First ever service advice and ODB2

[BrianOrtim]

Hello all,
After 25 years of driving all manner of trade and rental vehicles I bought my first car last year. Leon Mk 3 ST Lux facelift, which is absolutely gorgeous – especially after 25 years of trade and rental vehicles! Nice size for a small family, 150hp pushes it along when needed, near as 50 mpg when driven sensibly - and loving the Seat badge.

Having never owned a car before this forum has been a great source of information and I would like to say a big thank you to all that contribute.

The car is 2019 reg and so is coming up for its first service + MOT, which will be the first one ever for me as well. Was going to take it to a local Seat dealer and sign up for their All-In service plan – they seem like a good deal. My plan was to connect an ODB2 dongle and have a look if there are any error/warning codes prior so there is less of a chance of nasty surprises.

Is this a good idea and is there anything sensible I could/should do before taking car for the service?

On that, would ODBeleven be a good choice? Not looking to do any coding or alterations but it sounds like it is well-integrated with VAG vehicles and reasonably straightforward to use when it comes to interpreting the codes.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[adam davies]

Hello all,
After 25 years of driving all manner of trade and rental vehicles I bought my first car last year. Leon Mk 3 ST Lux facelift, which is absolutely gorgeous – especially after 25 years of trade and rental vehicles! Nice size for a small family, 150hp pushes it along when needed, near as 50 mpg when driven sensibly - and loving the Seat badge.

Having never owned a car before this forum has been a great source of information and I would like to say a big thank you to all that contribute.

The car is 2019 reg and so is coming up for its first service + MOT, which will be the first one ever for me as well. Was going to take it to a local Seat dealer and sign up for their All-In service plan – they seem like a good deal. My plan was to connect an ODB2 dongle and have a look if there are any error/warning codes prior so there is less of a chance of nasty surprises.

Is this a good idea and is there anything sensible I could/should do before taking car for the service?

On that, would ODBeleven be a good choice? Not looking to do any coding or alterations but it sounds like it is well-integrated with VAG vehicles and reasonably straightforward to use when it comes to interpreting the codes.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Most people tend to use vag independant garages at 3 years old, better service and cheaper prices and using genuine parts. Obd eleven is a great tool for coding and fault finding.

 

[Shminkypinky]

I have always used our local Seat dealer for servicing and MOTs as I have found their fixed price services (published on website) to be very reasonable.

When I first had my last Seat I had a service plan for the first 3 years which made the price of services cheaper over all. I then switched to fixed price servicing.

Our local dealerahip has a good reputatation and is close to my work making it convinient for me.

 

[MattN]

I too thought the All-In service package was good value so signed up in December (whilst Seat were having a Black Friday sale ). I don't think you'd get an as comprehensive warranty, breakdown, MOT and servicing package cheaper elsewhere/separately even when using an independent garage.

You need to book it in for a FOC check where they will ensure it meets their criteria, but I assume it is still under original warranty because it is before its first MOT then any issues or error codes found could possibly be fixed under that.

 

[BrianOrtim]

Thank you, gents. The warranty, roadside assistance and service package from Seat looked very tempting so will try to go for that as the first option. Provided we stay at least vaguely local to a Seat dealer/service – there are surprisingly few of them about. So, good to have the independent VAG garage option as well.

Might be overthinking it a bit on pre-service checks, after all its ostensibly their job to say what needs to be done...

As an aside, all tyres look surprisingly good for 20K that the car’s done. When the time comes though, my impression is those are best changed at something like Kwick fit or Halfords rather than during service by Seat?

 

[MattN]

Tyres are best replaced wherever you can get the tyre(s) you want fitted at the lowest price in my opinion. That will unlikely be Kwik-Fit nor Halfords in my experience and highly unlikely to be your Seat dealership. There are many online tyre companies to Google to compare prices, some even come out to fit them on your driveway.

 

[MattN]

It is but I am afraid in the real world often they don't provide the level of service you expect.

Find yourself a well respected independent VAG Specialist and they will (certainly in my case) advise when they see things that need sorting

You make a very good point. In my very limited experience (4 visits) with Seat dealers I can concur that finding a competent dealership isn't easy. I can certainly recommend NOT using two near me. I am faced with traveling further and further away in the hope of finding a decent service (anybody recommend D M Keith, York??). At least with the All-In package you can use any Seat dealership. I suppose the same goes for VAG specialists or any garage. Luckily I have a fantastic 'back-street' guy who cares for other family cars out of warranty.

 

[RUM4MO]

As you have just bought this car and it is still within the 3 year SEAT warranty, I'd be sticking with SEAT for this last service under warranty and submit it slightly early, ie just within the "month" allowed for an MOT, though maybe doing that somewhere other than a SEAT workshop, just in case anything shows up that can be covered by the remaining days of the warranty.
Outside warranty, if not doing your own servicing, then head for a proper VW Group Indie.
Tyres, lots of online operators who use local mainly independent tyre places, like Black Circles, or Yourtyres.co.uk - I've used Yourtyres a few times with no problems, they are based in mainland Europe but safe/secure to use it seems. Lots many other places online though including theAA if you are a member, Asda etc, Kwikfit if you want to use them are best approached from their online site as that will normally give a better price than "walk up" prices. Really at the end of the day, if you can plan ahead and do your research, you will end up paying the best price - I blundered upon an unbeatable price once on theAA tyre site (only for members) as their provider National tyres had a special deal on for the exact tyres I wanted, but that was just luck, which was good enough for me!

Edit:- have you priced up buying Carista, it could be that it ends up cheaper for you if you are only wanting to check/clear stored faults? I use that for "on the road" fault checking and VCDS for use at home as I'm willing to dig deeply into things - I'd not suggesting that you buy VCDS as it sounds like it would be overkill for you, unless buying VCDS Lite works for you if you have a laptop, I've never priced the Lite version of VCDS.

 

[BrianOrtim]

Thank you – didn’t think about the existing warranty issue, getting the service booked well before that runs out is a very good point. The car was bought used but low mileage and from a Seat dealer, so still under the original warranty with a tiny extension to make up to a full year from purchase. Runs like clockwork so far (tempting fate here) but I guess you never know.

Great points on the tyres – I’m pretty sure about what to get (Goodyear Eagle Asy 5) but was drawing a blank where from. Kwick fit was an option simply as I’ve dealt with them before and apart from eye watering price for walk ins they seemed OK.

On Carista I got put off by the recurring non-trivial subscription – my understanding was that apart from the very basic features everything else requires it. ODBeleven seems more upfront about the costs for the occasional use. At the stage I’m at VCDS would probably be overkill as anything requiring that level of detail is well beyond what I can diagnose or fix probably.

 

[Crossthreaded]

Absolutely get servicing done by a genuine SEAT franchised garage then if any warranty issues arise (my turbo packed in!) will be attended to with a minimum of "aggravation". Once you're out of warranty a VAG independent is definitely the way to go. Their specialist vehicle knowledge will be far better than just any old small garage, they will use mostly genuine parts and their labour rates will be appreciably lower than the main agent - It's a no brainer.

I bought VAG-COM (now VCDS) many years ago but I don't have the knowledge to use it's more complicated functions. However I don't regret buying it for one moment as I use it when servicing the cars to do a pre and then post service check. If a fault shows up after I've been working on the car which wasn't there before I started I know it's been something I did! I also use it for fault finding, especially useful to be able to graph sensor outputs and drive actuators. I also use the generic OBD scanner on my boy's Astra but it won't "talk" to the Jazz or our Fiats (I've got Multiecuscan for the Fiats though so that doesn't matter).

For my tyres I used to go to a local independent garage who specialized in tyres but they closed down. After a couple of years of "mucking about" a friend who owns a small specialist garage near me suggested I try the mobile tyre fitter who does tyres for him. This chap is a "one man band" I ring him up and tell him what I want (he'll also make suggestions if asked) he gets the tyres - usually next day - and comes to my house with his long wheelbase van where he fits and balances them for me. Of course he'll also remove the wheels from the car and refit them but I like to do this myself so I can take care not to damage the sills or get problems with overtightened wheel nuts etc. As to price, he's not quite the very cheapest but cheaper by a long way than the local "faster fit" organizations and his service suits me down to the ground. Could be worth having a look around to see if there's someone like him near you? Of course the mobile service operations belonging to "the big boys" are unlikely to offer you much saving. If you have the time, can be bothered and have the "brass neck" It can be most lucrative to try playing the tyre stores off against each other. Ring one up and get a price - make sure it includes fitting, valve etc - then ring up another and bounce this price off him. Keep on doing that until you end up with the cheapest price. Don't be afraid to ring any of the larger dealers more than once because often you'll get a different person on the phone. A typical ploy they will use when you say "so and so is going to do it for such and such a price" is to say "we don't sell that brand sir, so I can't price match to it". So when you ring don't specify an actual brand, just ask for a "Premium Brand" or maybe a "Mid Range" or "Budget Brand", whatever is your "thing". Sometimes you'll hit on the most amazing bargain.

 

[RUM4MO]

I used to get the best price online inc delivery to my local indie tyre place as he was a location mytyres.co.uk had listed on their website, then give them the chance to just undercut ie better that price, latterly they have not been very willing to play that game, so I just get tyres from mytyres.co.uk delivered to them without bothering to ask about good prices for local sales.
Once when getting close to needing tyres, I phoned Micheldever Tyres at Micheldever Station as they were known for exceedingly good pricing for premium tyres, and we were down on holiday in Hampshire, got a price for 4 Pirelli for my old 1991 VX Cav GSI 4X4, then phoned my local indie and they price matched, but tried to get out of it once we got home, they did eventually do the deal agreed over the phone but not without a lot of grumping, not good!

Micheldever Tyres seem to supply lots of tyres to my local indie tyre place, but I've just found out that they have been buying over other tyre maybe "stock holders" around the country.