I had my car services today at a Seat main dealer. It is a two year old Seat Altea 1.9TDi Reference Sport. I am not convinced the garage has done much at all as they had it for not much longer than an hour.
I popped the bonnet and had a cursory look at the oil on the dip stick. It is black, thin and dirty so I took it back to the garage to discuss. They said because it is a diesel the engine retains a large amount of dirt and as soon as the new oil circulates it picks up the remnants and changes to black. Sounds a bit dubious to me but he stood his ground. Is he correct?
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 02/02/2008 at 13:15
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Yes, the chap in the garage is correct. On a diesel the newly changed oil will be black again within a couple of miles.
Don't know what you expect to get done for a service at a main dealers, anyway?!!! When I had my car serviced at a main dealers in order to preserve the Ford warranty, I used to call it a rather expensive oil change, because I'm quite sure that is all they used to do!
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Thanks for the quick response Galaxy. I'm starting to feel guilty about giving them such a hard time now. Should the oil be that thin though?
Main dealers, don't get me started....the only expectation I have is that I will be shafted so I am using them simply to maintain the warranty.
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Which oil did they use? If its a PD engine there are certain oil standards required, as you probably know, varying according to the mileage/type of driving you do.
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They claim to have used the appropriate PD oil - 50 quids worth------the charlatans
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at 13 quid a litre thats about right! check the oil filter, does it look new? if thats new they had to change the oil.
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>>if thats new they had to change the oil.
How so?
Number_Cruncher
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And on a VAG PD diesel only the oil filter element is replaced - the housing is part of the engine. (Quite a good system as it avoids wasted materials and is designed so that the filter housing contents drain into the sump when you take the cap off - it's remarkably non-messy).
Sometimes, you just have to trust people.
659.
Edited by 659FBE on 02/02/2008 at 14:24
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>>Sometimes, you just have to trust people.
Especially so if they removed the oil by vacuum - there won't even be a new sump plug washer to see!
Number_Cruncher
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>>if thats new they had to change the oil. How so?
Hmm thinking about it - maybe they wouldnt have to if its high enough, no oil would escape.
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>>no oil would escape.
On most cars (I can't think of any mainstream recent exceptions), the oil filter is in the pressurised part of the circuit, so, removing it has no real effect on the oil in the sump - even if the oil filter is mounted low down like on a Rover k series, for example.
The rest of the oil that sits in the normally pressurised part of the cicuit - which might include an oil cooler is not (and can not easily be) changed as part of the oil service. This trapped volume that can't be changed makes a mockery of those who insist on having hot engines before taking the sump plug out, or who leave the oil draining overnight, or who worry excessivley about using a topsider to suck the oil out.
Number_Cruncher
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When I had my car serviced at a main dealers in order to preserve the Ford warranty I used to call it a rather expensive oil change because I'm quite sure that is all they used to do!
The work to be carried out is laid down in the Warranty and Service Guide. I've never had cause for complaint about Ford dealer servicing.
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I had similar experiences when I first got a diesel (a 405). The garage I got it from gave the same excuse as to why the oil was black when I went to pick the car up and I accepted it. I then decided to have intermediate oil changes and went to halfords where I watched them do it and surprise, surprise the oil did not go black for 16 miles or so. My Picasso diesel I recently got was very similar and the oil was still hard to see (it was a nice light yellow colour) after the garage took it for a brief run after the oil change and after I drove it home. This happended on every oil change at 3 - 4,000 miles over 123,000 miles. After 20 or so miles it would go black. There may be a good reason why your car should be different from my two but I would be very suspicious of this.
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Agree with BN: its not usually an immediate darkening. Maybe OP should consider an oil analysis: that should tell whether the garage have done a clipboard service:)
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The other option (and I have no idea if it would be cheaper - I don't know how much oil analysis is) would be to buy the right oil and filter and get Rapid Fit or somewhere similar to do it (the crucial thing being somewhere where you can see them actually do the job). Rapid Fit (the Ford one - is that what it's called ?) in Wilmslow used to be happy to do this - at least that way you would know the oil has been changed and what it looks like afterwards. I'm pretty sure my 405 did over 20,000 miles without an oil change until I got an intermediate (I thought) change !
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>>as they had it for not much longer than an hour. >>
Even if the service is two hours on the book which I doubt, two techs could do it in an hour.
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Funny enough I service our Altea at the weekend ...I do it myself but use VW parts total cost fuel,oil air filter and 5 ltrs of PD oil £60 total time about 1 hour.
Funny thing though this is the first car that felt like it hadn't been serviced if you know what I mean .... most cars feal I whole lot better after a service this one yes it a tad quieter a tad quicker but not that big differenece that the old style TDi's had if serviced.
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