2013 Toyota 86 Part 5: First Service

A fresh lungful of oil for our pocket rocket
By Imthishan Giado

2013 Toyota 86 Service

What are the three most unpleasant words in the English language? Don’t worry, I’ll save you the trouble of Googling them; it’s ‘break-in period’.

There’s nothing worse really then having just taken possession of a hot new sports car with a dizzying 7500rpm redline and then being told you can’t actually use any of said power until the 1000km mark clicks up on the odometer. No time period ever passes as slowly as those first 1000 clicks, and there is no better indicator of how little you actually drive until you spend all day scurrying around for errands only to look down in your garage at the end and see just 35km added to the total.

What’s worse, the manual strictly forbids driving over 4000rpm during the break-in period. In a car this thin on torque, overtaking quickly becomes a tense game of precision power delivery and timing, rather than knocking back a gear and heading for the upper ranges of the tach. At least it’s given me a chance to get acquainted with the very notchy Subaru-style gearbox and the superlight clutch. No traffic difficulties yet, but it’s a completely different animal from the Miata I sold and to be honest, is taking some getting used-to in terms of smoothly transitioning through the gears.

At last, the great day arrived. My 86 was ready to be serviced.

2013 Toyota 86 ServiceAs the more eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed, the car isback in the Ramool workshop where it received its inspection and rustproofing. It’s the one closest to my house and where I serviced all my Toyotas in the past so it was the natural choice. But even though I’d been servicing cars here for years, I still was daft enough to forget that you need an appointment first.

 

2013 Toyota 86 Part 3 The WorkshopFortunately, our old friend Majel was on duty and pointed out that the workshop does have a small provision for walk-in customers, albeit not many. Even thought it was already five o’clock and the workshop closes at 6, she still managed to find an empty bay for us so a big thumbs up to Majel!

2013 Toyota 86 ServiceSo what exactly do they do during the first service? For the most part, it’s just an oil change. One to has to remember that this engine has only been running a short time, so there’s a lot of tiny metal shavings and other debris floating around in the lubricating oil, as well as other remnants of the manufacturing process.

2013 Toyota 86 ServiceFirst things first – out comes the drain plug, and out comes the dirty oil. Of course, you have to make sure the oil pan is in place first!

2013 Toyota 86 ServiceMeanwhile, another technician ‘walks’ the length of the car with a torch, looking for any damage to the chassis, debris or parts which look out of place. He also inspects the tread of the tyres and checks the air pressure. With this car being so new, the visual inspection doesn’t take very long.

2013 Toyota 86 ServiceIt takes about five minutes for all the old oil to drain out of the crank case, after which it’s time to install a new filter. Unlike most cars, the oil filter is very easy to access being right on top of the engine. And yes, that’s an actual Subaru filter, reminding you who actually built this car.

2013 Toyota 86 ServiceAl Futtaim’s preferred oil supplier is Total, which isn’t my preferred choice; I’d much rather use a Castrol or Mobil 1 blend instead, but if I want to keep my five year unlimited warranty, Total is what I get.

Speaking of oil and warranties there’s something very interesting and somewhat odd going on here. You can choose between regular semi-synthetic oil with 5000km intervals or a full synthetic with much more convenient 10,000km intervals. Who wouldn’t pick the latter? Ah, but if you want to keep that all-important five-year warranty, you have to service your care every 5,000kms anyway. Which makes using synthetic oil rather expensive and redundant.

2013 Toyota 86 ServiceJust a couple more minor checks to see if all the lamps and switches are working properly and then it’s off to the washing bay. Or, because I was in a rush, not.

2013 Toyota 86 ServiceAll that effort for one of these little stickers in the door jamb! This first service is free and took under 60 minutes, which is about the same as my local lube joint. If I had had it washed, tack on another 20 minutres by estimate. Worth sticking with the dealer, I reckon.

7500rpm awaits.

Read more here!

Part 1: The Deal

Part 2: The Checklist

Part 3: The Workshop

Part 4: The Delivery

Part 5: First Service

Part 6: Clever Vs Dumb

One response to “2013 Toyota 86 Part 5: First Service”

  1. swatch バンド,スウォッチ アイロニー

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