Vauxhall Vivaro – Filter

The majority of lease vehicle companies subcontract their service, maintenance and repair arrangements to a management company called “1 Link” who arrange and authorize the necessary work at a local garage to the vehicle’s location. It has become increasingly common that when servicing these vehicles they are unwilling to authorize new parts according to the manufacturers service schedule normally stating “The filters were changed at last service, so just blow them out” !

An example is this air filter from a Vauxhall Vivaro booked in for a 20,000 mile service and below is an example of a new Toyota one for comparison. It would appear this is the original filter which has now done some 60,000 miles having been “blown out” by other garages at its previous services. On some occasions having not subsequently convinced “1 Link” to authorize replacement the vehicle  has been delivered with new filters at OUR cost!

So when you see that ex lease vehicle with full service history bear in mind that that garage stamp in the book may indicate an oil and oil filter change only. For this reason we always undertake a full service and MOT on any ex-lease vehicle before sale.

2007 Mazda MX5

Anti Roll Bar Linkage

This 07, 21,000 mile Mazda had its first MOT and was found to have broken anti roll bar linkages. The ball joints are fitted with a plastic cup with four plastic pins on its base. These locate through four holes in the linkage cup at each end and are “heat riveted” over !!!

As seen below the ball joints had broken free of the linkage bar. A bit of a weak design fault we think.