Wednesday:

I thought I'd give the car a final dealer service before moving to a local garage I trust or sell the car. 06 plate CDTI SRI Pre-Facelift. Service 220 quid....OUCH (major service) then I gets the call.....

2 rear tyres
discs all round
Rear Pads
Rear road Springs.......
Oh and wiper blades that i only replaced 3 weeks ago!

I meant to do this before the warranty expired, but never got round to it.I think she said another 600 quid for the repairs.....I said I'll be in touch. I need to shop around for a better price...

So yesterday I collected the car...Put the key in the ignition...SPANNER Light! Not happy....They looked the car over and didn't find the cause. The fault has gone away.

Advise notes say:

Wiper Blades Smearing
Rear Pads Low Discs Lipped
Front Discs Heavily Lipped Pads 40% remaining
OSR Road Spring Snapped
Both rear tyres 2mm, OSR Nailed.

Quote reads:

Wipers: £17.25 for parts, £20.27 Fitted
Discs: £145.50 for Parts, £217.96 Fitted
Springs: £140 For Parts, £287.88 Fitted (Pair)
+ Tyres

I had a look at the discs and they don't seam that bad. Less than a 1mm Lip on the front. I would be curious to put a vernier on it. Tyres do need doing, I jacked the car up and yes the spring has gone:

ouch gutted mate, I am surprised for such a new car.

no way!
if you look in a haynes manual if should say minimum disk thickness, see if there having you off!

I cant believe the springs have snapped on a 3yr old car

...and to cap it, they want £150 labour to change them!!!

Whats the milage, Id expect 40-60k for the disks to need replacing, either way, 3 years is fairly acceptable before its needing new ones

defect surely?

I said if they changed anything on my last service, I need to see the parts. It's obvious they like changing it when it doesn't really need it, I had them saying the clutch is going, when it absolutely wasn't at all. I hate main dealers for that, but it's a stamp in the book.

My thoughts....and none would have been covered by the warranty!



There is no Haynes Manual for the car.





65k. All motorway....well 90% anyway. Looking at the owners club site, I've realised the springs are quite common. Even on a 2 year old.



Thats why I didn't authorise the work. Having looked myself, I can see the spring has gove. I'm still not convinced about the discs though. I may DIY them.

Oops I'll take that back....Just found one on Amazon. We did a campaign on the owners club to get Haynes to produce one, but nothing came of it....Or so we thought!

what car is it? i could get all the info for you up on autodata

2006 1.9cdti Sri (120ps) pre-facelift

make and model?! vaux i asume

Sorry, yeah A vectra C

minimum thickness vented - front 22mm
minimum thickness - rear 10mm

minimum pad thickness - front 9mm(including the backplate)
minimum pad thickness - rear 8mm(including the backplate)

remember to exclude the lip when measuring i tend to grind this lip down

Cheers Chris.

BTW, The name Chris Gilly rings a bell. Any ideas how I might know ya? IIRC Gilly was a nickname/shortened name.

Happy Ending.....Realised the MOT was due next seek so got it all done yesterday:



In reality:

2x Tyres: £54 Each plus VAT
2x Sprints: £58 inc VAT
Fitting Springs: £47

MOT £58 - PASSED just new rear indicators!

VX asked for £526....I paid £213.

I was told by a Vauxhall dealer that Vauxhall take a cut out of servicing charged by their dealers, whatever, a mixture of ridiculous pricing and phantom faults seems to typify them these days.

Its a shame, when I used to do my own work, Masterfit used to give some realistic prices for awkward work that was beyond my abilities/equipment and the Birkenhead one did some quality work.

I have had a number of occasions since, at another Masterfit, where I was charged for time that was 3 times longer than the time the car was being serviced and some dubious faults that magically appear between me dropping it off and them looking at it.