[whinge]

Just got my 2006 Ranger back from the 60k service. Total bill was 8,233 Baht (Ford dealership on Chaeng Wattana).

Now there's no way I could get anywhere near a service for 160 Quid in the UK so I'm not complaining about the overall cost.

But the single most expensive item on the bill was the air filter at a whole 2,100 Baht, at around 40 quid that pretty darn near UK prices. I did reject the offer to have it 'cleaned' as we had that done last time.

So, why so expensive? It's not like it's a special item.

[/whinge]

Because they can... TIT

If you're changing oil and oil filter every 10,000km, then air filters aren't a great cost because you change them less often. K&N are the best and expensive as they're imported, but even the Ford filters will last 40,000+km with cleaning every 10k km.

I'm guessing you got ripped off, I have a Dmax, filter for that from the dealer is about 400 baht or so. Mom n Pop shop further up the road its 250baht for the Chinese copy or 300 for the Isuzu one (well its in an Isuzu box at least).

I doubt theres anything more special about the ford filter to make it worthy of that price tag you got.

You definately got ripped off. Paper air filters, even factory filters, should cost less than 1000 baht, more like 300-400 as previously stated. Take the bill back and clarify the type put in, why was it so expense, typo? etc etc.

Part installed is 'genuine' Ford WAC200ML, I have the box and old filter.

Like I said in my OP, I'm not complaining at the overall cost (although will be looking at a pattern or K&N filter now the beast is out of warranty), just that this one bit is so crazy expensive.

IIRC the air filter for my old Beemer was also a madly expensive item compared with the other service parts.

Trans, you got a source for K&N units in BKK? Be needing one in about 10,000km time

K&N are imported by Worldtech, on Chalermprakiat road in Pravet, south of Bangkok towards the airport. You can find them on the K&N website. I've used one drop-in type K&N filter and found re-oiling them tricky as I put too much on even using the Recharge kit. I would suggest checking on the K&N website to see which type you need and then buying one from ebay.com or similar. These things are always cheaper in the US - the most extreme example of this I've found so far is a Mazda CX-7: THB3.6M in Thailand and just THB800,000 Stateside.

Having written all this, I still think the guy did the right thing getting an official filter, if the car's under warranty, and although some cars have filters which drop in, I don't know about the Ranger, but some car's filters are sealed and can only be serviced by qualified mechanics.