Citroen service price

shabbyalonso

Hi All,

The annual service is due on my wife's Citroen C4 Grand Picasso. It's a 151 reg.
Last year was a mini service (so I'm told!) therefore this year it requires a full service. I was quoted a price of EUR399 for same by the main Citroen garage.
Sounded a little on the steep side to me.
Would that be the normal price or should I be looking for an indy to do the service?

Thanks

bazz26

Did you get a break down of what are they doing for €399? What mileage is on the car? If it's diesel and depending on the mileage then it could be due things like fuel, air and pollen filter on top of oil and oil filter. Pricing will depend on what needs changing at certain service intervals. I'd class that as a full service and oil/oil filter as a minor or mini service.

Fabio

Wait until you hear how much a timing belt costs.

Maintenance costs money but it's worth it in the long run.

shabbyalonso

I didn't get a break down.......that would have helped! I must do.

There's c. 80k kms on the car at present. It's a 1.6 diesel.

I'll check back with them to get break down of what's involved.....things like pollen filters I can do myself which would cost less but that's where it stops!

walshtipp

shabbyalonso wrote: »

I didn't get a break down.......that would have helped! I must do.

There's c. 80k kms on the car at present. It's a 1.6 diesel.

I'll check back with them to get break down of what's involved.....things like pollen filters I can do myself which would cost less but that's where it stops!

My advice is don't use dealerships for servicing. Use an independent mechanic. Alternatively, if you want to keep service history, use a reputable independent garage.

Irish Steve

shabbyalonso wrote: »

I didn't get a break down.......that would have helped! I must do.

There's c. 80k kms on the car at present. It's a 1.6 diesel.

I'll check back with them to get break down of what's involved.....things like pollen filters I can do myself which would cost less but that's where it stops!

The pollen filter on the C4GP is one of the worst I have had to do in a long time, buried behind the pedals, and a pig to get in and out, you have to be a contortionist to get at it, let alone actually see what you're working on, which is why a lot of them don't get changed at the specified intervals.

The price quoted is very much dependent on what's included, 80K should mean that things like pads and discs are OK, and there should not be any DPF additive issues at that reading, but there's no way to know, if you are hard on the brakes, and it's a semi automatic, the engine doesn't do a lot to help slow it down, so the brakes can be doing a lot more, and the wear limits on discs can mean changes at relatively low mileage, I don't know if the steel is not as good as it used to be, or the pads are harder than they were, the end result is that some makes are getting new discs every other service, which never used to be the case.

Hopefully, they will also be using a good quality oil, on the 1.6 diesel, that's important, if cheap oil is used, or the wrong specification oil is used, or it's not changed at the specified intervals, it can result in the strainer in the sump getting blocked by carbon build up, which reduces the oil flow to the pump, and that then can cause issues for the engine, and more significantly, the turbo, which can cause expensive problems.

And yes, despite the comments, my own vehicle is a 2011 C4GP, I've had it on the road for the last 2 years, it came to me from the UK at very much the right price, and once we'd sorted out the clutch, and replaced discs and pads, it went through the NCT with no issues, and since then, I've had one fault, an injector failed, but other than that, for the jobs I got it for, it's proved ideal, and is very good economy wise, so all in all, I'm happy with it, but as I've implied above, it is very much a case of doing the service side of things at the right intervals to keep it happy, and that's based on not just mine, but a number of other C4's that I've seen go through the local garage.

And yes, as long as you have a good relationship with an independent garage, and know their work, there is nothing wrong with using an independent on a C4 from 2015, as long as they have a good diagnostic computer, or access to a Citroen diagnostic system, there are some things that have to be done with a "professional" diagnostic system, a cheap ELM237 won't hack it.

Hope that helps.

zzantara

Spot on Irish Steve, your advice is well based, Citroen's can be quite "quirky" and an experienced mechanic that is well used to working on them can save you issues in the future.
Their reputation as "giving trouble" is very often based on a Mechanic that just doesn't know his way around their "features" .

shane b

I have a 161 C4GP diesel as well so watching this with interest. Citroen UK are charging 300 pounds for a major service according to their website so 400 euro doesn't sound too far off. My 161 has an ad blue tank and the dealer said it would need a refill a the 20k km service as well.
Good to know about the pollen filter being difficult to access. I noticed that the air filter is also not easy to do as its at the rear of the engine under the windscreen. There are a few you tube vidoes on how to change the air filter and seems like a bit of work.

Arthur Daley

Usually you can buy a one or two years service plan for a basic service on the Citroen website. Fixed price maybe €200 per year. Then get approval for any extras.

shabbyalonso

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Couple of points I picked up from above posts....

I did actually change the pollen filter myself last year and as soon as it was mentioned above, the cold sweat broke on me!! It was a tough one (as said by Irish Steve), that's for sure. Between taking away the felt behind the pedals and trying to dig out the existing one (that was obviously never replaced), trying to get the new one in without mashing it up completely was tough! I (thankfully!!) don't have hands the size of a 7 year olds but that's what needed for such a job! My hands were chopped up afterwards so might leave that one!!

Also, re: brakes - pads have been replaced a couple of times already and from memory, disks, certainly once. It's the wife's car - she would be heavier on the brakes and wouldn't change down gears to slow but would not be the worst by any means. I think the heaviness of the car and the tug of the engine seems to wear them out rather quickly.

Hearing Citroen UK are charing £300 makes things sound a bit more reasonable.

I think overall, as was said, Citroen's do appear to be a bit more quirky to work on which presumably adds to the time/labour costs.

I'm sort of keen to keep the main dealer service history in tact for another year or two while the car still holds value but once older, would be more inclined to go to an independent.

I'll let you know what I do in the end and what the service includes. One things for sure, I'll be asking that a pic is taken showing the pollen filter actually changed!!!

crosstownk

Have you used this site for a quote for a regular service?

https://www.citroenservice.ie/contentv3/#maincontent

Citroens are about the same quirkeyness as Peugeots and, increasingly, some Opels.

crosstownk

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Usually you can buy a one or two years service plan for a basic service on the Citroen website. Fixed price maybe €200 per year. Then get approval for any extras.

Where are you getting this information from?

You can purchase a three year service contract (via a main dealer) for a Citroen provided the car has not reached it's first service interval in either distance (varies) or time (one year). If either has been exceeded then it is not possible to purchase a service plan.

It's not possible to purchase a service plan via the Citroen Ireland website.

Irish Steve

shane b wrote: »

I have a 161 C4GP diesel as well so watching this with interest. Citroen UK are charging 300 pounds for a major service according to their website so 400 euro doesn't sound too far off. My 161 has an ad blue tank and the dealer said it would need a refill a the 20k km service as well.
Good to know about the pollen filter being difficult to access. I noticed that the air filter is also not easy to do as its at the rear of the engine under the windscreen. There are a few you tube vidoes on how to change the air filter and seems like a bit of work.

The Adblue is easy, that's just a case of refilling the additive tank, but don't overfill it, as that can confuse things.

The previous system that uses Eolys fluid (nasty smelling brown liquid that stains anything it touches) is more problematic, it ideally needs a 2 post ramp to get access to the reservoir to refill it, but more importantly, it then needs a good diagnostic computer to reset the car and tell it that the additive has been replenished, there's no level sensor in the additive tank, it works on calculating the quantity dispensed, based on a combination of opening the fuel flap and the fuel quantity recorded by the fuel gauge, and while I can't confirm this story, I have heard it on the grapevine that filling the tank rather than throwing in €20 a time is better for the EOLYS management system.

Another gotcha can be that it may throw up a warning about needing service of the DPF on the earlier EOLYS models, (usually around 180K Kilometers) but if it's done regular runs to keep the DPF clear, the DPF will not need replacing, but again, the computer has to be reset to allow it to continue in use without throwing up warnings. There are now a number of companies around the country that can clean DPF's to restore their function, (that's not a gut the contents and remap the ECU) which is a lot cheaper than having to replace the DPF.

Arthur Daley

crosstownk wrote: »

Where are you getting this information from?

You can purchase a three year service contract (via a main dealer) for a Citroen provided the car has not reached it's first service interval in either distance (varies) or time (one year). If either has been exceeded then it is not possible to purchase a service plan.

It's not possible to purchase a service plan via the Citroen Ireland website.

I was going off this Citroen Ireland website

https://www.citroen.ie/services/citroen-services.html

crosstownk

Arthur Daley wrote: »

I was going off this Citroen Ireland website

https://www.citroen.ie/services/citroen-services.html

Citroen wrote:

We believe in offering hassle-free motoring and surprising value. We offer a range of servicing options, from the very best Scheduled Servicing, to Fixed Price Servicing for cars over 3 years old.

It's just fixed prices for older cars rather than an actual service plan. The fixed prices can be seen by submitting your registration number on www.citroenservice.ie

Check clause 4 here > http://media.citroen.ie/file/82/2/citroen-service-plan-t_s-c_s.pdf?_ga=2.223373273.356478251.1596060609-1166135206.1585644556