remie103

I got the 20,000 miles maintenance already, now my car is about 30,000 miles. Should I get the 30,000 miles maintenance? It's about $400 so I'm not sure if I should save my money and wait for the 60,000 miles maintenance. Please help!

tsxhondatuner

helps for resale value.

AZTSX

i hate that if a dealer does the 30k service it helps for resale value as does getting your normal sevices done there too but i do everything myself i am even gonna do my own 30k only about 6k left until then but not much to do according to this http://www.continentalacura.com/mul...L0007.1/TSX.pdf

i think its totally that b/c i do my own service on my car i cant increase my resale value!!

bigwilliestyle

How does it help with resale value if you do it vs. the dealer?

If you keep good records, it should make no difference.

AZTSX

by records what do you mean? writing it in the log book in the manual. B/C i would think that could also be false meaning someone could have just written it down on the specified intervals catch my drift? I hope you are correct that me doing my own service can help up the resale value cause then i would be a lil less agitated hehe

jaydub

I personally don't see how having a receipt that says that Honda of XXXXXX checked my belts, brakes, and fluids is any different from me having receipts for brake pads, belts, and fluids which have been changed by me.

Hell, I don't trust half the techs at my local Honda dealership enough to be "proud" of their workmanship. I know for a fact that they've left problems in the wake of other repairs that were made. They even charged me an extra $40 to do my alignment because I have a camber kit. That's why I take my car to a private mechanic now who specializes in Honda/Acura cars.

AZTSX

well damn i hope i can find most of my receipts in my pile of paperwork!!! ... thats good to know that my own service can help the resale value cause i agree with you jaydub some techs dont know wtf they are doing and id much rather do my own work.

AZTSX who wishes he was more organized

tsxhondatuner

true...but i just sold my 10 year old 95 integra back in august with every paperwork possible. even the original window sticker. blue book was $3460, i got $5100. even though integras don't go by blue book. i had about 40 oil change papers to actually show "oil changed every 3k miles". i should have kept that car. :/

so ya...my advice is to start a folder with car information as i did cause it does really help.

bigwilliestyle

Fact of the matter is, say it did actually hurt your resale value by doing it yourself...

(ignoring the fact that the dealership simply uses this as a scare tactic as they'll have all the history of your car in their computer.)

All the money you'll save by doing most of the maintenance yourself will more than make up for the difference in resale value that could theoretically exist. It will still be much less money out of your own pocket in the end.

Don't worry about it. They just want to gouge you with huge part markups and $100/hour service visits.

RMATIC09

I would just do it, for the sake of the car and resale.

sauceman

AZTSX and jaydub,

It's probably not obvious to you since you are confident about your abilities, but when someone wants to buy your car, they will not trust you as well if you provide them evidence you did your own maintenance then if you did it at the dealership.

I mean, if I wanted to sell you my car and told you: "No maintenance at the dealership because I did it all by myself, I am competent enough, and I don't trust the guys at the dealership to do it right." Would you trust me? Chances are you'd say "what a smartass", and pass on to the next caller.

BTW folks, there's nothing wrong, when you go at the dealership to inquire upon the service manager which mechanic, in his opinion, he trusts the most, and then subsequently request in advance that he performs the maintenance for you, given that you schedule with him in advance.

wiz

I had the 15,000, and then the 30,000. I think the next one is at 60,000. This is the first car I have ever owned that I followed the dealer's maintenance schedule. Of course this is the most expensive car I have ever owned also. :-)

sauceman

Exactly, same for me too.

And I'm putting faith in my dealer (whom I have no complaint about anyway), not for resale, but durability: I need to get the car to 500,000km with no major repairs if possible.

bigwilliestyle

What about the 45000? Should be the same as the 15...

iamhomin

That's good, I guess?

I always went by 20k intevals and never had a single problem (engine wise).

I don't know, it's just hard to justify $400~500 dollars for dealers to inspect and "fill-up" fluids more often than every 20k miles.

jmathew34

my maintenance light went on at 20,000 miles, is there a 20k maintenance? has anyone went in for the 20k maintenance? what does the maintenance consist of? how much did you guys pay?

jlukja

On my previous cars I had the "major" services done by the dealer but the oil changes and minor stuff I did myself and kept all the receipts.

IMHO if you present a stack of receipts to whoever is buying your car they will think that if you are thorough enough to keep all the receipts you are probably thoroughl enough to do all the work.

sauceman

I don't know where you guys get these high numbers. My (severe duty) schedule at 30,000 miles is worth around 300$CDN and that is Acura's suggested maintenance list.

Either you're gettig scammed, or it's sheer exagerations you're spreading around.

jaydub

I guess that's fair, I really haven't had the experience of selling a car to a private owner, all my deals have been trade-ins. I don't think I'd be so forward and cocky about my skill to say anything like that, but I also am not sure most people would bother to ask such questions about routine maintenance when buying a used car anyway. I can see how having good records can help seal the deal because they would obviously see in writing that the car was serviced at regular intervals, but it doesn't seem to me that it makes much difference. I had every single service record from my previous car when I bought it used (2000 Jetta VR6) and it was still having to be repaird over issues that had been fixed previously... of course that is the joy of owning a VW I guess.

I can say though, as I am getting into my late twenties and have a busier lifestyle, that I don't really have the desire or time to mess around with doing mundane repairs and oil changes on my own vehicle. I have already found someone to sell me the stock suspension for my own car so that I can return it to stock and not worry about the dealership hassling me about any repairs it might need. Lowering this car has been a nightmare (2002 Civic Si) and I hope for a better experience when doing suspension work on whichever car I buy next. Of course, all the service records in the world won't make up for the damage caused by poor choices in modifications (long story! :p).

pandimus

No offense but the majority of ya'll been doing a healthy dose of crack. If a dealer is charging you 400 bucks to inspect and adjust your drive belts and change your oil, your getting robbed. I looked at the maint schedule on that continental acura and they are hella over priced for everything they do. The only thing on that list that the majority of us couldnt do is check your valve clearence. @ 110 k miles. I have 137,000 miles on my toyota paseo, and the only thing to ever go wrong with it is the water pump went out. That was at about 90 thousand. I change my oil on frequent intervals and drive it very harsly. All of your acura's are built better than my old ass 94 toyota and will prolly run just as long or longer. Save your money and do the maint yourself. Also the fact that every one say's that you will increase your resale with receipts. That is just for private buyers. If i was a private buyer, and you presented me with reciepts for oil at about every 5000 miles that would satisfy me. Also if you kept a copy of the maint schedule and tell me you inspected the drive belt i would be quite satisfied with that also.

jlukja

Dealer prices vary from one dealer to the next. If you're fortunate to live near a number of dealers it may pay to shop around. Perfect example is my wife's Civic. It needed a new oxygen sensor. First dealer wanted $450 to do it, next dealer quoted me $200 for the part and $120 for labor, and I eventually bought the part from Dealer 3 for $190 and did it myself.

sauceman

Good for you. Now go get that car!

iamhomin

I'm not exagerrating, I'll take pictures of the flyers my dealership hands out and post them if you want.

pandimus

damn 120 for an o2 sensor? My toyota's only cost 40 bucks from autozone. How was it to install? Mine took to bolts and a cannon plug.

sauceman

Sure, go ahead. I'll try and gather the info from mine and we'll compare.

jlukja

pretty easy actually. Had to remove the heatshield attached to the exhaust maniforld (2 bolts) to get access to the base of the O2 sensor so I could get a wrench around it. Then its just a matter of unscrewing it, putting in the new one, replacing the heatshield, and plugging it in. Also, had to reset the ECU to get rid of the "check engine" light which involved disconnecting the battery leads and then reconnecting and running at idle for a few minutes. All in all probably 1.5 hrs.

iamhomin

Alright, but you gotta wait until 11/29th.