Have I been ripped off by my local car garage?

Norman_Castle

Quote:
Learn how to check your oil. Its simple and would have saved you £112.
Well by the time the OP had bought a jack, axle stands, socket set, torx bit set, filter removal tool, torque wrench, oil catcher (and has to deal with the old oil), Haynes Manual she'd be well over £112 and then would still have to find someone to work through doing it with her, assuming she wants to do all that grubby work and crawl around on the floor. The next time it'll be £60 odd as the diagnostic won't be included.

You don't need tools to check your oil.

colino

Can you actually identify what warning light was flashing? Engine codes, even when not repetitive enough to keep the MIL on, will have stored a pending fault code on the ecu that they would have found on the diagnostic. If it was a low oil warning light (as opposed to low pressure) it may not have held a code, so you should establish how much, and over what period the oil has dropped.

theclonetrooper

I had a similar "flashing" dashboard light on my Renault Laguna when turning, it would flash on & off quickly but not the same rhythm as the indicators. I had a look in the car's instruction manual and found out it was the warning light for the washer bottle, when turning a corner the low level of washer fluid was sloshing a round so I filled it up and Hay-Ho no more flashy dashboard light when turning corners, (apart from the indicators I might add).

fivetide

OP - the price for the oil change wasn't a rip for a main dealer (but it was pricey)

Secondly - read your car manual and look up the light. I bet you only need to top up your screenwash!

I had a Mitsubishi that used to do the same thing with a warning light that looked a lot like the radiator. It was known in the owners club as "the g-force meter" as no end of newbies would come on to post about a "worrying intermittent light when cornering"

fred7777

As replacing the oil appears to have fixed the problem then I'm assuming it was the oil pressure warning light.

I had a similar intermittent oil pressure warning from my Peugeot (same company as Citroen) one of the standard fixes recommended for this was to change the oil to a better grade.

So I don't think £112.50 is a "rip off" for a main dealer to do what they did but you may find much better value at a good independent.

The fault on my car turned out to be that the oil pressure sensor wire was mistakenly clamped under a bracket by Peugeot during manufacture and eventually the insulation had worn through. This would not have shown up on an expensive main dealer diagnostic but was found by old fashioned mechanics fault finding skills and cost less than a main dealer diagnostic to get fixed.

jbainbridge

I'm sorry but a good start would have been to look up the warning light in the car's manual. Perhaps if it comes on again do this and report back.

benson1980

Warning light flashing intermittently when going round a corner is classic fluid level warning, whether it be washer fluid etc. Totally agree that driving it to the garage when seeing a warning light, rather than looking in the manual and seeing what the warning light is, is just throwing away your hard earned. Garage should have just topped up the oil unless it was due a change. They'll always charge for a diagnostic test as the equipment costs them money so even though it takes minutes to do they'll want to recoup their outlay.
The above being said, 112 quid is about right for diagnostic and oil/filter change. Although I'm not entirely sure if I were you I'd be rushing back to them. Did you tell them that the light was flashing when you drove round left hand bends- if so they would have definitely known it was fluid level related thus not requiring some poncy diagnostics test.

27col

I always used to do my own maintenance when I was young. However, nowadays, when you open the bonnet, it is difficult to actually recognise any particular component, especially with the nice engine covers in place.