In case anyone is wondering how an unserviced vehicle can be dangerous, please see this:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2119488.ece
or this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/6101348.stm
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It still should be serviced every year as per MI, as car makers state as well, either a milage or every 12 months. It always amazes me how people think like this. They have their car serviced and MOT'd anually even if they only use it for a few hours a week, but expect a boiler to work for 8 hours a day without any routine maintenance and then moan when it breaks down..
I have sympathy with people who disregard their boiler services.
The risk is perceived as very low, because the number of reported instances of death-by-lack-of-servicing is very low. A boiler, to most householders, is akin to a TV - it sits there and gets on with it. Both have an all-encompassing case that they're told not to open unless qualified to do so. Both are mysterious. Both have a distinct dearth of controls. In addition, a room sealed boiler with its own flue is a great deal safer than a log fire.
Compare and contrast the complexity of a boiler with that of a car costing anywhere between 10 and 1000 times as much. There's no contest. A boiler has about four moving parts. A car? Thousands. A boiler hangs on the wall at zero miles per hour. A car is accelerated and decelerated tens of times per average journey, is constantly being shaken to bits by its contact with bumpy roads, carries enormous loads, and gets salt water flung at it for some weeks every year.
A boiler is specifically designed to get hot, and yet a car engine gets much MUCH hotter. The fuel is so dangerous that you can't risk using a mobile near its vapour.
Need I go on? Well, I will anyway.
A car has a bonnet, with instructions to lift it and pour liquids in various places. It has tyres that go flat, a windscreen that cracks, a battery that wears out, and, most importantly of all, brakes that convert what would otherwise be a 1/2 ton cruise missile, complete with explosive payload, into a placid carriage that, with very little training, you can navigate into a narrow space.
I have a hunch that a car ABS system has more electronics in it, more sophistication, and more moving parts, than any domestic gas boiler you care to name.
So if you can't
imagine how an unserviced car can be lethal, then your imagination needs a service and an MOT.
