How do you all with the ESP now, or in the past, handle routine maintenance?

I prefer to change the oil myself and do some routine maintenance. If something goes wrong with the vehicle while under ESP, do they review service records?

 

Yes, they review the service records. Keep every receipt.

I had 130k kms on my Focus when it developed a tick that turned out to be a rod bearing. ESP to 150k. Personally, I use only synthetic oil in my cars; I wait until my local supplier has a 40% off sale and buy enough 5qt jugs (at $18 each) to last a year (I have 3 vehicles so I go through a lot). I religiously change my oil every 8k (the max recommended interval), I take it into the dealer and supply the oil myself, the $20 they charge me for a filter and labour is worth not crawling under on my garage floor and disposing of the old oil, even though I have all the tools. That way, I also have a hard copy of what mileage and interval I get my oil change at.

Anyways, when they decided that they wanted to replace the engine, they noticed that at 2 spots there was a "missing" oil change. Funny enough, those two missing ones would have been right around the 8k mark. These were the 2 times I changed the oil myself because I couldn't schedule an oil change in time before two long trips. So I did them myself. So they demanded receipts, and I produced a number of $200 receipts for oil. It was a big hassle, but in the end they came through, they had no choice because I had established a service pattern.

 

Sounds like I should jsut keep the receipts that show the purchase of the oil and filter

 

Yes, just make sure the frequency adds up.

 

What i've done in the past is keep a spreadsheet where i would track all mainntenance on the vehicle. Each row would link you to supporting documentation that was scanned in.

 

In this day and age, get your receipt, scan it and store the PDFs/images some place safe. I like the Neat Receipts scanner. I would tear the tab off the oil filter box and mark the date/mileage on that and keep that with my receipts as well. The spreadsheet works as a good log but you'll still want all the source material. The reason I recommend scanning the receipts is that cash register receipts tend to fade over time.

 

Did you miss my last post

 

Apparently.

Great minds. . .