Well, I took my 2003 Forester 2.5X in early this morning to the dealer to have a few routine things done as well as have a headlamp replaced. I bought the car in August with 46,000 miles on it, and it currently has a bit over 53,000.

I was expecting a routine service, but I got a call from the service manager strongly suggesting for me to perform the 60,000 mile service now. He told me that it appeared to the mechanic that the car had had NO scheduled mainence (i.e. origional fuel filter).
Now here are my two questions:
1. How could they tell it had no scheduled mainence? I know in the service logbook in the car it dosn't have anything written down but is there ways to tell this?
2. I told them to go ahead and do it, but ut if they are right what are the implications for later in the cars lifespan? I know he only replaced the oil every 65,000 with regular oil, and that it had a fairly tough life in wyoming (lots of COLD temps, and 15 miles of dirt road per day)>
TIA
-Jeff

 

The way they would typically tell if no scheduled maint. had been performed would be to look at the condition of the fluids and filters in the vehicle, and since you mentioned that the car was subject to excessive dirt each day, it may have just been overdue, but maint. may have been previously performed. Manufacturers will suggest that routine maintainance be done more often than suggested in cases where excessive dirt and wear may occur. So, even if the 15 or 30k service was done, there may have been 20 to 30 worth of wear put on the vehicle due to the conditions that it was subjected to during the 15k mi. since the service was done.

Odds are that the poor treatment of the vehicle in the past will have little to no effect on the vehicle life, IMO. It will depend more on how you drive it now, how you maintain it, and how long you intend to keep it. Obviously, the longer you keep it and the harder you drive it, the more likely you are to run into problems down the road. Just keep it up and don't pound on it and you should be fine for years to come. Anyone else have a thought on this?

 

Yeah, the fuel filter is the give-away, because the car shipped with a black one (subaru replacement ones aren't painted as far as I know). Often times, owners only change the engine oil & filter, ignoring the tranny oil (or atf), fuel filter, diff oil, and brake fluid. They can usually tell if fluids were changed by looking at the drain plugs... usually you can tell if they are in a virgin state.... untouched.



Most of this stuff is recommended at 30k, but none of this will hurt the car like not changing the engine oil regularly. I would go ahead and do all of those things now, either at the dealer or by you!