Thread: $600 for an oil change?

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

This thread reminds me... do our own services on our farm bikes now but send them in for brakes, bushes etc but last year we sent 3 DR200s into town to the local dealer to be serviced and got the call they were ready to pick up a couple days after. Shot into town and picked them up. Came back to the farm and one of the boys was at the dairy shed waiting for his bike so took his off the trailer and away he went. Two minutes later get a call "boss my bike not working" so drove the 1km or so he'd gone to take a look. Bike was seized solid and had no oil in it. Had a look at the other two still on the trailer and same thing. They'd drained the old oil out of them, put new filters in them, and then fucks me what happened after that, must have been lunch time or something. No new oil in any of them. I now don't let suzuki touch any of our bikes, including our Kingquad, if it needs a mechanic it goes to Honda.

That is a serious piss me off. Bit like what the local did to me, it's not event he fact that they make it right it's the fark around and the lost time and the fact you can't trust them any more if you did take something back.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

This thread reminds me... do our own services on our farm bikes now but send them in for brakes, bushes etc but last year we sent 3 DR200s into town to the local dealer to be serviced and got the call they were ready to pick up a couple days after. Shot into town and picked them up. Came back to the farm and one of the boys was at the dairy shed waiting for his bike so took his off the trailer and away he went. Two minutes later get a call "boss my bike not working" so drove the 1km or so he'd gone to take a look. Bike was seized solid and had no oil in it. Had a look at the other two still on the trailer and same thing. They'd drained the old oil out of them, put new filters in them, and then fucks me what happened after that, must have been lunch time or something. No new oil in any of them. I now don't let suzuki touch any of our bikes, including our Kingquad, if it needs a mechanic it goes to Honda.

Thats a shocker fuck up big time.They give you a new bike to replace the seized one.?

They rebuilt it at their cost, but once bitten twice shy

I try and do a lot myself.
The mechanic I go to in Palmerston North really good guy.
Dene Stevenson autos.
Last wof, truck failed on a few things, wheel bearings needed tightening up, some bushes on the leafs and a brake imbalance. So tightened the bearings up, cool no problemo. Replaced the bushes no problemo. Rear brake, I happened to have some wheel cylinders at home, well fuck me couldn't get it off thing was seized on there I fuckin hit it with a dead blow hammer till the cows came home, backed the brakes off, heated the drum, nothing. Took it to Dean for wof and booked in the extra time for brakes. Well he fixed it in one hour. His experience and training he knows that there's two threaded holes in the drum that you can wind a bolt into and push it off the axle if it's seized on. Well I never saw those but he did! Ha so for all that fucking around for me It would have been cheaper just to pay the man from the start and be doing something else. But hey I'm just a builder who rips people off does a better quality job in a quarter of the time a diyer would do it in right so what would I know ����

Gotta value a professional eh, he good guy though he's busy as hell so really doesn't mind hinting smart enough people in the right direction to do small things themselves

I think most trade qualified people rip everyone else off......

Well if you call making a living off your skills because they don't have them..I'm a rip off alright ��

Rip offs generally don't make money unless there is a vast supply of stupid or ignorant people to rip off

Should be in the humour thread, but the subject is oil after all....

He's wrong again, should have said Land Rover (or Ground Rooter to those of us that have experienced the joy...).

Mate had one a few years back, proud as hell of it. Stepped roof Disco, whichever version that was. OK, credit - quite capable off road. Downside - dealer started chasing oil leaks from a very young age, 3rd main seal had the mate asking questions and a little after that he took a sketch in about an oil recovery setup that you could park on with a little pump that sent it back to a reservoir with a tap on it. The dealer was not impressed - but I liked his effort and points for style. I told him to see if they thought it was a labour-saving initiative, just change the filter at service time and keep tipping fresh oil in the top.

He got rid of it soon after, as it was an utter shite of a thing for a guy who was having to park in client's driveways - nothing like leaving your mark all over a brand new concrete driveway.

Originally Posted by SeftonB

I try and do a lot myself.
The mechanic I go to in Palmerston North really good guy.
Dene Stevenson autos.
Last wof, truck failed on a few things, wheel bearings needed tightening up, some bushes on the leafs and a brake imbalance. So tightened the bearings up, cool no problemo. Replaced the bushes no problemo. Rear brake, I happened to have some wheel cylinders at home, well fuck me couldn't get it off thing was seized on there I fuckin hit it with a dead blow hammer till the cows came home, backed the brakes off, heated the drum, nothing. Took it to Dean for wof and booked in the extra time for brakes. Well he fixed it in one hour. His experience and training he knows that there's two threaded holes in the drum that you can wind a bolt into and push it off the axle if it's seized on. Well I never saw those but he did! Ha so for all that fucking around for me It would have been cheaper just to pay the man from the start and be doing something else. But hey I'm just a builder who rips people off does a better quality job in a quarter of the time a diyer would do it in right so what would I know ����

Gotta value a professional eh, he good guy though he's busy as hell so really doesn't mind hinting smart enough people in the right direction to do small things themselves

Haha that in a nutshell is the benefit of a full-time fella who's been there, done it. I can confirm that unless you've had the joy of a rust-stuck drum you won't have been shown that little trick. Some drums only have blind holes, and you can bolt a little stirrup onto the drum to pull it. The ones with through-holes are easier though. Mate of mine has a nifty long pin punch, reaches through from the back and lightly taps the drum and spins and repeats. After a turn or two it usually lets go with a horrendous boom and flies across the room.

Had a stuck from disc on a poxy little Nissan Ramraider (Tiida) once, luckily it was for replacement so it got grabbed with a large 3-jaw puller and smacked the F outta with a 12lb sledgehammer. When that finally let go it disappeared. The 3-jaw was about 15 feet away, the disc sodded off out the door. Brakes and rust hey?

Like any trade u want it done to a standard and then u pay. Ive seen plenty of hone handy man shit in my sparky trade. People like tonsave a buck I get it . But at what expense the family's safety . Remember you are most likely putting your loved one in a car your happy to maybe have a guess at fixing . Oil filters sure easy enough.

The original post was asking about oil changes, simple enough. He’s not asking about replacing the snycro on 3rd gear 😂

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

They rebuilt it at their cost, but once bitten twice shy

And see now, after the death on a 4 wheeler, where the maintenance was done in house, Worksafe heavily fined the farmer and said all maintenance must now be done off site by a qualified person.
So Ryan, check your insurance hahaha

Originally Posted by Maca49

And see now, after the death on a 4 wheeler, where the maintenance was done in house, Worksafe heavily fined the farmer and said all maintenance must now be done off site by a qualified person.
So Ryan, check your insurance hahaha

In that case there was no maintenance done full stop. We have very good records of looking after our gear and services, cleaning and checking etc

Originally Posted by Maca49

And see now, after the death on a 4 wheeler, where the maintenance was done in house, Worksafe heavily fined the farmer and said all maintenance must now be done off site by a qualified person.
So Ryan, check your insurance hahaha

That quad would have the original oil and filter in it Maca
No maintenance at all done

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All maintenance done offsite would have really helped when the dealer's man forgot to put the oil back into the 2-wheeler... That to me is total and utter BS from Worksafe - it shows that their people are not qualified to do the investigation and understand the root causes of the problem. It's not 'all servicing done offsite' that will fix the issue when if that is correct and there was no servicing done at all.

It's similar to what happened in Commercial Marine, anything below a MEC2 got a frowning for touching marine engines for routine servicing purposes when in reality if you are at sea and and an engine comes up at service interval what are you going to do? Steam home for a further 24 hours or so and get the man to do it or pull up and park beside the floating log and wait for the friendly local dolphin to organise the cleaner shrimps to swim up the raw water intake and have a look at it for you? Bah...