Engine/fuel additives @12,000km
 

I need to take the car into 12k maintenance and some of these dealers are including a cabin filter change + engine/fuel additive. Seems excessive for a car that has 12,000kms - or is this required?

Gotta take it to a stealership because car is under warranty :(
Unless there is a way to go around this - do share this too.

engine/fuel additive is pretty standard with oil changes nowadays

cabin filter is such a easy DIY, just tell them you want to opt out because you changed it already

If you are under warranty, you can still go to indy's to get your car serviced. I experienced the same thing when I was responsible for my brand new civic. All you have to do is keep all the receipts of the service being performed.

What car is this?

12k is early as hell for a cabin filter change,it would still look relatively new i think esp if you're only city driving.

Not with the the forest fire smog we had recently

What is Indy's? Are they warranty approved?


For Kia Niro hybrid.

A lot of the services the dealerships try to up sell are optional. Check your owners manual to see what the manufacturer's required services are at each interval.

Independent mechanic.

There are some independents who are warranty approved. I went to Joe's Unlimited Autos and Imports by River Rock for my Civic. You can call their direct line M-F to ask if they have experience with Kia's and if they're warranty approved.

If need be, you can mention me, to establish a good relationship. I think they refer to me as the Asian kid with the broken E46 LOL

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Afaik as long as the shop is completely certified/techs are certified, keep the receipts and you're good to go.

Made sure to quadruple check with everyone at the dealership prior to leasing my Lexus, cause they tend to be among the most anal when it comes to warranty if service is done "improperly".

Dealership changing your cabin filter is straight highway robbery.

Half an hour shop rate plus parts cost.

At 12,000km - Only thing to really needs to be "changed" is engine oil and checking for regular wear and tear items. Just check with dealer to get "written" confirmation if you bring to independent certified approved shops for servicing that warranty is valid. Last thing you want is to get verbal confirmation and then later on they void your warranty, nothing written like an email. There is a reason they are called stealerships...they'll do anything to void warranty if they can.

I do not understand this statement. Dealership gets paid by warranty claim as well, and it's easier to get the money from manufacturer/warranty company than from retail customer's pocket. Why would dealership purposely want to void the warranty?

I change the cabin filter on my S2k yearly (about 5-6k per year) and it's already filthy! Could be because of the location of the filter though. Aftermarket paper filter is only about $20 and it's very easy to change.

Dealerships want to void warranty because they want you to "pay" up for whatever the issue is with your car that needs attention. Hence, they will find reason to deny when they can.

Dealerships want billable work to earn $. Warranty work doesn't allow maximization of billable $ work as far as I am aware. Please correct me if I am wrong?

I would like to think of the fuel additives and such other "optional services" are revenue generators and pitched to the customers as "value add," and positioned in such a way to drive fear into voiding warranty etc.

You must be going to some scummy dealers if that's the impression you get. It's the complete opposite of what you think from my experience. Only time you will be void is if vehicle is rebuilt or theres some very obvious fault from something you or another shop did the directly links to what you're trying to warranty.

Fuel additive? I’ve probably logged over a million kilometres behind the wheel of hundreds of cars of all ages and mileages with zero engine breakdowns and I’ve never used a fuel additive. Snake oil.

For what car?

Cabin Filter isn't required per se but it's a case by case basis. I've seen Cabin Filters vary in dirtiness with the same amount of mileage.

I know off the top of my head that MB dealerships include Liquimoly Ceratec as one of the additives during a specific scheduled maintenance interval, basically however long Ceratec lasts which is a damn long time.

If it's something along the lines of that, I'd be more than happy to have them add it in.

I actually put it into my Lexus a few days after I drove it home from the dealer at around 500kms on the odo. Supposed to do miracles when put in at a very early stage in terms of significantly reducing engine wear long term.

If it's a Japanese car, the cabin air filter will be a very easy job without requirement of any tools. Such is the case for my 8th Gen Accord and RX-8.

If the vents don't feel like there is much air coming out, then you likely need new filters.

As for fuel additives, meh, I don't usually use it. The only "additive" I use is premix because rotary. I did add a bottle of injector cleaner once and it made no difference. Just my tinkeritis acting up.