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Replacing the air filter I can see. Replace filters every 15-20K miles. It sucks though, that in today's cars, filters are deliberately made so hard to reach without removing things in the way above them.
Buy a K&N permanent filter and throw it in the dish washer once a year. Costs about the same as a dealer installed paper one but lasts the life of the car.
My wife used to take her car to the dealer before we met and while we were dating. . But they always had a laundry list of things that were imperative or the car was going to turn into a fire engulfed death trap that was going to level half the city.
Last time I didn't do a oil change and I told her to run by the dealer. Ok got busy I forgot. At least they can do that right. They came back with needed belts, air filter and new brakes and rotors send a suggested timing belt replacement. At 30,000 miles.
BS. They were simply praying on a customer. That dealer is no longer there. I wonder why?
Just had this discussion with my wife while driving down the freeway. She had taken my daughter's car in for an oil change and the dealer had called her to alert her to a bunch of other engine work that needed to be done because the car was at the 60,000 mile point, including changing the timing belt.
My wife gets over-anxious about such things, so I had to be firm about pointing out that we just had the engine replaced under warranty only 15,000 miles ago...and I'd made a point of having them change the timing belt then. So all that normal 60,000 mile work was unnecessary...just change the oil.
I have the same question. My drivetrain is warrantied for 10 years or something similar. I get free oil changes and basic maintenance. The dealer picks the car up from my house or office and returns it to me so I don't have to go there and wait. Why would I go to a garage mechanic?
In that case, you would be crazy to go somewhere other than the dealer.
But if you don't have maintenance included or if like MINI and BWM just did, your manufacturer drastically cut the benefits to the free included maintenance program, then, unless money means nothing to you, it's something to consider for things like oil changes, brakes, etc.
BWM and MINI will only cover oil changes when the computer says so, which is 15,000 plus miles. I changed mine in between the free dealer oil changes when I was still under maintenance. Now that brakes are no longer included in the plan, I'd do that too as no way I would pay the dealer to do it.
Now, if I needed warranty service and was close to wanting an oil change, I'd probably have the dealer do it as my time is worth something.
Buy a K&N permanent filter and throw it in the dish washer once a year. Costs about the same as a dealer installed paper one but lasts the life of the car.
It doesn't mess up your dishwasher? I have a K&N and I clean it in an outside sink and it's nasty (actually I need to clean mine again now that I think about it) Would be nice to put in the dishwasher, but I'm afraid it would mess up the dishwasher and filter.
I am looking at buying a new Mercedes GLC300 and I have researched the dealer costs for maintenance of this car. I don't mind paying the oil change costs, but I have heard that the other maintenance services, like replacing fluids, replacing brake pads, stuff like that are 4-6 times what the same services would cost at Honda or Toyota, for example.
So if I take my car to a local German car shop for these services, does that invalidate my warranty? Does anyone know?
Just replace the parts with OEM parts, you will be fine
Just had this discussion with my wife while driving down the freeway. She had taken my daughter's car in for an oil change and the dealer had called her to alert her to a bunch of other engine work that needed to be done because the car was at the 60,000 mile point, including changing the timing belt.
My wife gets over-anxious about such things, so I had to be firm about pointing out that we just had the engine replaced under warranty only 15,000 miles ago...and I'd made a point of having them change the timing belt then. So all that normal 60,000 mile work was unnecessary...just change the oil.
Ha. Tell me about it. I mean I understand they just want to "upsell" which is fine if the work was actually needed. Hey you go in and your breaks are almost metal to metal tell the customer. The dealer my wife went to tried to sell her work that was not needed. They said she needed brakes. Her brakes were at 50%.
It finally needed brakes at 5-55,000. I bought new brakes and rotors because I knew eventually I would need to and I was ordering a bunch of parts so I saved on shipping.
I understand these service advisors are under the gun to bring as much money off of a car as they can. Out if all the mechanics I ever knew I only found two that were honest and did not try to sell me stuff that wasn't needed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherifftruman
It doesn't mess up your dishwasher? I have a K&N and I clean it in an outside sink and it's nasty (actually I need to clean mine again now that I think about it) Would be nice to put in the dishwasher, but I'm afraid it would mess up the dishwasher and filter.
Yeah you can't put it in the dishwasher. You'll probably ruin the filter
Ha. Tell me about it. I mean I understand they just want to "upsell" which is fine if the work was actually needed. Hey you go in and your breaks are almost metal to metal tell the customer. The dealer my wife went to tried to sell her work that was not needed. They said she needed brakes. Her brakes were at 50%.
It finally needed brakes at 5-55,000. I bought new brakes and rotors because I knew eventually I would need to and I was ordering a bunch of parts so I saved on shipping.
I understand these service advisors are under the gun to bring as much money off of a car as they can. Out if all the mechanics I ever knew I only found two that were honest and did not try to sell me stuff that wasn't needed.
Yeah you can't put it in the dishwasher. You'll probably ruin the filter
After having two terrible experiences attempting to get work done at my car dealer, I'm never going there again. The second time I ended up not getting the work done at all and pulling my Toyota out before they did the job because the customer service was so atrocious. I will just take my chances, not get any recall work done, and hope I don't burn in some fiery car crash due to not getting any recalls addressed
It doesn't mess up your dishwasher? I have a K&N and I clean it in an outside sink and it's nasty (actually I need to clean mine again now that I think about it) Would be nice to put in the dishwasher, but I'm afraid it would mess up the dishwasher and filter.
Yeah, lotsa gunk comes off them. Do you use the K&N cleaning solution?
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