$3,150 bill for Xsara 60K service

[mistareno]

Yeah, but your talking back when they used metal instead of playdough for brake rotors.

If you look into just about every small car out there (including the 206/307) I'm sure you'll come up with exactly the same stuff as listed here (that doesn't mean I agree with it .... That amount he's listed there is as much as I've paid on maitenance the BX, Xantia and CX GTi turbo combined over the last 5years and couple of hundred thousand km's).

I could just about replace/rebuild every moving/wearing part on my car for that amount of money

Complete Engine Rebuild - $800
Gearbox Rebulid - $700
New Bushes throughout - $100
New Balljoints and Tie Rod ends - $120
New Belts and Tensioners - $200
New Altenator - $200
New Water Pump - $120
New Fuel Pump - $50
New Wheel Bearings - $100
New Pads/Shoes and Rotors - $300
Reco Power steering Rack - $300
Reco P/S pump - $200

$3190....

I know labour adds up, but my god...

I think I've unswered my Fuego dilemma question...

 

[Brett R]

Thanks for the info about the Ro80 Haakon. I had read that a lot of the accepted engine failures were simply fouled plugs, unfortunately as I also recall, NSU dealers warranty claim procedure frequently consisted of replacing the "defective" powerplant with a new unit. By the time the true extent of the fault had been picked up and corrected, the financial damage to the company had already been done.

Apparently NSU put a lot of test miles on the donks before their release, flogging them mercilessly at high speed without major problems, but the early engines had rotor tip seals that didn't like stop/start use and would wear very quickly. Also, being such a smooth running motor, many owners deliberately or inadvertently overevved them, causing further failures.

For all that it's a car I wouldn't be ashamed to own from an interesting marque. As an aside they made some pretty interesting motorcycles to boot. It's great to hear that your Dad's so pleased with his; history is often unkind to cars that are ahead of their time isn't it. I'll let the thread get back on topic now!

Cheers,
Brett

 

[chris]

Guys, the deal with brake disks wearing so fast now is that asbestos is no longer used in the pads (can we all say "good!"). Unfortunately this makes it hard to make a really soft pad, so the rotors are made softer to compensate, and have a reduced life expectancy.

Cop a set of modern-style pads in a car designed for the old, softer ones and you will know all about it... vibration instead of stopping power as you head for the back of someone's new Merc

Chris

 

[Trixie]

Same old, same old. Of course you can replace large parts of your car for $3000 dollars, all you need are

a) skills
b) time
c) experience

If you bodge it (can I write that , oh well, back to the toolbox and its your own problem. No insurance issues. Oh, and no sick leave, Workers' Compensation etc etc to worry about.

Look I'm not saying that $100 per hour plus the markup on parts is cheap, and there are certainly some suspect things about that invoice, but there is always going to be a big difference in cost between reconditioning your own car in your own time and having somebody do it for you, on the day with new parts and a warranty.

More things - our dishwasher hose was replaced by a roving technician - took him 10 minutes and the hose was a $20 part. The cost? $195. But the part was not availible easily; only the service people had them. Then there is the roofer we had who tried to charge $800 for two hour's work and 4 tubes of silicon sealant. No invoice, nothing. Or the plumber who tried to charge $1500 for laying 7 metres of copper pipe with 5 joints and a tap. In a hole that our builders had already dug.

 

[Uga Boga]

Shane, ever thought about dumping IT and becoming a Citroen technician or "specialist"? There seems to be way more money in that market these days, then I.T... $100 per hour + highly inflated cost for parts etc...

 

[GRAHAM WALLIS]

Guys, the deal with brake disks wearing so fast now is that asbestos is no longer used in the pads (can we all say "good!"). Unfortunately this makes it hard to make a really soft pad, so the rotors are made softer to compensate, and have a reduced life expectancy.

Cop a set of modern-style pads in a car designed for the old, softer ones and you will know all about it... vibration instead of stopping power as you head for the back of someone's new Merc

Chris

I drive an old style car and use asbestos free modern pads, the only ones available, and they work great, end of argument.
Graham

 

[mistareno]

I drive an old style car and use asbestos free modern pads, the only ones available, and they work great, end of argument.
Graham

Must say, I've had asbestos free pads in the Fuego for years and had no issues.

I think the bigger problem is the massive weight increase in vehicles...

In 1970 a Renault 12 weighed barely 900kg...

These days 1200+kg is the norm for small/medium cars...

Obviously alot of that weight is designed at reducing injuries in accidents but it also means extra fuel to accelerate the vehicle and extra brake wear and heat to decelrate...

I think vehicles with Auto boxes just compound the issues as they have no engine braking and those with manual boxes don't use them to slow the vehicle as much as drivers used to....

 

[Stuey]

...but the next time they had little signs set up saying that form now on all Alfas at that dealership would be fitted with "Racing" Oil - and duly charged $115! Tony.

That's interesting, because a lot of racing oils have no additives because it's expected that it'll be changed every race, and the engine will be rebuilt regularly. No good for a 15,000km change interval!

Graham W, if you ever need to change the front pads of the Astra, give me a hoy and I'll tell you how to remove them. There's a bit of a trick to these, as well...they're attached to the pistons.

Cheers

Stuey

 

[smiffy1071]

I just bought an entire set of discs, and pads for my CX, (front+rear) and it came to AU$240, including shipping. So what you paid, sounds very expensive! john s

 

[sdabel]

I just looked at andyspares and they have the Brembo Max rotors for 68 pound a set of fronts anyone interested in a group buy, we might get a freight discount.

Cheers

I bought front rotors from GSF, they would only send them via express freight (3-4 days) and it cost lots . However it was still way cheaper than what the local places were charging.

Best option would be to have a friend in the UK who would send them surface mail for you.

regards
sean

 

[pips]

With all this talk about Xantia's having to just about replace rotors at every pad change, wouldn't you try and source after market parts?

(and I am unfamiliar with the cars, just started to research them, as I'll possibly be getting rid of the 405 Mi16 and getting a Xantia)

pips

 

[DoubleChevron]

With all this talk about Xantia's having to just about replace rotors at every pad change, wouldn't you try and source after market parts?

(and I am unfamiliar with the cars, just started to research them, as I'll possibly be getting rid of the 405 Mi16 and getting a Xantia)

pips

The Xantias brakes don't wear any more poorly than any other modern car. You can get a set of new front rotors for about 15-20quid on ebay.... Shipping would be multiples of the purchase price :disappr:

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[Trixie]

The Xantias brakes don't wear any more poorly than any other modern car. You can get a set of new front rotors for about 15-20quid on ebay.... Shipping would be multiples of the purchase price :disappr:

seeya,
Shane L.

Our last set of front rotors were around $120, which I thought was pretty reasonable. Cost less than the pads! Ours seems harder on front pads (20-25 vs 60-65K) than our Subarus, and about the same on rears (80K)

 

[Shobbz]

That's nothing, my wife was charged $550 just for pads all round on her Astra. If I had known this cost I would have invested in a work shop manual (couldn't work out how to pull the pads out). All it needed was rear pads, the fronts were only half worn.
Luckily the only thing to fail in 5 years was the coil pack and this was replaced for free.
Graham

We were quoted $550 for the astra service manual on cd!!!!!!

not going to hapen for that price.

3 Years on, no rotor or brake troubles, manual though.

shobbz

 

[Stuey]

Shobbz, there's a Haynes manual you can download on PDF. If you do a search on Vauxhall Astra, it comes up as 'Astra G' hosted on Tripod (which is what the UK version was called up until about 2000). Although it wouldn't cover everything, it's got to be useful. I haven't done it as I'm on dial up.

The front pads last about 60,000km; rotors at this stage need a skim but can go another round, at least on ours. Next week I'm doing the cam belt, which I've just bought.

Stuey

 

[Alan S]

We were quoted $550 for the astra service manual on cd!!!!!!

not going to hapen for that price.

3 Years on, no rotor or brake troubles, manual though.

shobbz

I'm sure one of the eBay pirates will do you one for anything from $8 - $15.
I got ripped with one for $14.95 who advertises like it's a genuine French Manual that has been produced in English only to find I've bought a pirated Haynes but this character puts his logo in the front and reckons he'll sue for copyright breach anybody found making a copy with his logo on it........hide of a bloody rhino!!


Alan S

 

[Stuey]

Oh, I should say, I got a Vauxhall 'CIS' CD service manual off eBay, but I couldn't get it to work. From memory, it needed to be updated with something online, and you needed a password or code number or something to do this. A right waste of time and money. Mind you, the seller was dodgy - I think some would sell the same that was sorted so it'd work. Just ask some questions beforehand about setup instructions.

Stuey

 

[RickVTR]

Juan,

Your bill looks oddly familiar and to my opinion unjustifiable.
I can't believe they can charge us such prices...
But the fact is we have no choice but to pay them...
Its strange because in UK, the xsara is one of the cheapest car to service and run, but in Australia (atleast from my experience) this is completely opposite.

 

[graham66]

Its strange because in UK, the xsara is one of the cheapest car to service and run, but in Australia (atleast from my experience) this is completely opposite.

Because in the UK Citroen is nothing fancy, whereas over here they're "exotic", and "weird", and "different"...

- hence the :bs: prices....

And of course only "specialists" can service and fix them too (cough cough)

 

[vtspaddy]

It's just amazing how my 2001 Xsara burns holes in my pocket. At a mere 60 K and I had to pay $3,150 for service. Aside from the usual oil change, I've got so many issues that I've never experienced with my previous 3 jap cars. Is your auto tranny slipping and goes to limp mode? Slight coolant leak? Noisy rotors? Front end rumble? Be ready to pay big bucks! All these were rectified to the cost of my next family holiday. My Xsara was never thrashed, it's a family car driven by a mature owner, maybe it's just bad luck but my next car is the Lancer 2.4 MIVEC with sports suspension on a 5-10 year WARRANTY.

hey juan your just unlucky. i drive my asara hard. i have 110k mls on the clock and no problems