DIY Service at Risk of Service History Stamp - Thoughts?

Just wondering what the consensus is in regard to servicing your own car. I am sure that most on the forum can do the basic Oil & Filters change - but are they prepared to miss the all important Service History stamp? This also isn't motivated by finance (although it helps), just satisfying to be able to DIY and allows you to do it more often if the Car is not getting much use. Thoughts?

Thoughts of others posted here; http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=124280&highlight=self+service

I would never lose the stamps in the book for the sake of saving literally a few quid a year on servicing. Look on any prospective purchase thread or "Look at this car for sale" thread and the first thing people mention are any gaps in the service history book. Yes it may have been serviced and have receipts but buyers want stamped books. Rightly or wrongly. Invoices are good too obviously. A dubiously stamped book with not a shred of other paperwork isn't ideal either. I do a lot of other jobs myself saving thousands, so rads, brakes, suspension work, cosmetics, stripping/rebuilding for bodyshop and countless other projects but my car still sees my specialist at least once a year. 3 reasons for this - 1. Stamp in book. 2. An expert eye to go over the whole car. He may spot a niggle I've missed. 3. I can leave him any jobs that are easier on a lift. :wink: If you're running a high mileage car, say 130k+ that you bought cheaply and intend to sell cheaply later then home servicing is fine. If you have a nice example that you want to keep tip top, a good Indy is worth his weight in gold. A minor is £150 and a major £300 (plus vat I think) with my guy. That's an absolute bargain as far as I'm concerned, so as long as my Indy is there I will never choose a different option.

Its a bizarre world where people want oil change, the simplest job on any car, done by a specialist but are happy for DIY on more complex jobs like rads, brakes and suspension. But that is the world we live in. So if you have a high value low miler mint garage queen then likely you will get the money back from paying for an oil change each year. However a high miler may choose differently. As these cars get older a different kind of buyer comes out to play, those that appreciate fastidious enthusiast owners, they might not mind the owner servicing. But if you think 996s will do what 993s did in terms of value, then it will be worth getting that stamp.

I have serviced my car and I have no doubt that I could easily find a buyer for it.

Well I own several Porsche and own 9e. There are two main points 1. The perception it is an oil and filter change is wrong - it is so much more that you would be unable to do unless you had a lift. take a look at what is covered as an example. http://www.nineexcellence.com/service/service/svcminor9971.html 2. Come sale time - there will always be a private buyer but a small pool - you would be excluded from px /Outright sell from OPC or any Porsche Indy sales place - I would not even consider buying a car from a customer/individual unless it has either OPC or Indy stamps because no one would buy the car from us. Even if it had 19 stamps and then one from xyz comp who is not a Porsche specialist. It is not us setting those rules - it is the buyers. It really is that simple. However if you are keeping the car for life the latter point would not matter. Ken

It comes down to resale perceptions and what you can prove, I could say I serviced my car and have a bill from euro car parts for oil and filter but without a reputable third party stamp what's to say that oil and filters not still not sitting in my Garage.

No matter how competent the DIY service, I would never buy a car that showed no stamps in the service book whenever this happened. The saving in the short term, if 'saving' is the right word, would be totally offset by lower resale value in the future, not to mention that specialists really know these cars inside and out, so for them to cast an eye over the car is well worth the cost, often spotting potential future problems and nipping them in the bud.

Call me a cynic but I doubt that most of the things listed in the service spec are done by many garages. I've been disappointed by attention to detail of main dealers, independents are generally a better bet. Most of the items are checked in the MOT anyway. I cant believe that oil is not changed in 2004 onward 911s for 2 years, which is the real false economy.

I do all my own basic servicing as much as possible. I accept this may make it more difficult to sell to trade but given I'd get 2-3k more from a private sale that doesn't bother me. If buying a car from a private seller I'd as soon that they were handy with a set of spanners and actually knew about their car as handing it over for everything. As someone who does their own servicing, I don't have to worry about time - so if I'm doing the brake pads I can clean up all the calipers etc, wheel arch liners off and clean behind them. Doing an oil change I'll split the filter apart and check it out for contamination plus submit an oil sample for analysis. I have access to a ramp so can give everything a check over at the same time. So I don't have a stamp in the book but I do have a full excel sheet of all the work I've carried out with invoices. At the same time, I also like to give my car to a specialist every year to be checked out and for things that I can't do. In any case I'm over 100k miles so limited value anyway and I think less sensitive to a fully stamped S/H. A lot of cars are being sold through non specialist garages just passing a car on. They have no idea about how the car has been looked after. A stamped service book with full service history only tells me half the story. It also needs a folder full of evidence of all the other work that everyone knows that all these cars require to keep in good condition. Put it another way. I'm looking at 997's. Porsche in their wisdom tell owners only to do bi-annual services (yet leave them on their own when it blows up). I'd rather buy one where an enthusiastic owner has done an oil and filter service themselves every year.

No one cares about your car more than you do. :thumbs: I have photographic evidence of bodges done to my cars by a prominent indie in the north and one in the south. I have been working on my own Porsche's for 28 years and I have never had a problem selling any of them. Each to their own though :worship:

The first thing a buyer asks during an initial enquiry on the phone is: Does it have a Full Service History? Has the service been carried out by a competent person? HOME: Just your word for it. OPC or INDIE: Trained and experienced engineers What did the service cover: HOME: Parts suppliers receipt - doesn't always mean they have been fitted. OPC or INDIE: schedule list with commentary. Replaced parts always offered to me. I take the oil filter home to break open. A service is more than changing oil and filter, though some may limit it to that. For example, along with the Porsche schedule, my last service covered ECU printout and ECU check, all airbags check / service, compression checks; all of which are beyond a home enthusiast!! To me going to an Indie is a no-brainer, who i think offer good value for money. If you don't believe your workshop is doing the full schedule of work, they should be challenged and go to somewhere you trust.

For resale it does seem to matter to the majority so maybe worth it. I will probably be doing most of mine and documenting it all with receipts. In fact I don't even know if my current car has fully stamped book :lol: .

I have durametric, I can do an ecu printout of over revs fault codes whatever you like. Airbag check? They are there, not throwing codes. What else to they do?! i have a compression tester, any competent home mechanic will have one. I would need a reason to do a compression test, but would happily do it right in front of your eyes if you were going to buy my car. So no trade will take it as part ex? who cares, they would bid me a least three grand less than retail for it. I can just advertise at two grand under retail there will be a queue of people. I've never had a problem selling any of my cars. So DunoMike or Bluebird won't buy it.... but just in this thread... I would, Kas750 might, coullstar might, SkinnyMonkey might.

Spot on Wasz :thumb: