Service History

[Asimo]

This is the air filter from the Honda Insight. 70500 miles.

 

 

The car came with the printout of every service the car has had in it's 14 years. Not a single reference to air filter anywhere. The service schedule says replace air filter at 36000 but there is no mention of that having been done on the 36000 mile service worksheet.

 

In fact nothing seems to have been done ever except the oil changes and wipers / pads and an earth lead. The door hinges had not a trace of any kind of oil / white grease. The oil change 6000 miles ago is recorded but I won't be surprised if the filter looks a bit older than that.

 

Honda franchises won't be servicing this one again!

[richardmorris]

LHM replacement has never been on citroen's service schedule either. My neighbours have just had their merc. serviced by the chap I used for my headgasket - he said the fuel filter was original. Only a 57 reg but 120,000miles and they've had it serviced at Mercedes from new. They gave up a few months ago when the dealer quoted them £3500 for a major service, discs, pads and some gearbox work. Asked me who was doing my car and came out and collared him.

[Honey Badger]

Never impressed by Honda service departments after our local Honda garage closed and was replaced by a bigger franchise.

 

If your air filter looks like that I look forward to the pictures of your pollen filter and the several new life forms that are growing in it.

[richardmorris]

Actually the pollen filter in my C5 looked very similar - see pic. when I changed it in 2007 - I think it was original to 2002!

[Bren]

I have had pollen filters that have looked like settee cushions without the covers.

 

I am not even sure many garages remove pads any more to clean everything.

 

Better to do it yourself.

[r.welfare]

Yes, all of the above. Genuine parts are easy enough to source cheaply. Fuel and pollen filters almost never get done.

[Squire_Dawson]

This is exactly why I service my own cars. Only way you can be sure of a good job done. But that doesn't help what was or was not done during the last owner's tenure.

[phil_lihp]

I pulled an absolutely disgusting pollen filter out of an 04 Focus the other day, it's always been regularly serviced at a local garage but I'm pretty sure it was the original. I guess maybe it's not part of the running gear so not considered a mechanical service item by most.

[Pillock]

 

New vs old pollen filter. 2008 car, probably original - they're £6 retail ffs, why wouldn't a main dealer (car was leased by a company when new so dealer serviced on the dot for three years) change it? Especially as a VW minor service is £169....

[Spiny Norman]

I remember when the bloke in my local spannering emporium showed me the pollen filter he'd pulled out my Alfa 156. It weighed a good 2-3 kilos, there was so much shit in it.

I never even realised the car had one, it was brilliant when I got into it, it was like every fan speed had doubled and the air con worked again.

[beko1987]

I thought there was something expensively wrong with the merivas blowers a year or so ago...until I changed the cabin filter! To be fair we boughy it with no history, but it was still shocking!

 

Tbh most softbag Hoovers I get run like shit until I wash the bag, it transforms them.

 

Zx doesn't have a pollen filter, so the blowers are always great. Air filter is new too, I checked!

[Matt]

G reg Polo, fuck knows how old this one was but after changing it the car went from getting 20 MPG to 40 MPG...

 

 

52 reg Swift just after I bought it, oil was absolutely spot on though (that reminds me, it'll due a change now). I have no idea if the Swift has a cabin filter or not.

 

[Micrashed]

Air filters are piss easy.

 

TBH I wouldnt go near a main dealer once a car is out of warranty, either do it yourself of find a decent independant. I do teh MicraShed myself, but the C8 is a fucking frightening beast so that goes to an independant each year / 6000 miles despite sCitroens service interval being 20K miles for a minor service and 40K for a major.

[gtd2000]

To be fair, I believe servicing provides little more than an oil and filter change anyway, despite the perception that the whole car is getting fettled.

 

It's likely that the car is being inspected, with a view to find problems that may require a financial transaction on your part.

 

Call me a cynic...

[gtd2000]

Air filters are piss easy.

 

TBH I wouldnt go near a main dealer once a car is out of warranty, either do it yourself of find a decent independant. I do teh MicraShed myself, but the C8 is a fucking frightening beast so that goes to an independant each year / 6000 miles despite sCitroens service interval being 20K miles for a minor service and 40K for a major.

 

MY GF's mother has a Honda Fit (AKA Honda Jazz) in the USA which has two service options for the first 100,000 miles.

 

Service A - Oil & Filter

Service B - Oil & Filter and Tyre Rotation.

 

At 100,000 miles the valve clearances should be checked and you're on your way.

 

The dealer sends out regular flyers to have genuine oil and filter changes for $9.99 every time she's due for a service!

 

Full dealer service history all the way!

 

I have actually changed the air filter myself....

[RoadworkUK]

But people believe that a major service is basically a ground-up restoration. It isn't. The only thing you automatically get is an oil and filter change, the rest of it is a list of check+reports, just like the first section of the Haynes works of fiction. A major service costs twice as much as a minor one because it takes twice as long.

 

A Merc fuel filter is an additional item due at approx 40K miles or four years, as is the air filter (s). They have to be authorised and don't get done automatically. Franchises are unfortunately bound by stratospheric labour rates and get big penalties if their month end retention rates aren't met.

 

If the air filter hasn't been changed in however many years, has it been requested or authorised? I'm not apologising for them, I just get tired of the same complaints.

[Lukas]

That´s the reason why I only get oil + oilfilter-changes done on my daily driver, nothing more. Because the big servicing costs 3 or 4 times that, but they don´t do more than changing filters. It´s cheaper when I do that.

[twosmoke300]

Most customers try there hardest not to have a full service ." Ooo well I only use it on mon , wed and fri so just do the minor service please". Every year for 10 years .

[dollywobbler]

To be fair, I believe servicing provides little more than an oil and filter change anyway, despite the perception that the whole car is getting fettled.

 

It's likely that the car is being inspected, with a view to find problems that may require a financial transaction on your part.

 

Call me a cynic...

 

Not even that sometimes. I had the misfortune of taking a company Fiesta to the main dealer for a service. They INSPECTED the oil. Didn't change it, just looked at the dipstick. That was at 12,000 miles IIRC.

[Craig the Princess]

A Merc fuel filter is an additional item due at approx 40K miles or four years, as is the air filter (s). They have to be authorised and don't get done automatically. Franchises are unfortunately bound by stratospheric labour rates and get big penalties if their month end retention rates aren't met.

 

If the air filter hasn't been changed in however many years, has it been requested or authorised? I'm not apologising for them, I just get tired of the same complaints.

 

I can maybe accept the fuel filter wouldn't need changing, but really an air filter would only be inspected after 40k at a service?

[Asimo]

It is the dishonesty of the sales / service / franchise system that pisses me off.

 

The guy I bought the car from has spent a lot of money on it's maintenance and pretty much all he has got for his money is a lot of completed tick sheets. He wasn't a typical customer, keeping the car 11 years, he spent all of that money to, as he thought, keep the car spot-on. The franchises performing the work probably have done what Honda UK expect of them. 

 

But the car has been neglected. Astonishing that cars keep going as reliably as they do when they are treated this badly.

 

 

[twosmoke300]

Its the tightness and shortsightedness of the customers that really pisses me off.

 

 

Come in for an oil and filter change then moan that the brakes still squeak and you havent checked the spare tyre pressure. Or even worse are the since yous . Since you changed my oil and filter my exhaust has started blowing/ rear wipers split and house roof is leaking . Must be something you did when you did the service. GRRRRRR

[Joey spud]

My old 08 plate transit sprang a fuel leak at 84k miles when its original diesel filter rotted thru from inside probably due to water sediment never getting drained.
I temp repaired it with a self tapper and a bit of hose as a washer/gasket and popped into the dealer.

The guys there said that because the flow tell tale was still in the green the lease co would never let them change it.

Its a myth that all company vehicles are well serviced and a sound used buy,its all down to money everytime now days.

 

The lease co my van is now with will not authorise the main dealers for any servicing work due to high labour rates it has to go to an indi garage that is on the one link/motorcodes network.

 

Back in the late 80's i was a techy at a Peugeot/Talbot dealer and as a rule petrol engined 205,309,405 had a book time of 30 mins for their first 1k service and 75mins for their 12k service.

 

We worked on a bonus scheme ie the book time for a job is 75 mins you complete in 45 mins then theres 30 extra mins money in your wages if you didn't loose it going over time on another job by the end of the week.

 

If you pissed the foreman off he would give you first service jobs all day which by the time you had got it out the carpark and on the ramp,queued at the stores for a filter and sump washer did the oil change,checked levels,lights and tyres your 30 mins was long gone so you could never make any extra money.

 

Back then you would not to do any more that the schedule allowed as it would put you behind and so lower your pay at the end of the week.

[cort16]

The guy I rent my lockup off has just bought a Rover 45 for 300 quid. It has an oil leak so he got it up on the ramp and found the oil filter had rusted through as it hadn't been changed for about 10 years. To be fair they didn't sell it to him with FSH.

[PiperCub]

DIY all the way for me, always has been, initially as a kid because there was no option, now because I don't trust garages to do anything unless specifically tasked with something I can't do myself (spraying etc.).

 

Plus I've lost count of the number of so called service histories that are faked, it's not hard, get out your 'John Bull printing set' and get busy stamping away!  

 

Fuel filters & pollen filters etc. are often left because they are deemed too difficult to do and Johnny/Jenny Customer probably won't notice anyway, all these services are time-constained so if it can't be done in time then its left. That's why reading the above doesn't surprise me in the least.

 

To be fair to garages, there's often a reluctance for some folk to spend out on something they think is unecessary so this might also have a bearing on the above. For instance, this might explain why my ultra low milage 23y/o MX5 was running possibly it's OE belt until I did it a couple of months back, I have no evidence from the full Mazda service history (& looked like it had never been apart before too) that it was ever done  - nor the fuel filter for that matter - even though they are supposed to be changed on time as well as milage basis.

[phil_lihp]

Its the tightness and shortsightedness of the customers that really pisses me off.

 

 

Come in for an oil and filter change then moan that the brakes still squeak and you havent checked the spare tyre pressure. Or even worse are the since yous . Since you changed my oil and filter my exhaust has started blowing/ rear wipers split and house roof is leaking . Must be something you did when you did the service. GRRRRRR

 

"It's only being doing it since you fiddled with it last time" is a charming phrase I used to get from some customers when fixing their computer equipment - the 'fiddling' actually being 'successfully repairing it like I was asked to'.  Sometimes not even the same piece of equipment - but since you're a qualified expert and you've been in the same room as the car/computer equipment/whatever, you have signed an invisible contract to take complete responsibility for it and anything near it for the rest of your life.

 

That's why I was slightly apprehensive about servicing a family member's car as I could see the same thing happening although to be fair she helped and observed throughout and knew what I was doing so I should be safe.

 

Back on track, just out of interest, being that you're a small independent, do you have one or more standard fixed-price 'service' packages or is it more a case of 'if it needs it, it gets it'?  I'm guessing fixed pricing is difficult given the number of different price level vehicles you must get through.

[twosmoke300]

For normal cars I charge 1 hr labour (£25 no vat) for a minor service which is oil and filter , visual brake inspection and top up/ check levels , lights etc.

 

2 hrs for a major which is oil air fuel pollen filters on a diesel or on a petrol substitute a fuel filter for plugs. Also includes full pads out/ drums off brake inspection.

 

Obviously vans / 4x4's and v6's etc will be a little more but I usually just take the rough with the smooth.

[Minimad5]

I was shocked when i took my V70 in, to have the cambelt done.

He asked me if i wanted him to put the original aux' belt back on

NO ! , as they snap and take out the timing belt.

He did explain to me that some customers refuse to pay the extra £20, to have it done.

 

DIY all the way.

[Micrashed]

I was shocked when i took my V70 in, to have the cambelt done.

He asked me if i wanted him to put the original aux' belt back on

NO ! , as they snap and take out the timing belt.

He did explain to me that some customers refuse to pay the extra £20, to have it done.

There is minge bag, and then there is MINGEBAG motoring. Why would you risk £20 for ££££ worth of donkey if it snaps?

[twosmoke300]

Because they are customers and read on the internet that a belt is only 50p and the garage is ripping them off