Mercedes grrrrrrr

[Westley]

On 01/08/2024 at 16:06, Gordon R said:

Eldest has a 72 plate Mercedes EQC400. On last service, mechanic advised him he needed discs and pads all round. Their estimate was around £2k. I advised him to check discs - very, very minor lip on them - they did not need doing. Bought some pads for front and back off E*ay. They arrived yesterday and we intended fitting them today. Whipped front wheels off - nothing wrong with the discs and the pads were only about 1/4 worn. We had the new ones to compare.

Round to the back. Discs fine, but pads had a few thousand left in them and nowhere near the wear indicator. As we had the pads, we decided to change them. Swift comparison showed a minor difference in the lugs where they fit into the carrier. We visited Brakes International and Europarts who all stocked the pads, but they too were identical to those from E*ay. He rang Mercedes Bolton, who couldn't be bothered answering the phone. In the end we drove round - they didn't stock them, but they arrive tomorrow - £163. That is £135 more than online and £120 more than Brakes International.

I have no idea where motor factors get their part numbers from, but all had a different idea about what the pads should be. Looking at the pads, it would have taken about 5 minutes to grind down the lugs to fit, but eldest wanted the proper part. 

Just a rip off. To make it worse, the rear calipers retract the pistons when you programme the car. They wound in 2/3 of the way and I had to wind the rest by hand. Not the usual 2 or 4 prong piston - I have an air powered piston retractor - these had 3 prong fittings. It's almost as if they don't want you to do it yourself - perish the thought.

I had exactly the same with a Honda main agent. Took it to a friend with a garage. He renewed the front pads, the discs were fine. The original discs and the rear pads were still on the car 2 years later  !

I took a friends BMW to the main agents for an MOT, just an MOT, nothing else. They had the car for 2 days 

 

[Mice!]

8 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I bet they used the "apprentice" for that job, need to tell the garage about it in very strong terms. 

Oh and not use them again.

I stopped using a local garage because they started struggling to get work done, they never tried getting unnecessary work, but it seemed like the experienced guys had gone and it was all just young lads.

[matone]

On 11/08/2024 at 09:03, Gordon R said:

Mate's car is a 17 plate Skoda Octavia estate, whereas my son's car is a 72 plate Mercedes EQC 400. Different cars, different garage - same garbage service.

Just Googled the garage where the Skoda went. Some excellent reviews, but an ominous number of reviews where work hadn't been done, half done  and total failure to solve the problem. I started leaving a Google review, but decided against it. It's my mate's car and it's up to him to do any follow up action needed.

Mungler - got to agree. We have changed a number of cars which served us well, but got rid because we had had them too long. Our shortest ownership is an hour, our longest being 6 years. The latter was my wife's Suzuki SX4 auto. Got rid at 65k, running like a sewing machine. Evans Halshaw said it was the cleanest car they had ever had on a trade in. I told them we looked after our cars, whereas it had been to the local car wash for a £15 valet.

A friend (who operates a garage) recently bought a Skoda Yeti on a `14 plate for himself 94k ,full main dealer service history ,very clean car .He showed me the air ,cabin and fuel filters he removed from it when he serviced it....all had 2014 date on them !!!!!! Hopefully they had changed the oil once or twice in the previous 10 yrs !!!!

Main dealers are just ripoff artists and the more `special` the make,the bigger the ripoff.

[enfieldspares]

On the other hand OEM parts and "pattern parts" are often not of the same quality. Corners will be cut...the part may be safe nevertheless...but corners may be cut and the life of a pattern part may not always be the same as that of a OEM part.

[Gordon R]

A few years ago, I bought a fuel pump for a KTM SXS - £300. I read about repairing the old pump and bought a motor - £20 off E*ay. The pump arrived in exactly the same packaging as the KTM, same serial number and identical. I later read about KTM's original parts being made in Taiwan.

Around the same time, there was a program on TV about a garage in Gibraltar. They were preparing a Bentley suspension and needed a couple of spheres. The Bentley price was £200 each. When they arrived, they came in a Bentley box, but inside they were contained in a polythene bag bearing the Citroen logo - which could be obtained for less than £15.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

10 hours ago, enfieldspares said:

On the other hand OEM parts and "pattern parts" are often not of the same quality. Corners will be cut...the part may be safe nevertheless...but corners may be cut and the life of a pattern part may not always be the same as that of a OEM part.

And if it is an OEM part you are replacing and the cost is significantly lower, crack on.  

[JohnfromUK]

2 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

And if it is an OEM part you are replacing and the cost is significantly lower, crack on.  

The problem is identifying the identical parts under different 'brands' and part numbering systems.

It used to be the case that in the old "British Leyland' (BL), the same (Lucas made) indicator flasher was used on many of the BL models - and was a very common failure item.

You could get;

1. Lucas branded (from a Lucas service centre)
2. Unipart (BL's in house parts operation) branded (from most BL parts counters, Halfords, Motor Factors etc.)
3. As a BMC/Austin Morris part number
4. As a Rover/LandRover/Triumph part number
5. As a Jaguar/Daimler part number
6. Also from Leyland commercial brands (Leyland, Sherpa, AEC)

A friend of my fathers who was 'senior' at Lucas in Birmingham assured us that all were IDENTICAL Lucas parts, just boxed and catalogued differently.  In general, Unipart and Lucas were cheapest, whereas Rover/LandRover/Triumph and Jaguar/Daimler were most expensive.  I suspect you could get the same item even cheaper as a "Halfords" branded item, but not sure on that one.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Yes the cross over is quite far reaching, Ford and Fiat commonality and all of the French manufacturers.

[Zoli 12 guage]

6 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Yes the cross over is quite far reaching, Ford and Fiat commonality and all of the French manufacturers.

Renault/Nissan being another 

[enfieldspares]

This thread reminds me that Reliant Scimitar door handles were stock factory Morris Marina? As were Lotus Elite. Which I then searched, just now, on the internet and there it was.

https://www.aronline.co.uk/opinion/morris-marina-doorhandles/#:~:text=In May 1974 Lotus introduced,their 1975 Scimitar GTE SE6.

Edited August 15 by enfieldspares

[Zoli 12 guage]

9 hours ago, enfieldspares said:

This thread reminds me that Reliant Scimitar door handles were stock factory Morris Marina? As were Lotus Elite. Which I then searched, just now, on the internet and there it was.

https://www.aronline.co.uk/opinion/morris-marina-doorhandles/#:~:text=In May 1974 Lotus introduced,their 1975 Scimitar GTE SE6.

i had a Lotus Europa and the headlamps were British Leyland Mini.

2 candles would have been better😁😁

[Gordon R]

Morris Marina door handles on first Range Rover.

[London Best]

3 hours ago, Gordon R said:

Morris Marina door handles on first Range Rover.

Only the later models (after the introduction of the 4 door model?). 
The very first ones had a black vertical door handle about 8/9 inches high at the rear edge of the door. 
(Sorry, I’m an anorak)

[JohnfromUK]

2 minutes ago, London Best said:

(Sorry, I’m an anorak)

I think you are a correct anorak though.  My recollection is that the Marina handles started with the 4 door models

[Gordon R]

Mate with his Skoda Octavia just popped round. The same garage fitted rear discs and pads and told him the rear caliper was sticking. They didn't bother to look at it. Whipped the rear wheel off - One loose stud, two tight, two half tight - the same as the wheel we had taken off the nearside front. I said we had better check the rest. The third wheel had two studs not properly tightened, with the fourth the same, but also one stud missing. Greased the caliper pins and checked moving freely. Also checked piston was moving okay. Pulled back the rubber shroud and squirted a little WD40.

At 6.35pm he was on his way to see if a spares shop in Bolton had a spare stud. Phoned to tell him, I had checked and they had one in stock - closed at 7.00pm.

[ditchman]

On 02/08/2024 at 12:23, Rat Boy said:

Was in my local independent garage a couple of weeks ago. On the ramp was a 73 plate Range Rover getting it's rear pads changed. The mechanic was saying he had to purchase Genuine Land Rover pads as Land Rover have not allowed after market pads to be made yet. He said the difference in price between genuine and after market parts is just stupid.

when i put a new clutch pack in my turb-desiel which was the complete thing from Borg-warner...the quote from land-rover was £900 quid

this was about 10 years ago.............so i went to JSF......the EXCACT same pack from Borg-warner was £160 quid

[Gordon R]

Eldest lad's wife has a V Class Mercedes, which he took to the main agent for a service about two months ago. Predictably, he was told it needed discs and pads all round - as he was with the EQC. We were going to have a look when he gets back from his holiday next week. Before he went away, he had an intermittent warning light - handbrake related. He took it to Mercedes yesterday, who charged him £120 to connect the code reader. They said there was a fault, but they hadn't time to look at it. However, they did find time to give the vehicle a safety inspection. The front and rear discs had self healed, as had the front pads. They said he could do with rear pads - a mere £640. I have the car at the moment - will get the pads fitted whilst he is away and take it to a mate's garage to sort the warning light. 

I wonder if he will ever learn. 

[Westley]

4 weeks ago when driving my Honda CRV on  the motorway, engine warning light came on and the engine stalled. Within seconds, it restarted and all went back to normal.  Today I have received a letter from Honda, about a vehicle recall due to a fault on the fuel pump, which causes the exact symptoms that I encountered. I have to book the vehicle in with the main agents for a F.O.C. fuel pump to be fitted. The vehicle is 5 years old   ?

[Gordon R]

I think there is a message in there. Choose your make of car and be even more careful with choice of garage.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

9 hours ago, Gordon R said:

I think there is a message in there. Choose your make of car and be even more careful with choice of garage.

Amen to that.   

[Westley]

9 hours ago, Gordon R said:

I think there is a message in there. Choose your make of car and be even more careful with choice of garage.

I agree totally, although to be fair, it is the first of 4 CRV's I have had a mechanical issue with.

Edited August 25 by Westley

[Gordon R]

Mercedes V class was too large to fit on mate's ramps, so it ended up at a Mercedes specialist about a mile from home. My lad asked for the back pads to be replaced and the brake warning light sorting. They charged him £80 for a scan and £40 to fix the parking brake (which had lit up a warning light). They said pads were fine and didn't need doing.

Finally fitted the EQC back pads today. They looked worn a bit, until we opened the box with the new pads in. The thinnest pads I have come across. The old ones were about 50% worn.

To conclude, the Mercedes main agent told him he needed discs and pads all round on the EQC and V-class. In reality - none were needed at all - 50% worn at worst. From memory, the cost would have been £4k plus. I have told him to report them to Trading Standards.

[oowee]

That's awful. How can you have trust in a garage like that? Without reciprocal loyalty I would be at least changing brand. 

My local garage is the opposite. They flag anything they can't do. I drop the car and they do whatever they think needs doing. Year to year its hardly anything. 

[Vince Green]

Get your parts from Best Part Store

 It looks like a British website but actually it's German and all the parts comply with German type approval laws

Recommended to me many years ago by the Mercedes Owners Club it's also very cheap. We maintained a lot  of mercs for a long time using their parts.

But I've given up on Mercedes now and gone to Japanese.  Never looked back

[Vince Green]

On 14/08/2024 at 07:46, matone said:

A friend (who operates a garage) recently bought a Skoda Yeti on a `14 plate for himself 94k ,full main dealer service history ,very clean car .He showed me the air ,cabin and fuel filters he removed from it when he serviced it....all had 2014 date on them !!!!!! Hopefully they had changed the oil once or twice in the previous 10 yrs !!!!

Main dealers are just ripoff artists and the more `special` the make,the bigger the ripoff.

Main dealers never seem to change pollen filters irrespective of what make of car you are talking about. I believe it is because they are not usually included in the service schedule. 

My main agent keeps banging on about my car should have the brake fluid changed every couple of years. No it shouldn't, modern synthetic brake fluid should never need changing for the life of the car because it's not hydroscopic like the old brake fluid used to be. Okay it may be nice to change it now and again, but not £140 every two years.

Similarly, they wanted to change my plugs at 60K miles but the service book says every 90K it's running fine and giving around 38-40mpg on a run so leave it alone