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How to Keep a Car Maintenance Log

Keep a car maintenance log on your iPhone: every service and fill-up with the date, odometer and cost, reminders by date or miles, and a history to print.

  • How-to
  • Mileage Cat
Made for this: Mileage Cat

Oil changes, new tyres, a battery, a brake job: it's easy to remember that something was done and hard to remember when, or at what mileage. A maintenance log answers both. This guide covers what to write down, then how to keep the log on your iPhone with Mileage Cat, our mileage log and car service log for iPhone and iPad.

What goes in a maintenance log

For each job, note:

  • The date.
  • The odometer reading. A reminder can count distance as well as time, so the reading matters as much as the date.
  • What was done. "Oil change" is fine; "oil and filter, front pads and rotors" is better.
  • The cost, and who did the work, if you want it on record.

Add a line for each fill-up too if you want to know your fuel economy. Keep paper receipts in a folder; the log is your index to them.

For how often each job is due, go by your car's owner's manual or your mechanic. The app keeps records; it doesn't give advice about your vehicle.

Set up the service log

  1. Open Mileage Cat. On What are you keeping track of?, tap Service log. The app remembers the choice and opens straight into it next time. The grid button at the top left brings you back to the choice, so you can switch to Trips.
  2. Tap Add your first vehicle. Give it a name ("the family car" works; it's only shown to you) and pick its kind: Car, Motorbike, Van or truck or Machine (hours). Tap Add.
  3. Add any others with Add a vehicle at the bottom of the Service log screen. There's no limit.

Machines like mowers and generators count hours instead of distance, so for those the app asks for Hours wherever a car would ask for the Odometer.

Miles or kilometres? The gear button at the top right opens Settings, where you pick Miles, gallons, MPG or Kilometres, litres, L/100 km. Switching only changes how numbers are shown; your records stay exactly as logged.

Log a service

Open a vehicle and tap Service at the bottom.

  1. In What was done, type the job, or tap one of the suggestions under it: Oil change, Tires (or Tyres), Brakes, Inspection (MOT / inspection in the UK), Battery, Air filter, Wipers. The names of your own reminders show there too.
  2. Set the Date (today, or any day before).
  3. Type the Odometer. The field shows your last reading as a hint.
  4. Add the Cost and any Notes, like "front pads and rotors" or the garage's name. Both are optional.
  5. Tap Save.

The service goes into the vehicle's History, newest first, with its date, reading, cost and notes.

Log a fill-up

Tap Fill-up, then type the Odometer, the Fuel you put in, and the Cost if you like. Leave Filled to the top on when you fill the tank.

Once you have two full fill-ups with a reading and fuel, the vehicle's screen shows your Average in MPG or L/100 km, worked out from full tank to full tank. As the app says, fill to the top each time and the average works itself out. Machines don't have a Fill-up button; they log services only.

Set reminders

Under Reminders on a vehicle, tap Add a reminder:

  1. What: for example "Oil change".
  2. Repeat: fill in Every … months, Every … mi (or km, or hours for a machine), or both. Whichever comes first counts.
  3. Last done: the date, and the odometer reading. The reading starts as your latest logged one; a distance reminder needs a reading here, or a later service with one, before it can count.
  4. Tap Save.

Each reminder shows when it's next due, by date, by reading, or both, with a tag: Later, Due soon or Due now. A date reminder turns Due soon in its last 30 days; a distance reminder turns Due soon when your latest reading is within a tenth of its interval.

Distance reminders are checked against the odometer readings you log, never against your location, so log a reading now and then (a fill-up is a good time). Date reminders also send a notification at 9:00 on the morning they're due. The app asks for permission the first time you save a reminder with Every … months filled in.

When the job is done, tap Log it next to the reminder. It opens Log a service with the reminder's name filled in and the note Counts as done for "Oil change". You can rename it ("Oil & filter") and it still counts. Save, and the reminder counts again from that service's date, and its reading if you typed one (a service dated before the reminder's last done date doesn't move it). A service you log on its own with the same name as a reminder (capitals don't matter) counts for it too.

On the Service log screen, each vehicle's card shows its latest reading, its average and whichever reminder is closest to due.

Fixing a mistake

A history entry can't be edited. Swipe it to the left to delete it, then log it again. If that entry had ticked off a reminder, deleting it moves the reminder back to the last service still counting for it, or to the Last done you typed on the reminder.

Delete vehicle is in the vehicle's More menu. It removes the vehicle with its whole history and reminders, after asking first, and it can't be undone, so share the history first if you want a copy.

On a vehicle, open the More menu (the ⋯ button at the top right):

  • Print or share history shows the service history as it will print, page by page, with Print and Share under it. It's on Letter in the US and Canada, A4 elsewhere. The page has the vehicle's name, the number of entries, and a row for each fill-up and service with the date, what was done, the reading and the details (fuel, cost, notes). There's no app name or logo on it.
  • History as CSV shares a spreadsheet of every entry, oldest first, with the date, type, what was done, reading, fuel, full tank, cost, currency and notes.

Business driving, too?

Mileage Cat's other job, Trips, keeps a log of your business miles. See how to keep a mileage log.

What it costs

The service log is free, all of it: any number of vehicles and machines, fill-ups, services, reminders, and the history as a PDF or CSV. Nothing in the service log is behind Pro. There are no ads.

Mileage Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase for the Trips side: more than one vehicle for your trips with odometer readings, client and project tags, and a weekly or monthly report reminder. More on the Mileage Cat page.

No account. Every vehicle, fill-up and service is kept on your device and in your own backups unless you share it. The service log never uses your location.

Quick answers

Can I log a service I had done months ago?
Yes. Pick its date when you log it. To start a reminder from an older job, set Last done on the reminder.

Does it remind me by mileage?
Yes, from the odometer readings you log. The reminder shows Due soon or Due now in the app when a new reading gets close to or past it. Notifications come for date reminders.

Can I keep a log for a mower or a generator?
Yes. Add it as Machine (hours), and it counts hours from the hour meter instead of distance.

Does the printed history have your logo on it?
No. It prints the vehicle's name, a "Service history" line with the number of entries, and your entries; no app name or logo.

Try Mileage Cat

Try Mileage Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/mileage-cat