[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

. Like someone said, fix only what is broken.

So, you don’t believe in preventive maintenance? No regular oil/filter changes etc?

Jeroen

[viXit]

Don't even get TATA owners started.

Their products had gotten better until the fiascos with harrier. But their ASC remains trash.
Safari went for rood repaint after a scrape from an overhead board. And came back with more scratches and terrible overspray. Grease marks, oily interiors and terrible delays. Plastics are broken, clips are lost, bolts not replaced and a hundred other things. They broke the plastic that covers my roof rail mounts.

[mohitchalla]

While I go to the ASS most of the time, there are some things I do not trust them with. Wheel alignment and balancing are one of the most important.

A.S.S. usually have much larger tolerances for wheel alignment and balancing. Because they have a lot of cars to deliver in a day, they do not spend more than a few minutes per car. The result is mediocre in most cases.

My specialist shop takes anywhere between 1 and 2 hours on my car's alignment and balancing and we do multiple test runs of the vehicle before the operation is concluded. Plus, it costs way less than the A.S.S.

[Drive Head]

I only have silly instances (thank God) after getting the car serviced at M&M ASC.

Mostly I know maximum of the workshop techs, the Manager and SA, as I keep on loitering around the workshop, and have developed a friendly relationship with them, which helps a lot in addressing the problems.

On one instance, my XUV 500's steering mounted controls started acting weird. Pressing the volume button would change the radio frequency or vice versa. A call to the workshop manager and his assurance came in the form of "Wait it out for tonight and tomorrow morning everything would be alright". It worked. Water from washing was the culprit.

Once, I was planning to change the battery and took the car directly from service centre to the authorized battery dealer. Deal was negotiated and the current battery was to be checked before the exchange. Tried to open the bonnet. Couldn't find the lever below the dash. Looked for it, got embarrassed. No, it was not there. The battery guy took over. Searched for it. Not found.

It was getting late and anxiety kicked-in. What-if the battery dies and ASC closes for the day. A quick call to the Manager, and he assured that he will wait for me. Drove hurriedly and got it checked. The lever was stacked far away beneath the dash while they were working on some steering column rack check. Relieved.

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

So, you don’t believe in preventive maintenance? No regular oil/filter changes etc?

Jeroen

I believe in preventive maintenance but I fix stuff before they break. I just go through the car once in a while. I do notice if something is wrong and I fix it.

At the last inspection, I was told that there was a slight wear on the inner ball of the track rod and that it should be replaced before the next inspection in 2 years. The car passed.

Same evening I replaced it. I stock some parts so I dont have to go shopping. I buy my parts and motor oil in Romania at a third of the price.

[Fiestaboy]

Few instances that i experienced or heard:

1. My father took our Tractor to authorized service center for periodic service.
Just when my father & driver was going to see the service process they identified that the mechanic was pouring new oil without closing the sump drain plug, but already completed filling the process. At dealer's cost, they put new oil & gave the vehicle back. If my dad didn't see it, potentially we would have got bigger issue to the tune of Engine getting jammed. (assuming we started the vehicle as such).

2. When i was standing nearer to my car, during one of the services, i just saw that technician forget to put the water in fuel sensor plug back into the place. I told him & he put it back in place.


3. After car wash, most of the times, mainly due to subtle difference they put driver's mat into passenger side & vice versa. i hate this to the fact i once asked my dealer guys to have proper look at it & explained the difference to them.

Note: Driver Seat height & position along with steering position will mostly be disturbed at service. This is quite simple, but i took time to get back the position to my liking. Nowadays, thanks to the dealer, he has put some sticker now, which helps me in positioning it back asap, though height still needs some work.

I never give my bike or car to a service & go elsewhere. I always stand nearer to it, except very rare occasions where i am forced not to be there.

[surajspai]

I had given my Alto (2007) for service last month on completing 10000 km. First they tried to palm off expensive synthetic oil on me and only changed it when I raised a stink about it with Maruti.
Then they had changed the spark plugs too during service.
When I got it back, the oil was fresh (the correct grade of oil) so the engine felt really smooth. After a few kilometres of running, I felt it was stuttering. Almost like knocking, as if it had a developed a weird firing sequence, like a Harley bike.

I was wary that they had messed up my car since I ruffled a few feathers, but decided to call them up anyway.
Their response- " You should have done throttle body cleaning saar.. We told you so but you didn't do it."

No way I was going to drive all the way there, pay them 1200rs and travel by cab for a day.
So, I searched here for a possible solution and was overwhelmed by all sorts of solutions, so took to checking them one by one.

1. Cleaned the distributor and checked the cables
2. Checked the air filter
3. Checked all hoses for leaks

I was about to try fiddling with the IAC valve when I thought- how about the spark plugs?

The Maruti recommended champion plugs aren't so good(or so I've heard) so opened up the plugs. And voila! One of them had too little gap. I didn't want to try bending it back, so put in a old used NGK set and the car is back to normal. Or atleast the state it was before it was serviced.

[vijay_jambu]

Service due message in MID not reset after paying 20k for service. Could you beat this?
How could a service engineer not notice this before delivering a car is beyond me.
But I guess this is what is expected from infamous Skoda ASS.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Indian2003

I believe in preventive maintenance but I fix stuff before they break. I just go through the car once in a while. I do notice if something is wrong and I fix it.

Same here.

I find that on our modern cars (i.e. company car and my wife’s car) in most cases it is primarily only preventive maintenance. But all my other car need TLC all the time and I always pick up on stuff long before it might become a problem.

My W123 passed its MOT last time without any problems. But there was a comment that there was a small amount of play in the left steering knuckle. Still well within tolerance. This car drives maybe 2 - 3000 km annually. So it could have probably lasted at least another 3-4 years before that play would become an issue.

So I decided to replace the steering knuckle straight away:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-d...ml#post4937051

It is also one the reasons I like to hand wash my cars regularly. As you wash and clean your car I find I often detect small issue. Not just with the paint/rust. But it could be piece of trim coming loose, rubbers beginning to deteriorate etc. It all goes on the list and gets fixed subsequently.

I started my career in the merchant navy as an engineer. On board of ships we used to have extensive preventive maintenance schedule for every piece of equipment. From main engine, to every pump, compressor, winch, crane, fan, batteries etc.

The company I worked for at the time, got a new head of the technical department. The first thing he did was to scrap all preventive maintenance work on all equipment with the exception on the main and auxiellery engines.

His thought was, whenever you start opening up machinery, you are going to find fault. Engineers being engineers, once stuff is open, they will replace parts, just to be safe. He also counted on just about all the system being fully redundant and sometimes we had three of each. So if a cooling water pump or a lubricating pump failed, that was never a real problem.

So basically we were told not to touch anything until it actually broke. I will say this, I was surprised how long some of the equipment lasted. But when it did broke, we usually had a lot more damage to fix, then if we had done proper preventive maintenance.

Also, I disagreed with him on the redundancy argument. Just because systems are redundant, doesn’t mean you factor that into the operational and safety aspects. If you have two lubracation pumps for your main engine and one fails, you have one left which doesn’t leave you much options. Would you start to cross the ocean with one pump and hoping you are able to fix the other one whilst on the go?

Safe navigation, on a plane or a boat is to unsure you have options all the time. So you don’t factor in redundancy, because it puts you in the corner with fewer options. If it fails, tough luck, but running redundant system till it fails and switching over to stand by system is madness.

So we had a big row over that. Eventually I was sacked from that particular company, as I refused to take a ship to sea, as it was without proper fire fighting equipment.

Jeroen

[Bhalla]

My bike Apache RTR160 met with an accident on Jalandhar-Phagwara Bypass in February 2018. It’s front shocker rods, front mudguard, front fairing and headlamp were damaged. Gave it to local TVS Workshop. When I got my bike 5 days later, it felt something wrong with my bike. While turning right and left, it was picking up acceleration and was going out of control. Never had that issue before accident (bike was around 5 months old that time as it was bought in October 2017) and bike had damage on body parts rather than mechanical parts during accident. Took my bike back to service centre and they were unable to rectify the issue after keeping bike for a day.
Got frustrated with it and went to my trusted local mechanic. He found that when installing new parts in bike, mechanic at TVS workshop might had removed clutch and acceleration cables and they were not reinstalled properly with engine as well as with clutch lever and throttle bar on bike’s handle. He reinstalled the cables properly and bike was running absolutely fine after that.

[manchandap]

Another interesting thread.

Adding my experiences:

• While getting my bike serviced, the FNG forgot to put the drain bolt in place before pouring in the engine oil. Result: Oil wasted and heated discussion
• Had to keep my Swift with ASS for body work. When returned the ASS people forget to plug in the connectors of the passenger side headlamp and fog lamp. Figured out the same on a night drive few days later and had few anxious moments fitting them.

[BNG-motorhead]

Skoda Fabia, always assume stuff will become worse, you sometimes may not know about it. I do not go to an ASS after many harrowing experiences.

1. Paint spilled over inner door foot guard, scraped, damaging the panel, hid it from me, never owned to the mistake
2. Broke my key, fixed with feviquik, never resolved, never replaced, new keys cost 22K+, I still drive with a broken key
3. Scratches on the interiors, screw driver used to force open plastic panels, no resolution
4. Ripped underside of the seat covers, did not resolve
5. Bloated bills, not even a point to mention, this is always
6. Missing screws, rubber gaskets
7. Asking to do a 25K job done, which is not required. with a sentiment that the 'Car will fail!'

[Jaguar]

Almost every time when I had the Ford Ikon. Tried multiple service centers and it was the same. The issues were usually trivial but I would have to re-visit the service center within a week of the full service pretty much every time. The biggest issue was the exhaust mounts giving away and the exhaust dangling down a day after a half-yearly service visit. Since the service centers were few and far away, and since most FNGs were not ready (or could source parts), I was fed up with driving across town due to somebody not doing their job properly. So much so that the main criteria for my next car was a service center close by to either home or office.

Now, with Hyundai, I have multiple ASS and good FNGs close by who can take care of any issue. There still have been issues where I had to re-visit immediately after a service, but the frequency has been much lesser.

One thing I have learned from experience is that I will never undertake a long road trip without doing a 50-100 km shakedown run within the city after any service.

[TejasKinger]

Yup. Back in the early 2000s with Cauvery Ford, it was always an issue with them missing out on wheel rotation or not doing a good job of the wheel balancing/alignment.

With Pratham Motors, for the Maruti 800, we had a terrible experience with interior detailing. The dashboard polish was so liberally applied, and it made the whole thing slippery.

In the mid-2000s-early-2010s with the Scorpio, we tried out multiple Authorized Service Centers depending on proximity - India Garage, Anant Cars, Sireesh Auto. Unfailingly after each service, the car would return with new rattles and squeaks, bits of the interior trim missing, scratches on the interior panels, oil/grease stains on the upholstery.

More recently with Advaith Hyundai, for the last 7 years or so, the experience has been good. If only they stopped trying to inflate the bills.

[a4anurag]

After I bought the Creta, whenever it was sent for servicing, I made sure they performed the basic jobs i.e. oil + filter changes. No extra or value-added jobs like Wheel alignment, EGR Cleaning, AC cleaning etc. All these extra services I perform myself since I don't trust the ASC to perform honestly.

So far I haven't had any issues post servicing but I hate the fingerprints (oily) all over the door, fender, door handles, gear lever and steering wheel. The mechanics are least bothered to clean them after the job.