It's that time again. The every 9000 mile odd oil change 'A' service and the check all those boots and joints and brakes inspection 'B' service.
I was wondering, watching the last 3000 miles to next A service indication tick by, when would it suddenly also ask for a B service too. It turned out it would be in the last 700 miles which happened just after I'd arranged an A service with the garage. Grr.
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Worse still, since I was just expecting a quick oil change, I'd arranged the service on a Saturday morning when the mechanics work a half day and they figured they'd also have enough time to fit a new front bumper. To replace the one damaged in a low speed accident in December 2012.
To top all that I also had wanted the garage to look into two more areas on the day. One was some slight staining on the rear brake calliper - I was worried that it might be the beginnings of a brake fluid leak - and the other was a engine fault warning that was worrying me.
This fault showed up with the aid of a gadget bought to watch my driving efficiency. The gadget is the Garmin EcoRoute HD. This is an OBCII to Bluetooth data sender that allows certain parameters of the engine management unit to be read.
Garmin's free Mechanic app run on my Samsung Galaxy SII Android Smartphone reads data from the EcoRoute wirelessly over Bluetooth.
Garmin's Mechanic app, aside from aiding economic driving, also has a fault warning capability. It can indicate when something is being reported by the engine's management computer. It uses an icon similar to the familiar "Check Engine" light you would see on a car's instrument panel.
This is exactly what happened to me but, oddly, Shifty's own check engine light wasn't on. So was the Mechanic app wrong? Opening up the faults page on the app didn't reveal what the cause of the fault was. So I guessed that either the app was faulty or possibly didn't know how to explain the code under one of the fault categories listed.
So when I got Shifty back with a nice new bumper on, oil changed, inspection done with no problems or adjustments needed, I asked the garage whether their own diagnostic computer could find a fault.
It turned out that the Garmin app wasn't dreaming up a fault. There was a fault "flag" set. It recorded that there had been a single incidence of an I-Shift transmission out-of-spec detection.
This was explained to me that the "fault" was that there was one mechanical transmission operation that took longer than the 0.25s allowed. Once in 90,000 miles! I can forgive that. The garage cleared the flag and the Mechanic app is now happy showing Shifty as fault free too.
And the staining was nothing to worry about - it was due to cleaning spray residue from a recent rear brake strip-down, lubricate and reassembly service done a month back. I get this done whenever I feel that the handbrake is requiring more effort than I feel should be required to hold Shifty on steep slopes. This work is required less frequently than our previous Jazz 1.4 i-DSI CVT-7.
Well that's it - the next "service" is now 8000 miles and it's Shifty's first ever '8' service. Code 8 is an air cleaner element change service. It's Shifty's first air filter change meaning the current air filter has lasted nearly 100,000 miles!
Some general stuff:
- Fuel economy is averaging about 62 miles per imperial gallon which is in line with this time of year with average air temperatures during drives of around 14 degrees C. It should climb up to 65MPG come the summer proper depending on my air conditioner use.
- I've had to switch from Shell V Power 99 octane gasoline with molybdenum and cleaners to Esso Supreme. My local station stopped selling premium grade fuels and switched to another budget brand. I am convinced that using premium fuels with higher octane and those containing cleaning additives gives me a better MPG. The higher power output at lower engine speeds really works well particularly as Shifty's love of using the highest gear ratios in any given scenario.
Summary. Shifty still going strong, with minimal actual work on the car - just service items, fuel and tyres.
