Waste of money ‘maintenance’
Discussion
Wife’s Murano in for a service and get a call to see if I want them to undertake:
‘Tyre rotation’ $75 (am in oz so about £45)
&
Engine Flush - $120
‘Tyre rotation’ -
“ but don’t you guys have to take the wheels off to check the brakes?”
“Yes, it’s the only way to properly check the brakes”
“So am I paying $75 for you to wheel my wheels from one side of the car to the other?”
“Ok, I take it that’s a no”
Now that engine flush...no.
Now I understand the premise of rotating tyres to potentially enhance tyre life but I also thought, a set of tyres here for this costs about $800 and will normally last about 2 years - so for $150 I can maybe extend them a further 6 months. It just doesn’t make economic sense, especially as they’re also doing an alignment and balance (at a price of course).
What other ‘maintenance’ items do people do unnecessarily that is just not really needed?
‘Tyre rotation’ $75 (am in oz so about £45)
&
Engine Flush - $120
‘Tyre rotation’ -
“ but don’t you guys have to take the wheels off to check the brakes?”
“Yes, it’s the only way to properly check the brakes”
“So am I paying $75 for you to wheel my wheels from one side of the car to the other?”
“Ok, I take it that’s a no”
Now that engine flush...no.
Now I understand the premise of rotating tyres to potentially enhance tyre life but I also thought, a set of tyres here for this costs about $800 and will normally last about 2 years - so for $150 I can maybe extend them a further 6 months. It just doesn’t make economic sense, especially as they’re also doing an alignment and balance (at a price of course).
What other ‘maintenance’ items do people do unnecessarily that is just not really needed?
27,000 posts on a car forum and you've never heard of a murano
I like how luxury car manufacturers charge 10x the price to service a car when the costs can't be much different to a normal car , it's only oil and filters it's not a space shuttle , I've got a 15 year old Maserati, if I took it to a main dealer it'd be £1500 to service it because it takes a technician a full day , i use a garage that could remove and fit a new engine in a full day
I once saw a 7.5t transporter near Birmingham heading south signwritten with Bentley Aberdeen , nationwide collections for Bentley servicing , all I could think was f
k me how much does that cost if they're making a 1200 mile round trip to pick it up
I like how luxury car manufacturers charge 10x the price to service a car when the costs can't be much different to a normal car , it's only oil and filters it's not a space shuttle , I've got a 15 year old Maserati, if I took it to a main dealer it'd be £1500 to service it because it takes a technician a full day , i use a garage that could remove and fit a new engine in a full day
I once saw a 7.5t transporter near Birmingham heading south signwritten with Bentley Aberdeen , nationwide collections for Bentley servicing , all I could think was f
k me how much does that cost if they're making a 1200 mile round trip to pick it up wack said:
I once saw a 7.5t transporter near Birmingham heading south signwritten with Bentley Aberdeen , nationwide collections for Bentley servicing , all I could think was fk me how much does that cost if they're making a 1200 mile round trip to pick it up
It's probably their breakdown recovery vehicle. Seeing a Bentley on the back of a breakdown truck creates the wrong impression. Label it "service collections" and suddenly it looks like you're providing a superior product.k me how much does that cost if they're making a 1200 mile round trip to pick it up [quote=Pommy]
‘Tyre rotation’ -
“ but don’t you guys have to take the wheels off to check the brakes?”
“Yes, it’s the only way to properly check the brakes”
quote]
You would think so but Mercedes don't always take the wheels off for a service, they do a visual check on the bit of the pad they can see with the wheels left on and guestimate the rest.
I have quite a few service sheets showing the pads are 40% worn, seems to be their standard guess even after I have put new pads in just before a service.
‘Tyre rotation’ -
“ but don’t you guys have to take the wheels off to check the brakes?”
“Yes, it’s the only way to properly check the brakes”
quote]
You would think so but Mercedes don't always take the wheels off for a service, they do a visual check on the bit of the pad they can see with the wheels left on and guestimate the rest.
I have quite a few service sheets showing the pads are 40% worn, seems to be their standard guess even after I have put new pads in just before a service.
Three factors at play here,
1/ Tight/skint/mean customers wanting to run what is a complex and expensive machine for free and assuming every charge is them being ripped off, insisting on the absolute cheapest tyres and parts.
2/ Rip Off garages taking money for work that doesn't need doing, not doing work, doing unauthorized work,
3/ What a given car actually needs to provide good, reliable and safe service and how much that costs.
The truth in all these situations are made up of those three factors in differing percentages.
As a customer, if you do nothing on a car for three years other than an MOT, dont be surprised when you get a big bill, that isnt the garages fault when you ned four tyres, brakes, a service, some suspension and various other bits and it comes to £1500, it isnt expensive and the garage is probably not ripping you off, you have used the car for three years. Spend a little time to look round your car and learn about it, like anything in life if you completely ignore it and leave it to someone else then it will cost you, know what the components are, read the manual and perhaps put a little aside each month to cover it.
Garages, dont take the piss !
1/ Tight/skint/mean customers wanting to run what is a complex and expensive machine for free and assuming every charge is them being ripped off, insisting on the absolute cheapest tyres and parts.
2/ Rip Off garages taking money for work that doesn't need doing, not doing work, doing unauthorized work,
3/ What a given car actually needs to provide good, reliable and safe service and how much that costs.
The truth in all these situations are made up of those three factors in differing percentages.
As a customer, if you do nothing on a car for three years other than an MOT, dont be surprised when you get a big bill, that isnt the garages fault when you ned four tyres, brakes, a service, some suspension and various other bits and it comes to £1500, it isnt expensive and the garage is probably not ripping you off, you have used the car for three years. Spend a little time to look round your car and learn about it, like anything in life if you completely ignore it and leave it to someone else then it will cost you, know what the components are, read the manual and perhaps put a little aside each month to cover it.
Garages, dont take the piss !
wack said:
I once saw a 7.5t transporter near Birmingham heading south signwritten with Bentley Aberdeen , nationwide collections for Bentley servicing , all I could think was fk me how much does that cost if they're making a 1200 mile round trip to pick it up
My next door neighbour had one of those purple Jaykay Lamborghinis - that had to go down south somewhere to be serviced or have one of it's many new clutches (at 8K a pop) on a transporter. The whole ownership experience looked a bit sk me how much does that cost if they're making a 1200 mile round trip to pick it up t, to be honest.Dog Star said:
Ed/L152 said:
I'd have walked out at that point.
Any garage that offers a flush is not trustworthy.
My opinion too. Proper scam.Any garage that offers a flush is not trustworthy.
However, that is a 16 year old car that has had recent work and the coolant looks gunky, would never normally bother, I very rarely ever change coolant, have seen loads of cars go a whole lifetime never having it done and it still look perfectly good.
J4CKO said:
I would tend to agree but tomorrow I am going to flush my coolant system through, need to change thermos thermostat so putting a new coolant tank and flange on (leaking) so will drop the coolant, fill it with water and run it for a bit then drain again and refill with fresh coolant.
However, that is a 16 year old car that has had recent work and the coolant looks gunky, would never normally bother, I very rarely ever change coolant, have seen loads of cars go a whole lifetime never having it done and it still look perfectly good.
Sorry, I meant an engine oil flush. Widely thought to be damaging, but I'm willing to be re-educated. I was once offered an oil flush for £125 However, that is a 16 year old car that has had recent work and the coolant looks gunky, would never normally bother, I very rarely ever change coolant, have seen loads of cars go a whole lifetime never having it done and it still look perfectly good.
My mechanic told me that modern cars don't benefit from a coolant flush, although it was a critical on older cars with poorly designed coolant systems.
Edited by Ed/L152 on Wednesday 22 November 10:23
steveo3002 said:
should be no need for a flush on a car thats had oil changes on time and decent oil used
A lot of dealers suck the oil out rather than drain it therefore they used to leave crap in the sump the flush clears most of this away.I have mine done for peace of mind despite the fact my oil is drained anything that could potentially stop oil ways getting clogged up is good for me.
ZX10R NIN said:
A lot of dealers suck the oil out rather than drain it therefore they used to leave crap in the sump the flush clears most of this away.
I have mine done for peace of mind despite the fact my oil is drained anything that could potentially stop oil ways getting clogged up is good for me.
do you watch them use it ? wouldnt mind betting a huge % of cars never get to see the flushing oil but get charged for itI have mine done for peace of mind despite the fact my oil is drained anything that could potentially stop oil ways getting clogged up is good for me.
Has anyone that uses these flushes ever looked under valve covers / dropped their sumps / etc before using flushes to see just how well modern oils keep modern engines clean?
Even on my Saab 9-5, with an engine that gained notoriety for sludge issues, I've never added a flush. Dropping the sump on it simply confirmed that there was indeed no need to. Zero sludge or crap in the bottom and nothing in the pickup strainer. Engine internals all had a lovely light golden varnish. Likewise with the top end, absolutely no build up after 130k miles.
If there is sludge, then 15 minutes at idle with a flush product isn't going to touch the problem. Nor is it going to fix the problem that's causing the sludge because if it is there and it's not down to missing the last half dozen oil changes or using the wrong oil, then clearly the engine has an issue that's causing it.
Even on my Saab 9-5, with an engine that gained notoriety for sludge issues, I've never added a flush. Dropping the sump on it simply confirmed that there was indeed no need to. Zero sludge or crap in the bottom and nothing in the pickup strainer. Engine internals all had a lovely light golden varnish. Likewise with the top end, absolutely no build up after 130k miles.
If there is sludge, then 15 minutes at idle with a flush product isn't going to touch the problem. Nor is it going to fix the problem that's causing the sludge because if it is there and it's not down to missing the last half dozen oil changes or using the wrong oil, then clearly the engine has an issue that's causing it.
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