C5 X7 service

[centurus2400]

Bought this car last October, and have been very pleased with it so far. (2.0 Exclusive) Dead cow,massage facility, auto box, panoramic roof - lovely.
I don't care though if the service interval says 20,00 miles for the oil change, 10,000 miles seems more sensible.
I managed to get the correct Total Ineo ECS oil from ebay at a considerable saving, plus some OE oil filters from Lithuania, and the correct spanner for undoing said filter housing.


Despite there being no recommended interval for changing the coolant, at 6 years old I thought I'd change it anyway, and purchased a suitable amount of Glacelf concentrate.

The first thing was that the rather large under tray is held on by lots of those half turn fasteners. From previous experience with my earlier C5 I had plenty of replacements to hand as the retainers tend to rust away. Again, these are cheap enough on ebay.
There are also four M5 threaded bolts/washers which go rusty - plus gas freed them off and I replaced them with stainless fittings
Once the under tray was removed it all looked very familiar. The oil drain plug needs an 8mm hex key. The paper element oil filter is a doddle, and even better, it doesn't cover the engine with dirty oil as you remove it.

As for the coolant, there are two bleed caps, one on the right hand side of the engine on the thermostat housing, and one at the back of the engine near the bulkhead for the heater. Remove bottom hose, undo bleed caps, allow to drain. Flush through, fill with new coolant, replace caps. All very easy and straightforward. Antifreeze concentrate mixed 50/50 with deionized water.

Next job is a pair of new front tyres and to get the tracking adjusted, one of the wheels is badly out and has scuffed the tyre.I suspect this is a legacy of some work a previous owner had done by a main dealer - these would be the same ones who fitted new front pads and discs and chopped off the leads for the pad wear warning..!

[wurlycorner]

Hate it when garages just go cutting off stuff like brake pad wear warning systems etc. Lazy, lazy lazy and it's not their bloody property to go making decisions like that!

[vborovic]

Some are cutting corners that way, expecting the client won't actually check the quality of work

[Stickyfinger]

Company cars/warranty car/lease car..... who looks ? most do not even check the oil/water

People who buy their own new cars have no clue either on the whole, its why LED lights and Bluetooth and "sealed for life" is more important to them