Help Needed on Coolant.....

[Striker73]

Hi there chaps well i have just forked out £411 quid on off road tyres and spacers, AND...well today i had my truck have it's annual full service,CV inner gaiters x2 and a outer gaiter replaced and fitted,tyres fitted,spacers fitted oh and wheels aligned OK that all came to a grand total of £446 by my trusted garage!..i have not yet recovered..... So thats a total of £857.........i have always wanted to know is my garage ripping me off for the above jobs for £446 ignore the tyre and spacer cost.

The only other concern i have is it says on my service report sheet that my coolant is sat at a protection temp of -7C is that OK (I'm in Long Eaton area Nottinghamshire)? Or do i need to change the coolant to get it to -40 or something as i don't think it gets done in the service, i have a full ready Toyota's own red mix can of coolant in the garage never been opened, so if it is -7C do i need to change it and if so how do i do it myself or is it best a garage do it for me?.....

Thanks guys hope you can offer any advice or help because today i needed it, my truck is sat there looking all guilty that she has had that spent on her i love her to bits though i have had her for 5 years now and had full services every year and after collecting her this afternoon she runs like a dream even better than she has been doing it's a 3.0 ssrx........THANKS People!

[TonyN]

did you not ask for a quote to fit all the other stuff on top of the service? just giving a garage a list of jobs to do on top then give you the bill is asking for trouble.

how do they breakdown the coosts?

seems steep, but if they spent hours stuck on something with no quote to stick to, you'll just get charged for however long the mech spent doing it.

personally, I call people if there is unexpected hassles, or just suck it up and stick to the quote, but most normal places won't

[Striker73]

did you not ask for a quote to fit all the other stuff on top of the service? just giving a garage a list of jobs to do on top then give you the bill is asking for trouble.

how do they breakdown the coosts?

seems steep, but if they spent hours stuck on something with no quote to stick to, you'll just get charged for however long the mech spent doing it.

personally, I call people if there is unexpected hassles, or just suck it up and stick to the quote, but most normal places won't

mmmmmm........well yes i was quoted around £250 originally excluding vat i think..but they said sorry for mis quotin me as i needed the 2 gaiters doing they put it down as me needing just one that is what they said, it was them about 6 months ago that said i need the 2 gaiters..they forgot obviously!!...here is the bill break down...

Full Service £145.00.......
2 new front CV gaiters outer fitted £58
fitted 4 new tyres fitted £45
Tracking £25
1 New Inner CV gaiter 12.80
Labour £90.00

Sub total £378.80
VAT @17.5% £65.76
TOTAL £441.56
(OH they also fitted my spacers for me obviously with the wheels and inclued that in the price) Hope that helps, and thanks for the reply.
I'm going to be eating bread and jam next week

[TonyN]

see when its all listed it adds up quickly, 2 hours isn't overly excessive to pull both driveshafts and all the CV gaiters and fit spacers (although front wheels are already off to change CV's, so only back wheels, and I'd do that for goodwill) and they'd be fair in charging to fit tyres if you brought them elsewhere.

As someone pointed out the other day, £40-45 per hour isn't excessive for some garages these days, so that only gives you 2-3 hours to do all the above.

[Striker73]

Thanks Tony so i suppose it is about right realy mate.......hey just another thing i mentioned about my coolant has been tested and it's -7C will that be ok or should i change the fluid and replace as i have a full bottle of toyota ready mixed red (Which is what is in mine the red) is -7C low enough should i have it at -40 or something?

Thanks

[TonyN]

Ideally you'd want a little more -20 would be safe. But any is better than nothing. I'd use it a an excuse to flush it out and renew it if you like.

But seeing as its survived the cold we had just after xmas, its up to you. Maybe just drain a liter of water out and top it up with a liter of coolant if your busy but worried and want to be safe.

[Striker73]

Thanks Tony, yes i think it definitely could do with a flush,...have you the time to tell me how to do this I'm not a mechanic or anything, i have looked on google, but all i have found is how to do it for ordinary cars,..thanks again mate.

[boingboing]

Hi, not sure what year your truck is but I've recently done the coolant in my KZN185 (1996 N reg).

I took the bottom plate off, whipped out the rad drain plug located just below the bottom hose, flushed the rad with clean water then put the plug back in and refilled from the rad. Fill the expansion tank to the cold fill mark before running at 2000rpm for 10mins with heater on hot and fan on full. Then top expansion tank up to hot mark but obviously don't take the top off the rad.

The next day I checked to see if any air had made its way to the top of the rad after the refill just for peace of mind so I knew there wasn't any air in there but my truck has been tickity boo since. I was doing mine because the thermostat had gone and my truck was running cold.

There is a drain for the engine block on the passenger side of the engine block but I didn't pull this and still managed to get approximately 7 and a half litres of fluid out from the rad drain alone. Full capacity is 10.1 litres but you won't manage to drain the block completely unless you use a straw.

Make sure you have enough coolant before you do it, I didn't realise the toyota stuff was ready mixed so was short and didn't have a vehicle to get any more! Lesson learnt, enough said!

Don't forget to put your bottom plate back on...

Hope that helps.