Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Just Serviced My Toyota Alphard

I just serviced my giant (Toyota Alphard) today and I thought I want to share my experience here.

Previously I wrote about the myth of maintaining the giant and I think I have debunk that myth today. Regular maintenance of your giant doesn't has to be expensive.

As I prepared to for my regular maintenance I bought the following spare parts on my own:

1. Original Toyota Oil Filter (90915-YZZE2) - RM24
2. 4.0L of Penzoil 10W-30 mineral oil - RM48
3. Workmanship for the service - RM10

So my expenses for this service only cost me RM72!

I have been hearing from many sources that Toyota Service Cente actually uses engine oil supplied by Penzoil. I decided to give this a try this time as it meet the engine oil specification as specify in the owner manual.

I didn't change the air filter element because it is still very clean since the last change. The workshop personnel did check through the rest of the maintainence items like brake fluid, brake pad etc and they are all found to be in good order so there is no need to change/service them.

In fact I bought more than I needed this time as I just wanted to be ready. I also bought

4. 4.0L Toyota Original Automatic Transmission Oil () - RM72
5. Oil Pan Gasket for Automatic Transmission (35168-21020) - RM 26
6. Original Toyota Long Life Coolant (Red -  088891L) - RM18

However after the workshop foreman checked the automatic transmission oil, it is still pretty clean and he suggested not to change the transmission fluid this time. Also he doesn't recommend to just change the coolant as the coolant in the tank still show plenty of red colour. In fact they only recommend to change the coolant when they service the radiator and not on regular basis. So now I have some spare parts with me that I will probably use it on my other car (which incidently also can use the Toyota automatic transmission oil).

I know an owner of new generation Alphard from Singapore than come down to Kuala Lumpur regularly and his regular maintenance of his giant is also pretty similar to mine. Change the engine oil and oil filter at every 5,000km and then he is back to the island again.

Also spare parts for Toyota Alphard is not difficult to find. In fact many parts are share among different Toyota model so you can always find original Toyota parts for your giant. The oil filter that I bought with part number 90915-YZZE2 has the following Toyota engines series written on it label:

  • 4A-G series
  • 3S-GTE series (excl. Celica ST165)
  • 2Y, 3Y, AZ series
If you do your maintenance regularly, it is not expensive at all for routine maintenance of  your beloved giant.

Edit: Actually the workshop I used is located in Kampung Sungei Kayu Ara. I don't know why I mentioned Sungei Penchala which is in another area in PJ.

10 comments:

  1. Yes, I also just realised this when I took delivery of my giant a couple of weeks back and was pleasantly surprised by the low maintenance cost compared to my continental car. Well, I did not pay as little as you did but it was cheap enough. Thanks for this great blog which I've learned a lot.

    Cheers,
    yn

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi yn,

    Thanks for visiting my blog.

    I think we get the benefit of having spare parts coming from our neighbour country up north which give us lower Toyota spare parts price.

    Many spare parts for continental car are still imported so the overall costs become higher. Also the dealers for continental car spare parts tends to think they can put a premium to their spare parts hence making the maintenance cost much higher compared to the giant.

    This is the lowest expenses I ever had in maintaining a car, even lower than the E23 that I used to own.

    Also since we are not bound by the total service enforced by official Toyota service center that include many items that required change at regular interval, we have the option to change what we need hence reducing the maintenance cost over the long run.

    The maintenance cost of my giant is much much lower than my previous Honda CR-V serviced at Honda Service Center.

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, can I know is there any workshop near SS2 or Taman Megah area that service alphard with reasonable price? I've just bought this giant and planning to service it next month.

    Hope to hear from you soon and this is really a great blog.! :)

    Cheers
    Ans

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Ans,

    I am not familiar with any workshop near SS2 or Taman Megah that are familiar with Alphard. Also it is very difficult to find a workshop that will service your Alphard at reasonable price.

    The main reason being most workshop treat the Alphard as an luxury car so they tends to put a premium on the service for our giant.

    My workshop is at Sungei Penchala so if it is not inconvenient for you to go there, then drop me an email at askds@live.com and I'll give you the address to that workshop.

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  5. hi there.
    i have 2003 alphard and i need ur help if u can find me the Relay Assy Door Control unit. the unit tht control to open and close left side door automatically. parts model is 85980-58010 (aisin).
    hope to hear from u soon. thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi,

    Have you try checking with Wing Hin?

    Or have you tried but not able to get the part locally?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey nice post dude, i do own one Toyota camry, for which i used to visit Toyota dealer very regular bases which cost me something more but i feel comfortable with their service.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Joshua,

    Thanks for dropping by.

    Regular service is the way to maintain the health of our engine. I guess Toyota dealer has a standardized pricing for their services so their will definiltey be higher than most workshops.

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi boss..could you please email me complete address of the said workshop? My email - mdfared@gmail.com..planning to service my giant soon..thanks

    Rgds,
    Fared

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,

      That place has only two workshops so it is rather easy to find.

      I am still trying to include location map to it but somehow the link is broken.

      The GPS coordinate is "Hup Seng" lat=3.13307397001, lon=101.608398452. I am still trying to find a way to put a map link in this post.

      Delete