Oil used in my id3 service!

[SinglePointSafety]

Glad to know that my local VW dealer is looking after my car and paying particular attention to the oil change on its 2-year service.....

[smyth1492]

Why are they changing the brake fluid recommended for every 3 years at the 2 year service point?

[SinglePointSafety]

The brake fluid change was included in my £199 service plan (the one that also includes an MoT) and I was told that "it's recommended at 2 years". Which is fine, 2 years, 3 years, 'whatever', provided it's done....They also told me that my car needed an A/C re-gas. When I enquired ("leaking is it? Air temperature not cold enough? Can I see the test?") they rapidly backed down and said it was VW's 'recommendation'. At a modest £250... My reply was "like the brake fluid then? So why aren't both in the service schedule? If the A/C 'fails' after 2 years, wouldn't that be a warranty issue?" "Er, um, well...."

In my experience main dealer service staff absolutely hate it when customers with some knowledge challenge them, they want compliant sheeple who will just hand over the £££ and be grateful that their car has had expert attention. Or something

[Boattrainman]

Having serviced all kinds of engines over the years, I think changing the brake fluid and a regas of the AC every two years is unlikely to be required.

The only area of concern for me would be the brake pad wear given the regenerative function, and rear tyre wear if the car is pushed hard.

I don't know enough about the main battery cooling system but again, unless its leaking, its unlikely to need coolant renewed all that often.
The 12V back up battery is easily checked with a cheap multi meter, if it regularly reads below 12.2/12.3 I'd keep an eye on it....any lower and its faulty.

The pollen filter is less than 20 bucks and is a two minute install.

The rest are just visual checks.

However!

The problem is that as these cars are seen as new tech, nobody in their right minds wants to not have the service record bang up to date in case it effects resale/trade in value.........so VW have us by the balls on this.......plus they seem to be the only ones able to reset the service interval.

Plus ca change!

Rob

[Scratch]

The brake fluid change was included in my £199 service plan (the one that also includes an MoT) and I was told that "it's recommended at 2 years". Which is fine, 2 years, 3 years, 'whatever', provided it's done....They also told me that my car needed an A/C re-gas. When I enquired ("leaking is it? Air temperature not cold enough? Can I see the test?") they rapidly backed down and said it was VW's 'recommendation'. At a modest £250... My reply was "like the brake fluid then? So why aren't both in the service schedule? If the A/C 'fails' after 2 years, wouldn't that be a warranty issue?" "Er, um, well...."

In my experience main dealer service staff absolutely hate it when customers with some knowledge challenge them, they want compliant sheeple who will just hand over the £££ and be grateful that their car has had expert attention. Or something

If you have the £199 service plan, why do they think they can charge you £235.49? Even if that does now include the “oil change”, a deal is a deal, is it not?
Are you sure they haven’t left a can of oil in the boot?
And what is “cleaner” for £4.16?

[SinglePointSafety]

If you have the £199 service plan, why do they think they can charge you £235.49? Even if that does now include the “oil change”, a deal is a deal, is it not?
Are you sure they haven’t left a can of oil in the boot?
And what is “cleaner” for £4.16?

I didn't pay anything at the stealership, all work covered by the service plan. But of course the interesting questions are: how was this invoice generated in the first place and what 'button was pressed' to include an oil change in the list of work done? What will the dealer actually charge (presumably VW) to have carried out the service?

And, no, they didn't leave a can of oil in the boot... (which might have been useful for my other car)

The service person saw me laughing at the invoice and queried the cause of my merriment. I pointed out the inclusion of the oil change, she just shrugged "it's all done automatically" (to be fair, she only looked 12 years old) and was clearly puzzled by the relevance of my comment that BEVs don't.... actually....have.....an engine that requires an oil change

[sp146363]

Just been told by my dealer that the brake fluid is now recommended every 2 years by VW and air conditioning is similar. I asked for a report showing the degradation in air con and she said they can only do that when they change it. I’ll do both of these in 2 years time. They also highlighted that the 2 rear tyres were low and wanted to charge me £100+ more than the on-the-drive Halfords guy who came 2 days ago to do the front 2.

[Boattrainman]

It's all just horses**t to claw back some costs given the car actually requires virtually zero maintenance.

Between the insurance companies skinning the cat, main dealers inventing fake work, and tyre companies convincing us that the tyres are almost falling off the car, they're doing everything they can to spoil the EV experience!

[TimF]

A big problem here (IMO) is that there's no competition. I couldn't find any garage / workshop locally that would touch the car. Some cited lack of "software", most simply said it was outside their capabilities. All said it was not in my interests while the car was under warranty. It seems the VW garages have to charge exactly the same rates for everything - no scope for variation to suit specifics (particularly high or low mileage, for example).

[Boattrainman]

Totally TimF.

I've only 12k miles on a 2 year old car, it's practically new, yet expecting to be skinned next year when the 'service' is required.

Rob