Car service schedule

Car Service Schedule spreadsheet allows to plan and record the services due on a car. It is especially suited to people who do their own maintenance.

Introduction

Some time ago I had a few problems with my car. After bringing it to the car repair center, I discovered that I had forgotten to service it for a very long time. The oil was very old, the candles were consumed and the filter half-blocked. Part of the problem was that I kept postponing the service, which I considered a quite unpleasant and expensive "pill" to take. The other issue was that I had no possibility of setting a reminder, since the service is normally set on a distance base, while calendar reminders are set on a time base. On newer cars the service is notified to the driver, while in older cars like mine it is due to the owner to remember it. This was not immediate: I should have checked the maintenance manual of the car every couple of weeks, verified the miles when the next service was do, and tried to remember it as I was approaching that mileage.

This system proved not to be working, so I tried to find a way to use Excel to help me calculate the next service date. Also, I do part of the maintenance on my own, so it would have been good to have the possibility to see a specific "service to do list" and decide which items I wanted to complete on my own. This is why the Car service schedule spreadsheet was created.

The car service schedule spreadsheet

The first page (Odo reading) of the spreadsheet allows to record a series of odo readings. Every time a new reading is inserted the spreadsheet automatically calculates the average distance that the car has travelled from the previous reading and also the average value from the first reading. This data will be used to "predict" the date of next service, but can also be useful to get cheaper quotes when renewing the car insurance.

The second page (service planning) allows the user to list all the services that will be due in the life of the car. For each of these it's possible to insert the target mileage (or km). The spreadsheet will automatically calculate when the next service is due. This is done by assuming that the car will continue travelling the same average distance with time. The more frequently the user does an odo reading, the more accurate the prediction will be. On the same page it's also possible to list all the items that are due on each service by ticking them from the list. For example, in my car the oil must be changed every 30000 km, but the brakes oil only every 60000. Both the items will be present in the list, but the second one will only be ticked on service #2. Finally, it's possible to record the service completion date and miles (or km). This helps to keep updated records and triggers the cell that will show the next service date. This can be used to set-up a calendar reminder that will notify the approaching calculate mileage.

The last page (Checklist) is designed for the people who want to perform the service (or part of it) on their own. The user can select the service that is going to be performed. This automatically pulls the table that lists all the items due in that specific service. When the user presses the "Print checklist" button, the table is automatically filtered to only show the items that are due. A window allows to choose the preferred printer, and this triggers the printing of the checklist. The page is designed to be printer friendly: it's black and white and only the essential information is recorded. If the user prefers to save the page as a PDF, this is possible using a third party PDF printing software (like PDF creator).