Exustrek Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 While booking our van in for it's annual service i noticed that the service times for the Ducato 2.3L JTD at 56Kmiles & 112Kmiles are 4hrs as apposed to the Ducato 3.0L JTD which are 1.8hrs. Is this something to do with a cam belt for one vehicle & a cam chain for the other? Can't think of anything else that would take twice as much time. Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 I wouldn't have thought that the Cam Belt would come into a routine service at all. The belt is just changed at the prescribed interval and would be charged out as a seperate job. Lets face it a service on a modern vehicle as far as the dealers are concerned, consists of changing oil and any filters and if you are lucky they may have a cursory look at the brakes.Then charge you a kings ransom for the oil and filters they replace.You may assume from my opinion of so called mechanics that I do all my own servicing, and you would be correct. There's no way I would entrust my vehicle to a dealer and let them get some spotty apprentice to do my servicing. Then charge me for a fully qualified mechanic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panagah Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 56k is the time to change the Cam belt. So I would of thought that that is the reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panagah Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 I to service my own van. I recon that I do a better job than our local Fiat dealer. I took the van down there for a recal. When I got home I had to sort out the stuff they had missed, simple things like butting hoses back on the clips supplied. I will however take it to an independant garage whom MOTs my van for the cam belt to be changed. He however will allow me to watch him work on it ensuring that the work I asked to be done is done. Next service I will change all the fluids as well, Just like the service book sugests, I bet your local Fiat dealer won't do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exustrek Posted January 12, 2008 Author Share Posted January 12, 2008 Peter / Panagah Over the years i expect you’ll save yourselves a quite a sizeable sum of money, do you think that not having a full service history will make it difficult to sell on or affect the vehicle’s resale value & if so, will the money you saved on servicing be lost in added depreciation because of this? To be honest, regardless of where i took the van for service, i would have no idea if the work had been done correctly or not, you may assume from that statement that i know nothing of the workings under the bonnet………. You’d be right. Our local Fiat dealer has a great reputation & see no real need to look for an alternative, especially as our van is still within the manufacturer’s warranty period & has been subject to numerous recalls, including the infamous water ingress issue. I know i could take the van elsewhere for servicing but feel the level of service i receive from them exceeds my expectations. I think a good relationship & regular dealings with this service centre has made the whole experience of sorting out recall work / warranty start dates etc totally painless. I’ve read some of the stories where people have had to stamp their feet, scream & shout, spend countless hours on the phone, write numerous letters etc. all this can leave a bad taste & sour the whole experience of ownership. My experience to sort out all these issues was a two minute phone call & leave the rest to them. If we were to keep the vehicle beyond the warranty period, self servicing is something i would consider, it’s prolly a good way to get to know your own vehicle. Panagah, you don’t live far from us, maybe I could come to you for some tuition when the time comes. I may be paying a high premium, but for now, it’s one I’m happy to pay. Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 On current-model Ducatos the (double overhead) cams of the 2.2litre and 3.0litre motors are chain-driven. The 2.3litre motor employs a cam-to-cam chain, but the 'primary' drive to the cam system is by belt. As panagah suggests, this design difference is the likely reason for the 2.3litre powerplant's higher 56K/112K miles service times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panagah Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 Exustrek - 2008-01-12 9:12 AM Peter / Panagah Over the years i expect you’ll save yourselves a quite a sizeable sum of money, do you think that not having a full service history will make it difficult to sell on or affect the vehicle’s resale value & if so, will the money you saved on servicing be lost in added depreciation because of this? To be honest, regardless of where i took the van for service, i would have no idea if the work had been done correctly or not, you may assume from that statement that i know nothing of the workings under the bonnet………. You’d be right. Our local Fiat dealer has a great reputation & see no real need to look for an alternative, especially as our van is still within the manufacturer’s warranty period & has been subject to numerous recalls, including the infamous water ingress issue. I know i could take the van elsewhere for servicing but feel the level of service i receive from them exceeds my expectations. I think a good relationship & regular dealings with this service centre has made the whole experience of sorting out recall work / warranty start dates etc totally painless. I’ve read some of the stories where people have had to stamp their feet, scream & shout, spend countless hours on the phone, write numerous letters etc. all this can leave a bad taste & sour the whole experience of ownership. My experience to sort out all these issues was a two minute phone call & leave the rest to them. If we were to keep the vehicle beyond the warranty period, self servicing is something i would consider, it’s prolly a good way to get to know your own vehicle. Panagah, you don’t live far from us, maybe I could come to you for some tuition when the time comes. I may be paying a high premium, but for now, it’s one I’m happy to pay. Bryan That is a really good point Bryan. I think that you have to look at it from different angles. Firstly, If I was to sell my van I would have to work harder than that of one with a complete service history. I could sell my van with a complete service history. A history is just that, a history of service. Everytime I service my van I write in the book exactly what I have done to the van. Every time I go on a long trip of say more than 2k when I return I change the oil and the filter. Every year I change the fuel filter, and air Filter. I have recently drained all fluids and replaced them (something a main dealer would not always do) . I always have a good look around the engine bay checking all hose clips and external belts to ensure there is no problems, (something a dealer will tell you they do but probably not). I take the wheels of the van and clean up the brakes once a year and obviously check brake wear, once again something that I would expect a dealer to do but rarely they do. I then reset the service indicator. The only thing I am unable to do YET is to plug in to the ECU to check for any fault codes. However when I take my van for it's annual MOT at a good independant dealer, he always plugs it in and prints a service report off for me. Now weigh that up against a van with a main dealership history. Whereby the average owner only appears to milage of say 6k per year. He might get the van done every 12 months. It will look good on paper but is it really looked after? What I would say is that my van is now 4 years old and therefore well out of its main dealer warranty. If it were not I would of course have no option except to take it to a garage to be serviced. Therefore If my van was to be advertised as a private sale with the level of service I have given it, all accompanied by reciepts for oils, filters etc would it actually show it has been better cared for than say a fiat/garage maintained van? The other thing to consider is that although as my family grows and my van shrinks I keep toying with the idea of changing it to a 181 or sundance with a rear lounge insteaed of the rear bunks that we have. But with new swivel seats to be fitted to improve the living area space, ie I will have some where to sit, coupled with the fact that I have worked out we lived in our van for 9 weeks in total last year. Based on this I will probably not change it for another 3-4 years. This would mean I have been the owner of the van for a total of 6 out of it's 8 years. There is a floor in price of any van. Once it hits that, no ammount of clever sales ploy is going to move a van on. If on the otherhand I was changing my Van every 2-3 years as some are privileged to do then I would not do any work myself and would go to main dealers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Grumpy Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 I think you will find the 2.3jtd is actually an Iveco engine and has little in common with any of the Fiat motors, including service intervals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betsy Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 Hi, Have enjoyed reading everything that has been posted so far. I too do all my own servicing and reckon that my Hymer is just as well looked after than if I took it to my own garage in Poole (they are not a main dealer but do a lot of work on motorhomes and MOT all my vehicles including the Hymer). I always keep a very careful record of all the work done to each of my vehicles - engine oil and filters are changed every 3,000 miles and two of my old cars have done well over 200,000 miles each. I have recently sold my last Hymer (a 1997 Fiat based B544) which I had bought second-hand in Germany two years previously and done about 40,000 kilometers on(Croatia, Morrocco etc etc all without any problems - except the fairly common loss of fifth gear!!). The chap that bought it was plainly impressed when I showed him the list of everything (and receipts) that had been done. A fully stamped dealer service book is, therefore, not always the only way to go. I have found the little yellow book showing servicing/repair procedures for the Fiat Ducato bought through the small ads in MMM to be invaluable. My latest Hymer is a 2003 Fiat Ducato based B584. Whilst I had my garage replace the cam belt after I brought it back from Germany all other jobs will be DIY. I have saved a fortune and always been confident that the job has been properly done. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exustrek Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 Thanks Derek………… I now know that our van has a timing chain. Other than not having to worry about changing a belt before it snaps & the cost involved with that i don’t know if this makes any difference. For those that do their own servicing……….. There’s little doubt in my mind that your vans will be better looked after than our own, i suspect that the only time I’ll be likely to lift the bonnet between services will be if something goes wrong & even then i’ll most likely to leave it to someone else. Panagah / Betsy………… Good points on future resale. I’d have no problems at all buying a van with a history trail such as Betsy provided with his Hymer. Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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