While my car was being serviced today, the Service Manager suggested a few extra’s that I needed.

One was an Aircon regas, as Aircon gas gets bacteria in it over time. (!)

The other was to replace a half worn Avon (cost about £140) with a £60 no name replacement

Fuel Treatment (£50) as I must have been using supermarket fuel.

Is this now common practice to separate folk who don’t know better from their money. Does any one fall for it?

air con system does contain bacteria after time, but you normally put a #bomb# inside the car and leave it running for 15 mins to kill 99% of the bacteria.

fuel treatment maybe be required if your car is storing codes for misfires which is from shit fuel.

tyres dont know as cant see it…

what car and what garage?

£50 for a fuel treatment!!!!

It only costs the garages a few quid go buy and all they do is pour it in the tank.

The dealer I used to work for pushed us to sell all this crap to customers and we got a bond according to hw much of it we sold. There was a huge mark up on most of ths stuff.

Interesting game here. My air con doesn’t work. Hasn’t since I bought the car. Collected the car from MOT and service that my wife had taken it in for and “aircon re-gas” was on the receipt. Asked about this and was told, oh yeah its part of the manufacturers service package, we have to do it to maintain the warranty (on a 6 year old S**troen?).

Anyway, I give it a try, and sure enough the aircon still doesn’t work, I go back to the office and complain that aircon doesn’t work and did their “technician” test it at all? I’m assured he would have, so i agree to leave the car another day until aircon is sorted. In the end it took nearly two days for them to replace my knackered compressor free of charge and apologise for their error.

You can’t con an honest man!

Business in promoting its products to stay financially viable shocker!

But at what point does it become trying to con people out of cash under false pretences?

My Car is a diesel, always fill up with Shell.

If they had offered a bacterial wash for the the aircon, or a filter change then that would be fair enough. But a re-gas? I call horseshit on that. How does a sealed system of refrigerant get bacteria in it?

Tyre is 3.5mm of tread left; other side has just been replaced due to damage. How is a Triangle brand a replacemnt for an Avon? Plus they got the load rating wrong so if I did go ahead I’d have extra load tyres except for my cheapskate new one.

I assume they are on commission for this nonsense, no point peddling it otherwise.

Air con gas itself does not contain bacteria, the bacteria is grown on the system so a regas will do sod all. Odd smells coming from the air conditioning may be caused by bacterial buildups

As your car becomes older, or when the air conditioning system is used infrequently, bacteria, micro-organisms, mold and fungi may start growing, just behind the dash panel on the evaporator causing some very unpleasant odors. Some even claim this can result in headaches and flu like symptom sometimes referred to as “sick car syndrome.”

A bit of that smelly gel from plug-in air fresheners behind each vent would sort out any whiff from the air-con if needed

A £60 regas isn’t going to help, is it? More like a half-understood scare tactic.

If you’re convinced they tried to scam you then call trading standards – its what they are there for.

I can’t comment on the tyre and fuel treatment, but an AC re-gas will not sort out any bacterial growth on the evaporator.

However you should have the AC re-gassed every year – in an ideal world, or every other year in the real world.

Why?

Well most systems weep a small amount of refrigerant over time. A vehicle with the correct amount of refrigerant in the system will run at maximum efficiency.

All AC systems dislike moisture – part of the re-gas process involves pulling a vacuum and effectively sucking any water out of the system.

A re-gas also removes most of the lubricant from the system and replaces the old oil with fresh lubricant. No oil in the system and it’s goodbye compressor.

Hth
Marko

airrcon gas is in a sealed system, so cant realease and bread bacteria or anyting else, only gas if you have a leak.

as for the bacterial wash, warm engine up, and open all the windows and vents, turn fan up full and heat to full, and then put hand through window and turn on ignition and engine, leave to run for 20 minutes, that should cook and balst the bacteria smells out.

Always do it after the summer, as the car will be harbouring a lot of germs, thats why you always get weird flu like sympto,s come the colder weather as the air con heater cookes them and blows them out all over you in a sealed environmnet that is a vehicle.

Marko – top notch advice. If I’d been given that story I’d have still said no, but at least I wouldn’t feel like someone was trying to stiff me 🙂

ScottChegg – Member
But at what point does it become trying to con people out of cash under false pretences?

Sorry, I’m being an arse. If its a load of shite that you don’t need or want, then it’s probably a con. If its actually good products backed by good service, then it’s probably not.

My car (German brand, hated on here) was in for it’s first service the other week. I was just back from the Mega road trip, so had gone to town cleaning it the day before, so it was immaculate inside and out with everything topped up when it went in.

When I went to get it they were very polite as they said “we’ve given it a thorough clean sir, it’s looking brand new (it should, it’s only a few months old, and I’d given them it 5 hours before spotless).” And handed me a report that included “topping up washers.”

Par for the course. 95% will not query and pay up.

Mrs Ming took her car in for a service to be told that the broken exhaust bracket did not need replacing, the diesel system required a power flush and clean (£125), the brakes needed doing otherwise it would fail it’s MOT (£600) and it needed two new tyres (£150 each), they also charged £20 for a new brake light.

So I challenged them and after a bit of umming and ahhing it did’nt actually need it’s brakes doing that urgently and the tyres were perfectly fine. I also queried the 20mins charged for changing a lamp as it took me all of 5 minutes and that included finding the appropriate screwdriver in the bottom of my tool box. They had also thrown away the exhaust bracket so I ended up fabricating my own one.

When I did the next service myself it looked like the pollen filter had never been changed (they charged for it on both it’s previous services).

Oh and 40K miles later the diesel system still has not been flushed.

Tossers.

This is why I service all my own cars. Easy to do and much cheaper. Just like rusty lego with spanners.

im sorry but u cant compare you doing your own oil and filter change with an expert eye and knowledge.

Im pretty sure when you need a injector reprogramming or a diesel pump changing you wont be doing it yourself.

we at bmw change the pollen filter at every oil service normally, if your driving fewer km then the servicing becomes on time, for eg.

we had a 1 series for a oil change, pollen filter and brake fluid. it had covered a mere 5k.

did it all need changing no! but its has to, to retain its warranty and to prolong the engine. if you don’t and the ‘old’ oil begins to become less efficient and the main bearings seize im sure youd be the first on the phone asking how this happened and why and even better would be to see how pissed you are because you didn’t deem it necessary to have a oil change for 100 euro!

as for the air con, perhaps he checked the amount inside the system and it was close to the minimum to engage the compressor.

fuel treatment, was that including a filter change,bleed if needed and additive?

again you’d be pissed if you drove out and 2 weeks later your air con packed up due to insufficient gas inside.

the amount of work i have seen where people ‘THINK’ they have the necessary skills and knowledge to fix, service or diagnose their own car that in the end we’ve had to fix what they have cross thread, snapped or wiring repairs due to it being so easy is a joke. i wouldnt try to do my accounting my self because i have windows excel so its beyong me why people try to save 300 euro and fit their own turbo for example with a piss poor knowlege and shit tools.

not having a pop at anyone in particular but does always make me laugh how/when customers come in moaning and winging about service costs.

the amount of work i have seen where people ‘THINK’ they have the necessary skills and knowledge to fix, service or diagnose their own car that in the end we’ve had to fix what they have cross thread, snapped or wiring repairs due to it being so easy is a joke. i wouldnt try to do my accounting my self because i have windows excel so its beyong me why people try to save 300 euro and fit their own turbo for example with a piss poor knowlege and shit tools.
not having a pop at anyone in particular but does always make me laugh how/when customers come in moaning and winging about service costs.

Of course you will have a different experience being on the other side of the fence, however I’ve personally had a ‘service’ where they didn’t bother to actually change my oil, had a brake fluid change where the fluid was left dangerously low, had an oil filter cross threaded so it leaked, all the plastic tabs on my engine cover broken due to laziness of a **** mechanic not bothering to undo them all properly causing it to rattle, etc. They will lie to your face and then charge you handsomely for the privilege.

Another example is my mother’s Fiesta which had slightly wonky tracking causing the steering to pull slightly to the left. Without even checking the car, they told it was the front suspension bushings, £400 job to replace them and it was dangerous not to. Of course it didn’t fix it, and needed to go back again to get the problem sorted. Arseholes.

Some pricks tried to get my wife to buy all new tyres immediatelybecause hers were down to 3.5 mm. Again, tried to give her the BS that it was highly dangerous to use them. Luckily she is a tightwad and didn;t hand over the cash straight away.

High time where was an ombudsman with some teeth who could prevent them trying to take advantage.

ok thats a shocking service!

i no it happens where garages rip people off and its a joke and should be told to trading standards, but like you said im just giving another perspective on the situation.

Nick_Christy – Member
ok thats a shocking service!

i no it happens where garages rip people off and its a joke and should be told to trading standards, but like you said im just giving another perspective on the situation.

quite right, trouble is you never know who is trustworthy & skilled

Not all garages are shit, in fact the local chain garage I use time and time again has never tried to rip me off.

On the other hand, my wifes car has been back to, and I will name and shame because they clearly don’t give a crap about their customers, EVANS HALSHAW, 3 times now. 3 times I have given them the reason to look at the car under warranty and 3 times they’ve came back saying there’s nothing wrong with the car. Thing is the last time they gave me back the report from their Ford garage and the problem they went looking for wasn’t the problem I reported. They say they take the car out and they can’t feel the problem I’m reporting although anyone who’s been in the car will point out the issue to me.

Funnily enough if I went in waving my cheque book around I’m pretty sure the problem would have been expensively fixed two visits ago.

again than name was EVANS HALSHAW……****

Nick_Christy: I have more faith in my own skills and diligence than I do in 75% of garages and mechanics.
I have known too many suggest to replace perfectly good bits just to boost trade, and have seen more crossthreaded and missing guards and fixings from cars that have been serviced than I care to mention.
Of course there are some decent garages (many!) and there are some idiot home mechanics. So lets agree that you work at a nice trustworthy BMW franchise that would never pull a fast one or overcharge, and me and quite a few others on here can weild a spanner ans VAGCOM interface without turning our cars into child killing deathtraps.

😉

I must have been using supermarket fuel.

cobblers. do supermarkets get their fuel from their own refineries now? or maybe they’re watering it down…. 🙄

shame its not only vagcom needed though isnt it..

how would you go about programming i guess your vag car without lastest updates and software protocols?

such as the common injector misfire on the petrol engine which is needed to be recoded and programmed.

all im saying is that you may no how to change oil but when it comes to something a little more complicated and things get broken or **** then its quite frustrating for us to always search or fix bodged crap.

as for the 75% personally think that numbers a little high lol. but always do your homework before you take it to a indy, as for a main dealer you can easily ask why they want to change it and ask for proof as too why they want to change it.

id suggest you needing a matching tyre if your running a mis matched set. wouldnt offer another mis matched set but a matched tyre for saftey. again some people would just leave it, but different compounds and quality of rubber come in to play and i personally would never run a car with a mis match set.

one more point id like to ask CHB is if your disks were rusty from lack of use would you change them if they had surface rust? or just hope the rust would break away after use? its a serious matter and just wondering what the average diy mechanic would do?

Nick,

In my experience main dealer service is generally of poor quality and expensive. I’ve found with a good independent garage you get mechanics. Main dealers seem to have just parts fitters.

I have a BMW with a full BMW service history, serviced locally to me. I know the garages. I’m a tightwad so took it to an indi to be serviced after i got the car. The chap who did it was amazed at some of the stuff the main dealers hadn’t done when they should have.

personally I wouldn’t do a diy service, I couldn’t be arsed with the mess to be honest, but I wouldn’t bother with a main dealer either.

I service my own car as I have been unhappy with work carried out before. The last time was when I had just bought the car from a main dealer (secondhand) and was told it had just been serviced. Checked the oil 2 days later and it was black (suspected then it had not been done) so decided to give it an oil change a month or so later to find the tray under the sump would not come off as the bolts had rusted. Good tool kit for me and try to never take it to the garage.

I’ve found with a good independent garage you get mechanics. Main dealers seem to have just parts fitters

i do disagree with that comment slightly,

Yes were expensive, at my garage were 122 euro per hour. so compared to a indy thats maybe 50 euro a hour its going to be expensive, but we have dealer level software not only to just read codes etc but also for fault finding as you maybe aware of with your bmw that everytime it has work done its sent to bmw munich to be processed, that kind of support and level of service is going to cost.

i used to work for subaru and mitsi and the difference between professionalism between bmw and the others is insane.

as for part fitters, your kind of also correct as were not going to make something do or weld something back together when we would obviously replace with new, thats not saying we cant but as a main dealer how would it look when were welding exhaust pipes and hanger back together again and these cars then rolling out. yes it would funcion and work as it should but as a level of service and garentee we use new parts. for my dealer if the customer would like to supply parts themselves for eg a exhaust we have no problem with that as long as it is the correct unit otherwise his likly to be charged the time that is taken to drive the car in and out of the customer parking, usually 10 mins.,

Nick, never had a bmw…maybe their firmware is more beta version than vw and volvo that I am very familiar with.
My Audi and volvo have never needed firmware updates, except in the first 12 months after launch.
There are some jobs that I would be reluctant to do. For cambelts on my A2 I use only Awsome GTI in manchester as they know the a2 inside out.

Your comments on the brakes is very timely as I did these last week, precicely because the old discs were pitted, despite only being 3 years old (the a2 doesnt really have enough weight to use the rear discs).

£100 per hour to do what I can get from a knowledgable forum is not good value to me. I appreciate that I am in knowledgable minority though!

Basically, I think you must have gotten confused what with Neil Armstrong dieing and stuff. Its cars, not friggin rocket science.

“You might pay over double for labour at a main dealer, but that’s because our software is better.”

Hobnob?

I appreciate that dealer-backed servicing is more expensive, and the reasoning is that you’re paying a premium for a ‘better’ service from specialist people who know your particular vehicle inside out and thus are best equipped to provide the highest level of support.

The sad fact is, this doesn’t always appear to be the case. I’ve had superlative service from some dealer branches, and utterly woeful service from others over years. It *should* be explemplary, but it feels to me like each branch is run like a franchise and quality control is somewhat random.

I’m happy to pay a dealer dealer-style prices to get a good service.

I’m less keen to pay through the hooter and have some greaseball rummaging in my trousers.

George Michael is a car mechanic?

There are some dodgy guys out there…..

A few years back I bought a car from my sister, it had been nothing but trouble for her, poor starting, misfireing etc. serviced every year by the same guys.

Anyway; it was unreliable for me too, so I figured I’d check the points as it might help and It would cost nothing. They were miles out! So I checked the recipts and they apparently had been checked just 2 months earlier and apparently the plugs had been changed at the same time. By now I didn’t beleive the paperwork and I replaced the plugs anyway. It was like a new car! The issues that had plagued my sister for over 3 years disappeared with a £10 plugs change that she’d payed for 3 times.

It actually makes me angry that they conned her like this, but I’m over it now. 😈

My local BMW dealer may or may not have better technicians and software than the local Indy. But they without question have the plusher waiting room, better coffee and a bigger TV. All that needs to be paid for somehow.

I had my car serviced a few years ago by the local main dealer. I left it with them and went for a walk round town while they did it. When I got back, on the bill was a brake fluid change and brake clean kit. I asked the guy if it was a standard bill with everything already added to which he replied ‘no, its done individually so only the stuff the mechanic does is on the bill’. So I then asked if they’d managed to find my locking wheel nut, to which he replied yeah no problem. He then spent quite a while back tracking when I told him i’d been walking around for the past few hours with it in my coat pocket and hadn’t realised. So unless they happened to have an exact match for my locking wheel nut (which he assured me they hadn’t) there was no way on earth they could have done that work. Never went there again.

i think here is key that when you find a golden mechanic or garage you stick by them, i do a lot of private work mainly on bmw but other brands too and can honestly say i have never ripped someone off. my work is always written on the job card in the dealer too but have to say im never sure what is being told or sold to the customer.

ive always called the customer and will eveb explain/show parts which are failing or likely to fail shortly whilst doing private work which has given me a great reputation. just a shame the trade is tainted by people who fail to live by the same standards.

software / firmware updates are not 100% necessary but are great to keep the car ‘up to date’. such as updating your iphone or windows.

i have all dealer level software and a programming and coding is a fixed price at our dealer of 200 euro, i give the same service for 75 euro. i think 200 is too much considering its only plugged in a downloading new info from the net and we as mechanic are actually not doing anything, but these days cars are too complicated for what they are 😉

Nick, you sound like that rarest of breeds….a decent, sensibly priced mechanic who knows his cars. Finding someone like you is tricky.
The reason that folk get disgruntled with main dealers is that they know that a firmware update just involves plugging the car into germany via the internet. 200 euro for this is robbery. Its the same in all walks of life, if yo u charge a premium then the customer has heightened (unrealistic sometimes) expectations. Often car main dealers are happy to just experiment with replacing bits and doing expensive scans at the customers expense. Its easy to rack up. £500-1000 bill for not a huge amount of work.

Your private prices seem very sensible and I wish there were more trusted skilled mechanics out there, particularly with advanced diagnostic skills.

Edit, hadnt read page 2 🙄

Nick_Christy, you’re obviously young and innocent and your faith in your trade is kind of cute, but the car trade has a bad rep for a reason and for one reason only.

No one touches my car now apart from me. There’s nothing I can’t do on it. At the end of the day, no spotty youth “expert” is going to care quite as much about my car as I am.

Hopefully in time you’ll learn and stop replying with things like:

im sorry but u cant compare you doing your own oil and filter change with an expert eye and knowledge.

Im pretty sure when you need a injector reprogramming or a diesel pump changing you wont be doing it yourself. because honestly, you just sound ignorant. You’re on work experience right?

Are you always that patronising fourbanger, or are you just having one of those days?