Motorhome Servicing

[Geek]

Moderen oils say 20th miles or every 2 years, me i change the van every 2 years as it dont cover many miles and oil is still almost clear.

Yes, the oil may well say that. But you'll not easily find an experienced mechanic who agrees.

 

[Bigshug]

Every year, when it goes in for an mot it gets a service first

 

[trevskoda]

Yes, the oil may well say that. But you'll not easily find an experienced mechanic who agrees.

Think the folk that makes oils and tests them to death will kow more than a grease monkey.

 

[Geek]

Think the folk that makes oils and tests them to death will kow more than a grease monkey.

Really? You'd trust a marketing droid over someone who sees what actually happens to the inside of engines? That's a brave choice.

 

[trevskoda]

Really? You'd trust a marketing droid over someone who sees what actually happens to the inside of engines? That's a brave choice.

Been building engines all my life, 10000 miles or 2 years no bother, slow driving and stop starts are the problem with oils not getting to do the job of cleaning and holding acids/carbon etc, not many put cars round the clock on the forth time, and thats a skoda.

 

[Geek]

Yes, you have a good point there.

If you drive cheap vehicles that aren't expensive or difficult to replace, it makes far less sense to spend money to be sure they will last a long time.

 

[trevskoda]

Yes, you have a good point there.

If you drive cheap vehicles that aren't expensive or difficult to replace, it makes far less sense to spend money to be sure they will last a long time.

Yes i only got 15 years out of it and it cost me £10 & sold it for £600, it was then 22 years old when we parted co.

 

[gasgas]

If you don't do your own servicing...........

Have your mot and then 6 months later have the service done, that way you get the vehicle checked twice a year.

I often think that if you have a service done it would (Should) include everything that an MOT tests. So if you take your truck to a garage and say "service and MOT please" they should charge less than separate jobs. Some places say "Free MOT with every service". Presumably they charge a bit extra for the service, but it should be cheaper than paying for both separately.
A few years ago I bought a new French motorhome (fiat) and was surprised to read the first service from the factory was listed at 35,000 miles. Blow that for a game of soldiers! Then I thought well, a delivery van would be doing that in 6 months or so.
Modern engines have large oil capacities in their sumps so you can go for much longer between changes.
A friend used to work for Fram filters, in the research dept. He said always go to the main franchised dealer to get filters, they are made better than aftermarket ones. Although I suppose if you annually do 5000 miles and change the oil annually then you don't need to spend more than necessary if the franchised dealer charges more than halfords. Having said that, certainly for cars, Mercedes genuine service parts are cheaper than the bolt-on-goodie shops - £3.70 for an oil filter for example. So there's no point using aftermarket stuff.
As for Ford "Sealed for life" gearboxes and diffs, well you might as well say that when a baby is born, it is already 'fed for life'. What a load of codswallop. 25 year old gear oil is not the same as new gear oil, I can assure you. You'll be lucky if it is liquid enough to find its way out of the drain hole. Actually Ford diffs don't have drain holes, because it saves 0.0000000000025 of a penny not to fit one so you have to remove the covering plate.

 

[gasgas]

I have ours serviced in May each year ready for the big summer trip. I ended up needing a new clutch last year (£1,000, ouch!) but I was lucky because the old one would have failed while we were in France if we hadn't replaced it.

I was in France last November with my MB Sprinter based motorhome. The cab heater didn't work so I pulled in at a Mercedes Commercial garage. They did the job while I waited - 6 hours (4hrs labour + Fench lunch 2hrs). They had to dismantle the whole dashboard and repace three servo motors controlling air flow flaps. Before the job they said €750 then when they finished, the bill was €640. There were lots of posters in reception detailing special offers on tyres, brakes, servicing and so on. All of these I am sure were far cheaper than they would be in the UK. Very reasonable I thought, and although I am used to doing my own work on cars I would prefer to pay them their 'cheap' costs.
What surprised me greatly was that the bill listed 15 separate, different skilled small jobs, each part of the whole exercise was charged at different labour rates, down to 0.1 of an hour. The cheapest labour rate was €70 per hour and the most expensive labour rate was €110 per hour. Compare that with my local MB commercial dealer who charges £180 per hour.
So If I need ANY work done I will take the truck to France where it is far cheaper. I don't know about Germany.
P.S. the dealer I bought the camper from, Lowe and Rhodes in Stoke on Trent speedily refunded the cost of the job with no argument.

 

[marchie]

I was in France last November with my MB Sprinter based motorhome. The cab heater didn't work so I pulled in at a Mercedes Commercial garage. They did the job while I waited - 6 hours (4hrs labour + Fench lunch 2hrs). They had to dismantle the whole dashboard and repace three servo motors controlling air flow flaps. Before the job they said €750 then when they finished, the bill was €640. There were lots of posters in reception detailing special offers on tyres, brakes, servicing and so on. All of these I am sure were far cheaper than they would be in the UK. Very reasonable I thought, and although I am used to doing my own work on cars I would prefer to pay them their 'cheap' costs.
What surprised me greatly was that the bill listed 15 separate, different skilled small jobs, each part of the whole exercise was charged at different labour rates, down to 0.1 of an hour. The cheapest labour rate was €70 per hour and the most expensive labour rate was €110 per hour. Compare that with my local MB commercial dealer who charges £180 per hour.
So If I need ANY work done I will take the truck to France where it is far cheaper. I don't know about Germany.
P.S. the dealer I bought the camper from, Lowe and Rhodes in Stoke on Trent speedily refunded the cost of the job with no argument.

French law requires that an estimate (devis) becomes a contract once accepted by the customer and no extra charges can be added. The invoice (facture) will itemise each piece of work and cost to protect both artisan and customer, and there are often different VAT rates applicable to repairs/renovations (customer signs declaration that the item has previously been installed, and (last time I checked in 2020), the VAT dropped from 20% to 10% (4-5 years earlier it was only 5%!)

Finally, by having an itemised bill, the artisan can prove that only ab and c were replaced, so a customer claiming that item d had failed after replacement will get very short shrift ... If Item d needs replaced, a new devis will be required

If the business goes bust, any guarantee still in force becomes the responsibility of the French Government. Processes can be long winded, but both artisan and customer are protected throughout

Steve

 

[wildebus]

French law requires that an estimate (devis) becomes a contract once accepted by the customer and no extra charges can be added.

On the face of it sounds good, but does that not result in a garage including extra time and costs within the estimate to cover unexpected situations and the customer then often ending up paying more unnecessarily as the work went without a glitch but they accepted the estimate.

The invoice (facture) will itemise each piece of work and cost to protect both artisan and customer, and there are often different VAT rates applicable to repairs/renovations (customer signs declaration that the item has previously been installed, and (last time I checked in 2020), the VAT dropped from 20% to 10% (4-5 years earlier it was only 5%!)

Finally, by having an itemised bill, the artisan can prove that only ab and c were replaced, so a customer claiming that item d had failed after replacement will get very short shrift ... If Item d needs replaced, a new devis will be required

If the business goes bust, any guarantee still in force becomes the responsibility of the French Government. Processes can be long winded, but both artisan and customer are protected throughout

Steve

 

[marchie]

On the face of it sounds good, but does that not result in a garage including extra time and costs within the estimate to cover unexpected situations and the customer then often ending up paying more unnecessarily as the work went without a glitch but they accepted the estimate.

No, David, not in our experience. The local garage is a Renault Main Agent but also undertakes the broader range of tasks [e.g. tyre fitting, including trailer tyres] and the Proprietor also maintains a reasonable sized collection of vintage Renault & Citroen cars. Consequently, for local residents, he is able to source recyclable spare parts [e.g. front end spares from rear end write offs] at cost effective rates. He is flexible enough to cope with the 'can you have a look at x whilst it's up on the ramp' requests and will charge only €5 or €10 for the time spent. I sourced the trailer tyres and he asked that I give the mechanic who fitted them €5 for working part of his lunch break to fit the job in to a fully booked diary.

Steve

 

[wildebus]

No, David, not in our experience. The local garage is a Renault Main Agent but also undertakes the broader range of tasks [e.g. tyre fitting, including trailer tyres] and the Proprietor also maintains a reasonable sized collection of vintage Renault & Citroen cars. Consequently, for local residents, he is able to source recyclable spare parts [e.g. front end spares from rear end write offs] at cost effective rates. He is flexible enough to cope with the 'can you have a look at x whilst it's up on the ramp' requests and will charge only €5 or €10 for the time spent. I sourced the trailer tyres and he asked that I give the mechanic who fitted them €5 for working part of his lunch break to fit the job in to a fully booked diary.

Steve

So .... What you describe above is specifically getting around the estimate being fixed situation.

 

[marchie]

So .... What you describe above is specifically getting around the estimate being fixed situation.

Not really. We had to 'earn' the flexibility by producing an endorsement from our neighbours who are pillars of the local community, If the extra work is substantial, then a further devis will be required, but, if it is a 2 minute job [e.g. using the Controle Technique [MOT] Headlamp Beam Adjuster to fix the adhesive Beam Benders, it is free if the Proprietor does the work, or a couple of € if it's a mechanic. I have never been overcharged, and, if the Devis has over allocated the time/materials, a refund is made.The latter happened when the local builder [to whom I was introduced by our neigbours ...] produced a Devis for the concreting of the Barn Floor [no access to get a Mechanical Digger in, so I had to pickaxe, shovel and wheelbarrow the earth and the foundations were on several differing levels. Sebastian had worked on the deepest he could measure, but the excavated area was shallower overall, so I got a reduced invoice specifying the reduced amount of sand, cement and gravel consumed.

It works for both sides. The frustration is that an artisan will not proceed without a Devis being prepared and accepted. We have a broken Shower Panel, and the original Installer agreed yesterday to supply and fit a replacement, so that we can get the property on the market. Still waiting for the Devis to arrive, and until I email the acceptance and stump up 30% deposit, he won't order the Shower Panel ... The delay is putting pressure on our return trip and the south coast Rallies ...

Steve

 

[nabsim]

Really? You'd trust a marketing droid over someone who sees what actually happens to the inside of engines? That's a brave choice.

In the mid 90's we stopped doing regular oil changes on all the quarry plant according to the calendar. Instead our fitters started taking regular oil samples (I think monthly). The samples were sent away to a lab but I don't remember if that was Caterpillar, oil company or third party. Each time we would get a report that would say if an oil change was required (or not) but also if other work may be required. I don't remember now how precise they could be on which engine parts may need to be inspected/replaced but do know it reduced out maintenance costs considerably.

Back then a face shovel would have been around a quarter of a million pounds so it wasn't that we were running old or cheap kit or just wanted to save money. I think this service was available for cor drivers as well but its that long ago I don't remember well enough.

 

[wildebus]

In the mid 90's we stopped doing regular oil changes on all the quarry plant according to the calendar. Instead our fitters started taking regular oil samples (I think monthly). The samples were sent away to a lab but I don't remember if that was Caterpillar, oil company or third party. Each time we would get a report that would say if an oil change was required (or not) but also if other work may be required. I don't remember now how precise they could be on which engine parts may need to be inspected/replaced but do know it reduced out maintenance costs considerably.

I think quite a few people have started to do this with the own cars/vans now rather than just doing an automatic oil change.
Popular option in the US and a few companies sell a kit which you put in a sample, post it away and it gives you a chemical breakdown. seems quite a good idea.

Back then a face shovel would have been around a quarter of a million pounds so it wasn't that we were running old or cheap kit or just wanted to save money. I think this service was available for cor drivers as well but its that long ago I don't remember well enough.

 

[runnach]

Out of curiosity, anyone use this in their fuel tank, I add a shot of redex every third full tank of fuel when on a long trip.

 

[nabsim]

Yes Terry I also use it, thought I was the only one lol. About every 6 refills for me

 

[runnach]

Yes Terry I also use it, thought I was the only one lol. About every 6 refills for me

I will change the amount of full tanks to five. And a double dose at MOT time

 

[Carrerasax]

I had a full service 2 years ago, a basic service last year and it's going in fort for a full service tomorrow. I feel better knowing the van's been checked before driving to Portugal in it. Also, if I have to call breakdown it's not for
something I could have prevented. What do people usually pay for a full service?

Include Porto covo in your trip, a fabulous little place. Good camp site , if expensive.