Advice please regarding OPC servicing and warranty

My C4S went in for a major service today (£540) and I was prepared for some other minor jobs to crop up (i.e. suspension parts due to pot holes). So I was surprised when they came up with this list: 1) Wiper blades need changing - £55 2) Air con needs a service - £100 3) Tyres are all N-rated, but they are mixed brands front and rear 4) Wheel arch liner is cracked - £145 5) Front nearside radiator is weeping - £145 to pressure test system 6) Piece of interior trim is missing in the rear £1.87 I am a bit gutted about the radiator because they were both replaced back in August 2009. The technician said it looked like I had an impact with something, but it is only weeping. However I have lost some coolant. (I will ask tomorrow how much). Can this be repaired or will the whole unit have to be replaced? I am keen to keep my Porsche warranty in check, so is it possible to have it repaired without invalidating my warranty. They were quite understanding about the other items. There is no way I am paying £55 for wiper blades. THe lady laughed when I said this, so this must be a common customer response. They said that the wheel arch didn't need to be replaced, but they were just bringing it to my attention. I was a bit concerned about the tyres, because they were the ones on the car when I purchased from the OPC. So to be told that they were not matching pissed me off a bit. The OPC wouldn't pay for the missing trim item either, even though I insisted that it was missing when I bought it. But at £2 I didn't mind too much!

Well some of then are not necessary 1. Wiper blades .. you know what to do... 2. A/C service ??? Anything wrong with it ? I assume service was done before you got the car so unless there is a problem or has not ever been done I would not touch it at this stage. Service = removing the gas (which in theory removes any humidity that was build up in the system) thus improving the performance and life of the system. 3. If they sold you the car with those tyres make a big big big big noise about that...(I assume it had the 111 point check in order to get the warranty) 4. Ignore that 5. If I was you I was going to ask for evidence that it damaged or has some visible damage at least. Very likely they will ask you to replace the whole thing but make sure its not a bad original installation. The total cost will be much higher than the £100 and very likely the most costly item in the list. But if there is a leak then it has to be fixed 6. Pay the £2 not even worth discussing Regards Theo

Maybe my ignorance but if they all ready know the radiator is leaking, why do they need to pressure test the system?

Thanks for the advice. I have contacted the OPC where I bought the car from (different to where it is being serviced) and they have agreed to write me a letter stating that they will allow me to renew my warranty in September with the current tyres on, so I am pleased about that. I am going to go in this morning and have a look at the car whilst on the ramps to decide what to do. It seems pointless having a pressure check if it is clearly leaking, that could be £145 towards the replacement part. (£145 seems ridiculous to pressure test, but I was told that it was an hours labour). Am I right in thinking that the radiator will be about £600 all in? (£350 for the part + labour), or am I in for an even bigger shock?

Am I missing something here - should this not be warranty? Are they claiming you've hit something, hence they won't replace? If so, have you? If you haven't then I'd be playing merry hell down there to get it done under warranty If you have then fair cop!

I went in this morning and spoke to the technician rather than the service lady. He said that there was no sign of any damage to the radiator, therefore he didn't believe the leak was caused by any kind of impact. There was some weeping at the bottom of the radiator which he said was probably due to the debris in the radiators. I then pointed out that surely this was a warranty item, as they had been previously changed under warranty last year before I bought the car. He said it would be. He also said they had pressure tested it yesterday for 20 minutes and there was no drop in pressure. He said that they had topped the coolant up with about a pint of fluid, which I didn't think was too bad given that it had not been done for 12,000 miles. He also said that the level was within the Max/Min mark on the bottle. So I concluded that this was nothing to worry about. We agreed to review the situation in September when the warranty renewal is due. If they need changing then they will be done under the old warranty. I am very relieved, but also quite pissed off at the same time. To think I was quoted £728 to replace the radiator!!

Any agreements made I'd get it in writing if you can as in my experience memory loss runs rife at OPC's.

A definate +1 here, memory loss would appear to run rife at BMW service centres too. On paper in black and white, thankyou very much. :thumb:

Nice one - good result. The rads are one of the major things I'm glad I'm buying my 996TT with an OPC warranty for.

I have the print out of the invoice which clearly states that the system was pressure tested (showing the cost) and that no leak was detected. I am thinking of going to another OPC to be honest. Although I can imagine they are all the same, with the same level of scare-mungering going on. I was also neive to think that they had put the part-used bottle of oil in the boot - only to realise that it was actually a new bottle and that I had been charged £13+VAT for it. I have to hand it to them, they are very cunning. However, when I came to pay for the service, they tried to charge me £552. A recent brochure from Porsche UK shows the major service price for a 996 to be £540. I was told that this was due to an increase in VAT. Luckily I read the small print, which stated that whilst prices may change due to VAT levels, they were currently calculated at 17.5%. So I asked for a refund of £12. Normally I would have let it go, but having been pissed about I thought why not.

The other good thing that has come out of this is that I mentioned it to a colleague who is a senior manager at Bentley Motors. He said to let him know which parts I potentially need and he would see if he could get me a rad sent over from Porsche, now that they are all owned by VAG. So if anyone could tell me what the part number is for a near-side rad for a 2004 C4S I would be grateful. It may not come to anything, but it was good of him to offer. Regards Lee

V interesting. OPC Notts I presume (based on your location)? TBH I've not been impressed with OPC Leicester either - very pushy sales and not a pleasant experience walking in there. Sytner group btw. The buying process and general helpfulness from OPC Cambridge (lancaster group) has been fantastic - very very impressed so far.

Leicester was going to be my next option, as I live on the Derbyshire/Leicestershire border. Maybe Nottingham is as good as it is going to get and at least they now know the car. My other option is Wilmslow where I bought the car from, but that is quite a trek and I think I would be even more disappointed if I received the same level of service having done the journey to get there.

Why do you want to source a radiator though? Unless it's specific damage, it'll be covered under your warranty. Agree that it would be handy if out of warranty. The new warranty is supposed to be bumper to bumper, so excluding usual wear and tear items, most things are now covered.

I guess I don't really need the radiator, but the service was offered to me, so I thought I would take him up on his offer. Plus, if I did find for some reason that the radiator was leaking due to damage rather than corrosion, I would have the parts. I also plan on keeping the car for a very long time. I am running it as a daily drive at the moment, but I might need a family car in the near future. In which case, the C4S will be a weekend drive and I probably then won't bother with an OPC warranty. Currently I want peace of mind whilst doing reasonably high mileage, hence why I had a main-dealer service and renewing the warranty.