How long have you gone without service?

[leelemmon]

I tried to find a thread about forgetting to have your vehicle serviced and I can't find one. I'm in the Navy and will retire January 31, 2008. My mom bought her '95 Camry LE around August of that year, new. Since then she has not had the car serviced other than new tires and oil changes until three years ago and again last week. This means that no service (i.e. no 20k, 40k, 60k, or 80k have been done) and she's got 85k on it now. I noticed last week that the temp on the engine wasn't coming up after driving her car around town while I had my Tundra serviced. After picking up my Tundra, I took her car in and had it checked. She needed new cam seals, oil pump gasket, type T oil seals, cylinder gasket, water pump assembly, thermostat, radiator cap, her radiator was only half full (never been flushed or changed for that matter), her power steering fluid had never been changed, and brake system had never been flushed. These two were almost black in their reservoir. She had mentioned that her heater wasn't working that well and it took a long time to heat up. Now that most of the deficiencies have been taken care of (still 3-4 things need to be fixed) it's heating up within 3-5 minutes here in Amarillo while the temp is down into the teens in the morning. I don't know about any other cars that would have survived that much neglect for that length of time. I guess I forgot to tell her before I left Amarillo in '95 going out to Naval Air Station Fallon, NV that she needed to do periodic maintenance on her car. Most of the time, unless I tell her specifically that she needs to do something, she doesn't know or know to ask. She's Japanese and has a different line of thinking that me and my brother have. I guess I will have to keep an eye on her car for her now that I'm almost retired. Anyway, anyone else neglect their vehicles for that length of time? Chime in. How good is your Toyota? I'll definitely stick with this brand.