Car Servicing

tower

Hi, Just had my wife's car serviced and MOT'd. After i drove on to work, on the return journey the 'brake system failure' warning light came on, then went off as i turned right. It did this twice, i stopped checked manual and it stated Brake shoes low or lack of Brake Fluid.
I checked and found the Brake fluid level on minimum, so i suppose going around a corner activated a sensor.
Now my question is when you have a service surely you expected all liquids to be topped up. I spoke to the garage and was told that unless a warning light was on they leave it be...

Sgt_Pepper_2

Main dealers charge for a brake fluid change. Often every two years. I've never had a level drop, wonder why yours has.

Stigy

tower wrote: »

Hi, Just had my wife's car serviced and MOT'd. After i drove on to work, on the return journey the 'brake system failure' warning light came on, then went off as i turned right. It did this twice, i stopped checked manual and it stated Brake shoes low or lack of Brake Fluid.
I checked and found the Brake fluid level on minimum, so i suppose going around a corner activated a sensor.
Now my question is when you have a service surely you expected all liquids to be topped up. I spoke to the garage and was told that unless a warning light was on they leave it be...

I used to check and top up any levels as curtesy, although many don't. Strange it only came on after a service...

pompeyrich

Depends on the service I guess, a service and an MOT for £99 seems a common offering around here. An MOT is £55ish so that leaves £45 for an oil change/filter and a quick look round. Some of the 50 point checks I see advertised about 40 of the checks are lamps and the horn, wipers etc.

Worth getting the brakes checked as it is a sealed system and shouldn't be losing fluid, so would suspect a leak somewhere.

mpbaz

Pompeyrich or anyone on here know any good prices for servicing and good garages for example is Halfords ok?

forgotmyname

Is Halfords OK??. Depends who is working there this week.

Staff turnover can be fairly high. Some centres are worse than others. But the
same happens with a lot of tyre shops and garages.

So you may have useless so and so's at your local centre this week, But be OK next week.

Find a local garage that's been trading for many years and all the local people goto and trust.
Or a garage that specialises in your type of vehicle.

Ask a garage how much for a quick oil change, Then look at the £99 offers which is usually an oil change and a check for items they can tell you that needs replacing now. That can be a lot of extra money for not much work.

Brake fluid does go down in normal use. As the pistons push out further fluid needs to fill that space. So topping up maybe required.
But on the same note. The garage need to know its been topped up otherwise when they push the pistons back to fit new pads the fluid spills out because there is too much in there now.

Spend £10 - £15 on a haynes manual or similar and learn to check the basics.
Save yourself a fortune.

londonTiger

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

Main dealers charge for a brake fluid change. Often every two years. I've never had a level drop, wonder why yours has.

I've never actually changed brake fluid but since I started driving in March I'm hooked onto car websites.

Assuming the disks are fine and the brake mechanisms are fine it could be brake fluid. Even when you drain the brake fluid properly and then put fresh fluid in. There are air pockets still in the system. So the break fluid has to work itself down the system and let air come out. Air will come out over time, and when it does the brake fluid level will drop. You can top it up again if you like, or drive back to the garage and get them to top it up for you again. After all they probably invoiced you for a full bottle so you should ask for unlimited top up until the dipstick goes to max.

Brake disks are designed to make a screeching sound when they're nearly worn Also you can test the the brake pads on a safe and clear road as well.

londonTiger

forgotmyname wrote: »

Spend £10 - £15 on a haynes manual or similar and learn to check the basics.
Save yourself a fortune.

haynes manual is good for complete car novices to learn how to chasnge the basic parts and really just to "inform" themselves and get a general overview of the car. But I don't think it cuts the mustard in terms of giving a detailed overview to carry out a job properly.

it doesn;'t provide specific enough instructions, pictures are small and black and white, so sometimes you're left wonder what the heck is that a picture of?

fred7777

tower wrote: »

Now my question is when you have a service surely you expected all liquids to be topped up. I spoke to the garage and was told that unless a warning light was on they leave it be...

I would not expect anything more than an oil change, oil filter change and air filter change (and I'd check on the car to make sure they had been done afterwards).

I remember years back hearing about a maindealer having a gold, silver and bronze service offer and in the small print the bronze didn't even include an oil change!