Car servicing

edwardh55

What is the average price to get a car serviced by an independent mechanic? I'm just looking for a price to get oil and filter changed in my 1.4 focus and i suppose a full check over, brakes etc..
Have been bringing it to a ford dealer before this and feel like i'm getting ripped off, granted the last service was pretty big, be good to know what a decent price is before i start ringing around in the morning, any ideas??

PaulKK

If you don't want to try servicing yourself, the best thing to do is buy the oil and filters yourself and then pay a mechanic his hourly rate to service it.

It should take less than an hour to service the car unless anything unusual needs to be done.

My local mechanic charges €40 an hour.

edwardh55

PaulKK wrote: »

If you don't want to try servicing yourself, the best thing to do is buy the oil and filters yourself and then pay a mechanic his hourly rate to service it.

It should take less than an hour to service the car unless anything unusual needs to be done.

My local mechanic charges €40 an hour.

To be honest i don't think i'd be up for it myself, what kind of money would i be looking at for parts?

scudzilla

edwardh55 wrote: »

What is the average price to get a car serviced by an independent mechanic? I'm just looking for a price to get oil and filter changed in my 1.4 focus and i suppose a full check over, brakes etc..
Have been bringing it to a ford dealer before this and feel like i'm getting ripped off, granted the last service was pretty big, be good to know what a decent price is before i start ringing around in the morning, any ideas??

For a full service, anything between 150Euro at Atlas to 350+ from a dealer.

There really is such a big margin

PaulKK

edwardh55 wrote: »

To be honest i don't think i'd be up for it myself, what kind of money would i be looking at for parts?

How long is a piece of string?

It depends, motor factors maybe €50/€60 for oil. (I always use Castrol, you can probably get cheaper)
Oil filter €12
Air Filter €10

So maybe €80 or less for parts depending on your oil.

If you need spark plugs their about €6 each (long time since I needed them though )


That would be decent brand parts like Frahms/Mann etc (which are often OEM)


You could go to the dealer for your filters either.


Interestingly enough for my car its actually cheaper to go to the dealers for an oil service.
I need 5.5L of fully synth 0W30 which is about €90 plus cost of filters.
The main dealer does it for €143, making DIYing or going to a local mechanic unappealing.

batman2000

If the last service was a big service then this one should be fairly straight forward, Oil/filters/inspection. The Atlas service for a 1.4 I think is around €150 but that includes sparks, so some haggling might be possible, so €100 wouldnt be a bad starting point

teednab-el

I got my car fully serviced from a local mechanic for €115 at the weekend. The mechanic did everything for that. It would cost me €350+ if i dared carried it to my main dealers garage.

squod

I recently asked for a quote from an Opel dealer on my Focus. He turned out €80 cheaper than Fords. Something to consider.

Tefral

PaulKK wrote: »

How long is a piece of string?

It depends, motor factors maybe €50/€60 for oil. (I always use Castrol, you can probably get cheaper)
Oil filter €12
Air Filter €10

So maybe €80 or less for parts depending on your oil.

If you need spark plugs their about €6 each (long time since I needed them though )


That would be decent brand parts like Frahms/Mann etc (which are often OEM)


You could go to the dealer for your filters either.


Interestingly enough for my car its actually cheaper to go to the dealers for an oil service.
I need 5.5L of fully synth 0W30 which is about €90 plus cost of filters.
The main dealer does it for €143, making DIYing or going to a local mechanic unappealing.

Oil filter for a focus is €4.50 and plugs are €2.50ea (bosch) however, my advice is get the plugs from a ford garage as they have the proper gap, ford focus coilpacks go the whole time from people using spurious plugs that havent the right gap. 5litre drum of oil is about €25, the air filter is €14 euro the last time i bought one.

Servicing a car takes 20 mins, if you wish i can post a step by step for ya.

BrianD3

If your car is 4+ years old and you want to join the AA or your car needs brake pads doing:
http://www.renault.ie/services/serviceoffers.html

Esel

^ "Offer is valid until 30th April 2010"

PaulKK

cronin_j wrote: »

5litre drum of oil is about €25

I don't know what kind of oil you're getting for that.


I allowed an hour for sparks etc to be changed, and the car given a quick look over.

Tefral

PaulKK wrote: »

I don't know what kind of oil you're getting for that.


I allowed an hour for sparks etc to be changed, and the car given a quick look over.

Castrol Edge 10w40.

PaulKK

cronin_j wrote: »

Castrol Edge 10w40.

Share where your getting 5L of Castrol edge for €25 then please? Bearing in mind it comes in 4L containers.

My car needs 5.5L of 0W30 so that would be quite useful for me at those prices.

I do my own servicing and the last one cost me about 50 euro which included oil filter, air filter and oil.

Henry Ford III

Ford main dealers offer fixed menu servicing. Decent value too.

Tefral

PaulKK wrote: »

Share where your getting 5L of Castrol edge for €25 then please? Bearing in mind it comes in 4L containers.

My car needs 5.5L of 0W30 so that would be quite useful for me at those prices.

My apologies, i get Castrol Magnatec for that price. My brother picks it up for me (mechanic).

Motorworx a site trader on midnightclub.ie can get it for ya too at €5 a litre
http://www.midnightclub.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=48603

Motorworx::0861736455

Flesh Gorden

Even Halfords only charge €29 for 4L of 5W/30 Fully synthetic Castrol Magnetec
( which is recommened for the older silvertop Ford zetec engines)
and around €25 for 10W/40, they usually have a deal on most of the year


A set of NGK Platinum Plugs are around €20 inc. delivery off ebay for my current car

Fuel, oil, air and pollen filters are pretty cheap from any motor factors

Funny someone mentioned cheaps plugs with incorrect gap killing off the coilpack as I just had to replace mine and did remove a set of QH plugs


On the DIY side of things, a friends dad managed to undue the wrong nut servicing his daughters fiesta and drained the gearbox instead

PaulKK

cronin_j wrote: »

My apologies, i get Castrol Magnatec for that price. My brother picks it up for me (mechanic).

Motorworx a site trader on midnightclub.ie can get it for ya too at €5 a litre
http://www.midnightclub.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=48603

Motorworx::0861736455

Ah ok thanks for clearing that up

I can't use magnatec, only 0W30/5W30 Edge I'm afraid @ ~€54.99 for 4L so was getting excited there!


Thats a good price for magnatec though.

Tefral

Flesh Gorden wrote: »

Even Halfords only charge €29 for 4L of 5W/30 Fully synthetic Castrol Magnetec
( which is recommened for the older silvertop Ford zetec engines)
and around €25 for 10W/40, they usually have a deal on most of the year


A set of NGK Platinum Plugs are around €20 inc. delivery off ebay for my current car

Fuel, oil, air and pollen filters are pretty cheap from any motor factors

Funny someone mentioned cheaps plugs with incorrect gap killing off the coilpack as I just had to replace mine and did remove a set of QH plugs


On the DIY side of things, a friends dad managed to undue the wrong nut servicing his daughters fiesta and drained the gearbox instead

Oh jesus the poor fella, surely the stink off the oil would have given it away... gearbox oil smells like arse..

Ya you can buy the spurious plugs but get the little sliders that give the right gap when ya force it beween the anode and cathode.

topothemornin

Old Ford Focus - 400 euros to get it serviced !! Putting in a lot of stuff (or claiming to) - coming to 180 euro of stuff. charging 160 for labour.

Top all that with VAt and coming to 400.

What does a FS get you and when you reply will you let me know if the total includes parts and VAT ??
Thanks

MONEY_MAKER

cronin_j wrote: »

Oil filter for a focus is €4.50 and plugs are €2.50ea (bosch) however, my advice is get the plugs from a ford garage as they have the proper gap, ford focus coilpacks go the whole time from people using spurious plugs that havent the right gap. 5litre drum of oil is about €25, the air filter is €14 euro the last time i bought one.

Servicing a car takes 20 mins, if you wish i can post a step by step for ya.

you'r telling me that you can fully service a car in 20 min, Drain oil , chane a/f,o/f and plugs and pollen filter, aswell as remove the wheels & check the brakes front & rear &check hand brake shoes/drums, fluid levels, lights, & check all suspension parts - balljoints, trackrod ends , inner tie rods w/bone bushe's ect...

i would be worried if you were servicing my car

mondeo

MONEY_MAKER wrote: »

you'r telling me that you can fully service a car in 20 min, Drain oil , chane a/f,o/f and plugs and pollen filter, aswell as remove the wheels & check the brakes front & rear &check hand brake shoes/drums, fluid levels, lights, & check all suspension parts - balljoints, trackrod ends , inner tie rods w/bone bushe's ect...

i would be worried if you were servicing my car

He is probably referring to a mini service.... oil,plugs & air filter. Do able on a small car in 20 minutes if you done it a few times before.

langdang

cronin_j wrote: »

Motorworx a site trader on midnightclub.ie can get it for ya too at €5 a litre
http://www.midnightclub.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=48603

Motorworx::0861736455

No matter how cheap the oil, I refuse to register for midniteclub.ie just to see the prices etc. I'd say that fella does a great trade judging by the amount of oil being burnt by the midniteclub sticker brigade I see around Limerick...

nellocono

Hi guys, I am very interested in servicing my own car, except i have not really got a clue. Can anyone post a step by step guide preferably with pics or point me to somewhere I could see this... Thanks alot

jackofalltrades

nellocono wrote: »

Hi guys, I am very interested in servicing my own car, except i have not really got a clue. Can anyone post a step by step guide preferably with pics or point me to somewhere I could see this... Thanks alot

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055422868

I'd recommend getting a Haynes manual for your car aswell.