Performance air filter being swapped by garage without telling me

[mark smith87]

I took my car in for service yesterday at my local garage and asked him to check the condition of the air filter which was meant to be a cotton filter element I fitted a couple of years ago. He knew about it as he'd serviced it since I fitted it. Anyway I left it with him to get on with it but got a call a couple of hours later to ask me why I had changed the air filter back to a standard element. This caused a bit of a surprise as I was unaware the filter element had been changed since I fitted it. So a bit of head scratching and asking questions at last place it had work done. I eventually surmised that last year it was taken in to the main dealers for a bonnet catch that had been missed on the recalls that were done on the Clios. It would appear that while they had the bonnet open they decided to do their checks to see if they could generate any more spending on the car and discovered the performance filter and swapped it for a Renault one in the hope I wouldn't notice.
Trouble is how the f**k do I prove it? I'm bloody pissed off about it. I paid good money for the filter from Demon Tweeks.

 

[RDH]

Suppose there isn't anything you can do to prove they removed. I'd just forget about it and move on as you will waste alot of time an get nowhere.

 

[Tony Hunter]

If you cleaned and oiled it regularly, you may have noticed a little sooner.

But as said, nout you can do.

 

[Russ_16v]

You can't prove it unfortunately mate, so I very much doubt they can do anything.

 

[yeecup]

f**k all

 

[mark smith87]

Yes I know there's nothing I can do about it. Just annoyed that it happened. The car gets serviced whenever it's needed so no scrimping on that side of it. I'll wait now til it needs an air filter and buy another long life element. Make do with what's there for now. It still goes like stink anyway.

 

[jamesv6]

Just goes to show how little a difference a k&n makes if you hadn't noticed.

 

[Russ_16v]

The main advantage to performance elements are they don't technically need replacing, so in thory if you keep your car for for a very long time it should save you a bit of money, but imo for how cheap the standard element is, i just stick to replacing them every 10k or so - you would need to keep a car for a very long time to see any benefit (40 or 50k+ imo)

 

[Tony Hunter]

Just goes to show how little a difference a k&n makes if you hadn't noticed.

They actually don't.