Author Topic: Car Maintenance Spreadsheet? (Read 4926 times)

keflaman · « **on:** May 10, 2012, 07:01:28 AM »

I have a stack of maintenance records (~one inch thick) for my car going back to the original owner. Better than 95% of all the work was performed at the BMW dealership and I would like to transfer that information into some sort of a data base. Do any of you have a template or suggestions for building one? You can probably tell I know very little about the subject, but this would be a very good primer for me to learn the basics.

I'm thinking in the areas of: Date, mileage, work performed, parts replaced, parts cost, labor costs.

Who out there has the patience of a saint and would be willing to help this old fart learn something new?

sfinsf · « **Reply #1 on:** May 10, 2012, 08:20:47 AM »

one of the first questions that I think you need to answer is what type of data do you want out of it? Is this just a way to record and catalog or are you wanting to sort and produce different reports? The thing about a database is that it is just a pile of data. In my experience the type of data and how it's organized all comes down to what you want to do with the data in the pile. Excel is a pretty awesome, basic tool with tons of great features. It does well with numbers and can also handle text info. If you can detail what you want I bet I can help in some way. I'm a data junkie. I manage inventory and data for a living

DesktopDave · « **Reply #2 on:** May 10, 2012, 01:48:16 PM »

If it helps I'll email you mine. PM me your email address & I'll send it along. I'm not sure how useful it'll be, but it works for me. It's pretty rudimentary...if you know basic Excel formula stuff you'll have no trouble improving it.

Basically, I add two worksheets for each new car I buy..one for fuel mileage and another for everything else...parts, consumables, maintenance items, etc. They then total together & allow me to track expenses per mile very closely. If it'll help I'll leave my data in it so you can see how it works.

keflaman · « **Reply #3 on:** May 10, 2012, 05:17:52 PM »

I'm just looking for something that I can use for trend analysis, track maintenance, and search records. For example, just last week I was wondering when the sparkplugs had been replaced and I had to sift through all the paperwork which is in various states of readability. Not to mention five pounds of staples snagging each other. It would be nice to search for "spark plugs" and have the results show up with date, mileage and part numbers.

Sometimes I see items for sale with their part numbers and it would be nice to search my data base and see if that was installed in my vehicle.

Thanks guys!

DesktopDave · « **Reply #4 on:** May 10, 2012, 06:10:42 PM »

I know what you mean. I switched to having a computer run my inventories and it helped a lot. I love to see the trends on fuel mileage in particular. The car has improved nearly 10% during my ownership.

Some changes are really unexpected too - when you're dealing with single digit percentages a spreadsheet is the only easy way I've found to do it.

My next stage is to move the PC right into the garage. I have the BMW code readers already, but I haven't set up my convertible Fujitsu Lifebook (laptop/tablet style) just yet. I'm thinking the stylus touchscreen should really work well when I move into fuel injection tuning later on.

sfinsf · « **Reply #5 on:** May 10, 2012, 09:42:39 PM »

Excel sounds like it might be your best solution. You can search your spreadsheet by doing a (Cntrl F) and typing in "spark"... it will look for any entry that matches that word. It's relatively easy to set up. Excel is only as good as what you put in... garbage in garbage out. Do you have a pc or mac?

Excel can be really simple or very complex depending on how you want to use it and what you want out of it.

keflaman · « **Reply #6 on:** May 11, 2012, 06:18:32 AM »

Dave - My mpg tracking is pretty rudimentary...I have an old leather pocket protector cliped to the passenger sunvisor that I empty out once or twice a year and look at the numbers.

stj - I have a pc.

colin86325 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 11, 2012, 11:14:41 AM »

If you search Sourceforge for "vehicle maintenace" you can find several free programs such as:

http://vmt.sourceforge.net/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/cauvevmns/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vst/

sfinsf · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2012, 09:43:58 AM »

kefla, let me know if you need or want any more input or assist. I would be willing to help you create the template and you could learn to tweak it to your needs.