Another servicing question

Hmm, not sure if topping it up would be a good idea. If the present solution is weak, then it would be best to drain it all out and refill with new stuff.If they use good quality anti-freeze and 'proper' distilled water , then the consumable cost will be £15+, plus 15 to 30 mins for labour, though it could be done in 10 minutes if there are no problems with the drain tap/bottom hose coming off/being refitted.I'd say £25 was reasonable for someone to do it for you. Alan.

I wouldn't have said they tried to " rip " her off , they gave you and advisory and a price whether you act upon it is up to you.

The Anti freeze check is part of the service, we check whether its up to strength for the winter, but the coolant is also a rust inhibitor and Renaults use a different mixture.

they might have wanted to flush drain and refill the system, hence the labour rate.

to be honest if it had been me id have been more pissed off had they not informed me that it needed doing.

If it's Arnold Clark, I would be suspect of anything they did. If you bought the car there and it seems to be OK you were lucky. They have a terrible reputation around my area.

Yes, I was talking to a peer that works there while I was on a training course, they have a 50% staff turn over in one month.

Sounds like they acted properly to me, you're just being tight. Having said that, and in reflection on recent threads, why do people moan about garages in this newsgroup? Isn't it supposed to be about maintaining your own car?

Being pedantic, this thread is off-topic. The fact that the garage may be a bit expensive is irrelevant. You should maybe be asking advice on how to do the job.

Absolutely.

Some cars, and European cars are notoriously bad, can take a lot of work to bleed the system through too, and hour could actually be a realistic time.

They should be indeed. In fact the french cars are pretty finicky with coolant changes, and a proper flush is essential.

Yup. Although, If the car had been maintained properly by the owner, and had the correct services carried out, it should have had coolant changes as part of the routine work.

The message from snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (Andy Hewitt) contains these words:

Wow, they get the nobility to work for 'em. That's posh!

This is basically the point I was trying to make. Arnold Clark sold her the car three months ago, (with a "full pre-sale service") then wrote and advised her to bring it in for a service 'because winter's coming'. I would have expected them to return it fully prepared for winter. Would it have been 'tight' of me if I'd moaned that the advisory had said "your oil's low, bring it back in and we'll top it up for £35.00", how is antifreeze any different?

Anyway, I flushed (acting on advice received here) and refilled the system yesterday without problems, and the total cost to her was, as usual, nil.

cheers

The message from Keith contains these words:

See - that's the problem, right there. Dunno about your area, but in some places they're notorious.

Well, as I said earlier (elsewhere), even the staff don't like them.