Servicing your car

[Tom]

http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs512&d=07063&f=car001.jpg

and http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs412&d=07063&f=car002.jpg

Linked because they might be hefty. I think I've removed anything incriminating, but if I haven't, shout at me.

Damn thats a lot of work. How old is the car?

The service fee should include new oil, a new oil filter, a new air filter and possibly a fuel filter. £76 is much more than I'd pay if I bought them myself, but the fee will include the oil change so its not that bad IMO,

The MOT test fee is standard, nothing really they can do about that its set by the government.

Oil disposal, fair enough. Myself I just take it to the tip, but its gotta be accounted for.

Lower arm bushes - if you look at the back of your car on the left side, you'll see a couple of big arms attached near the wheel. They've got bits of rubber to keep things nice and squishy so that they don't vibrate a lot. Those bits of rubber are the bushes, and if they were on their way out its fair enough to replace them, and its not a simple job. Disintegrating bushes affects road handling and can in extreme circumstances be a bit risky.

Brake pads - I'm presuming they didn't replace them at 60%, if they did I'd be pissed off at that. Looks like they didn't though, so thats ok. Same with the discs, looks like they left them alone. Good, but they'll probably want doing in a year or two depending on mileage so expect about £50-£75 in parts and £50 labour for that job (Gumbo will know)

Leaking brake cylinders on the drums - tbh Damns thats just shit. They shouldn't be leaking on a reasonably new car full stop, its not on. I'd be off to Ford with a strongly worded letter about that. Particularly as that leak appears to have warranted replacement of the brake shoes.

Brake drums, fair enough, if they needed replacing thats ok.


Its the rear brakes that have bumped up your bill, and by a hell of a lot. I'd be seeking recompense from Ford for that (unless you're fibbing and the car is 20 years old)

 

[Damini]

It's a second hand car, bought it last year from a dealership, hence newish (as in, not my shitty astra that has been set fire too, vandalised, broken into and smashed up, poor mite). I left the beginning of the reg on the picture - R. So it's not still got new car smell, but it doesn't remember vietnam. Maybe the MOT was right after all. Thanks for explaining how things tie in though, because I didn't understand a word of it.

 

[Gumbo]

The rear brake stuff is fair enough on a '97 car. The seals in the Cylinders are rubber and are likely to have perished over time. This lets fluid past the cylinders which then leaks onto the shoes, requiring the replacement of both. This will be why your near side rear brake wasn't working, and your handbrake was low on effeciency. Price wise, the garage will have paid somewhere between about £5 and £12 for each cylinder. £10 to £15 for a set of shoes and £20ish each for the drums. Another £20 for new bearings for the drums, as they would have got destroyed pressing them out of the old ones anyway, worn or not.

The bushes on the arm would have been sorted with a new arm. It's not economical to take the old arm off, and press out the old bushes to put new ones in. These arms really are disposable items on most fords of the last 20 years or so, with a life of about 50,000 miles. I used to sell Escort ones for £9 to garages, there was one fitment, so straightforward enough. There were however, a few different Fiesta fitments, depending on the orientation of the bushes, and wether the vehicle had powersteering, but they would range from £12 to £20 each. Pads and discs together, if they are solid around £20 for the lot, vented, around £30.

On that invoice there doesn't seem to be seperate labour listed, so I'm guessing it's a sort of menu priced job. As such, it doesn't look so bad. Obviously if you take the price the garage pays for the bits and then look at the individual items on the bill, it looks quite horrible, but... If I was throwing that box of bits at the spanner monkey, I would expect about 4 hours or so for the job. Maybe a bit more if they have any issues. Plus technically you've got to put the car through 2 mot's. Though if this was all done on site, I would imagine that it was just popped back on the brake rollers again. Usually you can double the price the garage pays for the parts to then punt to the customer. £100 of that or so is the Queens money too remember, none of my prices above would have included vat.

Like Tom, I'd have let the front brakes go a bit longer at 60% worn, but at least you know they'll be good for another 20k miles now.

In short, if you want it really cheap, do it yourself. This isn't a rip off bill in my opinion, but with the car a little over 50k miles and 10 years old, it is one of those big ones that pops up occasionally. Next MOT I would expect to need the other suspension arm done, if it hasn't been done on the car before, and on a fiesta, the shocks might need a change pretty soon too. Otherwise that's some nice major brake surgery done which should set you up for a while.

Now, I'm not in the garage trade any more, I now sell boatbuilding and holidays on the Norfolk Broads, so I'm going back to that

 

[Tom]

I think they left the fronts Gumbo.

I reckon Damini, if handed a spanner, could easily manage suspension shocks. On most cars they're a 10 minute job.

I'd also advise that the next time the car needs an MOT, take it to a council run MOT garage - they have absolutely no incentive to start replacing bits and pieces, and so you may have an easier time getting it through.