How Long Does Car Maintenance Take

We know that your car is one of the biggest investments you have in your life and always try your best to keep your car running smoothly. In case you sell your vehicles, make sure your car has a full-service history to keep its value. It’ll show it’s been well looked after and could help you get a better price for it. And you know that each service will take a different time to maintain. In this article, we will show you How Long Does Car Maintenance Take and the cost you need to pay for it.

What service includes in the maintenance?

When you drive your car to the garage, at first, the mechanic will require to see the routine maintenance notebook and then start to take a deeper inspection into a certain part of your vehicle such as the tire, oil level, washer fluids, and engine belts.

Normally, the mechanic will replace the oil filter as the first step in maintenance. After that, they will recommend you to check up on another part in your car to make sure that the engine is running smoothly.

Depending on the type of service you receive, it includes different things. Services can range from simple oil and filter to more detailed inspection and full-board packages for your vehicle. Each service will spend different time doing and repairing :

• An oil and filter change.
• Checking and topping up various fluids.
• A physical examination of your tires and suspension system.
• A physical inspection of your cooling system
• An electronic test and printout.

How Long Does Car Maintenance Take?

There are many types of maintenance services depending on the customer’s demands and the situation of your car, also have its age as well as the problem your car has. In this article about How Long Does Car Maintenance Take, we will divide into 3 kinds of first service, interim service, full service, and major service.

Interim Service :

An interim service includes checking all the most important elements of the car needed to keep it running smoothly on daily driving. It’s recommended to get an interim service every 6 months or 6,000 miles. Moreover, you can also require the mechanic to check for any external damage and whether their vehicle has any of the problems that regularly crop up. The main duty of interim service is an oil and filter replacement. This involves draining and replacing old, dirty engine oil and filter. For most interim services, this will only be the oil filter however the air and cabin filter may also be changed if needed.

A garage will also check all areas that often need to be tuned or topped up. It might include Battery, Disc, Clutch, Lights, Brakes, Steering, Tires, Drive belts, Suspension, and so on. Always remember to check the tires regularly and make sure that the tire pressure is 30 PSI.

The Interim Service is just basic maintenance and it’s less extensive so it doesn’t take too much time to check up, it’s around 1 or 2 hours. You must pay around £80 for using the Interim Service.

Full service :

For a car with an age of more than 3 years, it’s recommended to get a full service every 12 months or 12,000 miles. You need to have an in-deep inspection to find out the problem that interim services can not do. It’s easy to understand that the full service is the plus extra checks than the Interim Service. It could include up to 80 checks on your car. A full service might include:

• Fuel filter replacement (for diesel cars)
• Air cleaner replacement
• Alternator hose and vacuum hose inspection
• Parking brake shoes inspection
• Remove and rotate road wheels

The Full service must take a longer time because of the deeper examination, it might be around 3 hours. The cost of the full service is about £195 plus VAT

Major service

Last but not least, the last service in the ” How Long Does Car Maintenance Take ” article want to introduce all of you is the Major service with the same features as the Full service and plus some extra points and we highly recommend you do the major service once or twice a year. Changes to your car might include:

• Brake fluid replacement
• Odor and allergy filter replacement
• Spark plugs replacement
• Automatic transmission oil level inspection
• Test battery

The Major Service takes around more than 4 hours to have an overall examination or if the vehicles have troubles, the time can be longer.

What should we do to kill the waiting time?

As I mentioned above, even though you use the most basic and simple service at least takes more than one hour. Understanding that feeling, there are many factories that open a coffee shops or the waiting space for the customer. It will include a food counter and a free drink to have a good impression on the client. Moreover, if your car needs to be repaired for a long time such as more than 3 or 4 hours, some customers decide to drop their car off and pick it up later in the day. When the maintenance finishes, the staff will give you a call to come and take your car home.

Conclusion :

” How Long Does Car Maintenance Take? “ The answer will depend on different factors, including the age and model of your car, how often it has been serviced before, as well as the particular type of service you have requested. Regular check-up is a key to a long and healthy road life for your car, I hope all of you enjoyed this article and it brings some useful information. Thank you for reading!