Regular Maintenance and Service your Car at Auto Service Center

Regular Maintenance and Service your Car at Auto Service Center

Another 10,000KM mileage clocked on my odometer, Toyota Vios. It is time to hit to service center to get my car serviced again. Servicing on your vehicle on every 10,000KM or 4 or 6 months is very crucial, to ensure the longevity of your vehicle and assure the safety of the driver and passengers as well.

Typically Malaysian including myself will choose to service our vehicle only after we hit the mileages of 10,000KM instead of every 4-6 months because all of us are just too busy for the routine scheduled vehicle service.  It is still better than none as long as the vehicle get service at least TWICE a year.

A lot of Malaysian (of course including myself) who are want to save our hard earned money will opt to service our vehicle at the auto service center instead of going back to the vehicle manufacturer service center. For example, for normal typical engine oil services, the labor charge would cost me an RM100 from Toyota Service Center while the auto service center only charge me for RM15 for the same service. That was like 4x the price that I am going to pay for the same service.

Of course there is a drawback, those auto service center does not come with any warranty or guarantee after they serviced your vehicle as what the vehicle manufacturer service have. There is give and take under this circumstance.

In fact, those auto service center might even use the fake or counterfeit products on your vehicle when you get your vehicle serviced.

So what, are you suppose to do when you wanted to save your ringgit yet you still want to get your vehicle serviced?

Let me share with you how I assure my parts replaced are genuine even when I get my Toyota Vios serviced at 3rd party car service center:

1.  I will buy the engine oil, oil filter and other replacement parts from the authentic Toyota Service Center. Then I bring the parts to the auto service center.
2.  I will tell them I want to get my car serviced by them with those parts that I bought.
3.  Instead of letting them do the work and you are sitting at the waiting area to reading magazines, observe them while they are servicing your vehicle! Ensure they are replacing your engine oil, oil filters and other parts from where you bought.

Some of the technician want to get their job done faster, they skipped a lot of proper checking under your engine bay. Tell them you want them to check the other parts too such as:
a) Battery water level
b) Radiator water level
c) Transmission oil condition
d) Brake oil condition
e)  Air filter (get them t clean if it has being a while since you replaced the air filter, it might clogged with dust)
f)  Alternator and timing belt

Other than just under the engine hood, you might want to do the wheels alignment and balancing as well. This will ensure your wheels are proper balanced, which improve the comfort and stability of the vehicle. This also will ensure the wheels last longer too.

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