· 3 min read
Car maintenance log: a free printable template
A free car maintenance log to print, or to fill in as a spreadsheet: the car, every service and repair, wear parts, MOT tests and track days.
The service book that came with the car tells you when the servicing is due. It only records what was stamped, and nothing of what was done elsewhere or by you. This template covers the other half of the job: recording what was actually done, for you and for whoever buys the car next.
If you are looking for your model's service schedule, the intervals set by the manufacturer, it is in the owner's handbook, on the manufacturer's website or at a dealer. This template is blank: you fill it with your own history.
Download the template
- The log as a PDF, to print: 7 landscape A4 pages.
- The spreadsheet version: it opens in Excel, LibreOffice or Google Sheets.
Free, no sign-up, no email address.
What it contains
The car. Make, model, engine, registration, and above all the VIN: that is what ties the history to the car. The registration can change, the VIN never does. It is in field E of the V5C logbook.
Servicing and repairs. Sixty lines: the date, the mileage, the work done, the parts and their part numbers, the garage — or "DIY" —, the cost and the invoice number.
Wear parts. Tyres, pads, discs, brake fluid, oil, timing belt or chain, battery: the date and mileage each one was fitted. Without them, nobody can say where a part stands, not even you.
MOT tests and track days. The MOT records a mileage on a fixed date, taken by a third party: it is the first thing a wary buyer cross-checks. Track days are what wears a car fastest, and what gets written down least.
Keeping it so that it counts
One line, on the day. A log filled in from memory six months later is a log you are making up.
Always the invoice number. The invoice is the proof, not the line in the log. File them in the same order as the log, and the whole thing can be checked in two minutes.
Did it yourself? Say so. Write "DIY", keep the receipt for the parts, note the mileage. Dated DIY maintenance is better than silence, and far better than an invoice that is only implied.
Don't fill the gaps. A missing line stays credible; an invented one does not, and an attentive buyer can tell. If the history already has gaps, see what can be rebuilt after a lost service book.
What paper can't do
For many cars, this template is enough. It still has three limits.
It gets lost. And everything that was only written there goes with it.
It warns you of nothing. It says what was done, not what is coming due, nor where the wear parts stand between two garage visits.
It proves nothing on its own. A line written the night before the sale looks just like one written three years ago. That goes for paper and spreadsheets alike, as we explain in spreadsheet or verifiable history.
The digital version, free for one vehicle. StemmaPass reads your invoices, resets the parts you replace, works out the wear of each one and produces a link the buyer can open without an account.