04 November 2016
I went to Powertorq Motorworks along Congressional Avenue today to inquire about their services. Since Mama’s passing, it is now necessary that I myself properly schedule the maintenance of our 2011 Toyota Vios 1.3. Previously, it was Mama who almost exclusively did this. I figured too that car care is especially important now that Czarina and I have a baby who might visit the Philippines once in a while. In fact, we recently acquired a car seat from Singapore for Kaiser. What use is a baby car seat if the car is an accident waiting to happen?
At the car shop, I had a satisfactory experience. The attending mechanic, Glen, was very helpful and answered some specific questions I had. I asked how often should certain maintenance works be done?
- Brake pads checked every 6 months for wear
- Transmission oil change every 40,000km
- Engine oil change every 5-10,000km (edit: 7,000km is best)
- Brake fluid change every 20,000km
- Spark plugs replacement every 15-20,000km
- Air filter replacement when dirty
I did not know when Mama last did any car maintenance work. So I asked the mechanic to check everything under that assumption. The odometer was at 21,800km. Overall, the car was in very good shape. The brake pads were still thick. The oil seemed clean. Spark plugs seemed fairly new (although the mechanic suggested that they be replaced after 10,000km).
Nonetheless, a few service items were suggested to be done anyway.
- Engine cleaning with some special liquid (I’ll edit this post when I remember it)
- Change oil using Liqui Mol 5W-30
- Brake fluid flushing and change
- Radiator coolant flushing and change
- Air filter replacement
UPDATE:
My post above was yesterday. I had to leave the car at the shop since they had to close by 5pm—I came in around 4pm. Glen said work would start tomorrow morning and I can expect all the work to finish by around noontime. So, this morning I received a few phone calls from Powertorq’s front desk updating me that the work is underway and informing me that they needed to add some minor things to the work list. I guess these were work items that were not immediately evident when we looked yesterday. By noontime, I went back to the shop and the mechanic was almost done with the work. The last thing that was done was a test drive with another mechanic driving, myself and Glen tagging along. It was explained to me that the clutch felt a bit hard. They figured that it was because the car wasn’t being used very often. They suggested that the clutch disks might need to be replaced soon and that I should do so when I start feeling the clutch slipping. A final tip the guys gave was to change oil after 7000km and perhaps consider replacing the clutch disks during that time when it comes.
Overall, my experience at the shop was quite good. They aren’t like the hole-in-the-wall type of car service shop so I expected that they would be on the pricey side. Although, full disclosure, I would not really know since I had little prior experience. Nonetheless, I was given a “discounted” price. Yesterday, I was told that cash payment gets me a bigger discount, but I opted to pay by card since the difference really wasn’t that big. The shop’s boss happened to be around when I was paying so I was pleasantly surprised to be told that the full discount was still given.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars