MoT and service time again.

MoT passed with a minor for a small windscreen chip that's not in the way of the driver's sight line - I assume this is the one on the passenger side that was repaired last year. So that's good - no MoT costs this year.

Service was ok and just standard cost there. But...

I asked them to add a transmission flush as it's on 136k and was last done at about 70k.

I mentioned I thought the front left wheel bearing was worn (the front right was done last year so it seemed natural to assume it was the other one). Sadly, it was the left rear wheel bearing instead. So that's a bit more expensive as it's a more involved job. Add in a new upper hub bush too and that was all a bit more than I'd factored for. Of course, this also means a four wheel alignment had to be done.

Oh, and it needed new rear brake pads. Yeah, kind of expected that, to be fair.

And then the battery needed replacing. This surprised me as it's always around 12.7V when checked via the tow socket after sitting for 24 hours. They agreed but said it was only holding about 250A rather than the 850A it should be. That would be fun in any cold weather in the coming months! So a new battery added to the list.

And before I knew it, my credit card was saying goodbye to over £1800.

Oh, and I've still got to pay for last week's holiday yet. It was lovely in Madeira but I'm now wishing I bought slightly cheaper wine each evening...  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Honestly for all that it seems a reasonable price!

I had a new battery on my A4 recently - £285 inc fitting and programming etc. Then the transmission fluid for that 3 months ago was £220 just the fluid, not the labour. Etc..

Yes but things wear out and like most of us we keep our cars in good order. You simply can’t run these cars on a shoe string. As GB above I think that’s a reasonable amount. I’ve got my MOT a week today, not expecting anything but the ramp of doom will decide on that. 2006 2.7 TDV6 HSE in Cairns Blue.

Oh, I'm not saying the figure isn't OK - it was more the "oh !" the day after we got back from the holiday.

I didn't need to have the transmission fluid done - I chose to do so because I think it's the right thing to do for the vehicle and I do plenty of miles in it so want it to be sorted.

The battery was a bit of a surprise, however, as it's always been up around fully charged because of the miles I drive. Didn't think about the current capacity reducing over time, just kept an eye on the volts. Live and learn.

Putting these little things up on the forum also might help someone when looking at similar situations and wondering if the figures charged are ok. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

I'd have done/sourced the battery myself and probably the rear pads - saved you the price of a bottle of wine!

GunnerBill wrote:

Honestly for all that it seems a reasonable price!

I had a new battery on my A4 recently - £285 inc fitting and programming etc. Then the transmission fluid for that 3 months ago was £220 just the fluid, not the labour. Etc..

Pufftmw wrote:

I'd have done/sourced the battery myself and probably the rear pads - saved you the price of a bottle of wine!

Pufftmw wrote:

GunnerBill wrote:

Honestly for all that it seems a reasonable price!

I had a new battery on my A4 recently - £285 inc fitting and programming etc. Then the transmission fluid for that 3 months ago was £220 just the fluid, not the labour. Etc..

"Programming" a battery?? What is that about?

The only item on my list that was surprising was the rear wheel bearing. The front is a straight forward job and relatively inexpensive. The rear requires the corner being stripped, the hub carrier removed, the bearing pressed out and a new one pressed in. They also replaced the upper hub carrier bush - something that is known to fail so doing that at the time makes sense. The result is a somewhat more expensive wheel bearing than I expected.

Note: I'm not worried about the cost, per se, as I've said from day 1 that you don't drive one of these unless you can afford the costs. Heck, the cost of fuel for 16k miles a year makes the service look cheap!  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed