Mitsu South Patts Today

[Litlos]

Ok time for the six monthly oil change etc.  Was going to go to B Quick, but the brakes were a bit soggy so head off to Mistu near the Ambassador in South Patts as the nearest dealer.

 

Knowing the hassles dealing with the service people I have a service sheet which I print out and tick the boxes.  Also get the wife to write in brakes soft and replace wiper blades.

 

So we get there and go through the usual you want this as well, and what about this etc.  No this is the list, ok will do.  Get back a couple of hours later and all ready, bill a but high, but the wife wants to do something else, plus they asked for the cash, then showed me the detail, my bad at this point.  So I head of down the road, then get on a back road to home and wind it up to 80kmh, then noticing a slight surge, look in the mirror and the surge is synchronised with the puffs of black smoke out the back, bugger.  So I pull over and the wife gets on the phone that we are coming back, I check the MAP sensor as this will do this, nothing definite but maybe loose connector.  Then have a close look at the bill as the wife wants to head for home, then low lifes have used the highest price oil available, the fully synthetic, or billed me for it anyway, certainly not what was requested.  So heading back to the dealership and the puffs of black smoke have disappeared, so was a loose MAP sensor connection possibly.  Then a songtaew pulls out in front of me and I hit the brakes and nearly hit the floor,  brakes have gone from soggy to barely there, starting to get a little bit annoyed about now.

 

So back in the dealership and they check the MAP sensor, but seems OK now, possibly because I fixed it.  Redo the bleed on the brakes and try and gloss over the wrong oil.  So they try and hand the keys back, but I say no the oil is wrong price.  Goes around a bit and the wife doing the translating is getting stressed, she then offers to give me the difference in the price of the oils.  OK so obviously the service advisor and the senior mechanic are putting her under stress, when I ask why she would make that offer she says she has it wrong.  So I take the piece of paper out of the hand of the service advisor that clearly says Semi Synthetic oil and say how did you get it wrong when it is written here, the smiles disappeared of the service advisor and mechanics face, so I suspect they actually speak some English.  A bit more to and fro-ing and they are trying to get back to my wife pays the difference, low lifes.  So I get a bit more annoyed at this point and state wrong oil, wrong price take it out of my car.  Now I sort of have their attention, a few more bits of Thai and when I ask the wife she says cannot do and cannot refund as computer closed, more BS.

 

It runs on for a few more minutes and I say OK get Manager/Boss, looks like I just kicked both of them in the gonads. Hmm OK so do not wish to involve the boss.  Still nothing happening after a few more minutes of Thai discussions going nowhere ie me not going away. So I head to the rear of the vehicle, wife says what are you doing, going to get a spanner to remove the drain plug and drop the oil all over their driveway as should not be in my car.  Once again the kicked in the gonads look.  So they agree to replace the oil and charge the correct price, I would have settled earlier for just a refund on the price difference, but they annoyed my by trying to make my wife look a fault, and the BS about computer closed.  So OK I was a prick and made them lose lots of face and profit.  The difference was 1700B for anyone interested in the finances, but more importantly was shoddy work, trying to blame my wife and also trying to add in premium parts not requested.  Oh and yes I have done this in my home country, except there I had the backing of consumer protection and it cost Mazda $300 where they had been tacking on non authorised extras to my wife's car servicing.

 

When I got home I checked the air filter, not properly installed either, so would have been allowing dust to bypass the filter.

 

So if getting a Mitsu service down the South Patts way, be bloody careful!

 

Cheers

[NanLaew]

Should have gone to B Quick in the first place.

 

How old and what mileage is this motor anyway?

[Litlos]

A

15 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Should have gone to B Quick in the first place.

 

How old and what mileage is this motor anyway?

A bit over 5 years and probably 35,000km.  Still like new really.  The Mitsu dealers in Bangkok were reasonable, this bunch not so.

 

Cheers

[giddyup]

I have used that dealership for my Triton for the last 3 years, have had nothing but great service from them. They didn't do the last scheduled service because they said I hadn't done enough K's to warrant it, but got a free car wash anyway.

[JaseTheBass]

Should've taken it to Toyota. Their cars are deathly dull, but the service is great!

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[Anythingleft?]

Seems the general advice is to avoid the dealers where possible, forum is full of tales of woe dealing with them. Obviously they are not all bad but there does seem to be a regular feed of stories to written
If the vehicle is out of warranty it seems an indulgence to pay their prices but it's everybodies choice

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[Litlos]

8 hours ago, giddyup said:

I have used that dealership for my Triton for the last 3 years, have had nothing but great service from them. They didn't do the last scheduled service because they said I hadn't done enough K's to warrant it, but got a free car wash anyway.

I never have enough Km's on to justify the service on a km basis.  But having seen what a missed oil change can do to an engine I regard a six monthly oil and filter change as cheap insurance, plus they check a few other things whilst there.  The service book generally says six months or x,xxxkm between services, so sorry that  not doing the oil change as not enough Km's sounds like bad advice.  The newer gasoline engines may be longer service intervals I believe.  However mine is a 2.5l diesel and for a basic oil change etc at the dealer is supposed to be about 1800 Baht, not to much really.

 

Cheers

[JaseTheBass]

It does seem that Pattaya and maybe Phulet have the highest concentration of poor dealers. Possibly understandable when one considers local demographics.

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[giddyup]

52 minutes ago, Litlos said:

I never have enough Km's on to justify the service on a km basis.  But having seen what a missed oil change can do to an engine I regard a six monthly oil and filter change as cheap insurance, plus they check a few other things whilst there.  The service book generally says six months or x,xxxkm between services, so sorry that  not doing the oil change as not enough Km's sounds like bad advice.  The newer gasoline engines may be longer service intervals I believe.  However mine is a 2.5l diesel and for a basic oil change etc at the dealer is supposed to be about 1800 Baht, not to much really.

 

Cheers

When I have done less than 2000 klms between services I hardly thinking missing one is doing irreparable damage. They still do all the other checks that they are supposed to, so I have no concerns. After all, they make money from an oil change, so to advise me it's not necessary given the low K's, I believe them.

[Anythingleft?]

Km's or time based is a bit of a scam IMO. Km's yes but timebased no, unless the vehicle has sat for a very, very long time the oil does not deteriorate to that extent.
We evaluate all of our oil changes either on hours or lab analysis for high volume fill/ high cost equipment and it is extremely rare for a sample to come back as bad when it has not been used just through natural deterioration.
Personally I will happily change my oil only once the clocked mileage has been reached


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[KittenKong]

10 hours ago, giddyup said:

have used that dealership for my Triton for the last 3 years, have had nothing but great service from them

 

Same.

 

Never had the slightest problem at that garage, and small problems that occasionally occur between services they just fix for free. My half-yearly service usually costs around 1300B total though it varies slightly depending on which filters they change.

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, Litlos said:

I never have enough Km's on to justify the service on a km basis.  But having seen what a missed oil change can do to an engine I regard a six monthly oil and filter change as cheap insurance, plus they check a few other things whilst there.  The service book generally says six months or x,xxxkm between services, so sorry that  not doing the oil change as not enough Km's sounds like bad advice.

 

I also never get near the full distance between 6-monthly services, and if your vehicle is still under warranty then you have no choice. It has to be done every 6 months at most or you invalidate the warranty.

 

[giddyup]

3 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

I also never get near the full distance between 6-monthly services, and if your vehicle is still under warranty then you have no choice. It has to be done every 6 months at most or you invalidate the warranty.

 

Not if they stamp your book. As I said, they didn't perform one oil change because of the very low K's, but the book still has the stamp. Anyway, in another 4 months the warranty period will be over so it's all irrelevant anyway. I believe you have to credit the service centres with some common sense, they know that performing an oil change, purely for the sake of it is a waste of time and money.

[Litlos]

36 minutes ago, Anythingleft? said:

Km's or time based is a bit of a scam IMO. Km's yes but timebased no, unless the vehicle has sat for a very, very long time the oil does not deteriorate to that extent.
We evaluate all of our oil changes either on hours or lab analysis for high volume fill/ high cost equipment and it is extremely rare for a sample to come back as bad when it has not been used just through natural deterioration.
Personally I will happily change my oil only once the clocked mileage has been reached


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We have large diesel engines at work and do oil analysis on those.  The ones in emergency service eg fire pump and black start generator were coming back every time with oil contamination due to the 1/2 hour weekly run.  We changed the generator to a four hour weekly run and problem solved as the engine had sufficient time running at temperature to clear out the contaminants that got into the oil during startup, the fire pumps we did not want to run those for 4 hours, so  we take the hit and change the oil more regularly, they are only 3508 Cats so not to much oil.  So that tends to show that unless the engine is run for an extended period on load then the contaminants will build up and degrade the oil.  Others will have different opinions but based on my usage cycle I am comfortable that the 6 monthly oil change is correct.

 

But this is getting off subject and I could have had the same negative experience on a 12 month service as well.  Also oil change intervals would have zero effect on not bleeding the brakes correctly, not connecting the plug back to the MAP sensor correctly, not installing the air filter element correctly, using the wrong oil and trying to blame my wife for the error and finally telling lies that "refund can not be given as computer closed".  Just an all round terrible experience.

 

Cheers

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Not if they stamp your book. As I said, they didn't perform one oil change because of the very low K's, but the book still has the stamp. Anyway, in another 4 months the warranty period will be over so it's all irrelevant anyway. I believe you have to credit the service centres with some common sense, they know that performing an oil change, purely for the sake of it is a waste of time and money.

 

Hmm. My service book is quite clear: the full service has to be done every 6 months maximum or the warranty is invalidated. I certainly had no option to not do the oil change.

[giddyup]

2 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

Hmm. My service book is quite clear: the full service has to be done every 6 months maximum or the warranty is invalidated. I certainly had no option to not do the oil change.

As I said, it's a moot point now with only 4 months left on the warranty. I doubt they are going to knock me back if anything should happen within that 4 months, especially as the book shows the service was done.