and they all go to a local independent where we get great service at a good rate and have never been let down

[Delanor]

Independants! I remember a work colleague who owned a Rover 800 and he used a local independent he knew and trusted to service his cars, the Rover went in for a cambelt change a big expensive job on that Rover never the less a new belt was fitted, a few weeks later the Rover broke down whilst his wife was driving it luckily they were in the AA so they were called out what did the AA discover the cambelt had broken because it was worn and needed replacing luckily not too much damage just a few valves and pistons.

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Del.

[Lucky7]

I have a similar low mileage example as the OP. 2003 with 20k miles, owned since 2006. I follow the schedule time wise, so that means oil annually, brake fluid and air filter bi-annual, plugs every third year, gearbox and diff oil sort of to schedule except they get done at the same time. It means that my car is serviced about every 1100 miles. I was going to change the coils at 20k but that decision was made for me when they failed at 19k, leads changed at same time. The very early RX8s if I recall didn't have long life coolant, but changed to Triple QX purple last year which should be good for five years, previously I changed that every second service.
It may seem overkill but aside from the plugs the service parts are sourced inexpensively from ECP or Opie, depending on the deal of the day, the oil type is relatively inexpensive, and my 19 year old car still has compression in the 7s in both rotors as a result.

I tend to use local independents that know I'm a fussy customer. My experience with dealers has found two out four Mazda dealers I used have been incompetent, negligent and one of them dishonest. My first ever job over thirty years ago was with a main dealer for a leading brand. I could write a book on the things I witnessed. I'm not saying that independents are always better, but with main dealers the marketing and plush showrooms lead to an expectation of standards and quality of which many fall short.

[Delanor]

My nephew had an Audi which was serviced by an Audi dealer on one service they came out with all sorts that needed attention/replacement with an eye watering estimated bill for the work, said nephew took it to an Audi independent where they proceeded to fall about laughing at the amount of work that didn`t need doing at all.

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Del.

[Magsrx8]

I have a similar low mileage example as the OP. 2003 with 20k miles, owned since 2006. I follow the schedule time wise, so that means oil annually, brake fluid and air filter bi-annual, plugs every third year, gearbox and diff oil sort of to schedule except they get done at the same time. It means that my car is serviced about every 1100 miles. I was going to change the coils at 20k but that decision was made for me when they failed at 19k, leads changed at same time. The very early RX8s if I recall didn't have long life coolant, but changed to Triple QX purple last year which should be good for five years, previously I changed that every second service.
It may seem overkill but aside from the plugs the service parts are sourced inexpensively from ECP or Opie, depending on the deal of the day, the oil type is relatively inexpensive, and my 19 year old car still has compression in the 7s in both rotors as a result.

Thanks for this, that is very reassuring to read and justifies the two oil changes, two oil filters and coolant change done already with transmission oil purchased and soon to be changed too. Wanna see how long my compression numbers can remain in the 8s with regular maintenance and without a sohn/cofs adaptor, which i'm asssuming you dont have installed?

[Lucky7]

Yes correct, no Sohn on mine, all standard under the bonnet except for magnecor leads.