Service and MOT..

[qprdude]

Booked for next Wednesday.
I'll be nipping up to Ness motors, Citroen, in Inverness ( 100 miles-ish),to get the car tested and serviced. I phoned for an appointment and the girl on reception said the cars not due a service until 40,000 miles, or next July.
I've done about 7,000 miles since buying the car in July last year. It had an intermediate service and MOT done at that time at 25,000 miles.

I said two years or 18,000 miles is far to long to run the same oil, and she seemed surprised. She said the next due service was a full one, at £309.

We came to a compromise and agreed on another intermediate service meantime. The service and MOT will cost £149 she said, and will you bring along your drivers license for the courtesy car!

Hmm, not a bad deal.M.O.T., Oil and filter change, air filter , complete check over and a valet and wash. I suspect the courtesy car will be a Citroen1, but we shall probably have a look at Loch Ness or something while the C5 is in the garage, it's only 10 miles away.

I need to get the car serviced and tested by the supplying dealership as part of the 3 year warranty they provided, so as I'm due another 600 mile trip to the South east, I though it best to get it done before I go.

[Ben82]

That service interval is not new on the Citroens.

I do remember seeing some small print somewhere that recommend halving it for cars that are used for lots of small journeys.

To be honest on the Fully Synth stuff for most cars it can probably be gotten away with, but I mainly put it down to Citroen wanting to appeal to companies (and people) wanting to keep the annual cost of ownership down.
Will certainly be ignoring that interval and changing my oil this year before the MOT is due on it.

[qprdude]

Don't suppose anyone can tell me how long the service and MOT are likely to take? I will have a courtesy car for the day, and I have a hotel booked for the night, but if it's only 4 hours or so, I might cancel the hotel and drive straight home. (I'm assuming there will be no major disasters)
I was going to ask them to change the brake fluid too. I'm told it's a 2 year thing, but I've had some cars for 5+ years, and over 42 years of driving, I've never changed brake fluid once.

[Peter.N.]

Sounds a lot to me when it costs about £16.00 for my oil and filter change doing it myself but I can't afford to do otherwise. 18,000 sounds far to long for an oil change, however good the oil is it still becomes contaminated with carbon which I believe is a major cause of turbo failure on many cars, especially the 1.6 Hdi, I wouldn't leave it for more than half of that mileage.

If you want to look at some really nice scenery while you are waiting there is a Citroen garage at Thurso - only about another 100 miles

Peter

[Northern_Mike]

Sounds a lot to me when it costs about £16.00 for my oil and filter change doing it myself but I can't afford to do otherwise. 18,000 sounds far to long for an oil change, however good the oil is it still becomes contaminated with carbon which I believe is a major cause of turbo failure on many cars, especially the 1.6 Hdi, I wouldn't leave it for more than half of that mileage.

I believe Peter is right. 18k sounds way too long,even to someone with little mechanical sympathy who used to run round in bangers! I'm not sure even I'd be happy sticking to that service schedule.

The Berlingo had a full service in February which I did myself, it had done about 5500 miles since then, service interval 12.5k. Anyway, it had it's timing belt and tensioners replaced a couple of weeks ago, and Savoy Malc kindly whizzed in a free oil and filters change at the same time, so now there's officially another 10500 miles before it needs another. I'll probably DIY it before the winter comes though, whether it's done the miles or not, as I have the oil already.

[citroenxm]

A real good mot test should be 45 min to an hour... as for service.. oil drain depends how much and re fill about 15min with swapping the filter possibly a bit longer and fuel filter ten mins prehaps a bit more . Air filter about 5 mins

Thats just guessing averages.. could be a bit longer and more awkward on the 2.7

[dnsey]

Depending on the garage, you may need to add to that time tea breaks, answering the phone, chatting to colleagues, starting work on another vehicle halfway through yours, generally standing around etc, etc!

[qprdude]

I'm thinking around 4 hours approximately then, as a maximum, with no major repairs required.
The service interval is way too long for me, hence the reason for getting it done at just under a year and around 6,000-7,000 miles.

Yes guys, expensive compared to a home service which I could do no problems, but as I said, I kind of like having a three year warranty on the car, and with just over two years still to run, I can wait another six months and get it done at the 18 month interval, or I can get it done while the MOT is due. Either way, the service has to be carried out at the supplying dealership to validate the warranty.

Is anyone saying that for £109 for the service alone, I should save around £50 max by doing it myself and throwing away 25 months of warranty and roadside assistance?
Price of Mobil 1 fully synth is around £55-£60 (6 Litres). Don't know the cost of a filter, but I have too much invested in the car to risk cheap oil and filters. At a purchase cost of £9000, I need to treat it like a Ferrari, as the funds for a replacement are now never going to be available.

[Ben82]

You could probably negotiate a time to pick up the car within a specific timeframe.

They won't be using Mobil 1... they will be using Total Quartz.. which would be about £25 to buy normally for 6L (not sure what the stealers markup is though). They're not going to replace the air or pollen filters. Oil filter is about a tenner. so it's about £75, you would save doing the same service yourself.

If you used Total Quartz, and an OEM filter to do the service yourself, how would they know when it comes to the next (scheduled according to Citroen) service? (If you're worried about voiding the warranty, the wording seems like you could void it by doing it sooner than the manufacturers schedule)

Your car must be serviced and have its MOT Tests carried out by Ness Motors in accordance with the manufacturer’s schedule.

Whilst highly unlikely (but as unlikely as finding out you have serviced it yourself), they could argue that you have voided the warranty due to it being done more frequently that the manufacturer's schedule.

[qprdude]

I checked with them when I booked the car in, and the warranty is secure. It's not a "bought"warranty, like the AA or Arnold Clark etc. It's their own warranty from the company themselves, so there is no chance of them voiding the warranty because of early service.
I know they will use Total Quartz (£30.28 for 5 litres delivered, I need 5.25 litres so approx £37)
I quoted the likely saving at £50 because I would use my preferred Mobil 1. Admittedly, I get it much cheaper, but if I were to pay retail price, that would be the saving.
The car has been serviced by the dealer since new, and the services and parts are recorded on the data base these days, so they might well know what was fitted, filterwise, so I would have to fit the same. I'm not suggesting that they would take the slightest bit of notice what filter they took off, but in any case even saving the entire £99 isn't worth losing 2 years of warranty.

Just checked, and the interim service is actually £99

I might just enjoy the courtesy car for the whole day, stay in the hotel overnight and make a mini-break of it.

This is the service option from the garage I am taking the car to.

http://www.nessmotors.com/aftersales/Citroen/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will most likely do the air and pollen filter later.

[qprdude]

Well the story so far is:-
I set off at 6 am and was at the garage at 8 am. The car was booked in and I mentioned the left rear tyre sensor flagging up a deflated tyre and the car going into economy mode as soon as the ignition is switched on.

The took my drivers license details and showed me to a new Citroen DS4. Good start, it was a nice car, not a patch on the C5 for comfort, but comfy enough and easy to drive. It was the middle of the three options with the 2.0 diesel and a few goodis like massage seat (both front), an park sensors etc.
We set off for a tour of Urquart Castle on Loch Ness after a hearty breakfast in Drumnadrochit (say that with a bew beers in). Having done the Castle thing, we were on the way North to do some sight seeing when the garage phoned to say my car was ready. (12.30pm)

We took our time and returned at 2.00 pm
My car needed a CV joint clip, and the boot re packed with grease for the MOT.

The service manageress said they had been in touch with Citroen regarding the Tyre sensor, which was leaking. Citroen gave them the go ahead to change all 4 sensors and reset the comp. at their expence!!
She said they obviously knew there was a problem with the sensors, and even though the Citroen warranty was long gone, they agreed to pay for the work and parts as a goodwill gesture. (Take note C5 X7 owners)
Very nice, but unfortunately, the garage have to order the sensors, so I have another 1270 mile return trip in the next few days to get the work done. Oh well, the cheapest sensors I could find for the X7 is £58.40 each, and that is on Ebay, plus the Digi-box set-up, so I suppose the best part of £300 parts and work is not to be sniffed at.

The mechanic said he would like to see the sensors fitted before checking the "economy mode" thing, in case they were related. (If he says new battery, I will be supplying and fitting it myself)

The garage also changed the air filter with the service as the record didn't show one having been done before.

I double checked on my 3 year warranty, as regards the service schedule, and they said they don't often get owners getting an early service and that the warranty is OK. I asked to be reminded when the next service was due, and she took my Email details and said the service would be due in 2 YEARS or when the service counter reached zero, as it had been reset as Citroens recommended mileage of 20,000miles for the 2.2l C5 X7!!!!
The oil and filter will ,of course, be changed long before that, but the intervals were even longer than I previously thought.

[mooseshaver]

That's interesting as I have a leaking valve.

[qprdude]

That's interesting as I have a leaking valve.

Might be an idea to ask your local Citroen dealer to contact Citroen to see if you can get 4 new ones!

The good thing is, not only are mine free, but they should also be good for the life of the car (in my ownership)

[kenhall1202]

That's interesting as I have a leaking valve.

Suggest you try tightening up the outer valve collar a little (assuming that the Schrader core is OK). The seal relies only on the rubber washer on the inside of the rim and the sensor plays no part in the sealing action. Citroen however only sell the complete valve and sensor as one part. Ebay is awash with sellers of replacement stems/collar/washer sets (~£12 each) where you are expected to swop the sensor from the old to the new stem, thus avoiding any recoding hassle.

[mooseshaver]

So someone might be able to fix it? The place ingot the tyres from couldn't do anything, but they're not have used a sealing kit. Wasn't one on invoice if I remember bits a while since they were fitted.