Before Servicing Your Bike,,,

The best way to keep your vehicle running fresh, lean and green is to do the maintenance on regular basis. All maintenance requirements which owner should follow to keep vehicle in good condition are always provided by manufacturer in owner’s manual. It tells you everything you need to know, from what type of vehicle oil to use and how often it should be changed, to recommended intervals for engine and transmission checks, etc. Failing to follow this maintenance rule could void your vehicle’s warranty and reduce your vehicle life.

The design life of all vehicles requires periodic maintenance. Such as chains need adjustment, brakes need to be tighten, proper lubrication levels to be maintained, and so on. In some cases, certain components need replacement, e.g., flexible cables, clutch plates, etc. Anytime we fail to perform maintenance activities intended by the equipment’s designer, we shorten the operating life of the equipment. Study over the decades, says that vehicle or machines maintained properly may run longer or performed better than designed one. Instead of waiting for a vehicle to fail, we can utilize preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, or reliability centred maintenance.

Most of the drivers love their vehicles and follow the preventive type of maintenance either periodically or non-periodically. Rest of the drivers wait till some breakdown in their machines. Service stations perform very minor maintenance operations in free services provided by the companies.

These operations are sufficient to run the new vehicle efficiently. Nowadays, service stations remind the owners about upcoming free services via phone, SMS etc. but what should be done after spending the free services? So here are 15 tips before submitting your vehicles to the service station for paid service.

1. Authorized service stations are not favored by the customers for paid preventive services because the billing amount goes very high. Customer doesn’t get opportunity for negotiation in billing amount also, nevertheless you should always prefer company’s authorised service stations because of skilled workers along with more number of efficient equipments.
2. If cost affects to you a lot and you are forced to go with some private garages then always prefer anearby garage from your home or office for which you got good feedback from your circle. It reduces your time as well as cost. You can also go to inspect your vehicle during the service if you are free. I often do that even with YAMAHA’s authorised service station.
3. Always prefer periodic maintenance if possible. Define the time period according to your usage. Prepare a schedule for a year. 3 months are generally preferred by the service stations. You can increase this duration up to 5 months if you don’t have extensive driving. You can have spa wash for your vehicles during this 5 months.
4. If you can’t follow the schedule, then go for non-periodic maintenance but it should be preventive. That means, the time period between two successive services is not defined. You can go as per your convenience or as per your unpredicted usage, but before having any breakdown.
5. Check your vehicle for any scratches and dents before going to the service stations. Also specify it to the vehicle inspector and if possible, make him to note down on the job card. Many of the service stations refuse their worker’s blunder at the time of delivery, if you observe any scratches or dents.
6. Always prefer a service station / garage where job cards are used. Job card is the communication language between vehicle inspector and worker.
7. Make a written list of your problems before going to service station otherwise there is a possibility to forget something important at the time of rush hours. Make sure that your problems are noted down by the vehicle inspector.
8. Check the tool kit provided in your vehicle. It is advisable to remove it. If you can’t then count the total number of tools before and after service.
9. Remove any costly and important stuff from your vehicle (if available).
10. Always take a drive with vehicle inspector if you are having some dynamic problems in your vehicle. Try to convince him if he refuses your problem. (mostly happens at TVS service stations)
11. Prefer the oil change in front of yourself as I do.
12. Make yourself aware about a distance of nearest petrol pump from the service station / garage. Also calculate the mileage of your vehicle. Some amount of petrol is used during the servicing. So keep a level of petrol according to these bits and pieces.
13. Never accept any replacement proposal blindly. Make sure whether it is really required or not. You can check the maintenance schedule in the user guide or can have suggestions from outside.
14. Ask for a tentative estimate. Remove any of the servicing or replacing proposal which is not very important at the stage, if the estimate is too much for your pocket.
15. Authorised service stations also introduce promotional and yearly servicing offers to the customers. So always ask for any promotional and yearly offers before leaving the service station.

I hope these points will help you in future and you all will try to have preventive maintenance. Please add your valuable comments and suggestions.