mad4slalom
Senior member
get in there and get down and dirty, just done the oilkservice on my renault van, the beaty of diy is that you do more than anyone else would, just took an hour but whilst shields were off I checked gearbox level, removed a bit of rattly heat shield , zip tied som intake plastic tubes wher garage had broken clips and was loose and rattly , and had a general look around everywhere, the garages dont do this generally, they do the min and charge the max. I will bet that most of you on here with a bit of mechanical know how, a bit of common sense, the internet and the phone will do a better job than most garages at routine maintenance. a lot of them dont even clean up after themselves. I know sometimes you are in their hands for big and technical jobs , and you still need the servicing to stamp the book but interim services are a good chance to get to know the car and also check up on what the last mickey mouse mechanic forgot to do or put back together properly. we all saw the post last week about bmw specialist putting wrong oiul in and then lying when queried . 
