Would you expect a garage to warn/tell you of an upcoming service?

DoubleCheese

DoubleCheese

DoubleCheese

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I've got a Ford Focus 1.6TDCi with the DPF. Naively, I bought the car thinking it would give me many tens of thousands of trouble free motoring. It went to a local garage each year for MOT and service according to the schedule.
Bought it with about 52k Miles on the clock. At 72k the Engine Management light came on. Local garage couldn't decipher it 100% it with his diagnostics, but was on the money with is hunch, so directed me to the Ford Garage round the corner. EOLYS fluid needed topping up. Done, £125.

At 82k I went in to the Ford garage again, for a DPF fault. They replaced the vacuum hose and reset the faults. £300 odd.

At 86k car dies again, clogged DPF filter diagnosed, needs a replacement, £1250!

Considering all this, would you have expected the garage to mention something at the EOLYS topup that the DPF needs changing at 75k Miles, would you like us to do it now as well? OR just a courtesy, its coming up, be aware conversation?

At 82k when it went in for the DPF hose, would you expect them to say, its the hose, but you're well over the recommended DPF replacement schedule. You should really consider doing it soon...?

Or am I expecting too much from a Ford main dealer?
 
And you'd have said 'Go for it guys, thanks for letting me know!' when they said 'Your DPF needs replacing even though it currently works fine, that'll be £1250?'.

Yea, sure.

Beats me why people still think cars like this are worth the bother - how much petrol for a 1.6 petrol could you have bought with the £1250 DPF replacement bill...
 
Yes expecting too much IMHO.

You should be aware of the cars service schedule and when you need to book it in for things, how come you didn't book it in to be done at 75k?
 
Did you buy your car from the Ford main dealer?

Edit: the DPF isn't a routinely replaced item and would only need to be replaced if it became faulty, you can take measures to ensure the longevity of your DPF.
 
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Cut the dpf out of the equation. 300 quid remap is far less than a 1250 dpf replacement that will break again.

No, I wouldn't expect ford to tell you - all the information you need to make those kinds of decisions should come with the car
 
Firestar_3x said:
Ever since people started buying the wrong engine for the sort of driving they do.
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Yes, i'm well aware they break relatively often and more so when you're doing numerous short trips, that's not what I was getting at as i'm sure you well know.

The DPF is not listed as a 75,000 mile replacement item in the service schedule, like with fuel and air filter replacements is it?
 
Exactly, so the entire point of "would you have expected the garage to mention something at the EOLYS topup that the DPF needs changing at 75k Miles" is moot because DPFs don't 'need changing' at 75,000 miles and there is no such mention in the service schedule, they just need replacing sooner than expected if they are mistreated.

So no, I wouldn't expect the dealer to mention a scheduled service item that isn't in fact a scheduled service item at all.
 
I thought their was a replacement recommended in the service book for the dpf at 75k on the 1.6 TDCI Focus.

In answer to the OPs question though, no I wouldn't expect to be reminded about it. If it is a replacement item there is only so many times you can be told to go forth and multiply by people when you point out that their car has a £1250 service item until you stop bothering!

Either way you got an extra 11k out of it so I wouldn't complain!
 
DoubleCheese said:
I've got a Ford Focus 1.6TDCi with the DPF. Naively, I bought the car thinking it would give me many tens of thousands of trouble free motoring. It went to a local garage each year for MOT and service according to the schedule.
Bought it with about 52k Miles on the clock. At 72k the Engine Management light came on. Local garage couldn't decipher it 100% it with his diagnostics, but was on the money with is hunch, so directed me to the Ford Garage round the corner. EOLYS fluid needed topping up. Done, £125.

At 82k I went in to the Ford garage again, for a DPF fault. They replaced the vacuum hose and reset the faults. £300 odd.

At 86k car dies again, clogged DPF filter diagnosed, needs a replacement, £1250!

Considering all this, would you have expected the garage to mention something at the EOLYS topup that the DPF needs changing at 75k Miles, would you like us to do it now as well? OR just a courtesy, its coming up, be aware conversation?

At 82k when it went in for the DPF hose, would you expect them to say, its the hose, but you're well over the recommended DPF replacement schedule. You should really consider doing it soon...?

Or am I expecting too much from a Ford main dealer?
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When did you actually buy the car?

If it was recently then the DPF probably shouldn't have failed. However, I'm betting that you've probably owned it around 18 months to 24 months, and you really don't do the longer, hotter journeys that a DPF really needs.
 
I don't expect my garage to advise me of anything, that said, they send me MOT reminders and annual service reminders ,sometimes these arrive after I've had it serviced - I assume I'm on a mailing list. :)
 
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Putter around enough and you can 'kill' a DPF in 30,000 miles.

In reality you can often pull a DPF out and clean it out, leaving it soaking overnight in a light solvent and attack it the next day with a air-tap or pressure washer.

The whole system is a utter nightmare and best replaced with a re-programme and straight pipe from day 1 and never worry about it again.
 
lordrobs said:
I thought their was a replacement recommended in the service book for the dpf at 75k on the 1.6 TDCI Focus.
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There is; "Every 75 000 miles - Renew - Duratorq-TDCi with Stage IV Emission only, if applicable (LTS 25 280 1)"

And in response to the OP, between 72k and 82k did you take it in for a service at 75k or it's 6th yearly service? If so it should have been done then by the looks of it, if you didn't take it for a service, then it might be your fault really.
 
given that the "uk average annual mileage" is c.12k you would get 6 years of "cheap tax" before having to replace the dpf (if it doesnt fail before then)
 
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