libby Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Crawley in Sussex and the Southeast of the UK may be expensive to some, however I enclose today's costing. This was a first service, well under the 20,000 miles requested in the service booklet, however being little used I decided the cost worthwhile. The total was £257.68. This included an MOT and them driving to a test station for the MOT, where presumably they had to wait? Description of goods/services. This comprises of £76.00 labour. £98.72 parts. (=£174.72) plus MOT £56.75. plus VAT of £26.21 = £257.68. The technician report states all brake discs corroded. I will confer with him tomorrow regarding replacement. All staff were pleasant in their duties. I can supply a further breakdown on a PM. PS I forgot to say this was at a Mercedes sale and repair Dealer under the overall name of Rossets Commercials Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I suppose if you only had it serviced once in three years that's not too bad. I've just had my third annual service for my Fiat 2.8, and in total I've paid less than you've paid in total. 'MOT' not due 'til next year. It's after four years and then every two here in Spain. So that saves a bit. My official Fiat dealer charges 31€ per hour labour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 The local Merc garage where you live is probably in the same price bracket. The Merc has an indicator telling when the air filter is in need of replacement, in 11 years mine never got near this point. How much will a broken cam belt cost you to replace in your Fiat? The Merc has no belt to break. Do your own servicing and take advantage of Halfords annual half price offers on full synthetic oils. C. (Still with a Merc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Too late now, but for the next one, isn't there a requirement to have the vehicle serviced at least annually, in cases of low mileage? I know all ours have/have had this requirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libby Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 The next service will most likely be after 1 year. The brake discs I looked at with a torch this evening, (corroded ?) well I suppose that would be a description but in fact they have a surface rust, which on a high grade material would be minimal, so I'll not be seeking any more info. Like many users not a lot of braking is done, we avoid town centres choosing open roads for convenience with little braking . The nearest decent hill to use hard braking is about 200 miles away. Otherwise its "carry on Camping" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coachman Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 We also used Rossitts of Eastbourne and found them excellant , they seem to have real techincal guys there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 when you read about the problems some owners are having with the latest x250 Fiat a Mercedes service charge is the least of your worries, no transmission problems with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hymer1942 Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 One usually gets what one pays for. With a Merc. no judder, no cam belt etc. And with German gear it generally does what it says on the tin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 rolandrat: It sounds like you are unaware of Sprintshift's patchy reliability record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 fortunately I dont own a sprintshift but in saying that I know people who do and apart from being slightly slower through the gears they are trouble free. Some years ago I drove one of the first commercial vehicle EPS gearboxes, now that was troublesome and took the best part of a year to iron out and now are one of the best gearboxes available, Mercedes of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooper Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Hi libby, no disrespects, but I think its a bit iresponsible to drive any vehicle with brakes which are not as near 100% as possible, what if someone walked in front of you ect. Try driving with brakes on to clear rust at least, if possible, if not new discs are the only answer, I think you would be in big trouble in the event of any type of accident if your brakes were defective. Years ago I dove my car out of our road after standing for a couple of weeks, when I braked at the end of our road I went straight across and I was not going fast as we live in a single track(road). Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libby Posted January 29, 2009 Author Share Posted January 29, 2009 Trooper, No problem, I'm not likely to go whizzing up the road to the first junction without lots of brake 'dabbing'. My whole life has been in metalworking so I'm familiar with the deteroration of surfaces such as these. The oxide dust although very light at the moment still represents a barrier to the efficiency of the clamping action so am well aware of the hazard. We have no hills around here where we can go and use the brakes in anger. Town centres yes but not somewhere where one can get a spurt on in between braking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 There is no need for a hill to clean off the discs, find a quiet stretch of road, get up to the the maximum legal speed ( ideally 60mph +) and when safe brake hard down to rest. Repeat half a dozen times. Pitting has to be quite severe to need disc renewal. It normally occurs if left standing for weeks when moisture lies between pad and disc. Electrolitic action may be involved between metallic dust in the pad material and the disc After prolonged gentle use pads tend to glaze and not work to well when needed in a hurry and the same hard braking routine freshens them up. The old trick of left foot braking with the right on the throttle does not work on vehicle with electronic engine management. A split second after braking is detected the power gets turned off resulting in a a mild nose dive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libby Posted January 29, 2009 Author Share Posted January 29, 2009 All noted. One is never to old to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 trooper - 2009-01-29 7:45 PM Hi libby, no disrespects, but I think its a bit iresponsible to drive any vehicle with brakes which are not as near 100% as possible, what if someone walked in front of you ect. Try driving with brakes on to clear rust at least, if possible, if not new discs are the only answer, I think you would be in big trouble in the event of any type of accident if your brakes were defective. Years ago I dove my car out of our road after standing for a couple of weeks, when I braked at the end of our road I went straight across and I was not going fast as we live in a single track(road). CheersWith respect Trooper, actually there will be a greater braking effect, because of the extra friction from the rusted surface instead of a polished shiny surface. Think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 All vehicles left standing for more than a few days will have surface rust on thier discs. I would be very surprised if after a few miles the problem will not disappear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 If you are in the Horsham Area, you could always try Halltech (Langhurst wood,Horsham) http://www.halltechgarage.co.uk/ Have looked after our cars, motorcaravans for years. One of the few places where customer service comes first. Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooper Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Hi Peter, sorry but what you said was absolute rubbish, if you read my bit and saw what happened to me, and I was only going slow at the time, Just a note I have driven all from motorcycles to HGVS Plus high performance vehicles in my 50 years driving, doing great mileages, I run 4 vehicles now so I am not an amateur. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hymer1942 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I just know how good my 2nd Merc. is with sprintshift, my first one had done 54000, trouble free miles when it went in partex. And if you ever run with a 2.7 merc with a 2.8 Fiat the difference is easily visible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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