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Rav Service


vickk
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Took the RAV for its 2 year service yesterday, all pre paid as it's covered by a service plan. Sat waiting and the receptionist come over and she says my handbrake needs adjusting and did I want to authorise it at a cost of £34.

Surely it's covered as part of the service I said but she was insistant it was an extra charge and also said the engineer recommended the air con filter system cleaning out also at a cost of £84.

Eventually she came back and appologised and said the hand brake adjustment would be done free of charge and I declined the filter clean.

Am I right and is the handbrake adjustment covered by the service and should the air con filter clean be needed on a car with 8000 miles on the clock

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Hand brake adjust is part of a 20k service the cabin filter is not, Toyota advise it checked every service and replaced as required.

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Thank you,

had the cabin filter changed on a previous rav and was charged around 12 quid. not sure what this was for but air con and the words filter were mentioned as was poss bad smells from air con but the charge was significant at 84 quid and was mentioned but not pushed

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Thank you,

had the cabin filter changed on a previous rav and was charged around 12 quid. not sure what this was for but air con and the words filter were mentioned as was poss bad smells from air con but the charge was significant at 84 quid and was mentioned but not pushed

The handbrake adjust should be a service item, I'd have said. the air con clean is one of those dealer scams that come along every now & then (like the brake cleaner one where they used to charge for a can of brake cleaner on every service - even though one can would deal with all the cars through the workshop in two days!).

You can buy a can of Comma air con aerosol disinfectant & fungicide from Halfords for about £12 and do it yourself in 15 minutes on the driveway. All you do is set the air con controls as instructed, set the can on the floor, trigger it and close the door. 10 minutes later it's done and you leave the doors/windows open for a few minutes then to get rid of any remaining gaseous odour. I do it on each of our cars once a year.

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Thank you,

had the cabin filter changed on a previous rav and was charged around 12 quid. not sure what this was for but air con and the words filter were mentioned as was poss bad smells from air con but the charge was significant at 84 quid and was mentioned but not pushed

The handbrake adjust should be a service item, I'd have said. the air con clean is one of those dealer scams that come along every now & then (like the brake cleaner one where they used to charge for a can of brake cleaner on every service - even though one can would deal with all the cars through the workshop in two days!).

You can buy a can of Comma air con aerosol disinfectant & fungicide from Halfords for about £12 and do it yourself in 15 minutes on the driveway. All you do is set the air con controls as instructed, set the can on the floor, trigger it and close the door. 10 minutes later it's done and you leave the doors/windows open for a few minutes then to get rid of any remaining gaseous odour. I do it on each of our cars once a year.

Does that work, Jamesy.....never tried it, and wee bit stink coming from Funnerburd Too periodfully ?

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Thank you,

had the cabin filter changed on a previous rav and was charged around 12 quid. not sure what this was for but air con and the words filter were mentioned as was poss bad smells from air con but the charge was significant at 84 quid and was mentioned but not pushed

The handbrake adjust should be a service item, I'd have said. the air con clean is one of those dealer scams that come along every now & then (like the brake cleaner one where they used to charge for a can of brake cleaner on every service - even though one can would deal with all the cars through the workshop in two days!).

You can buy a can of Comma air con aerosol disinfectant & fungicide from Halfords for about £12 and do it yourself in 15 minutes on the driveway. All you do is set the air con controls as instructed, set the can on the floor, trigger it and close the door. 10 minutes later it's done and you leave the doors/windows open for a few minutes then to get rid of any remaining gaseous odour. I do it on each of our cars once a year.

Does that work, Jamesy.....never tried it, and wee bit stink coming from Funnerburd Too periodfully ?

If this works - and I guess it would if Jim does it every year - then sounds like a good idea. Think I may be getting one of these for the old girl (and the RAV :) )

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You can buy a can of Comma air con aerosol disinfectant & fungicide from Halfords for about £12 and do it yourself in 15 minutes on the driveway.

With respect Jim, that is not an A/C service, and that is not what would be done for £84

As part of a FULL A/C service, the pollen filter is changed, airways disinfected, and the all important A/C system is purged, removing the gas, and refilling, including the correct amount of gas AND lubricating oil

People often refer to changing the pollen filter and shoving a disinfectant wand down the air vents as their own A/C service, but it is only the minor DIY part of the story

A FULL A/C service should be negotiated at around £50, some models have much more expensive pollen filters so the price does vary, as always, negotiate on the price

Kingo :thumbsup:

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Must concur.....had my Avensis fully serviced few years back, and came back smelling sweet and working like a fridge. £45.00 at that time.

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You can buy a can of Comma air con aerosol disinfectant & fungicide from Halfords for about £12 and do it yourself in 15 minutes on the driveway.

With respect Jim, that is not an A/C service, and that is not what would be done for £84

As part of a FULL A/C service, the pollen filter is changed, airways disinfected, and the all important A/C system is purged, removing the gas, and refilling, including the correct amount of gas AND lubricating oil

People often refer to changing the pollen filter and shoving a disinfectant wand down the air vents as their own A/C service, but it is only the minor DIY part of the story

A FULL A/C service should be negotiated at around £50, some models have much more expensive pollen filters so the price does vary, as always, negotiate on the price

Kingo :thumbsup:

Hi Kingo, I'm afraid the old cynic in me has surfaced again on this one. I agreed to this a/c service once upon a time from a Mr.T dealer but I've found since that the can of Comma seems to work well (just as well?). At least I didn't notice any difference between the after effects of that service & the subsequent Comma treatments, e.g cabin freshness, a/c effectiveness, etc.

My main concern is to kill off any nasties like fungus, etc. in the a/c system. However, we run the a/c permanently on both our cars so maybe that's why I don't see a big difference between the dealer job & the can job, i.e. because it runs all the time there is good lubrication by the refrigerant & therefore less liklihood of the seals perishing and gas escaping therby reducing effectiveness of the system.

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Thank you,

had the cabin filter changed on a previous rav and was charged around 12 quid. not sure what this was for but air con and the words filter were mentioned as was poss bad smells from air con but the charge was significant at 84 quid and was mentioned but not pushed

The handbrake adjust should be a service item, I'd have said. the air con clean is one of those dealer scams that come along every now & then (like the brake cleaner one where they used to charge for a can of brake cleaner on every service - even though one can would deal with all the cars through the workshop in two days!).

You can buy a can of Comma air con aerosol disinfectant & fungicide from Halfords for about £12 and do it yourself in 15 minutes on the driveway. All you do is set the air con controls as instructed, set the can on the floor, trigger it and close the door. 10 minutes later it's done and you leave the doors/windows open for a few minutes then to get rid of any remaining gaseous odour. I do it on each of our cars once a year.

Does that work, Jamesy.....never tried it, and wee bit stink coming from Funnerburd Too periodfully ?

Hi BK, I think it does but see my reply to Kingo above. I'm going to carry on with it.

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Hi Kingo, I'm afraid the old cynic in me has surfaced again on this one.

Nothing wrong with a cynic, I can be one myself at times, but I like to keep things correct

The OP was offered an A/C service, and it is often brought up about DIY A/C servicing on forums where incorrect information is given

As I mentioned, the A/C service is more sticking a wand in the air vents. If an A/C system is used constantly like yours, you are less likely to lose gas, HOWEVER, it is a mechanical system under pressure, and it still needs to be maintained, maybe not as often if you use it all the time, but it does need looking after so that the internals are lubricated. You would not run your car for 5 years without changing the oil, neither should you with your A/C. The only proper way to do it is to have the gas vacuumed out (which also draws out the moisture build up) and the correct WEIGHT of gas and oil put back in. DIY cans of gas are a waste of time and can cause more problems than they fix

Modern A/C vacuum equipment is very good and not a lot of labour is required to operate it, however the gas and oil used are very expensive, hence the usual cost of about £50 ish, give or take depending on the pollen filter price

Kingo :thumbsup:

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I will fetch you a kit up BK. I think I pay about £7 all in.

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Thanks for the info Kingo. My Rav has done about 8000 miles and the aircon is always on, my previous Rav I had for three years and one of these services was never offered before.

I think the fact that they tried to charge £34 for handbrake adjustment got my back up and I just suspected they were trying it on.

If I still have my Rav at 3 years I will consider negotiating a price, however I fancy the new Rav and as soon as it's been out long enought to achieve a decent discount on I think I will move for one of them

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I'd say if the Air Con "works" and doesn't smell "off", then leave it alone.

My other car has climate control and has not been touched for ten years. It still works fine and I've not been affected by fungal poisoning (yet!)

Did have to get my old Peugeot re-gassed once, but only because it stopped working properly (couple of years ago- cost about £60 I think)

Dave

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I think there is some confusion here as to what is being discussed

Kingo is describing an A/C system service which deals with any problems with the efficiency of it

I have had mine done and he is (as usual) correct in what is done,ie emptying and weighing the contents etc

So this relates to the,shall we say,the gubbins inside the air-con

Next we have the nasty smells that enter the cabin when the air-con is switched on which is due to a build up of nasties on the outside parts that the air passes over before it gets to you

Also as mentioned these can be combatted by the use of off the shelf remedies.

So you can see that these are two seperate problems and two seperate solutions

Del

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I think there is some confusion here as to what is being discussed

Kingo is describing an A/C system service which deals with any problems with the efficiency of it

I have had mine done and he is (as usual) correct in what is done,ie emptying and weighing the contents etc

So this relates to the,shall we say,the gubbins inside the air-con

Next we have the nasty smells that enter the cabin when the air-con is switched on which is due to a build up of nasties on the outside parts that the air passes over before it gets to you

Also as mentioned these can be combatted by the use of off the shelf remedies.

So you can see that these are two seperate problems and two seperate solutions

Del

:thumbsup:

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I think there is some confusion here as to what is being discussed

Del

Not really Del, the A/C service I describe takes care of the internal gubbins AND the nasty pong you get with bacteria in the evaporator and air vents, a complete service of the whole system if you like

What people sometimes describe as a DIY A/C service will be just changing the pollen filter and de-bugging the vents. I was trying to point out that an £84 A/C service will be a full one, gubbins and all, not just a can of £12 spray up yer vent! :lol:

Sorry for rambling

Kingo :thumbsup:

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