Where to take your beloved Merc for servicing? Anywhere, but definitley not Colins F

[C43AMG]

Howard should you talk to Colin ?

 

[03E500]

I can work it out using asra.

I need to know what was done exactly.

(BTW the rad removal is a real pain to do on that particular car and is quite labour intensive).

2.5 for the pipes alone is fairish.

6 hours for the radiator?

I would have to look it up.

My apology guys, a correction after reading the Merc letter again this morning.

The quote was 2.4 hours for the radiator + 1.6 hour for the pipes - so 4 hours of labour quoted. compares to the 8.5 hours charged, I would still consider this to be a significant difference.

Anyway, I called Colin and asked him about the labour charged, did not bring my receipt so will need to call him again next week.

enjoy a great long weekends.

 

[03E500]

By the sounds of it MB does not know the extent of the job.

Did a service advisor quote you the 2.5?

If they did they don't know the full extent of the job.

I am not trying to defend anyone just getto the facts.

Could I see a copy of the invoice?

My mistake, you are right, MB actually quoted 4 hours - 2.4 hours for replacing the radiator and 1.6 hours for the pipes.

So, my question is this - is 8.5 hours reasonable for a quote?

I will scan the copay of the invoice.

Basically, I was initially quoted 1500+ to replace the pipes as well as the radiator. Not sure how much the radiator and the pipes actually cost, but I would really like to know how much is the labour for the initial quote.

anyway, I tried to save some repair bill and asked Colin to repair/recondition the radiator - which cost 200 - saving me around 500.

Anyway, Colin Ferns had nothing to do with my bad luck of having a corroded pipes and radiator, I just want to confirm that the rapair bill is indeed fair.

 

[03E500]

Does anyone on the forum have access to the computer programme that gives you job times for various things ?

I wonder if it's sour grapes on behalf of the main dealers because you took it to an indy ?

When you have asked how long it should take, whether they have thought ' Right, we'll stitch the indy up and then he'll come to us in future ' ?

If we could find out from the EPC or WIS or whatever how long the job should take, then we have a starting point.

Not saying it should take more or less than the times quoted ( and taken ) by both parties, just that it would be nice to check ...

I know there is a programme out there , because when i went to enquire about my wheel bearings, they looked up in front of me how long it takes for each side ( an indy ) ....

Well, the dealer already knew that I sold the car already, so I obviously will not be going until I get my next Merc, not likely for the time being.

Anyway, yes it is possible for the dealer to deliberately quote the labour efforts being 50% charged by Colins. That is why I am here asking you guys for your opinion.

Here is a copy of the invoice, I do not have a scanner so I took a photo of it - total 1053.36

Thanks guys.

 

[humbley]

I have a w210 merc and yes the Auto Box Cooler pipes do corrode , on my car i cut the corroded part out and replaced with flexible oil hose and clips to fit , Job done about 1.5 hours and no leaks in 50.000 miles , as for corroded radiator thats ******** in a 4 year old merc , alloy Rad and plastic headers do not corrode , have been a mech for 35 years this sort of thing f--ks me off . Regards Humbley

 

[03E500]

Tell me about it mate.

While I did enjoy the driving experience of my E500, and the various gadgets, the corrosion issues certainly have not been fixed. The W210 had corrosion issues with the body works, so you would think that MB would have learned their lessons and build the W211 properly. Well, it is not so much the workmanship that is letting them down, but the quality of the material they use, or simply manufacturing flaws.

Yes, it is shocking that a 4 year old MB would have severe corrosion issues on the oil pipes and the radiator.

I know it is crazy to compare the Merc with any Japanese cars... but I had a 15 year old Japanese car and never had any issue with it.... and that was built using technology from such a long time ago. It is a disgrace that Modern MB cars have these kinds of flaws.

Anyway, all behind me, who knows, maybe BM has same issues. Hope not.

 

[big x]

Well, 5 minutes with a can of spray grease when one acquires a vehicle and the pipes in question will last many years.
It is possible for a rad to fail at 4 years however I do think to some extent you've been taken for a ride on the labour charge. I've heard of this before, an independent is half the hourly rate of the main dealer but charges twice as many hours.The problem is once cars get older it does take more time to do things and realistically the independent can't do the job in the manufacturers allotted time. One can't expect busy self employed people to work for nothing whereas main dealers can and do carry any additional labour and of course on younger cars there's always a good possibility of them putting a goodwill claim to MB UK.
Being pushed for time many indies do things that are annoying like reusing rounded off nuts and rusty fasteners but often actually have greater experience in diagnosing car faults than main dealers.
Like many on this forum I prefer to do my own spannering wherever possible.This keeps my wallet intact and gives piece of mind.

adam

 

[MBManInKen]

Brentford Mercedes are monkeys , i've had nothing but problems from them

I agree with that, I used to take my car to them and they have been nothing short of utterly useless and incompetent. I will not set another foot inside Mercedes Brentford.

 

[c240yaz]

Well, the dealer already knew that I sold the car already, so I obviously will not be going until I get my next Merc, not likely for the time being.

Anyway, yes it is possible for the dealer to deliberately quote the labour efforts being 50% charged by Colins. That is why I am here asking you guys for your opinion.

Here is a copy of the invoice, I do not have a scanner so I took a photo of it - total 1053.36

Thanks guys.

It would be interesting to see any other MB main dealer's extraordinary invoices from other forum members, even if it ommited the franchise name from the letter head ?

 

[Parrot of Doom]

I had radiator corrosion problems on mine. But the problem isn't the radiator - its the mating surface between the ATF pipes, and the radiator, where they are supposed to form a seal.

Unfortunately I could see no way to remove these surfaces from the radiator, so instead a bit of sandpaper and some elbow grease eliminated most of the corrosion and formed a surface flat enough to create a reasonable quality seal. Its not exactly textbook, but it hasn't leaked since

 

[Howard]

Am i reading the invoice right ?

I'm seeing 8.5 hours for investigating the oil leaks ( and then presumably the fitting of the new components ) ...

So part of the 8.5 hours is diagnosing the problem , it's not just 8.5 hours to get the old bits out and fit the new bits ? I imagine it's pretty complicated and if it's been leaking oil , probably everything is covered in it under the engine bay so it might not be obvious what was leaking and needed a search ?

I've never been to a main dealer or had anything go wrong that wasn't immediately obvious what it was on my car ..... do main dealers diagnose for free ? and indy's charge ?

Does the clock start from when they start looking for the problem , or from when they start unbolting the broken bits ?

Once again , although Colin is an aquaintance, not sticking up for him per se , just trying to figure it all out .... although , to be honest , Colin is a decent chap and has only ever been very fair to us ...

 

[Rory]

I've never been to a main dealer or had anything go wrong that wasn't immediately obvious what it was on my car ..... do main dealers diagnose for free ? and indy's charge ?

You've been very lucky then - common thing these days (on all makes) is to charge 30 or even 60 mins to 'read the codes'. If the car is under warranty then the customer is often asked to pay this as if no fault is found the dealer can't recover the cost from the manufacturer.

Even if the fault seems obvious, the danger of telling the garage what's wrong is that if they replace whatever you point to and that wasn't the problem, then you're a bit stuffed.

 

[BlackC55]

Well spotted howard.

A small amount of the hours will be investigating work and cleaning.

 

[Howard]

Guess i have been lucky then ...

Whenver i've taken it in , and said 'Oh this is happening' they've said ' Oh it's this, you need to replace it' and it's always been right ....

No codes on my old beast

 

[Ade B]

Even if the fault seems obvious, the danger of telling the garage what's wrong is that if they replace whatever you point to and that wasn't the problem, then you're a bit stuffed.

think I may have committed that sin, completely slipped my mind to ask the garage to pressure test for the (suspected) blown CHG....

could be an expensive mistake... watch this space...

Ade

 

[Bryanthemercman]

If The owner of this car was to tell the truth about his E500 then you would know why he was charged 8.5 hrs labour. He is lucky his transmission was not damaged by the large loss of transmission fluid as for the radiator its true it is alloy and plastic but the connections are steel and in order to get a proper seal you need to replace the fitting's in the radiator (Not Available as a seperate item) The time for replacing the radiator is 2.8hrs + filling and bleeding.

 

[edgersoldchap]

I think there is a salutory lesson here of the dangers of rushing into print without knowing the full facts of the situation.

There is certainly more going on here than was initially described at the start of the thread - 03E500 should have given Colin the opportunity of putting his side of the situation across and then checking it with both MB and the sages in this forum before condemning him to all and sundry.

 

[Howard]

I did email Colin , but he is on holiday ....

I presume Bryanthemercman is Colins workshop manager .... called Bryan

 

[bolide]

I think the Moderators should lock these useless "I've been hard done by..." threads as they benefit no-one. Even if the accused party saw the thread, would they want to dignify it by replying?

As on all other Internet Forums, members should heed the golden rule: "Don't feed the trolls"

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[Rob77]

I think the Moderators should lock these useless "I've been hard done by..." threads as they benefit no-one. Even if the accused party saw the thread, would they want to dignify it by replying?

Nonsense. In this case, someone felt hard done by but was later proved to be charged correctly.

You're saying that because of that, everyone else should be denied the chance to comment on bad service? I don't think so.

As for dignifying a thread by replying, is this the royal family we're talking about? If an aggrieved party disagrees, then let them do so. I would rather hear their point of view than imagine their dignity