How is the Lubricant Service Delivered by Stafford Motors?? Any Comments??

[Thilina Dk]

Hi All, Please be kind enough to share your experience if u ever did a service from the Honda agent in Sri Lanka. 

[Cband]

Yes, I have done only once in 2015. Very bad experience with my wife's GP5. Sump protection cover (plastic item) was not fixed properly and they did not accept my complain, made on following day once it was noticed. Then they have not replaced a/c filter after cleaning. But in the booklet they mentioned ac filter was cleaned.I noticed this matter when vehicle was taken to next service in service station situated at Dematagoda area next to Cargills.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Cband
corrected mistakenly typed

[Hyaenidae]

On 2/26/2019 at 3:21 PM, NemesisArc said:

I did my service too recently from stafford-Jaela - worst decision ever. no standard at all. they didn't even had any microfiber cloths for cleaning but half torn towel pieces.

anyhow, about the oil - yes-0W burn up thing is BS as it relates to Winter. what relates to us SL is "30" part.

their recommendation was to use Mobil 2000-which is semi-synthetic but no where in the manual says to use blends.

After a long discussion with them i forcefully asked them to use Mobil 1 advance fuel economy 5w-30 - fully synthetic which was available with them. the oil actually seems to live up to the name as it seems to actually improve my economy. usually i run around 350-380km with a full tank but in the recent fill up(1st one after the service as there was a half tank while on the service) meter showed 580km ( already done 280km and still 270km is on the clock with half a tank remaining) will update the real figures later-on.

 

On 1/21/2019 at 11:45 AM, misnad said:

Rattanapitiya body shop.

On the lines of engine oil, I called them up to book a service appointment (10,000km interval) and checked on the oil they use. The advisor said that it’s up to the customer if they want 10k km services or 5k km services. If it is 5k, they use 5w-30 semi synthetic, however they use fully synthetic for 10k intervals. When I asked them which brand they use since they used Mobil last time (that was recommended), they’re now saying that they recommend Castrol 5W-30 as Mobil only comes in 0W-30 fully synthetic and that apparently burns up easily due to it being 0W. That’s a load of tosh as Mobil 5W-30 fully synthetic is available here and I also don’t think the 0W-30 oil would “burn off” faster than a 5W-30. Besides, these are high HTHS oils anyways given their A5/B5 and A1/B1 ratings. Looks like I’ll be taking my own engine oil going forward.

2

 

On 1/21/2019 at 9:03 AM, misnad said:

Yup.. tried it and then rolled up, rolled down, pushed against it, but still no luck in identifying the source. I guess it’s some beading expanding under heat and the noise seems to be getting in due to a broken corner garnish lid (plastic triangular piece at the top edge of the shutter); compliments of the boys at St****rd for that.

 

On 2/15/2019 at 10:40 AM, misnad said:

So I just completed my second oil change at the agent (Boralesgamuwa) and got them to use Castrol Edge Pro A5 5W-30 instead of their regular semi synthetic 5W-30. Cost me approximately 15k for the oil alone. The owner’s manual should dictate what type of oil you should use. In mine, it indicates either 5W-30 or 0W-30 ACEA A5 or A3 oil. For 0W-20, it states that only Honda Engine Oil Type 2.0 should be used so I didn’t adventure down that path since the agent didn’t have it anyways.

 

For everyone else tuned in and following my lovely experiences with the agents, I had a good 10min conversation with the service advisor about the type of oil they use in the newer Civics. He went on to state that:

1) Honda UK don’t know about SL climates and service intervals, so you have to change your oil every 5k km here or before if the maintenance minder indicates it regardless of the type of oil

2) In their history, they’ve always used semi-synthetic oil and it has never caused any problems - he claimed

3) It’s only when customers ask for fully synthetic that they have problems especially sludge build-up, however that is the customer’s wish

 

I found points 2 and 3 a bit naive especially since you need better quality oil and not Dino oil for higher performance engines where oil pressures are significantly higher than before. Semi-synthetic may have worked with the older cars that weren’t turbo-boosted. These newer ones have a tiny 3-cylinder engine with a turbo and temperatures are definitely way hotter than the previous generations. Secondly, with regards to sludge, that will happen when you switch to synthetic in a car with a few 10’s of thousands of km’s running on conventional or semi-synthetic. That’s because fully synthetic oil cleans up better and is a detergent oil so all that sludge that was collected in between piston rings, cylinder heads, etc. will start to come loose and result in sludge. Got this info off Scotty Kilmer and he is in line with debunking the myth a lot of mechanics spread: “fully synthetic oil causes sludge”.

By the way, I also asked them about a particular part on my car that I’d need replacing and they admitted that they don’t bring down many parts for the UK model Civic to SL regularly so they’d have to back-order. That’s contrary to what their sales rep said prior to purchasing the car though.

All in all, I’m just going to follow the maintenance minder for services as it has proven itself smart enough for now. And of course, will continue with fully synthetic 5w-30.

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by Hyaenidae

[kush]

My CRV was maintained by them for 5 Years (2013-2018) at their Maradana Center no complains, it is bit congested.

Rates are reasonable, staff friendly and most importunately they completed the service at the time agreed.

 

[Thilina Dk]

Kush, are you satisfied with the service they deliver, especially in wash bay?? did you ever walk in to wash bay and Inspect. because i had a bad experience. 

[RWD]

Maradana workshop maintained my Mum's Honda Insight for 7 years from the day it was baught it unregistered. During that time they happily ticked off all the maintenance items in the car as fine, but all they did was do the car wash and oil change at the service. When the car was sold it had done over 85,000 kms. Suspension was gone, brake pads were shot, the CVT box was slipping and the battery wasn't in a good state. How they can say that a car that's run 85,000 kms in SL conditions (by a lady- no offense to lady drivers on Women's day but my 65 year old dear Mum's eyesight wasn't the best) doesn't need any running repairs They never proposed to replace any wear and tear items. If I had the time I would have got the service done elsewhere but my schedule was too packed to look after Mum's car as well. But I would never recommend them to anyone!

[matroska]

Maintained my Fit at both JaEla and Maradana from 2015-2018. (Mostly Maradana actually) I didn't have any major reasons for complain other than maybe the fact they're a bit lenient for instance when I wanted to change the air filter they said 'na sir oken thawa tikak duwanna puluwan'. Other than that the service advisers at Maradana were quite friendly and approachable. And yes I don't sit in the waiting room but walk to the wash bays and service areas. My experience so far has been quite ok.

One boo-boo at Jaela is they don't have microfiber as someone else posted.

 

1 hour ago, Thilina Dk said:

did you ever walk in to wash bay and Inspect. because i had a bad experience. 

can you elaborate what the bad experience was?

14 minutes ago, RWD said:

they happily ticked off all the maintenance items in the car as fine

sort of true - I agree it's not acceptable that you have to push them to check if items are ok or not 

[Thilina Dk]

They are not using proper procedures to clean the vehicle. some time it damages the paint and upholstery. did any one found the same thing??

[kush]

I was never there when they did the service as i expected them to do a proper job being the agents. Anyway 1st two years car was under warranty and i did not want to take a chance servicing it elsewhere.

I newer experienced any damages to the vehicle during 10 or more services I would have done with them, may be I was fortunate.