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All I will say is make sure you watch what they're doing while they're underneath your car.
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watch what they're doing while they're underneath your car.
What do they do, when they're underneath the car, then?
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What do they do when they're underneath the car then?
Of course I'm not suggested for a moment that they would do this, but a sharp instrument could punch a hole in a exhaust, or a steering gaiter could tear. Perhaps oil sprayed on a shock absorber.
Undertrays are often fiddly things, so they also may not put all the fasteners back, or can cross-thread them, on any undertray that needs to be removed for the oil change.
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so they also may not put all the fasteners back, or can cross-thread them, on any undertray that needs to be removed for the oil change.
How do other companies do this work then?
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Of course I'm not suggested for a moment that they would do this but a sharp instrument could punch a hole in a exhaust or a steering gaiter could tear. Perhaps oil sprayed on a shock absorber.
Assuming you mean something like this being done deliberately, I imagine that would be more of a risk with a dodgy independent (as distinct from a reputable independent).
I'd expect a lot of hard selling, but I would have thought an organisation like Kwik Fit can afford not to have to take the risk of getting caught doing something that improper.
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£5.02 saved... plus half a day to get the bits, and another half a day to dispose of the oil; plus with undertrays to remove and refit. No way. I thought I was the stingiest poster on this site; clearly not.
JBIF - do you know anybody who has ever claimed on the lifetime guarantee for brakes? The condition on the website is that you have to have any remedial work done that they recommend at any point that they do something to your brakes.
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do you know anybody who has ever claimed on the lifetime guarantee for brakes?
No. But then I don't know anybody who has ever had to have their brake pads/shoes/disks changed more than once during their ownership of a car.
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National are doing a similar deal with even better oil. Apparently they will change the oil in my car for £33, using Castrol Edge 0w30, of which my car takes 6.5 litres.
Thats less than the trade cost of the oil..
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National only charge £21 for my car, it was a MANN filter they used last time. I'm fairly sure they do it by sucking the oil up through the dipstick hole. Not sure what the cons are of that, but it deprives them of the opportunity to cross thread the sump plug and leave half the fastenings off the undertray.
Edited by *Gongfarmer* on 15/07/2008 at 15:13
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I'm fairly sure they do it by sucking the oil up through the dipstick hole. Not sure what the cons are of that
Does the oil naturally build up any collections of deposits or general thickness over the course of it's life? If so, draining out of the bottom of the sump might clear that better than sucking up the filler pipe.
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National (...) I'm fairly sure they do it by sucking the oil up through the dipstick hole.
I took my old banger (Cav 2.0 Eco) there a few months ago. They drained the oil via the sump drain plug. The whole process took about 40 mins. start to finish - car on lift, drain, remove filter, re-fit bits & fill, car off lift. They also mentioned the oil leak, a blowing rear box (pinholes), and that all the dampers need replacing (!). £21. Oil was Magnatec (no idea what filter used).
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I've always had the oil and filter change done by National's Ormskirk branch and no, it certainly isn't done by sucking out the oil.
It's a proper oil and filter change using Duckhams oil and takes around half-a-hour. I watch the very efficient mechanic undertaking the work and, because my Bora only uses four-and-a-half litres, I'm given the half-litre left over for topping up.
In actual fact no VW car I've owned has ever used oil or leaked it, so over time I've collected a full five-litre canister of pristine oil...:-)
Service used to cost £15, but now £20 or £25 (not quite sure). Even so it would be difficult to buy the oil and filter for that price, let alone do the work yourself.
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No. But then I don't know anybody who has ever had to have their brake pads/shoes/disks changed more than once during their ownership of a car.
Really? Not even front brake pads? I'd have to check my big pile of historical receipts to be sure, but I seem to recall 25,000-30,000 miles for a set of pads, and new discs every two to three sets of pads as a rule of thumb. I guess that's still up to 60k miles before the second set of new pads, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who change cars before they've done that may miles.
Or my rule of thumb is wrong.
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I'd have to check my big pile of historical receipts to be sure but I seem to recall 25 000-30 000 miles for a set of pads and new discs every two to three sets of pads as a rule of thumb.
There's a huge discussion about getting the pads replaced free on another forum - apparently what happens is they say "sure we'll do it, but the car needs new disks" which of course are chargeable. Clearly, if the disks are being changed, then changing the pads at the same time is trivial, or non-existant if the pads have to be removed from the caliper anyway, so there's virtually no labour cost, and the parts cost to Kwik Fit of a set of pattern pads would be next to nothing.
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There's a huge discussion about getting the pads replaced free on another forum - apparently what happens is they say "sure we'll do it but the car needs new disks" which of course are chargeable.
Doesn't suprise me. I've been vaguely aware of this offer from Kwik-Fit but never bothered looking into it in detail because it fails my "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" test.
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I bought my eight and a half-year-old VW Bora with 46,500m on the clock in 2003. The brakes have always been spot on but, when I had new tyres fitted last November when it had 62,400m on the clock, I examined all the pads myself as the individual tyres were replaced.
The pads all had more than ample life left in them and I'm very confident it will pass its MOT in this area come the end of November.
I've had too many instances of various outlets trying to pull the wool over my eyes in various aspects of "about to expire" parts to take little notice of what they tell me, especially if I know they are talking bulls--t.
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£5.02 saved... plus half a day to get the bits and another half a day to dispose of the oil; plus with undertrays to remove and refit. No way. I thought I was the stingiest poster on this site; clearly not.
I actually like doing this and not just from the point it saves me a few quid each year.
I don't have the hassle with trays etc on my vehicle(s) as they are not fitted.
All are trolley jacked up straight on to axle stands - wedge the rear wheels, undo the sump bolt, drain oil, old filter off & new one on, sump bolt back in, wipe all down, drop off the stands, fill up oil - 10mins max and no dribbles on the drive :) as I use a large funnel to feed the old oil straight in to a home made container (old tin that once contained Castrol oil).
Remember cold oil takes ages to drain and hot oil burns so only do this with a warm engine.
As for the bits needed? I get them when I do my food shop - Partco and a Unipart are both as good as right next door (5 min walk) to Asda! I ring in advance so I don't even have to wait for them to be picked.
Even getting rid of the oil is easy :) 25 litre container. 1/2 full I take it to the local council recycling centre that is 1.5 miles away.
Stingiest - heck, I even use tea bags 3 times before I recycle them in to compost to feed the vegetables I grow! (Only kidding, just twice actually....)
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>>I actually like doing this and not just from the point it saves me a few quid each year.
There I don't necessarily disagree, but when it costs me money to DIY... Kwik Fit is 100 yards from my front door. Partco/Unipart? No idea where. I don't have a drive, I don't have a garage...
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>>I don't have a drive, I don't have a garage...
Drive?, garage?,... Luxury!
Until we moved to the leafy suburbs last year, I had been doing all my car DIY on the front street. Owing to the camber of the road, that made working underneath problematic, but, a high kerb and a close length of dropped kerb helped with that.
For me, I simply wouldn't entertain the idea of letting those gibbons touch my car - even if the oil & filter change were free.
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Exactly NC !
Can`t remember which firm did it, but the sump plug came out on the M1 a few years back on a colleagues car.
Tron, But do they put new gloves on to handle the new oil filter element- grit-free- ?
(bet you have a canister.... ;)
Edited by oilrag on 15/07/2008 at 17:45
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You try doing the oil change by yourself on a Honda Accord. Once you've managed to get the oil filter off (using the tried and trusted screwdriver and hammer technique), you can watch as the remaining oil dribbles down the side of the engine (yes, some lunatic in Japan decided that it would be a good idea to mount the filter facing downwards...), and then, due to the cramped access, feel the burning hot oil make its way down your sleeve before you drop the filter in your tray of oil, losing the sump-plug at the same time.
No thanks.
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I thought 25 quid - that's not too bad - I'll have some of that.
No Sir, to you, that'll be £45. It only says from £25.
I think I'll do it myself!
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Tell us MM, you must have won something on the lottery.
"£5.02 saved... plus half a day to get the bits, and another half a day to dispose of the oil; plus with undertrays to remove and refit. No way. I thought I was the stingiest poster on this site; clearly not."
This is the second time in as many days that you seem to be spending money !
PS Which Kwik-Fit? The one in the Old Kent Road couldn't be bothered to do mine. I've also had problems getting National to do an oil change in S. London too.
No hassles now - I get my oil and filter for the 306 in France and do it myself - just like the old days. Trouble is my back and body need a couple of days to get over it now.
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When I went to Kwikfit a few years ago when first remarked about on here, they said they don't do BMWs as they don't have the filter, so I said oh I have a filter, and they said, we can't do it as they require special tools, I said no they don't, just a 32mm socket for the filter housing and I have one in the boot, they just ignored me and looked away. They're either too thick or lazy, or knew it took 8.5 litres of oil.
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My local Kwik Fit are too busy to worry about creating extra work when you go in for something routine. The same lads have been working there for years and are a very honest bunch, and very good at what they do.
I'm even going to give them 50 quid towards their Christmas party this year, they've been so good with mine and my wife's cars.
The first thing they did which I particularly liked and got me coming back for more was taking a puncture in to them, expecting to be sold at least a pair of tyres for the wife's Touran, and having it repaired within 5 minutes of arriving and being told "Don't worry about paying for it, but if you want to give the fitter 5 quid then I'm sure he wouldn't mind". They were just too busy to be worried, which I always take as a good sign. Sure enough, I've had several MOTs and Services done there.
Last month I had the Touran MOT'd, after having had some work done on the suspension at the VW dealer. When it was at the dealer they told me that the front brakes were 75% gone and needed doing urgently. And wanted 150 quid to do it. I told them to naff off naturally, and when I had the MOT at Kwik Fit I even asked them to check the front pads and told them what the dealer had said. Kwik Fit guy said "They're having you on mate, the brakes are 78% still on the MOT results, you'll be alright for another 10k miles at least".
I love 'em.
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they said they don't do BMWs as they don't have the filter, so I said oh I have a filter,
Some branches used to accept BMW OEM filters and note on the invoice that filter was supplied by customer at own risk.
knew it took 8.5 litres of oil.
In the old days, IIRC, they used to charge £40 for the over 6 litres oil capacity engines and use Mobil1 fully synth for BMWs.
The difference now is that the ownership has changed. The chain has gone through a revamp under the new private ventrue captial owners [just as it happened with Halfords].
www.kwik-fit.com/assets/pdf/speedy-1-limited-finan...f
Kwikfit is now a "wholly owned subsidiary of Financière Daunou 2 SA".
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