First Service

[blackberry 0]

When its time for your first service does the wrench show up and stay till its done? Tonight when I started my car to come home from work I saw one wrench but it was there only for a moment then gone. I have just over 7000 k.

[Eddie Eddie Eddie 1]

When you see the wrench upon ignition...

The amount of kilometres displayed are how much farther you can travel before service...

Not at how many kilometres you need a service...

When you have 1000km or less to go before servicing, there will be a 10 second or so display before going to the odometre or whatever you have it set to...

One wrench means A service, two wrenches mean B service...

The whole A then B then A then B and so forth makes our cars a lot easier to deal with on maintainence... My other car is, at 5k do this, but every 6500km do that... not forgetting that eery 9k you need whatever... And it becomes a pain...

But that's why, as posted above, our cars are smart!

Eddie

[KAG 1]

Mine is on but says we have 1200km left to go and the od is at 7500 or so. It will go in soon after the cow chase.

edited to say: strange...when I posted this it tucked itself behind Sean's post it should have come after....Spinner had this happen too i bet when he thought it was the time change thing...and I can't get "buyers guide" forum to be marked as read...something funny going on in here...

[IMSMRT 0]

From what I read the wrench shows up when it determines ther eis about a month left before your service ( it IS a smart car after all!)

I still have not seen mine and I am at 7400

S

[TFM 0]

I had my A service done today. $177. Pretty fair I think.

[Eddie Eddie Eddie 1]

Sean,

With the climate and your driving habits...

You're probably gonna need a service well past 8000km...

Flick thru the guage and check manually when yours is needed... It might explain why you're not seeing the wrench...

Eddie

[smartzuuk 167]

It must be cautioned however, that extending far past 8000 km on a regular basis leaves you open to some additional engine wear from the growing level of sulphuric acid in the oil - which is the reason we got a shorter interval in the first place.

I didn't reset my 'wrench' after an oil change in Ontario, just to see how many kms I could actually drive before it hit 'zero'. 11300 was the number I got.

[Eddie Eddie Eddie 1]

This doesn't sounds good then...

Last time the computer gave me an extra 1500km and this time it gave me an extra 2000km before an A/B service...

Is there anything I can put to neutralize the acid and counteract these effects after the 8k mark until I get my oil changed?

Eddie

[smartzuuk 167]

Change your oil.

[Fred J 0]

All motor oil has an acid neutralizer in its additive package.

If you look at the specs. you will see a TBN number. Ranges from 1 - 10. The odd oil will have a 12. This is the acid neutralizing factor and a good indicator of the quality of the oil.

Don't try to add any home brew to extend it.

[Eddie Eddie Eddie 1]

Now our intervals are shorter than those of European smarts...

Even with my 2000km bonus from the car's computer, it's still a 2500km deficit to Euro smarts...

Are they having problems with acid in their oil and any subsequent damage caused from it?

Eddie

[Duck 16]

Change your oil.

How do you know how to do all this stuff, though? This is what I always hate/get confused with about cars. My dad is a do-it-yourself kinda guy and he's pressured me all the time to do things like that myself. But then the dealership writes on my car when I have to go for service and they do all this otehr stuff... so how do I know what they're doing, what I'm suposed to do, etc.? I get so confused and stressed about it.

I'm not looking forward to that when I get this car, because it's far more complicated than the car I've got right now. I'm kinda dreading what will happen. Is changing the oil really the only thing I have to ever do? Is it true you can't rotate the tires, because they're directional-tread?

-Iain

[burnman 0]

All motor oil has an acid neutralizer in its additive package.

If you look at the specs. you will see a TBN number. Ranges from 1 - 10. The odd oil will have a 12. This is the acid neutralizing factor and a good indicator of the quality of the oil.

Don't try to add any home brew to extend it.

Mobil 1 0W-40 has a TBN between 11 and 12. Those people seriously looking at extended Oil Change Intervals should look at a program of Used Oil Analysis. Good discussion of motor oil and other car maintenance can be found at:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi