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Fiat servicing


malcy

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I've just been quoted £477.00 for a first service on my motorhome. What do you think?

It's a euro 5 engine 2.3 and has 11000 miles on the clock, I think it,s excessive but my kids are always telling me I,m out of touch, they may well have point but I didn't think I was that far out. It would be interesting to know what others have paid and when.

 

 

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Guest Joe90

£477 for a gallon of oil and an oil filter sounds about right. :D

 

what else do they do that the average bod couldn't, just check a few levels through transparent housings, or do these vehicles still have two hundred grease nipples. I don't think your out of touch at all, it's a rip off pure and simple.

 

But it's I guess a new motor, so you need to keep up the warranty, find a non franchised independent and get a quote and your book stamped from them.

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malcy - 2015-04-01 6:54 PM

 

I've just been quoted £477.00 for a first service on my motorhome. What do you think?

It's a euro 5 engine 2.3 and has 11000 miles on the clock, I think it,s excessive but my kids are always telling me I,m out of touch, they may well have point but I didn't think I was that far out. It would be interesting to know what others have paid and when.

 

 

Usually commercial dealers are better suited to service the Fiat part of the MH and a lot cheaper - have you tried Northern Commercials at Manchester http://www.nor-com.co.uk/about-us ?

 

I live i the South and I take mine to a commercial dealer and they will only do what is necessary and don't rip you off and they carry out Fiat Warranty work.

Alan

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I use a local garage, which I have used for years. They did a "full service" recently and also sprayed waxoyl underneath where necessary to protect the steel bits. They always change oils and filters (including fuel filter) but they test the antifreeze and hydraulic fluids rather than change those every time. They take the wheels off to inspect and clean the brakes. Price this time was £250.

 

A while ago they replaced the timng belt (and at the same time the water pump, just in case) and the bill was under £500.

 

The MH has spent most of the winter sitting idle (fortunately in a garage) so when I was driving back from the habitation service today I gave it a good run involving some stop start urban driving, some steady moving at about 40 mph and then a full power blast on the motorway once it was thoroughly warmed up. Everything seems fine. The habitation service was £120 plus VAT (three hours labour) and he charged an extra £40 plus VAT for rectifying a kinked tank vent tube.

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Guest Peter James

Do you need a service stamp for the warranty? With my Citroen X2/50 the warranty was for 2 years and the first service at 2 years so I never bothered.

 

StuartO - 2015-04-01 7:51 PM

 

rectifying a kinked tank vent tube.

 

Was that the fuel tank? My fuel tank has started making a sucking noise when I take the fuel cap off, so I have just drilled a small hole through said fuel cap.

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Billggski - 2015-04-01 7:57 PM

 

Check the threads on oil filter leaks, they always do after services, even main dealers. As a new filter housing complete is £60 on eBay, it's is a safer option.

 

I think you may mean fuel filter, Billggski?

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Guest Peter James
Billggski - 2015-04-01 7:57 PM

 

Check the threads on oil filter leaks, they always do after services, even main dealers. As a new filter housing complete is £60 on eBay, it's is a safer option.

 

Not heard that before. I have heard of fuel filter housing leaks, which I thought might be when people try to save time by taking the fuel filter out without removing the housing from the vehicle first?

I have changed both filters without housings, didn't find it difficult although I had to put the fuel filter housing cap gently in a bench vice to unscrew it, and neither leak at all.

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Peter James - 2015-04-01 7:56 PM

 

StuartO - 2015-04-01 7:51 PM

 

rectifying a kinked tank vent tube.

 

Was that the fuel tank? My fuel tank has started making a sucking noise when I take the fuel cap off, so I have just drilled a small hole through said fuel cap.

 

No it was the water tank - which has always tended to blow bak. Now I know why. (This was the first time Peter Hambildon has done a habitation service for me.)

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Thanks again everybody. My fiat will be two years old at the time of its service and a Fiat approved workshop is what I would prefer to use to minimise the hassle of a possible warranty issue. This will become irrelevant next year as the warranty expires after year three. Nonetheless your suggestions and prices are still relevant to me as this will be the only time that I will be using a workshop which charges what I consider to be way over the top prices (I,m too polite to say extortionate). So keep them coming. BTW I will

be on the phone following your suggestions in the morning.

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I forgot to add that although Fiat says service every two years, I have always got the MH serviced annually, despite relatively low mileage, and I'm sure this makes sense if you plan to keep it long term. Likewise the periodic waxoyling.
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Guest Peter James
StuartO - 2015-04-01 9:12 PM

 

I forgot to add that although Fiat says service every two years, I have always got the MH serviced annually, despite relatively low mileage, and I'm sure this makes sense if you plan to keep it long term. Likewise the periodic waxoyling.

A friend never has his car serviced or oil changed at all. Keeps it about 10 years but only does about 1,000 miles a year. Car looks immaculate and suffers no known ill effects. I am not suggesting you do the same, but I wouldn't worry about going a few months over. I think servicing more frequently than the manufacturer says is a waste of money, because I don't presume to know more about their vehicles than the manufacturers do.

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Peter James - 2015-04-01 7:56 PM

 

Do you need a service stamp for the warranty? With my Citroen X2/50 the warranty was for 2 years and the first service at 2 years so I never bothered.

 

StuartO - 2015-04-01 7:51 PM

 

rectifying a kinked tank vent tube.

 

Was that the fuel tank? My fuel tank has started making a sucking noise when I take the fuel cap off, so I have just drilled a small hole through said fuel cap.

 

I'm still not 100% sure if half your posts are trolling.

I'll file this one with the one on swilling down the floor and managing to fill up the sill.

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Guest machra

I contacted a local Fiat commercial dealer in Dunstable (Beds), he said that it was 2 years for a service but Fiatt did recommend an annual low mileage service yearly for motorhomes as they were stood a lot. Mine had done 4000 miles. Fiat even produce a work sheet for it. It cost about £160 from memory. As other people have said it is just oil and filter change, check tyres and visual inspection of running gear. I had it done as they were the cheepest I could find and I got the stamp in the book.

 

My issue rather than this was the habitation check, now that is a rip off just to get a stamp so the 5 year water ingress warranty is valid? When I had a Hobby I found a dealer who would damp check the van and complete the necessary documentation, which had to go to Hobby, for £60. Even they said that habitation check was a rip off

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When I bought my new Hymer in 2006 it was imported from Germany for me by Bundesvan (excellent service) and I had the problem of getting an annual check for damp, to validate the water ingress guarantee. At the time there was only one UK Hymer dealer, Hymer UK at Clifton, near Preston. They had been a family form but had been taken over a year or two earlier by Brownhiills. Knowing that I hadn't bought from them, they were as unhelpful as possible, made me wait unnecessarily and charged £150, compared with a quote of £60 from a Hymer dealer in Belgium. That price was for the damp check only, not a habitation service.

 

But it was impractical to go to Belgium to get it done for a more realistic price so I got it done by HymerUK for three or four years, submitting to the revenge treatment from their service department, to get the stamp. Then I realised the guarantee was pretty unlikely to benefit me. It only covered water ingress at panel seams, the Hymer didn't have a wooden construction frame in the walls anyway and my MH lived in a garage most of its life. So I stopped having the checks done. No adverse consequences during the rest of the six year guarantee period, or since.

 

Brownhills had been a poor source of service, surly, careless of customer concerns, so I steered clear. In the event they got into serious financial difficulties about that time and closed the Hymer UK site in Preston down. I had saved several thousand ponds by buying through Bundesvan so I had still come out well ahead.

 

And perhaps because of all this, I never really bothered with a habitation service, prefering to look after things myself. Hence the MH was nine years old before got Peter Hambildon to do one for me, and he discovered the kinked tank ventilation tube which had been causing the blow back on filling with water which i'd thought was normal all these years. Otherwise the MH has survived my neglect of habitation servicing very well.

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Guest Peter James
colin - 2015-04-01 9:29 PM

 

Peter James - 2015-04-01 7:56 PM

 

Do you need a service stamp for the warranty? With my Citroen X2/50 the warranty was for 2 years and the first service at 2 years so I never bothered.

 

StuartO - 2015-04-01 7:51 PM

 

rectifying a kinked tank vent tube.

 

Was that the fuel tank? My fuel tank has started making a sucking noise when I take the fuel cap off, so I have just drilled a small hole through said fuel cap.

 

I'm still not 100% sure if half your posts are trolling.

I'll file this one with the one on swilling down the floor and managing to fill up the sill.

 

When I worked in a garage fuel caps were external and not attached to the vehicle by a cord like they are now, so they seemed to get lost quite a lot, and we sold quite a few (some of which had been left forgotten on the petrol forecourt by previous motorists ;-) ) I remember they came in vented (with a little hole in) and non vented types. It was quite common to drill a little hole in a non vented cap to turn it into a vented cap.

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£266 for a low mileage motorhome service from Platts of Longton [stoke on Trent] including some additional work I wanted on the rear brakes. Platt's will also grease the Alko nipples if you ask them. I had just under 11,000 miles on the clock.

 

I had the service down at 18 months as I wanted some warranty work done at the same time and Fiat Professional, suggested every 18 months on my mileage when I spoke to them at the NEC in October. My local motorhome friendly non-franchised garage recommended a service every 12 months using Mobil oil.

 

I think your quote is for a 'white van' style of use.

 

 

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Peter James - 2015-04-02 8:21 AM

 

colin - 2015-04-01 9:29 PM

 

Peter James - 2015-04-01 7:56 PM

 

Do you need a service stamp for the warranty? With my Citroen X2/50 the warranty was for 2 years and the first service at 2 years so I never bothered.

 

StuartO - 2015-04-01 7:51 PM

 

rectifying a kinked tank vent tube.

 

Was that the fuel tank? My fuel tank has started making a sucking noise when I take the fuel cap off, so I have just drilled a small hole through said fuel cap.

 

I'm still not 100% sure if half your posts are trolling.

I'll file this one with the one on swilling down the floor and managing to fill up the sill.

 

When I worked in a garage fuel caps were external and not attached to the vehicle by a cord like they are now, so they seemed to get lost quite a lot, and we sold quite a few (some of which had been left forgotten on the petrol forecourt by previous motorists ;-) ) I remember they came in vented (with a little hole in) and non vented types. It was quite common to drill a little hole in a non vented cap to turn it into a vented cap.

 

You have only just got around to noticing a normal reaction on a modern fuel tank to being opened and have decided for no good reason to modify the cap.

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