Member Since: 29 Jun 2021
Location: Cardiff
Posts: 181
3 years of repair/maintenance bills - I suggest sitting down
Little bit of context, bought my D3 3 years ago this month on 140k, it's now on 164k. No history, took a gamble but it was a very clean example, hardly any rust undereath, new tyres/brakes/pads, nice extras and everything worked as it should.
All work done by garages, I don't have the time, inclination or tools to tackle myself so obviously the costs could be lower if you tackle some bits. Whilst I've not broken down the jobs tackled below, lots of the costs were regular maintenance and preventative. Some items include...
- Wheel bearings (Only changed when knackered but 3 done now)
- Timing belts
- New centre prop
- New Hitachi compressor (old one knackered)
- Brake overhaul
- Various upper/lower arms
- Inner tie rods
- Brake servo replaced (This one hurt!)
- Gearbox flush
- Engine remap (Bodsy)
So, in 3 years the grand total of those big items and many others bits.....
£8,410.70!!!
For what it's worth, I imagined an average £1,000 a year on top of general maintenance but I was wrong. However, I also appreciate that I've thrown money at this car and it's now a particularly great example which remains very clean and I love it to bits. It pulls my twin axle caravan loaded with family, dog and luggage with ease and is 11/10 for practicality....I still can't think of what would replace it.
The last MOT station came over to tell me that he really loves these cars and was impressed with "how mint" it was underneath.
Member Since: 06 Mar 2017
Location: Lost
Posts: 4874
Your costs are perhaps heavily augmented because you had to pay a garage to do the work. If you look at the parts costs on their own you're probably not be far off your original 1K pa estimate.
The main thing now is that you should see your maintenance spend fall very considerably over the next few years, with only scheduled maintenance and the odd preventative measures to do!
Painful as it has been you will reap the benefits going forward. yµ (idµ - eAµ) ψ=mψ
12th Jul 2024 3:32 pm
Bracechenko
Member Since: 29 Jun 2021
Location: Cardiff
Posts: 181
Thanks Prof....that is my exact thinking but then I thought that last year too!
However, it's now into it's 2nd life and most of those parts I replaced were probably original if not 70k old so I do think/hope it'll now start to reduce. Also, whenever I have a moment of weakness when I see a new invoice I think about what else could do the same job for the money....nothing. No point in buying a D4 as that'll just come with someone else's problems and I love everything about my D3.
The 1 ticking time bomb that's left which fills me with dread is that I have confirmed that I have the older style 'weaker' oil pump. Annoyingly, I knew nothing about this weak pump when I had the timing belts changed right at the beginning but just can't justify the £1000+ cost to preventatively do it. Maybe one year when I'm in a better position I might bite the bullet but for now I live in hope. The timing belts were changed over 20k ago and from what I read then pump 'tends' to fail shortly after that with the suspicion of an overly-torqued nut but it's one gamble I just have to take atm
12th Jul 2024 3:52 pm
Disco-Jim
Member Since: 01 Mar 2024
Location: Wisbech
Posts: 23
I would agree with the comment about labour costs.
Within a week of buying mine I did a full service and brake servo/vacuum pump. Then a month later the EPB crapped itself but I managed to save that. That was down to lack of maintenance by last owner!
I’m currently doing the O/S rear upper wishbone. Found a hole while cleaning them up while I had the wheels off for new rear tyres. I have some new front drilled and grooved discs and pads to do next week and a brake fluid change too. I picked it up cheap at £2150 but was very happy as it had receipts galore from the owner before the lady and the lady had a receipt for a recon engine only 30k miles before!
12th Jul 2024 4:32 pm
PROFSR G
Member Since: 06 Mar 2017
Location: Lost
Posts: 4874
I have one customer with a 07 D3 which is still on it's original oil pump after 280k Kms. He has asked me to do the belts a couple of times, but I have refused because he can't see the reason for replacing the oil pump as well.
I'm not au fait with UK pricing but £1000 to do the belts and the pump seems a little steep, as its only another couple of hours work on a belt change + the parts. There are well respected site sponsors on here which might be able to shave a bit off that?yµ (idµ - eAµ) ψ=mψ
12th Jul 2024 4:33 pm
Disco_Mikey
Member Since: 29 May 2007
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Posts: 20783
But if you finance a new one, you'd be £6/7/800 a month
Member Since: 06 Mar 2017
Location: Lost
Posts: 4874
I just had a quick look and between 2015 and 2020 I spent just shy of 10k on parts for one of my D3's with the labour being carried out by myself. This was exceptional but it was mainly due to the environment where it lived prior to my ownership, and a very heavy lean towards preventative maintenance measures.
The other D3 has had less than 1/4 of that spend, but it had a very cushy life before I bought it and did less than a tenth of the work load of the other car.
On both of them I have had no expenses in the last 4 years other than scheduled maintenance and a few preventative maintenance items. yµ (idµ - eAµ) ψ=mψ
12th Jul 2024 7:12 pm
Bracechenko
Member Since: 29 Jun 2021
Location: Cardiff
Posts: 181
Thanks Prof... really interesting and I hope I have a similar experience
12th Jul 2024 7:15 pm
kajtzu
Member Since: 11 Aug 2017
Location: Helsinki
Posts: 6634
Pretty realistic costs… mine have been over the last 7 years about 2500 euro on average annually although one year (first year of COVID) I spent only 600 euro on it.
Not mentioning the amount of fuel used or spent on
Of course some of these things have been more for fun, like I upgraded recently to D4 stalks, added tailgate manual opening, nicer rims than the D3 HSE defaults, nicer tires, BT audio/phone, added a Lazer lightbar down front, stainless steel braided brake hoses, don’t buy the cheapest components but tend to prefer what people here or on the US forum recommend, even buy green oval sometimes, etc etc.
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