Cars maintenance and repair records

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

When you have a few cars in the family, how do you manage service for it? You do all cars the same time - like everyone got oil change? Do you have any program, applications helping you to remember when and what service needs to be done?
I am trying to make my life easier, hate to do something in the rush or miss something and do it latter. Especially, older we become - easier to forget something:mad: .

I have iPhone with a lot of apps helping me to do different tasks - very useful.
Is anybody have experience with such program for car maintenance? It is a lot of program on iTunes to choose, but very few review to choose from:confused:

Thanks,
Ed.:cool:

[George Bokros]

i keep a spiral notebook in each vehicle. I know old school but I also log fuel and mileage so I am constantly in the notebook. I am the only one that buys fuel for our two cars / two drivers only and wife will only buy gas if she is traveling to visit her sister out of state.

[Barry McFadden]

I keep it simple.....I get an oil change when the little sticker they put on the windshield last time says so..... I get a brake job when they squeal....

[Mac McQuinn]

As I did this for a living before retirement, old habits die hard. At the purchase of a vehicle, new or used, I start a file and keep paperwork and documentation of everything purchased for or done to the vehicle throughout my ownership. In the garage, I keep a small note pad in my tool box which contains dated oil checks and tire pressure adjustments. As I get older, I find a paper trail to be very beneficial and there's no guessing involved.
Mac

[Kev Williams]

And I'm just the opposite. I find as I get older that nobody cares about my car notes but me. Having "full maintenance records" has never made one bit of difference in the sale of any car, boat or motorcycle. Ever.

And really, I hardly need notes. Working from home, we don't put any miles on anything. Bought the wife a 2013 Mustang GT Convertible 2 years ago with 24-something thousand miles on it. It still has 24-something thousand miles on it... My 2002 F-250 I bought brand new has 56k miles. An '04 Stratus I got in '06 with 46,000 miles now has 66,000 miles, just sold that one to our son.

I just change the oil when the plates come due. :)

[George Bokros]

When planning things like oil change one should not only consider mileage or time passing but how is the car driven. If it is used several times per week but only short trips you may not put on many miles in six months or a year but those the short trips creates moisture in the crankcase and that never evaporates and can cause premature wear of internals. If your car sits say for a week at a time but then gets driven 25 - 30 miles the moisture will evaporate. So this being said 30 miles per week is 1560 miles in a year but iif this same 30 miles per week was done at 6 miles each time over 5 days / week the mileage is the same but much harder on the engine.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

It started out years ago like George with using a little spiral notepad in the vehicles and that worked extremely well. We now need to keep track of several vehicles, motorcycles, tractor, etc. We have a white board in the shop that is dedicated to track filter & fluid changes.

Both my LOML and I have iphones and we have been using several apps to track various vehicle needs. For mileage for most of our vehicles, we use a simple app called MileageKeeper (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mileage-keeper-gas-mileage/id447546241?mt=8) For my little red hot rod, I use a more detailed app called Fuel Monitor (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fuel-monitor-fuel-economy/id605694033?mt=8) that lets me track Repairs and Services so that I can track more data on it. The problem with those is we can't share the data on both phones so we save receipts and enter the necessary data into the phone that has that vehicle.

It's been awhile, but we were playing around with Gas Tracker by Fuelly (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gas-tracker-by-fuelly/id590291820?mt=8) over a year ago, but at the time the app was a bit quirky and it was easier to input fill-ups on the Fuelly (http://www.fuelly.com/)web site (http://www.fuelly.com/). That was somewhat fun because you can compare what other drivers are seeing with their fuel economy. We may revisit that app so that we can both have the current data on each of our phones (share account) and they have improved it a lot to allow you to track repairs & service.

[Jim Becker]

I follow the manufacturer's maintenance schedule in the vehicle manuals for each of the three we own. I would never do an oil change based on the little window sticker that the shop puts in after a change...they are motivated by money and many still advocate the old and obsolete "3000 mile" interval or one that's half of the manufacturer's recommendation. The manufacturer's schedules are not tied exclusively to mileage and also take into consideration use and time. Many current vehicles also monitor oil quality and will indicate a change is needed based on that "or" by mileage, whichever comes first.

[Matt Day]

I send myself a simple 1 line email so it's easily found when I need it next "2004 Forester (we have a 2014 too) 115k miles, oil change". I can search "oil changes" and the latest one pops up telling me the last time I worked on the car - oil, brakes, etc.

Speaking of car work I recently bought a simple Bluetooth OBD2 reader for about $15 on Amazon, and it works great with a free app on my iPhone. So much better than going to Advance Auto to read it and clear it. I have thrown P0457 a few times in the past 6 months and it's nice to have the reader to reset the CEL. The code just means my gas cap isn't on tight enough and yes I did replace the old cap with an OEM new one.

[Stan Calow]

What Kev said. I used to keep detailed records, but it mattered to no one, and added nothing to the value of my trade-ins.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Looks like I am not alone with trouble to keep records of oil changes and repair. I don't care much about keeping all records - it doesn't making much changes when cars going to be sold.
I trying to be more organized.

Matt - this ODB2 reader safe me a lot of headache too. And one of my car giving me same code, as you mention.

Mike - which program you likes more? Is any of the program help you to keep track on all cars? I don't care much on gas mileage, but keeping track when oil change, tire rotation or anything else were done will be beneficial.

Kev - I have same problem or benefits (?). Not too many miles on each car, but I want to keep these cars longer, kind of likes what I have now :)) And driving not too many miles making changing oil kind of off regular schedule. On my Tundra, I have only 40K miles and driving it last 6 years. Same with other cars.

George - you idea with notebooks would not work for me. But it give me idea to mark my calendar on iPhone with events and make it as repeat event with reminder. I am going to try it.

Thanks,
Ed.

[Myk Rian]

We keep a manila envelope to put all the service records for each vehicle.
They go with it when we sell it/them.

[Tom Stenzel]

I keep the repair and parts receipts and staple them to 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper and keep them in file cabinet.

It's been handy, like when my Saturn wouldn't start several times when below zero F. It looked like a secondary ignition issue. I went back to see when I changed the spark plugs and found Murrays had sold me the wrong heat range plug(!). Didn't notice it when I installed them.

Also I held on to receipts for warranty issues.

When I lived in Detroit my daily drive would just warm up the engine on the trip to work. The oil was changed not on miles or time but when it looked really murky. After the move to the 'burbs and the drive was mostly freeway I changed the oil twice a year, spring and fall with full synthetic. That worked out to about 5500 miles on a change. Drove the car 18 years, got rid of it because the space frame was rusting out. The drivetrain was sill going strong with no oil burning, a miracle for a Saturn S series.

Now I have my new ride the 13 year old hand me down Chevy Venture with the usual GM electrical issues, water in the headlights, wheel bearing problems and a complete transaxle failure. You'd think a manufacturer than made something like that would go bankrupt....:rolleyes: I might need a bigger file cabinet.

-Tom

[Rich Riddle]

I use a whiteboard in the garage.

[Mike Cutler]

I pretty much do mine by the change of season.
Based on our driving habits it works out to oil changes every 5K to 6K miles. The tires and wheels are rotated, or changed, based on season, at the same time.
Air filters are done every fall going into winter.
Brakes are done when needed.
I gotta do spark plugs on both cars. Thank's for reminding me.

My truck is a little different. It's pretty much just for Towing the Horse trailer, and hauling stuff. It's not the daily driver. Oil is changed on it every 6 months, or going into winter and summer. Every thing is checked at that time.

I tend to do all of the vehicles at the same time. I set up one bay of the garage with the QuickJack lift and do everything, then break down the lift and store it.

I'll admit that I don't keep receipts. But it's pretty easy to get them all, for the cars, if I need them.

I'm a big believer in changing oil. Condition based maintenance is a nice concept, but I don't think there is sophisticated enough equipment on a vehicle to actually accomplish it. I think it is more a predictive algorithm.
BMW backed away from condition based maintenance, at least for oil changes. a few years back. Having two Mini Coopers, I was glad that I was doing it the "old fashioned" way. I'm only slight more conservative in my oil changes than BMW now recommends.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Mike - which program you likes more? Is any of the program help you to keep track on all cars? I don't care much on gas mileage, but keeping track when oil change, tire rotation or anything else were done will be beneficial.

George - you idea with notebooks would not work for me. But it give me idea to mark my calendar on iPhone with events and make it as repeat event with reminder. I am going to try it.

For our needs, one doesn't really cover all of it. Both my LOML and I like to keep track of the fuel economy of all our vehicles. MileageKeeper is perfect for that as it's basic like a little notebook and displays exactly what we are looking for. But for the Morris, I wanted to track how often I needed to add oil as well as mileage, so the Fuel Monitor fit those needs to a point. It also lets me track all sorts of repairs and service such as filters & fluids and I can add my own type of service name to fit my needs. It also has some nice charts & graphs.

Now that Gas Cubby/Fuelly have the ability to share an account (i.e. husband/wife share a car) I'm going to play around with that and see if it fits our needs. It would be nice to have it all in one app so we both have access to it!

When it comes to documenting it in your calendar, I have found one huge negative. I use the calendar to track critter issues such as when the goats were wormed, or when one of the critters had a health issue worth noting. You can only use the Search feature through the calendar up to 1 year back. Any data you input that dates back further then 1 year, you manually have to scroll through the calendar and look for it!

[Bruce Wrenn]

Each of our vehicles has a folder in file cabinet with records of parts purchases and servicing. We copy receipts, as thermal images disappear over time. Having "hard copy" saved my over $150 on a mass airflow sensor that went south while under warranty. For oil changes, along with file copy, on the sun visor is the tag from oil filter with mileage for next oil change written on it with magic marker. Not only do I know when it's due, but what kind of filter to buy. Everything runs full synthetic oil. We typically run a vehicle between 300K and 500K before having grave side services for it. Currently waiting for FedEx to deliver some front end parts for our 94 Areostar. Do need to replace rear seal when lift is available for a day. It's a five minute job once you get transmission out, which takes a lot more than five minutes. Our older son is a mechanic, but his specialty is heavy equipment. He is so good, local dealer calls him to come into their shop and fix some of their loaders for them.

[Mike Kees]

At my house we have about 6-7 vehicles to keep track of. I have a big notebook at the shop with tabs for all the different vehicles,I write everything down,just because I don't remember everything if I don't.

[Robert Payne]

I scan every service report to a PDF file and then keep them by vehicle and by year in folders on my laptop. I also keep a full set burned onto a DVD as a permanent backup. When I bought my used Tundra a year ago, that is what the prior owner had done and it was very useful to see every service record organized so neatly. No need to keep hard copy (many of which will fade over time or started out as carbon copies) so if needed, I can print out each one.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I just toss the sales slip for things I have done in the glove box.

Japanese cars are nice in that way because all you have is a bunch of oil change receipts...and one for new tires @ 50k miles.