Ford Mondeo servicing

[RP64]

Looking for opinions/ experience/ thoughts/ advice...

I have a 4 year old Mondeo 2.0tdci. It has been serviced by Ford for the first 6 services (60k miles). Is it worth my money to continue servicing with Ford or should I look for a reputable independent garage?
Does anybody have an understanding of the difference between scheduled and essential Ford servicing? Does the scheduled servicing follow a cycle of interim, full, interim major or similar? I drive the car about 20k miles a year so with 10k mile service intervals servicing is required about once every 6 months.
I have the Ford pass app and it does show the intervals for some items such as brake fluid every 2 years, coolant after 10 years (Really?? Surely not!) And cambelt at 10 years 120k miles. What about fuel filter replacement? It was done by Ford at 30k and 60k so I'm guessing a 30k interval?

Also I will hopefully drive the car for 5 years or so by which time it will have over 150k miles so resale value isn't really a factor. I'm just concerned with keeping up the maintenance and the car being as reliable as possible.
I ran a vauxhall insignia from 50k miles to 180k miles over 6 years and had it serviced by vauxhall throughout. Customer service was excellent and prices very reasonable. Ford servicing seems more expensive although I have only had the 60k mile scheduled service done since I bought the car.
Thanks in advance!

[stevemcs]

Personally i'd us any garage you feel comfortable with, servicing used to be really simple, Oil service then Oil. air. cabin and fuel filters

Brake fluid, we test, no point in replacing it unless the water content is high

Coolant, its due at 10 years as is the cambelt, when we change the cambelt we change the coolant no need for separate jobs. For an oil service we charge £120, full service £220, I think the benefit Ford had was they were offering fee breakdown cover with some of their services.

[Panamax]

stevemcs said:

Brake fluid, we test, no point in replacing it unless the water content is high.

Out of interest, what do you typically find?

It's often seemed to me the standard "change fluid every two years" is more frequent than needed.

[RP64]

stevemcs said:

Personally i'd us any garage you feel comfortable with, servicing used to be really simple, Oil service then Oil. air. cabin and fuel filters

Brake fluid, we test, no point in replacing it unless the water content is high

Coolant, its due at 10 years as is the cambelt, when we change the cambelt we change the coolant no need for separate jobs. For an oil service we charge £120, full service £220, I think the benefit Ford had was they were offering fee breakdown cover with some of their services.

Thanks for this ☺️

Have you any idea about the gearbox oil and when that should be replaced? Is there a filter as well? It is a manual transmission

[stevemcs]

Panamax said:

Out of interest, what do you typically find?

It's often seemed to me the standard "change fluid every two years" is more frequent than needed.

Most are 1 - 2 %, change is 4%, we have 2-3 per month where we advise its changed, but it would also depend on the car and age, there is no point changing the oil on a 15 year old Golf when you know full well the bleed nipples will snap and a £50 job turns into cslipers for the customer.

On BMW/Mini where its on the idrive we just reset and advise the customer it may go out of sync, by that the car thinks its two years away but it may get tested and its advised its changed beforehand.

To be honest its just a con - imo

Ref Mondeo - there is no service requirement on the manual box and no oil filter (only the Japanese do this) if you want to change it budget on half an hour to three quarters of an hour.

You can use Comma or Opie oils to find out wants needed. You would only need 2 litres.