Car Servicing

[Twister3D]

I had my 3 year old Mondeo :o serviced today, normal major service fairly good value. FOR A FORD GARAGE.
They then phoned me to say my rear pads were down to 2mm and advised me to have them changed along with the discs as they have worn unevenly,
they wanted £217 for that, I told them to get stuffed. went down my local Motor factors got the parts for £50 and it took me 45 mins to do it myself.
What a ripoff :mad:

RANT OVER

Twister

[col9]

A year ago we needed a new radiator for our Jeep, we phoned the dealership in northampton, they quoted £417+vat + fitting said around £750 all told. Bought a new Compatible one from an Ebay store for £87 +vat and it took 2 days to arrive and 4 hours to fit.

Col.

[showtime]

with some items the pattern parts you can buy cheap just simply aint up to the job!
exhaust systems that don't fit & leak after 6 months!
Brake Pads are one of the worst offenders with pattern pads either binding on (sticking in the calipers & not releasing) or just plain squealing!

if you go to certain parts specialists you do actually get the original parts from the original makers but not in the manufacturers packaging & these are obviously a good buy ;)
and it makes sense to use these parts if you can fit them yourself ;)

but most cheap grade pattern parts have no real guarantee with them either, even if you bought say a genuine Renault water pump & it failed after 9 months, the parts warranty would even cover the labour to have it replaced in the main workshop! (water pump just chosen as a random example)
plus any work carried out is also guaranteed!
you try getting that out of Camberley Auto Factors:rolleyes:

[Stuart]

I've a good one not car related...

Our guillotine at work has an LCD screen to display settings, programs etc. One day out the blue it stopped displaying but you could faintly make out an image. We called Heidelberg the manufaturer to send out an engineer to tell us what exactly was wrong.

He spent 1hr taking it to bits and told us we needed a new screen and PCB board. He didn't know the cost and would get office to confirm the price before ordering the part. The office rang to say that they didn't have the part in stock and wasn't sure of the price, but they could order it and confirm before the engineer arrived back to install. The part arrived, the engineer turned up and they confirmed the price @ £3,500.00+VAT + labour.....told them to get lost and we'd sort it out ourselves.

Took the board out established voltage was getting from the PCB but not coming out from the inverter....sourced the part from RS components, installed new bulbs and had it back and working in a week at a cost of £60.00 inc VAT.

Bill arrived from Heidelberg for the engineers time @ £250.00+, sent them a right snotty letter for the engineer mis-diagnosing the fault, trying to rip us off, not to mention the part would have been fixed for £60.00 and installed into some other poor printers guillotine @ £3,500.00+VAT.

We got a full credit, apology and apparently thier engineers are not trained to take a fault to a component level. A bit like getting a new engine in a car because the old one won't start yet a new starter motor would have done the job. The scarey thing that this was the second credit we got off these people for not doing thier job properly. And they wonder why we spent £400k+ on a Komori press and not thiers. Doh...

That's my rant over with too :D

[col9]

[quote=showtime;34488]with some items the pattern parts you can buy cheap just simply aint up to the job!
exhaust systems that don't fit & leak after 6 months!
Brake Pads are one of the worst offenders with pattern pads either binding on (sticking in the calipers & not releasing) or just plain squealing!

if you go to certain parts specialists you do actually get the original parts from the original makers but not in the manufacturers packaging & these are obviously a good buy ;)
and it makes sense to use these parts if you can fit them yourself ;)

but most cheap grade pattern parts have no real guarantee with them either, even if you bought say a genuine Renault water pump & it failed after 9 months, the parts warranty would even cover the labour to have it replaced in the main workshop! (water pump just chosen as a random example)
plus any work carried out is also guaranteed!
you try getting that out of Camberley Auto Factors:rolleyes:[/quote]

Youre right of course, but..... we found out what make it was (SPS) did a little research phoned the manufacturers in the UK:D, spoke to a really helpfull guy who said any probs let him know he would do his best to help. Based on that we bought it.

Col.

[showtime]

sounds like you did the right thing;)

most parts for regular cars are available as genuine parts in different packaging if you go to the right places like German French & Swedish etc

the real problems are when you drive a more specialised model, things like BMW M series or Audi S cars. then its main stealers only :(

[Smoothound]

That is the problem these days there are no mechanics or engineers left anymore only fitters. It's all they are taught to do now, fit a new part not fix the old one. It's why lots of these people are kids still wet behind the ears ;)

[jimbob]

I had a mate had a car once and the rear brake lights had stuck on.

He toook it to a garage, and when he picked it up they were off alright.

They'd cut the wires under the carpet!

[chipbury]

Quick rant about VW.

One of the rear indicator lights was out so i phoned up to ask if they had any in stock - we don't stock them as they don't fail was the reply!
I took the lamp out to check it (which means removing the whole rear light cluster) and the lamp was ok. Turns out there must have been a dodgy connection.
Would they have been honest about this if i had taken the car to the garage (as the manual says you should)? I doubt it from my experiences of them.

[richieclarkie]

I got new 4 tyres fitted to my wifes car at a Tyreland. When the fitter had finished he asked if I wanted a free tracking check. I said OK. 5 mins later he said that the wheels were out by 1mm on the front. I asked how long would it take to do, he said 5 mins.

"So how much"
"£30 sir"
"£30? What plus the VAT?"
"Yes sir"
"For 5 mins work? Right, OK well let me think about it - er no thankyou"
"Tell you what sir I can take 5 pounds off I'll do it for £25 plus Vat"
"Oh thankyou so much for that generous offer, but I'll leave it thankyou"
"OK sir it's only a 5 minute job so I'll do it for £10"
"Alright do it then"

So now it drives no different than it did before, but at least I didn't pay £35.20 for 5 minutes work!

[ChrisB]

When i last had my Focus serviced by Ford they also said the front and rear pads needed changing and would get me a price,,

I quickly nipped into the parts dept and asked for the over the counter prices,i was told about £29 for the rears and £35 for the fronts inc VAT

I went back into the service dept and they said £39 for rears plus £25 fitting and £49 for the fronts and £25 fitting

I politely told them where to go:D

[Nutz]

[quote=Raptor50luvver;34530]I politely told them where to go:D[/quote]

To the parts department because they are cheaper??????

[SRH990]

In a moment of madness I bought a Sharan VR6 a good few years ago now with an auto box. The service shedule called for an auto box fluid change at 80,000miles. When I booked it in for this service I asked if the price quoted included changing the fluid 'no thats extra' so, bit the bullet and told them to go ahead. When I picked up the car they hadn't changed the fluid as 'they didn't have the VW specialist tool needed to do the job', this is from a VW Main dealer! I was told they were moving shortly to completely new premises and should be able to do it at the next service - could they? no, same problem. I wrote I nice letter to VW customer services asking why their dealers couldn't service their own cars and was pointed at a very large VW dealer in Birmingham town centre, I rang for a quote, was told about £90 so booked it in.

I took the car in, no courtesy car so got a pick up from the father in law, went back in the afternoon to pick it up "Sorry, we couldn't do the job as we didn't have some of the parts in stock and no ATF" NO ATF FFS! I had to re-book it and take it in again. I went to collect and was asked for £180! I politely told the guy where he could stick the £180 and informed him I was quoted £90, in the end I parted with £110 and never darkened aVW dealers door again.

As an interesting aside, while I was waiting for VW to sort out were I could get it done I popped into a Ford dealer and asked about changing the ATF on a Galaxy with VR6 engine fitted (same car, same engine, same gearbox, same ATF!) and was told its a sealed for life unit and the ATF doesn't need changing :mad:

[showtime]

quite a lot of auto boxes are now "sealed for life" but they will all benefit from an oil change, including a filter change if the box has one!
nearly all manufacturers have issues with auto boxes & in many cases an oil change would have prevented the problem, thats money well spent dude :)

[Kwickkwack]

We run some VW Vans at work, and they are bloody expensive to service, on one service including a cam belt change, it was TWICE the cost as for the Toyota vans we also run.