First Service

Another reply from a garage in Thetford, how can prices differ so much?.
E9DEAA90-C9EB-47C8-AD54-BD8CABEA6C47.jpeg
 
I have just had my Van serviced at Marquise Northampton, £205 all inclusive oil/filter changed, everything else checked. Mileage 9006 just turned to 06 on arrival. Checked out last years cost, £200, same place. I was quoted by another place who rang me a few days back, £300 for same service. I used them for my first service, decided not to reuse them due to electricle issues and potential costs of future prices. Plus they are miles further away.

I am pleased for you Mickey1 that you have now found someone who not only will do it cheaper, but is recommended as well. I call that a great result(y):D2
 
I've just had a quote for my first (2yr) service@14000 miles from Imperial Commercials in Glasgow that seems steep compared to the above costs...
it is as follows:

Carry out service & replace filters - £162.50

Oil filter - £13.31

Fuel filter - £42.75

Air filter - £40.19

Oil (7 litres) - £68.81

Total cost - £327.56 + VAT which is £393.08 :(
 
Last edited:
QUOTE="gerry mcg, post: 3150635, member: 44285"]Oil (7 litres) - £68.81[/QUOTE]
7 Lt ??? Certanly like to over fill it, our independent charges £20 +VAT for oil.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Gerry do you have either; coach build, A class.

I have a coach build, maybe different for an A class
 
Ducato Euro 6 requires a 0W30 oil meeting the ACEA C2 and Fiat DS2 specs. There are plenty of them about. Fiat recommend Selenia oil in their handbook because they have commercial and marketing links with Petronas Oils. You just happen to have looked up another brand on Euro Car Parts, who artificially inflate their prices so that when you've applied whatever today's discount or sale code happens to be, you end up paying pretty much the same as elsewhere.

What's your engine? 2.3 mj should take 5.4 litres at an oil and filter change. Fiat say 5.9 but that overfills on the dipstick.

Oldest garage trick in the book to charge you for oil at retail prices per whole litre when they are drawing the exact amount needed from a bulk drum or tank which costs a fraction of that amount per litre.

Not certain without looking it up, but why are they quoting a fuel filter change at 2 years? Maybe if you've driven 70K in that time. More profit on parts and labour time...

Read the posts about low mileage services above.
 
Last edited:
Deneb said:
What's your engine? 2.3 mj should take 5.4 litres at an oil and filter change. Fiat say 5.9 but that overfills on the dipstick.

Oldest garage trick in the book to charge you for oil at retail prices per whole litre when they are drawing the exact amount needed from a bulk drum or tank which costs a fraction of that amount per litre.
Click to expand...

its a 2017 150hp Euro6 2.3L motor. I can't find the oil capacity in the handbook.... I'm not sure what I can do about the price of bulk drum oil vs retail price.
I'll email them about low milage service and enquire about the need for a fuel filter on 14k miles and the oil volume.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
gerry mcg said:
its a 2017 150hp Euro6 2.3L motor. I can't find the oil capacity in the handbook.... I'm not sure what I can do about the price of bulk drum oil vs retail price.
I'll email them about low milage service and enquire about the need for a fuel filter on 14k miles and the oil volume.
Click to expand...

Oil capacity for oil and filter change is 5.9 litres. A lot of FP dealers use 5.4 litres because 5.9 overfills and its better to be slightly under the full mark on a modern diesel with DPF. There is the potential for the oil level to increase due to fuel entering the sump during the DPF regeneration process.

Nothing you can do about the price you're quoted for oil by the dealer, although I would be querying why they are quoting 7 litres. Your post above though suggested you believe that the oil used must be Selenia (it can be any ACEA C2 oil meeting the stated Fiat spec, and the dealer may not even have Selenia in their bulk drums, although they might be charging you Selenia retail price per 1 litre bottles!). The FP dealer who did my low mileage service a few months ago charged me for exactly 5.4 litres of oil, so they can do it if they try ;)

You quoted a different oil from ECP, although you've since edited that post, hence my remark about oil prices - I though you might be looking elsewhere.

Titan, Fuchs, Shell, Mobil, just to mention a few, all market compatible oils meeting the Fiat required spec, some of them substantially cheaper than Selenia if you shop around. Selenia isn't more expensive because it's better - it just has a limited supply chain into the UK so imported in lower quantities and prices are higher.

Edit: The Fiat required spec is 955535-DS1 - not DS2 as I stated above. Shouldn't rely on memory at my age :(
 
Last edited:
@Mickey1 . We don't live a million miles from you, we are near Stowmarket, and I take our A Class to Simpsons at Great Yarmouth for engine/chassis servicing.
It's a bit of a drag but they are motorhome dealers as well as Fiat Professional so know what they are doing. Also, we have an Alko rear axle that needs greasing and they do that as well. They have a great reputation and are thoroughly nice people to deal with.
With our previous vans I went to Desira at Diss but they said our A Class wouldn't go on their lift.........think the fitters didn't like the look of that tiny bonnet opening and made an excuse.
Our two year service , December 2016, at Simpsons cost £462.
Last years, Feb 2018, intermediate service + greasing rear axle + MOT was £323.
Not cheap but I have great confidence in them.

Richard.
 
Deneb said:
Oil capacity for oil and filter change is 5.9 litres. A lot of FP dealers use 5.4 litres because 5.9 overfills and its better to be slightly under the full mark on a modern diesel with DPF. There is the potential for the oil level to increase due to fuel entering the sump during the DPF regeneration process.

Nothing you can do about the price you're quoted for oil by the dealer, although I would be querying why they are quoting 7 litres. Your post above though suggested you believe that the oil used must be Selenia (it can be any ACEA C2 oil meeting the stated Fiat spec, and the dealer may not even have Selenia in their bulk drums, although they might be charging you Selenia retail price per 1 litre bottles!). The FP dealer who did my low mileage service a few months ago charged me for exactly 5.4 litres of oil, so they can do it if they try ;)

You quoted a different oil from ECP, although you've since edited that post, hence my remark about oil prices - I though you might be looking elsewhere.

Titan, Fuchs, Shell, Mobil, just to mention a few, all market compatible oils meeting the Fiat required spec, some of them substantially cheaper than Selenia if you shop around. Selenia isn't more expensive because it's better - it just has a limited supply chain into the UK so imported in lower quantities and prices are higher.

Edit: The Fiat required spec is 955535-DS1 - not DS2 as I stated above. Shouldn't rely on memory at my age :(
Click to expand...
thanks for the comments. I have emailed the FP dealer back as I said in the earlier post.

I was looking at ECP I'm my post earlier before I edited it... I went out to the van to check the spare 1L oil container I had and it was not Selenia oil as I thought - so I searched online for was on the container - then I remembered the Selinia 1L oil came in a tin that didn't reseal properly so I poured the remaining ½ l I had into a different plastic screw cap oil bottle I had.

ECP don't sell the Selenia oil, hence the edit to my post.
 
this was my email to the FP garage

Thanks for the email quote for the van service.
It was a bit more than I was expecting given it has only done 14000 miles.
Is a fuel and air filter change really required at 14000 miles?
I believe there is a low milage service option which might be more appropriate given the van milage - is this available and can you provide a quote for this?

I was also lead to believe the 2.3l fiat engine only needs 5.4l of oil when doing an oil and filter change (I understand Fiat state 5.9l of oil is required but I am told this overfills on the dipstick.)

and the FP reply that just came back

Your vehicle is due a service every 30,000 miles otherwise every 2 years. I can see your warranty start date is January 2017 therefore it will be due its first service now.

Fiat regulations do state the fuel & air filters are replaced during it's first service.

I have also double checked with our parts department who have advised your vehicle takes 6.6 litres of oil as per the Fiat Service Package.

In order to keep in line with Fiat Warranty Regulations we would suggest the filters are replaced.
 
Lenny HB said:
Typical garage BS, it's out of warranty at 2 years anyway.
Click to expand...
I guess it would be a question of goodwill if there was a major 'out of warranty' engine issue - if there was, One could appeal to Fiat for goodwill if there was a major issue and it had been serviced as per the manufacturer schedule - but if it had not been serviced as per the schedule - they would definitely walk away and wash their hands of it
 
I think the dealer has mixed up the word "regulations" with "recommendations"!

You can't force them to accept your vehicle and your requirements though, so maybe ask another dealer. There seem to be quite a few FP dealers around who recognise that MHs and other vehicles covering relatively low mileages compared with the norm that the service schedule is designed to cover, don't necessarily need certain filters or other parts replacing as often as long as their condition is checked. The dealer I used had a pre-printed low mileage vehicle service sheet, listing everything that would be attended to and checked off by the technician.

5.9 litres is shown as the service fill quantity for both Euro 5 and Euro 6 versions of the 2.3 mj in their technical documents for X290 vans. 6.6 litres might be the initial fill capacity - you can never get all the oil out if an engine when it is drained for an oil change which is why flushing can be ill advised - but the doc I have states 6.3 litres not 6.6

Bit worrying that the service department are asking the parts department how much oil to use, when the service dept has access to the technical docs that tell them the answer to that question (n)
 
Regarding the oil, I bought this off eBay for top up, now it seems you can only get it from Germany. I can’t see any of them using this for a oil change.
077B4E83-8FC2-4274-BAF1-1E7FDBA0E692.jpeg

38F21837-5EA6-4148-B7AD-932A6D001E6B.jpeg

Mickey
 
Casper46 said:
We are short on local Fiat Proffesional garages that we would be willing to go back to. I assume that working on an A class is more difficult, and we would rather take it to someone who works on motorhomes. When we get back from our next trip we will need an oil change and filter even though it won’t be due it’s first service. Can anyone recommend a garage within 50 miles of York?
Click to expand...
Casper,
I use Stoneacre Chesterfield, a Fiat Professional dealership.
I have a coach built so you would need to check with them over size.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Gerry, it seems Deneb is very knowledgeable and hot on these things. I won't say for definite to take his advice, but certainly bear it in mind as I see you have in your email. It may well be advisable to check your service manual for oil amounts etc, if not there, then, possibly your instruction manual may cover this along with such things a tyre pressures etc.

Flook:coolest:
 
@gerry mcg
Gerry, if it's FP at Shieldhall it was them that did our first (low mileage) service in 2015 however only around 5k on the clock.
From memory, it was them that suggested a low mileage service. Cost was around £160 inclusive but, no doubt, more than that now.
We had a 3 year warranty and there was no issue getting a few things done by them (including two dashboard consoles at over £1k each!) in year 3 under warranty.
Lost contact with the guy I used to deal with there as he's moved on to, I think, FP Bellshill.
 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top