Your views upon maintenance?

[Eurotransit]

Hi all,

I'm pondering the maintenance of my 2013 transit custom. I'd like some of your opinions on the following.

I know from this board the many different problems people have with their TC's. From stalling in slow traffic to the oil level rising from diesel in the oil. I've also read countless times that after a service from Ford, the vans quite often drive much less nice/economical than they did before for either quite some time or sometimes permanently.

My van is driving very well. No problems, no complaints at all, regarding the issues I've learned about from here. My code reader tells me there hasen't been a single code stored in the 11 months I've had the car. I count myself lucky at that. It's had the required oil pump changed and it's had the major pcm/ecu update the early ones needed. It was official dealer serviced for the first 44.000 km's. The worst thing I could say about driving this van is that it seems to be far from as fuel effcient as it is claimed to be. Without Aircon it's a steady 10,5km/l, with highs of 11,5 max when longer distances are done. Switch on the aircon and at the legal 130km/h limit the van does about 9,5km/l max. Unfortunately I do mostly relatively short runs.

But apart from that it's great.

Now, I bought my van from an independent dealer. They gave the car a full service as part of the deal as ford would have. They are a bosch place so they use bosch parts. For peace of mind I'd like to give the car a full service yearly. And with that I mean independant of mileage I just want a service covering all filters (fuel, oil, interior), engine oil, full check up of brakes and pads all round and any other things that belong to a decent service. They are a reliable workshop where trust and service still mean something.

Now the prices at this independent dealer are far more reasonable than those at Fords. The only real difference I see between them is that this independent dealer will not be able to update the PCM/ECU if need be. But is that enough reason to go to Fords? And how do I know if there even is an update? And if there is, should one always apply them? As said I don't want the engine to run less nice than it does now. But I can also imagine ford having learned a few things about the engine over the past years that have resulted in software updates improving the longevity of it. And seeing I have to run this van for at least another 7-9 years....

So that's where you come in, what is your opinion on the matter?

Thanks,

Alex

[Mike]

One of my old MK7's was serviced by Ford for its first two services, no problems at all with that vehicle. The guy who bought it had it serviced by his mates garage.......the engine went bang when it was 4 years old. Who knows if that was because it didn't have any updates?

Most vans will go on for years and years without the updates and without any major problems, so servicing at your local Indi garage can save you money and probably get you a better quality job than a Ford dealer, but ultimately it's your decision.

[chris72a]

I have a 2003 mk6 never been to a Mechanic since I have owned it, I change oil every 5000kms (mainly due to it only gets driven once a month or so) I change fuel filter, oil filter, have fitted a K&N air filter so that is sorted for some time, I do brake pads myself, I have changed a fuel timing solenoid on the fuel pump, replaced various engine parts etc. The only thing I will use a garage for is to fit tyres when they are needed. Other than that all maintenance is performed by myself and these forums have helped numerous times. Just my choice.

Cheers
Chris

[TallPaul]

I bought my 2013 Custom new and its now done just over 107,000 miles. I sent it to Fords for its first service at 30,000 then the other 2 services (60,000 & 90,000) have been done at a trusted indy. I always change the oil myself every 15,000 and gave it its first change at 5,000 and its still running well. I changed the pads (front & rear) myself but it was in at Fords having its oil pump recall when they did a "health check" and noticed the front discs were worn so I let them do them whilst it was there.
In short, as long as you drive with a degree of mechanical sympathy and are either handy with the spanners or know and trust a garage who can do it for you, you should be fine. Check ETIS and look on here for any software updates and book them into Ford yourself and you should be able to keep away from main dealers most of the time. The staff in my local Ford dealership are all great people but their actual customer service and bookings system is a total joke so I do whatever I can to keep out of there!

[loko]

Thats a couple of times now i.ve read about an oil pump recall , what years were affected by this as mines a 14 plate and out of warranty this year and as far as im aware its not been done on mine

[Eurotransit]

I bought my 2013 Custom new and its now done just over 107,000 miles. I sent it to Fords for its first service at 30,000 then the other 2 services (60,000 & 90,000) have been done at a trusted indy. I always change the oil myself every 15,000 and gave it its first change at 5,000 and its still running well. I changed the pads (front & rear) myself but it was in at Fords having its oil pump recall when they did a "health check" and noticed the front discs were worn so I let them do them whilst it was there.
In short, as long as you drive with a degree of mechanical sympathy and are either handy with the spanners or know and trust a garage who can do it for you, you should be fine. Check ETIS and look on here for any software updates and book them into Ford yourself and you should be able to keep away from main dealers most of the time. The staff in my local Ford dealership are all great people but their actual customer service and bookings system is a total joke so I do whatever I can to keep out of there!

Thanks for your input ( the others as well). I do drive with a mechanical sympathy, for sure. I've restored two oldtimer fords since 1999 and my latest (1972 Granada coupe featuring a Scorpio Cosworth engine) is only just finished after 6,5 years of working on it. So I have at least a little mechanical sense. I let the engine warm up before pushing the van a little harder, always! Also as I try and drive economically, I hardly ever really push the car anyway. Sometimes I like to drive it a little more spirited so it remembers how to be lively as well. I check oil and tire pressures and general state of things every now and then also.

I'm inclined to do a lot of basic maintenance myself, but as this is the final service under warranty I wasn't entirely sure. Also the sofware updates were bothering me. I'm now leaning toward having this final service done by the independant. Etis tells me it's not a lot they have to do anyway.

You did say something of interest that lead me to a follow up question: where in ETIS can I find if there is a software update for the car? I have not been able to locate that info. And since we're on the topic of ETIS, there is a section of "publications" that have been done on the car. It lists some ID's, but there is nothing to click on to see what it is actually about. Like 2472 or 2634, 2635 etc. I'd like to find out what these mean?

[TallPaul]

You did say something of interest that lead me to a follow up question: where in ETIS can I find if there is a software update for the car? I have not been able to locate that info.

I found the software update and oil pump recall in the section that says "Outstanding Field Service Actions" Mine now says "No Campaign Message(s) Found"

And since we're on the topic of ETIS, there is a section of "publications" that have been done on the car. It lists some ID's, but there is nothing to click on to see what it is actually about. Like 2472 or 2634, 2635 etc. I'd like to find out what these mean?

If you mean this below, I've no idea what it means either!!

[Seamonkey]

My 2013 TC has had the oil pump update. I caused my van to stall during cornering at low speeds between shifting gears. Took them a while to figure out, but is has been gone ever since.
It has 63400 miles now. I tend to floor it all the time. Up until the speed limits, mind you. Or maybe just a little bit higher. 60% urban and 40% motorways or countryroads. Almost no hills. It also idles a few hours every week.
I changed the oil between service intervals at every 15000 miles and not at every 30000 like Ford says we should.
The only mechanical failures I had so far were a ball bearing in the gearbox after about 24000. It got replaced under warranty. And a fuel injector at around 50000 miles, also replaced for free by a main dealer.
That's impressive compaired to the vans I drove before. But around 60000 miles I noticed a very faint rattling noise. I checked in with the dealer and they didn't know what it was, but said it's still under warranty when it should give problems in the future, even after the warranty expires. (62137 miles or 100000 km here) I doubt the independent garage around the corner will cover these warranty issues. Seeing the low cost I had so far in maintenance, I'd say it's definitely worth to spend the extra few at a authorised dealership.
I worked on quite some cars myself, but these modern vans are just to much of a hassle to maintain myself. 70% of the parts you can't reach without completely disassembling the van. I wanted to replace the brake discs a few weeks ago, well... That's not something I want to waste my time with, as I need the van driving the next day.
I ordered a new van regardless and for only a 200 Euros more, I get an extended warranty up until 86000 miles or 7 years. So why should go to an independent mechanic?
If would need to keep it for longer than the warranty period, I think I might try to do some minor repairs myself again, but for the bigger issues, I'd take it to a dealer.

[Eurotransit]

You did say something of interest that lead me to a follow up question: where in ETIS can I find if there is a software update for the car? I have not been able to locate that info.

I found the software update and oil pump recall in the section that says "Outstanding Field Service Actions" Mine now says "No Campaign Message(s) Found"

And since we're on the topic of ETIS, there is a section of "publications" that have been done on the car. It lists some ID's, but there is nothing to click on to see what it is actually about. Like 2472 or 2634, 2635 etc. I'd like to find out what these mean?

If you mean this below, I've no idea what it means either!!

Thanks, your reply is spot on.

My FCA section also says there are no outstanding issues. Good to know I'm not the only one who didn't know what to make of the resolved publications section. Too bad though as it would be so nice to have more details about them.

Thanks for your reply.

[Eurotransit]

My 2013 TC has had the oil pump update. I caused my van to stall during cornering at low speeds between shifting gears. Took them a while to figure out, but is has been gone ever since.
It has 63400 miles now. I tend to floor it all the time. Up until the speed limits, mind you. Or maybe just a little bit higher. 60% urban and 40% motorways or countryroads. Almost no hills. It also idles a few hours every week.
I changed the oil between service intervals at every 15000 miles and not at every 30000 like Ford says we should.
The only mechanical failures I had so far were a ball bearing in the gearbox after about 24000. It got replaced under warranty. And a fuel injector at around 50000 miles, also replaced for free by a main dealer.
That's impressive compaired to the vans I drove before. But around 60000 miles I noticed a very faint rattling noise. I checked in with the dealer and they didn't know what it was, but said it's still under warranty when it should give problems in the future, even after the warranty expires. (62137 miles or 100000 km here) I doubt the independent garage around the corner will cover these warranty issues. Seeing the low cost I had so far in maintenance, I'd say it's definitely worth to spend the extra few at a authorised dealership.
I worked on quite some cars myself, but these modern vans are just to much of a hassle to maintain myself. 70% of the parts you can't reach without completely disassembling the van. I wanted to replace the brake discs a few weeks ago, well... That's not something I want to waste my time with, as I need the van driving the next day.
I ordered a new van regardless and for only a 200 Euros more, I get an extended warranty up until 86000 miles or 7 years. So why should go to an independent mechanic?
If would need to keep it for longer than the warranty period, I think I might try to do some minor repairs myself again, but for the bigger issues, I'd take it to a dealer.

Thanks for that... My independant garage/dealership would take care of any identified issues that could be considered warranty by taking it to the nearest ford dealership they have arrangements with. Also I'm always free to book the car into my local ford dealer for purely those warranty items.

I guess the problems would start with Ford and warranty if I start claiming stuff that could be related to not using fomoco/motorcraft parts, but parts that have been replaced by Bosch items. But my warranty expires in two months anyway... And as far as warranty is concerned, I think I only have a possible claim for the faulty rear park distance control sensor and possibly the amount of wear on the leather drivers seat. For an almost 4 year old van with only 55,000km's on it I think it is excessive... But Ford probably won't.

I'm curious as to your gearbox bearing issue. How did that manifest itself? I sometimes have the feeling that the car at say 100km/h is smoother in 5th than in 6th. Asif in 6th there is slightly more of a vibration there than in 5th. As the speed is the same I can discount the wheels and suspension and am thinking it's in the box. But so far I haven't made up my mind on whether I am seeing things or it's actually an issue.

[Seamonkey]

It made a strange noise when I shifted up gear and started accelerating after a big rpm drop. The sort of drop in rpm when you shift to a higher gear too soon. I don't know how it happened. I also don't really know what they fixed, but the van was at the dealer for a whole week.

Another reason I'll let the official dealer do the repairs and/or maintenance is resale value. When you sell it to a garage when you want to buy a new one, you get more money for it if you have a full history at the officials. At least here in Belgium.

[Eurotransit]

It made a strange noise when I shifted up gear and started accelerating after a big rpm drop. The sort of drop in rpm when you shift to a higher gear too soon. I don't know how it happened. I also don't really know what they fixed, but the van was at the dealer for a whole week.

Another reason I'll let the official dealer do the repairs and/or maintenance is resale value. When you sell it to a garage when you want to buy a new one, you get more money for it if you have a full history at the officials. At least here in Belgium.

Thanks, I guess that is a lot different from what mine is possibly doing if I'm not simply seeing things.

A car with full service history is always worth more than one without history. But I'm not so sure that a potential customer puts a lot more value in dealer service as opposed to independant service. Decent proof of service according to fords schedule should be just as good. We all know that many an independant, being smaller, more customer oriented does a much better job than the big impersonal dealers. I know mine does for sure. Mine follows the brand specified service instructions but uses Bosch parts. Any Ford related stuff like updates/warranty/special tools they can handle through their local befriended ford dealership.

I always document my own maintenance as well. Stuff like doing the brakes yourself would not result in an invoice or proof. So I keep parts bills in the file as well so there is always proof. In my experience a file with (dealer) invoices and parts bills is always appreciated at time of resale. It was one of the reasons my previous transit sold in only one day as it was pretty well presented for its age and was backed up by some 3500 euro's in maintenance over the past few years. That boosts client confidence...

If main dealer prices would be more in line with the independents I wouldn't really hesitate so much.