my car in dealers for problem

[midge]

my cars gone in to the service place at teh dealers because of teh smell of burining oil when you pull up coming through the vents on the insdie of the car, i couldnt work out what it was so hopefully they will, what surprised me was the amount you get charged for an hours worth of labour £96 thats £96 for an hours worth of diagnostic work so thats how much they charge before they have even started to fix the probelm, so much, then im guessing its gonna be another hour to fix whatever it is plus the price of parts needed, gonna be a hefty bill

 

[Dan_mk1]

Where is it fella?

 

[TheCake]

Midge, when my Cup blew a spark plug last week it cost me £60 to have it inspected and they had it for 2 days.

So £90 seems somewhat excessive.

 

[Pete]

Renault labour prices take the pee and the always take longer on a job than youd expect, weird when they work on them day in day out, youd expect them to get quicker!

 

[ViolentJ]

smell of burning oil - probably oil leaking onto the exhuast somewhere.

Are you insane, taking it to a dealer and paying dealer prices? Any non-dealer will look for free!

 

[midge]

renault in coulsdon.. its the closets to my house, 5 minutes walk, he said it wont be done before christmas, so im without a car for a week at least, and no idea how much im going to be charged, any ideas?

 

[Pete]

Id be under the bonnet and having a look myself if I were you, just look for any drops of oil about in the engine bay.

 

[midge]

he just rang me up, and said its the sump gasket and the rocker cover gasket, he also said the head gaskett looks as though its gone, which i doubt, as theres no oil coming from the exhaust, i told them to do the sump and rocker and not to do the head gaskett

 

[midge]

is there an easy way of checking if the head gaskett is gone? he said he wouldnt know until the rocker cover is off, how can you tell when thats off? ill ask if i can see if he tells me its gone, but what should i look for?

 

[Pete]

mayo round the oil filler.

Hes taking you for a ride btw.

 

[midge]

the sump i knew about and te rocker would explain the oil smell, but i realy doubt the head gaskett has gone, why you say his taking me for a ride?

 

[Pete]

Cos he should be able to tell whether the head gasket is gone without removing the rocket cover for a start.

 

[Turkish]

exactly, he can check the headertank or rad, or the oil filler cap for emulsification (the creamy mayo that pete talks about) or do a compression test, neither of which will require the rocker cover leaving the car. The gasket can be gone and not result in oil in the exhaust it can break allowing oil or water to seep out between the block and head and run down the block.

 

[riccycup]

when my car was in the dealers they did all the work under warrenty apart they said they had to take some lights off (and before they say they came with the car). i picked up the car no problem then they rang up to tell me i had to pay an hours labour which is 59 pounds. so 90 does seem a little steep

 

[midge]

im going to tell him not to do the head gaskett, when i get the car back it will have new oil init, will i be able to check for the mayo stuff straight away? im certain its not gone, i would have noticed somehow surely?

 

[Turkish]

some people wont notice, depends on how badly its actually gone, the only symptons to the untrained eye will be slightly upped oil consumption, the car using water a bit or the temp gauge sitting a bit higher or lower than usual.

 

[Pete]

Whats the water like in your header tank, that can sometimes go brown if its the head gasket.

 

[Dan_mk1]

When the headgasket went on mine, it was only running on 2 cylinders, kind of easy to notice by the LUMPY idle, loss of performance, more fuel consumption etc etc!

 

[midge]

right i spoke to a friend and im gonna do a compression test onit when i get it back, im guessing one of the cylinders or more will be at lower compression thatn the others if the gasketts gone? anyone know what the compression should be? 1.2 energy engine..

 

[Turkish]

youll probably find that the haynes manual will have a listing for the CR. Or possibly on the net somewhere.