Tried Me New Toy
 

Computer said I need to change me oil.
Chance to try me new toy.
7 ltr oil syphon
After I went for a 5 minute drive to warm the engine oil up I started.
9.30am lifted the bonnet
Set me syphon up and pumped.
Whilst it was doing it's bit I changed the oil ,fuel, air and air con filters.
The pump started to make a farting noise to I took it's done it's job.
After cleaning up and going for a 5 minute drive I was washing me hands at 10.25am
As far as I'm concerned me new toy did well.
Now if I took the car into a garage to do the same what would the rip me off for? Cheap and nasty filters and oil I dare say and god knows how many hours labour.
It cost me £54 for the four genuine filters.
6.5ltrs engine oil which I forgot how much.
Plus an hour of my time.
I dare say if I shopped around I could do the same for less.
The point is, who says it's expensive to service our cars?

About to do same with my new suction pump and looking forward to the challenge but I do have sympathy for honest traders who need to cover very hefty overheads and who we need to be there for us when there is trouble we can't deal with. When I lived in NZ you could just turn up for a drive through / fixed price oil and filter change, a model that worked well there. Took about 10 - 15 minutes.

Much quicker then I would do it, I'm more a 1 task at a time person.
I'm also old fashioned and drain my oil via the sump plug, I check the drain try for signs of metal, the underside if the car for problems such as gaiters torn, arm bushes splitting. Draining via the dip stick is quick, clean and easy but I feel isnot as beneficial to overall maintenance.

macafee2

I agree that the service costs for these cars is not bad at all.
The 4 (genuine) filters for E220 have just cost me £142.8 + “Mercedes”🙄 oil was about £24. Got 20L of oil from the Mercedes dealer for £72, which just comes in a bag in a Mercedes labelled box, so I don’t actually know the real brand.😣


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Why do most people think that garages rip them off?
The majority of technical knowledge within this site has came from people involved within the MGR network, ex factory workers and trade specialists. All posted free of charge to help others and then repeated over the years many times to the point it’s forgotten where it came from......

Sorry.
I've forgotten what you were talking about. :duh:

Perhaps driving Granddad's car does have it's advantages !

I think it is a mental thing, we know the price of oil and filter and our time is our own, free. We forget the cost of paying to run a garage (electric rates etc) and then of course wages, when this extra is added we are horrified. There is also experiences that some of us have suffered at garages and because we have knowledge we sometimes know when something is wrong and what we are being told is "lies". I give you an example.
My wife worked at a bank and they all raved about a local garage for servicing. Wife took our Ford there for new disc pads. Got the car back and it would not stop, I mean it would not stop. I took the front wheels off and found the new pads were a couple of mm longer top to bottom then the original set, the result was the pads were touching the disc on only the top and bottom ridge. The brake warning light was also on. Took the car back to the garage and got my old pads back and a refund. I refitted the pads. They also thought the brake warning light being was correct.

I have also spoken to a woman whos' discs were so badly scored, worst I have ever seen. I wondered if she had any brake material left, she told me she had just had the garage fit new brakes...... ya right.

So there are two reason why people can think a garage is a rip off, one reason is unfair, the other can be justified ....... if you know a think or two


macafee2

I'm intrigued about a couple of things:

You say the new brake pads fitted were a couple of mm longer top to bottom. How did they ever fit into the brake caliper housing & mounting bracket?

Also, the woman that had 'new brakes' fitted. Are you saying that the garage charged her for new brake discs & didn't fit them or fitted new brake pads to her existing brake discs?

You forgot to put the new oil in !

Talking of service costs I took my Jag in for a service and it cost £250 to change oil and filter nothing else done , their labour rates are around £150 +Vat, most people do it just to get the service book stamped by a Jag dealer as did I , but in future will be doing it myself

Could be the friction material that is a greater surface area rather than the metal on the pad.