Green servicing or a rip-off?

D33na

Time has come for another service on my Micra. Lots of places are now suggesting an additional 'flush through' or 'fuel treatment' sounding thing, usually £20-£30. Others suggest an air-con 'recharge and reconditioning' for about £40-£50. Are these extra treatments actually worth it or just a way of getting money out of you? My car is about 3.5 years old, and I try to be 'green' by maximising my fuel economy using tips from this site (have got my miles per gallon up significantly as a result!).

anewman

Regas the air con if the air con doesn't feel so cool any more. If you want a fuel treatment yourself buy a carton of redex injector cleaner. And on a 3 year old car that's been well kept with regular oil changes to MFR's specs I wouldn't imagine a oil flush would see any worthwhile benefits at all. So the answer is no not really.

hewhoisnotintheknow

not being rude but you drive a cheap nissan, it will be fine with the normal servicing. Flushing is not really needed with modern engines. As for the fuel additives you can do that your self, but the enginge in your car probably wont really benefit from it. I noticed my local garage now offers all the whizzy services but they never offer it to people who seem to know a bit about cars....

Regas the air con when its not getting cold enough, remember to use it at least once a week to keep all the seals supple!

Useless_With_Money_3

Don't use the engine flushes, they can do more harm than good especially on older engine or mileage models.

as anewman said buy the redex yourself, asda is cheapest for this and do so in one shot bottles as well.

For optimum a/c you should regass every year as you loose about 20/30% of the gas every year through natural seepage. Although 99% of users don't notice anyway. Only reason i do mine yearly as i can do them free. You can buy regas cans from ebay but if you dont know what your doing i would recommend against it, imho.

AdrianHi

hewhoisnotintheknow wrote: »

not being rude but you drive a cheap nissan,

... and more expensive cars are generally specified to use synthetic oil which keeps the engine cleaner so flush is still not necessary.
Your Micra may well use synthetic oil these days anyway.
These flushing products were useful in the past for older engines using older technology oils which were more susceptible to coking and gunging up in the engine. Just not necessary now.
Using redex on an on going basis to keep things clean is no bad thing.
Years ago my Dad used it throughout the whole life of an Austin Princess 2.0L. He got over 120,000 miles out of that engine when most Princess's had dead engines by 80-90,000.

D33na

Thanks for the advice - very helpful. Micras are cheap & cheerful, and turn corners on a ha'penny! Really amazes people the tight corners I can navigate in one move *smug*.

Have taken your advice and gone for local garage that I have used once before and was very fair.

With regards to Redex, there are about 5 different types! Which one should I use for an unleaded 1.4l Micra?

Viper_7

AdrianHi wrote: »

...
Years ago my Dad used it throughout the whole life of an Austin Princess 2.0L. He got over 120,000 miles out of that engine when most Princess's had dead engines by 80-90,000.

got 160K out of ours before the gearbox failed.
That lovely Vinyl roof and "air" suspension, which by the end of it's life the rear wishbones that that shot it had to be pumped up and looked like a dragster!

Back to OH. If the service schedule has been followed, no engine flushes are required. No fuel treatment is required, there are enough cleansing chemicals in the fuel, no need for any additives.
Should have the air-con re-gassed every 3 years at least, the price they quoted is not bad is they full vacuum it and not just top the gas up. Make sure they do a full vacuum and for a good hour minimum. If it's just a re-gas don't bother, and stay well clear of any do it yourself kits.
The Brake fluid will need changing.
Could look at changing the coolant.

Vipes