Jump to content

Servicing Yetis


K100RS

Recommended Posts

My wife's Skoda has just come up to 40,000 miles and three years passed last May so phoned the local Skoda Dealer in Norwich for oil, oil filter change which cost last time £89.20 but this time they came up with the minor service of £139.00 which includes the oil and filter.

 

As the Yeti 110 is now over three years and informed the guarantee has run out I have decided to do the servicing myself as an oil filter is £5.80 for Mahle and fully synthetic oil £43.00 for 5 litres.

When I check the brakes the wheels come off and the pads cleaned plus the sliding bolts are greased which I do not think comes with their minor service. A quick look and a tick in the box.

 

I went down to the service dept and was greeted by a rather cold and unfriendly lady who would not give a quote until I gave my address, car, year, regd, previous service and waited for some 15 minutes just for the cost of an oil change? I had the same lack of a friendly welcome when I last visited the dealer with the same lady. As a service engineer with some thirty years of experience I would have expected much better.

 

Having said that the actual mechanics in the service bay were always helpful and very knowledgeable about Skoda cars. Full marks to the lads round the back doing the work. So I think we will probably give the Skoda dealer a miss for future work. Little hint for the service desk walk into Harley Davidson and see how they treat their customers.

 

Our Skoda 110 now returns 54 mpg consistently and we have had no break downs apart from road chips jamming between the front callipers and my wife is on her third windscreen? It looks like the Skoda will be added to my servicing of motorbikes and my reliable Combo van. Love the place the oil filter is in for a quick replacement and the 11 screws to take off before you have access to the sump bolt.

 

Great little car and when the time comes we will definitely purchase another Yeti as it is extremely comfortable for my 6ft 1 inch frame and very well put together including the welds. Changed the standard H4 bulbs for Osram Night Breaker Plus ones which did give a big improvement but the H7 single filament Night Breakers on my van gave very little increase in coverage.

 

 

FlyingBrick

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Silver 1011

 

Did check the oil for VW 507.00 and purchased 5 Litres of Comma Profile 5W - 30 for a good price compared to some other oils on sale.

Sump bolt torqued to 30nm and oil filter top at 25nm job done.

Thanks for the advice on oil.

 

K100RS

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Little hint for the service desk walk into Harley Davidson and see how they treat their customers.

 

You pretty much have to be nice to your customers if you want them to continue buying overpriced status symbols from you...

 

;)

 

(With a user name like K100RS, I thought you'd be more in to proper motorcycles.)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did check the oil for VW 507.00 and purchased 5 Litres of Comma Profile 5W - 30 for a good price compared to some other oils on sale.

 

Hope you don't mind me making an observation here.  Firstly, I assume you meant Comma Prolife 5W-30?

 

Next, since I work in this area, I took a curious glance at their product data sheet.  Alarm bells started ringing when I saw the phrase "Recommended by Comma for applications requiring...", followed by a list of specifications (including VW 504 00/507 00).  That phrase is often used when an oil does not actually hold the certification for a specification, but the manufacturer believes it meets the requirements.  Sadly, this means that you have to take their word for it.  Strictly speaking, they should not be using OEM specifications on their labels and data sheets without having the appropriate letter of approval in-hand.

 

Now, VW don't publish a list of approved oils, but Mercedes-Benz do.  So I took a look at the 229.51 list and found no Comma oils listed at all.  This means they don't hold a letter of approval from Daimler AG to make that 229.51 approval claim.  My cynical assumption is that they don't hold the VW, BMW or Porsche approvals either.  This does not necessarily mean that the oils are incapable of being officially approved, but the fact they are not leaves some ambiguity.

 

Since you are out of warranty, the effects of this are largely academic, although should you seek any kind of future "good-will" settlement from Skoda, you might find a firm "no" is the answer.  I'm sure Comma will assure you of the quality and integrity of their products (and I have no reason to doubt that), but I will always make sure whatever oil I use has been through the wringer properly and officially.

 

What you do with this information is your call, but hopefully I have opened a few eyes and thrown some light on the subject such that you and others may make more informed decisions in the future.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Weasley

 

Now that is some well collated information for me to think about. Many years ago I used to work as a technician for Burmah Oil  testing their Castrol oils and used to always put in Castrol GTX for my motorbikes as I knew the quality coming from that company. Was a little bit worried what was said on the label as you pointed out and deciding whether to use Halfords brand or Comma Prolife 5W - 30 unfortunately Comma won as I got a big discount on their oil. Could have been the reason?

 

Will probably change it for an approved oil with the approved specs, interesting to hear from Comma Oils about their label Weasley. Had been thinking of bulk buying if only I could use an oil that will suit my Combo diesel van, Yeti 110, BMW K100RS and a BMW R12000RT life would be great. As it is I have cans of different oils blocking up the garage.

 

Thanks again for bringing up labelling that can fool the customer into a false purchase. Well done.

 

 

 

K100RS

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many years ago I used to work as a technician for Burmah Oil  testing their Castrol oils...

Berkshire..?

 

...and deciding whether to use Halfords brand or Comma Prolife 5W - 30...

There's a good chance it's the same oil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi ejstubbs

 

It depends on what you use your bikes for?

My K100RS does 800 miles a week to get to Cambridge and back through winter and summer. It is reliable costs me very little to maintain and can be pulled apart quickly if ever needed.  Does your bike run smoothly with over 75,000 miles on the clock? Have owned many Japanese bikes and raced a Yamaha but for long term use my 1986 bike runs sweet as a nut and does not need to balance up four carbs every month with my vacuum gauges.

Yes when I travel up North along the A1 the odd Japanese café racer comes racing  bye but after 50 - 100 miles I pass him while he stops at the café or to re fuel. Everybody to their own is what I say.

 

 

Yes an old K!00RS  (it does the job)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife's Skoda has just come up to 40,000 miles and three years passed last May so phoned the local Skoda Dealer in Norwich for oil, oil filter change which cost last time £89.20 but this time they came up with the minor service of £139.00 which includes the oil and filter.

 

As the Yeti 110 is now over three years and informed the guarantee has run out I have decided to do the servicing myself as an oil filter is £5.80 for Mahle and fully synthetic oil £43.00 for 5 litres.

When I check the brakes the wheels come off and the pads cleaned plus the sliding bolts are greased which I do not think comes with their minor service. A quick look and a tick in the box.

 

I went down to the service dept and was greeted by a rather cold and unfriendly lady who would not give a quote until I gave my address, car, year, regd, previous service and waited for some 15 minutes just for the cost of an oil change? I had the same lack of a friendly welcome when I last visited the dealer with the same lady. As a service engineer with some thirty years of experience I would have expected much better.

 

Having said that the actual mechanics in the service bay were always helpful and very knowledgeable about Skoda cars. Full marks to the lads round the back doing the work. So I think we will probably give the Skoda dealer a miss for future work. Little hint for the service desk walk into Harley Davidson and see how they treat their customers.

 

Our Skoda 110 now returns 54 mpg consistently and we have had no break downs apart from road chips jamming between the front callipers and my wife is on her third windscreen? It looks like the Skoda will be added to my servicing of motorbikes and my reliable Combo van. Love the place the oil filter is in for a quick replacement and the 11 screws to take off before you have access to the sump bolt.

 

Great little car and when the time comes we will definitely purchase another Yeti as it is extremely comfortable for my 6ft 1 inch frame and very well put together including the welds. Changed the standard H4 bulbs for Osram Night Breaker Plus ones which did give a big improvement but the H7 single filament Night Breakers on my van gave very little increase in coverage.

 

 

FlyingBrick

I think I know the dealer in Norwich.It is our supplying dealer.  Our Yeti has just had a 40000mile service, MOT and brake fluid change.  i supplied my own oil.  Cost for all the before mentioned was £149 including VAt.  The service itself was £67 inclusive. I did shop around and I was quoted £139 and £167 by two other dealers respectively both with me supplying my own oil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just a small point re the Comma oil.

 

I toured the Comma oil company some years ago & as I had dealt with loads of oil companies before was well amused by the fact they (Comma oil) filled bottles of their oils into other manufacturers cans/bottles.

So, one minuet comma oils come off filling line to be followed by vag bottles filled with the same spec oils. Then followed by Unipart etc etc.

So don't get hung up on Must have....

 

As long as the Spec is the same you will be ok.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Comma don't make VAG branded oils (ie VW or Quantum). If they did there is no way they would be aloud to get away with making VW claims without having their approval.

The point of approvals is to offer assurance that the oil in the bottle is approved by the manufacturer in question. By leaving that decision to the oil manufacturer, there is no assurance at all (other than what the oil manufacturer offers). If you are in warranty then using a non-approved oil can void this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They do actually:

1. 504/507;

2. 502/505.

Well blow me, so they do (although it looks like this is a log-in system designed for servicing professionals).

Look who's oils are missing from the lists (as predicted)...

Edited by weasley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Comma don't make VAG branded oils (ie VW or Quantum). 

 

Actually they do. I for one saw the plastic bottlers (quantum) all lined up for filling.

They then on the same assembly/filling line start the next batch of oils, this was for Unipart. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually they do. I for one saw the plastic bottlers (quantum) all lined up for filling.

They then on the same assembly/filling line start the next batch of oils, this was for Unipart. 

Not according to the CURRENT list linked to.

 

How many years ago did you see it, as you state "some years ago"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually they do. I for one saw the plastic bottlers (quantum) all lined up for filling.

They then on the same assembly/filling line start the next batch of oils, this was for Unipart.

Actually, they really don't. Like I said VW would not allow them to supply their in-house oil without having a fully paid-up approval on their after-market oils. Edited by weasley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How much does it cost to get approval? Hmmmm

And another matter......

Got under the car last week to try and find what was causing a chafing noise and found that the tech who did the first service back in August hadn't bothered to put back the peripheral torx screws of the under tray which I thought a bit lazy/casual/cheeky/presumptive.

Are yours still there?

Would you expect them to be still there?

Would you complain?

Or

Do/Would you do the same?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Costs of approval vary. The costs of doing the formulation development and running the tests to get the data necessary to get an approvable product run into millions. The costs of then going through the process of applying for the approval are a few grand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Community Partner

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to BRISKODA. Please note the following important links Terms of Use. We have a comprehensive Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.