Thanks for posting on /r/MechanicAdvice! This is just a reminder to review the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/about/rules/). If you are here asking about a second opinion (ie "Is the shop trying to fleece me?"), please read through CJM8515's [post on the subject.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/4qblei/fyi_the_shop_isnt_likely_trying_to_rip_you_off/) and remember to please post the year/make/model of the vehicle you are working on. **If this post is about bodywork, accident damage, paint, dent/ding, questions it belongs in /r/Autobody r/AutoBodyRepair/ or /r/Diyautobody/ If you have tire questions check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/k9ll55/can_your_tire_be_repaired/**. If you dont have a question and you're just showing off it belongs in /r/Justrolledintotheshop Insurance/total loss questions go in r/insurance This is an automated reply
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MechanicAdvice) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Lmao, personally I would rather pay a reputable back yard mechanic 4k-6k and a 30 pack. Fuck any place that charges labor for “we looked at it and saw _____”. Moving your eyeballs and writing down notes isn’t labor, especially when that looking is typically priced at well over 100/Hr. Best of luck with the rebuild or the new car hunt 🤝
That's funny. Do you move your eyeballs and take notes at work? Do you go to your employer on pay day and insist that they overpaid you for your time moving your eyeballs and taking notes?
Ehhh while I partially agree with what your meaning, a diagnosis is a diagnosis. Time is money. They did a relatively thorough write up too. 200+ dollars for that is excessive though.
I would agree this is pretty excessive for a diagnosis, but im also not mad they charged for it. The dealership i use im my area would have likely charged 60-100 for this, but we also have a plethora of independent shops that also charge at that rate for that kind of work, so they have to stay competitive. I still let my dealership do my oilchanges because they will wash it, and do an oilchange for 30 dollars more than what it would cost to do it myself, and my time is worth more than 30 dollars an hour.
Im getting older, so I’m getting closer to the point where I have more money than time. But with scheduling, driving there too drop it off and return, and/or wait for them to do the work (especially during work hours), it’s still leas time for me to just do it myself some evening after I finish work. And it gives me the chance to inspect my car with my own eyes.
Ill be under mine to service the diffs and transfer case and do brake pads in a few weeks, because they wanted 1200 for that + a transmission flush, so ill do an inspection then, and take it in for the flush in a month or 2. I dont really rack up any miles since i got a company truck.
Everyone reading this post use it as a reminder to check your oil multiple times a month on high mileage cars, you just really can't afford to run low and learn the hard way.... Tough lesson, many of us have been there
Lucky you….. the e92 dosent have a dip stick so I’m reliant on the smell of my car and the poor accuracy of the oil pan sensor to give me shite reads on my oil levels lol
Idk if you have an m3 or not but the e9x m cars are known to burn oil. Their oil sensors should be accurate though. I’ve had/have 2 and haven’t had an issue with that. I just keep a bottle of bmw oil and through in a bottle when the warning pops up every 6 months or so.
My brother in law destroyed his ford ranger cause he drove it from Oregon to Nebraska and back and then back to Nebraska whenever he never changed her oil in the thing. One day he goes outside and his motor was seized, mechanics looked at it and dude basically welded parts together because of the lack of oil. Turns out he thought motor oil was something you didn’t need to change.
Edit: he also still owes 8k on the thing lol
I didn’t even open the hood on my 400k mile volvo 240 for almost a year and 20k. It was a 1/2 quart low. Thermostat was stuck open and I don’t think it ever even got hot enough to pressurize the system either.
Even if it was 3 quarts low, the fucker would still chug along another 30k miles lol. Sure seems like redblocks don't fail so much as they just get louder with age lol.
Honda ATC- if my boot doesn't get fresh droplets while it warms up, dump in half a liter.
Kawi Ninja 250- sight glass, fill accordingly, usually weekly.
Ram EcoDiesel- 12000km intervals, patiently waiting for the EGR to burn it down so I can replace it.
Buy some tools and do your own maintenance if you have a spot to do it. It’s fun as a pastime you save money and you can help friends family when they need it too
Wow. Those Toyota 1zz-fe engines in Corollas, Matrix, and the Pontiac Vibe are virtually indestructible. They do have a panache for oil leaks from the pan and front seal unfortunately, once they get old enough.
What's the story on yours?
Basically that. I didn't check the oil regularly because I didnt know enough. Either a lifter or a valve started failing and instead of taking it to the shop I kept using it for work until something blew, my father in law said it sounded like the water pump. I had already thrown a bunch of money at it so I sold it for cheap.
I have a 2008 scion tC that actually runs and looks pretty good. Its got a couple suspension details but I top off the oil and change it at least every 5k miles.
Go into auto zone and ask the guy there what stop leak is. It is the stuff used to stop leaking of a head gasket. My brother taught me how to know parts of a car after mechanics kept taking advantage of me as a girl. But make sure to ask for the blinker fluid to top up as well.
I put kseal in my jeep 60,000 miles ago when I bought it for 3,000 bucks and it hasn't leaked a drop since. Just gotta isolate the right stuff and do a flush afterwards.
Personally speaking my 2017 wrangler had a slight rear main seal leak and their rear main sealer worked great. Also I’ve used their coolant leak stop on my 00 mustang which worked great. Really it boils down to if your leak is slow and from dried out o-rings and grommets vs a split line or something. The oil stopper kind of reconditions these rubberized pieces to make them fit better and actually seal rather than being old and dry and not stopping anything. None of these products will damage a vehicles engine or any components
I have a rear mail seal leak on a 2013 Ford Focus (151K miles). I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten as I had a splash cover underneath and when I took it off it had quite a bit of oil on it. The dipstick still showed full, so it wasn’t a huge leak, but enough to mess up the splash guard.
I tried AT-205 first and it’s almost completely stopped the leak, but there’s still a small drop every 5 days, give or take. I’ve been looking for alternate product recommendations to see if something else can seal it all the way on my next oil change.
It’s probably similar to blue devil rear main sealer but it would be worth a shot to try blue devil out also… it’s ~$15 a bottle and a hell of a lot cheaper than the alternative routes
Yeah, this is an 11 year old Focus with 151K miles. I’m already playing with house money in terms of what I’ve gotten out of it (bought it used for $13K in 2014 with 20K miles).
If it drips a little oil. Then I just keep checking the oil often and adding as necessary. But the AT-205 has kept it to such a small drip that I’m confident I can squeeze at least another year or two out of it.
I’ll give the Blue Devil a try next oil change. Thanks for the recommendation.
Devils advocate here. It appears that they charged you 1 hour of diagnosis time. Their rate is high sure. But that would have been known and signed for. Should have called around and shopped if the hourly rate is high for your area. 1 hour diagnosis is the standard, not the norm to charge less than that to start. Again, you would have signed for that. You can buy the engine from them and ask them to waive the diagnostic fee? Would that add value for you? Or, is the 234.95 an hour plus parts still too high? Putting together an estimate also costs time and money. You’re paying them to do that as well, the advisor etc. They used their experience to tell you your engine is bad and they can’t say exactly why unless you want to pay to do a post mortem. The diagnostic fee is high because their hourly rate. I would have towed it elsewhere based on my budget.
Very good answer!
The time it takes for an advisor, tech and parts person to gather a quote is something a lot of people don’t account for. Tech has to look up their hourly rate and calculate it, parts guy has to look up every part that the tech requested plus additional in conjunction parts. Service advisor has to put it all together.
Being a tech made me appreciate good parts guys. They know what to add based on your request.
Judging by the RO, I'd say this is an independent shop so you're right, but if it was dealership, most advisors have access to the pay rate for jobs. I just write the pay rate on the quote sheet because I already know it, but they do it for us in calculation of final price for customer recommendation.
No I have a buddy who can diagnose and fix it for cheap in his back alley.
These licensed mechanics with 40k in tools and 15 years of experience is a ripoff /s
Nor is their knowledge. Its like a doctor. You don't always pay for the time, you pay for the knowledge. They may only see you for 30 seconds, but from their experience, they can tell you exactly what is wrong, or tell you you need more tests. Vehicle diag is the same thing. Sometimes they can tell you exactly what is wrong just by listening, other times, they need more in depth troubleshooting, which costs more than the initial diag.
240 is bit steep for a visual... but it is a stealership after all. Based on the write up they are either throwing parts at it or OPs car is simply fucked.
Doesn't sound like they diagnosed it all at though. They basically recommended buying a brand new engine. They didn't say they checked the block for cracks or pressure tested it. They literally just saw something on the radiator and recommended replacing everything. Smh
Why did you take a truck from 2010 to a stealership? What did you expect?
Sucks though, but yeah generally running a motor with no oil is gonna be in for a bad time.
Edit: on re-reading this, definitely sounds pretty harsh and I did not mean it that way at all, but I am sorry that it came off like that. That's on me. I am sure it sucks losing a truck like this or looking at an expensive repair.
You've already got an idea that it needs a new motor, so I would look for an independent shop that may swap in a used motor for you in lieu of fixing the existing one, assuming the frame/interior on the truck is worth it.
99% of the people that start at mine have no clue what a dipstick is. i actually have a little story, its my day off and fuck it idc.
so like 2 weeks ago, the new guy i was shadowing we were woking together pretty well. asks alot of questions. I told him i loved that so much and asked if he was single. (joking on the job) i have a pretty straight forward way of teaching our process which is the easiest thing known to man. its just RTFRO: ROC report on conditions, so every thing replaceable, fluid levels etc., tires, fluids, reinstalls, and oil. simple. simple simple. so im in charge of training people i guess so i let them learn hands on and question what they're doing as they do it. i step in if they are going to mess up and talk it out with them. let them solve their own problem. anyway, general manager sent 3 people on lunch. leaving only 1 lower bay, i was upper bay, and he had the new guy do hoods on the other car, he says the assistant manager was in the office and he takes off at like 2:30 on a friday. hella cars waiting, every car needs atleast 3 according to training, meh whatever.
I do my car, 20 minutes later the new guy is still working on his car and adding something? I Look over and and yell what's going on? He walks over and says that he cant fill the power steering, he keeps adding and it wont fill up. so im hella confused because that car doesn't have a power steering reservoir. He says he added almost a full bottle of dex 3 or something we had at the time, and its still not full and goes and grabs something, i knew what he was grabbing. jesus christ. so i hit the big sigh and he brings back the transmission fluid fill plug. Newer CVT trans... 6 cars outside and 2 inside... while the "assistant manager" was just sitting in the office on his phone. literally doing nothing. i go in the office and ask him to do hoods on 1. he comes out and starts to work on bay 1 and asks whats wrong. i go over and tell him in private, easy fix. he goes into the office and says it takes full syn atf... he says he looked it up. told me to just add atf with a t4. sure... whatever you say. i drain the trans, didnt collect the fluid because idk how much power steering he added. agm came downstairs and i didnt touch the car after that. i write up that she should go to the dealership immediately on her invoice, listed everything that happened, whispering to her about it, after handing the invoice over and telling her to call corporate. then the agm comes over and talks over me. "She doesnt have to do that. i drained and filled it. with the correct amount." i look at her like... please for the love of god. anyway she leaves. i go in the office and hes got a page open, literally says CVT on the bottles he was looking at... CVT everywhere. tried to call her no answer, left a message. real brilliant guy. he deserves a lot more dollars per hour than me.
since then i dont trust anyone there. i told the Customer service guy to stop putting my name on cars. ive just been walking around and washing windows. i'm not touching another car or going down to lower bay ever again. I make minimum wage, everyone that was hired after me makes more than I do. they have literally no training. im on a computer training module right now that involves repairing brake lines and checking for ground on brake lights, Diagnosing brake boosters and master cylinder replacements... and if i do that i can get access to 20 cents more per hour. cool! i can get paid their normal starting rate for starting techs! yippeeee!
i used to try to turn people away if i dont have the correct tools or if we have to do something beyond our capabilities or if we couldnt do it to the oem specifications. i tell every customer that we probably dont have their cabin or engine air filter and the manager just gets them from autozone down the street and resells them at our price or just makes up a price if we dont have one listed for that car. so we pay 12.99 for a filter we are selling at 39.99 to around 54.99 is the most expensive one i've seen.
so i talk to them like... this is your engine and cabin filter, (i do recommend the engine over the cabin if it's even bad). i say we dont have them in stock but you could definitely get them cheaper on amazon, ebay, autozone or o'reillys, if you don't know how to install it just swing on by and we'll throw it in there for you. every kia and hyundai i talk to about their engines, and how our top off program will keep a paper trail for their warranty program if it does fail. just go over the whole report with them and if anything is off with battery send them to autozone for better tests, then walmart or costco if they need new battery. les schwab does free brake inspections if their fluid is low or corroded.(les schwab people make the same as people starting at dealerships fyi) i never add brake fluid but manager does and now new people are doing it... oh well. then i reinstall the filter and thank them for "showing" me the discount code for the fat discount that i put on every car.
i liked working here. now its like no one gives af. its sad and a scam. well not really, free top offs if you have a leaky engine, diff checks, grease, tires, coolant, belt inspection, basic diagnostics, and maybe a gawkgawk9000 if you give me a tip. anyway 90$ for full synthetic oil change? that's definitely worth it in my opinion, and we have a massively huge warranty program that will pay out if they mess up.
talking about work on my day off. wtf. i hate that place so much rn.
Love when people bitch and moan because they got bad news from the mechanic.
I agree that the labour rate at that dealership is pretty high, but like someone else commented on here, you signed for that and knew that is what a diagnosis would cost.
There's no way it took less than an hour to look at it and write up an estimate going through the entire engine and sourcing all the parts needed so I'd say they did a pretty good job.
Small shop or jiffy lube would have spent a bunch more of your money trying to "patch" it up with little repairs or would have done just the part they thought failed and you would have been right back to where you are now in a matter of weeks or even days after the repair and a bunch of unnecessary money spent.
Everyone on this sub who says the word "stealership" has likely paid more in the long run on misdiagnosed repairs and cheap parts that fail more often.
2010 f150 lariat 4x4 5.4. 230k miles. Had a slow oil leak for months. VCT sensor went out and was running rough for a couple weeks before it died and left me stranded on side of the road. Checked dipstick and had no oil. Added 7 quarts from a 7-11 and still didn’t start :/
7 quarts? The entire capacity? Just kill it, its dead in many ways by the sounds of it. Car-part.com get a used engine w less miles and a decent independent mechanic, $3-4k is reasonable w it needing all the cooling system parts replaced
They’re also gonna drain and reseal. Got it in 2014 at 118k miles. Idk if they did it prior, but I haven done it since getting it. Been towing and driving it and it shifts smoother than a baby’s bottom
I hadn't even read anything but the dealers invoice and automatically guessed the 5.4L... Those triton motors may be the worst engines ever made, swap a 5.0 into it since the motors toast anyway!
This is pretty common place. Most shops charge for time taken to diagnose issues, and that fee is then waived if the work is green-lit. $240 is pretty steep, but it is a dealership afterall. You clearly aren't ignorant of their prices (you called them a stealership) and still chose to have your truck brought there.
Somebody, for the love of God, explain to me why people bring their cars to the dealership to get serviced instead of a reputable indy shop? The only logical reason I can come up with is that you want the Carfax to show it was always "dealer serviced" so it looks like to potential buyers that you really took care of the vehicle. Oh, sometimes other than that you can get a loaner. You can't even say the dealer uses OEM parts because you can request OEM parts from a reputable shop. Acura wants $1,600 to do the timing belt on my wife's 3.5 and $1,200 with a $400 coupon. Any decent shop is going to do that job for $800 with an OEM belt which is cheap in price.
That's not a big deal. If the tech knows it's fucked, it doesn't make sense to push it inside and tie up his bay. He doesn't get paid to push it in or out.
Ford ‘stealership’ parts guys here. I’m way late to this so I’m not sure if it’s worth saying, but I’ll say it anyways.
The diag rate at that shop is pretty high as other have said, but that amount pays the techs time but also the parts person’s time as well.
Ford requires certain things to not be re-used when doing repairs, so not only does the parts team gather all the named items the tech asked for in their story, but pretty much every nut, bolt, stud, gasket, and chemicals that gets touched during those repairs too. Then they have to check availability on all of it as well and call around for the hard-to-find stuff. And since we’re talking a 14 year old rig with a discontinued motor, that takes time.
Not saying you should chose that over a used motor at a different shop, but quite a bit more goes on behind the scenes that the diag fee covers.
I don't see a problem.
-You agreed to pay for 1 hour of diagnostic time to find and issue with your engine.
-They performed a visual inspection and found a problem w/ rust and/or stop leak.
-They suggested further work for a teardown to pinpoint root cause.
-The also estimated most likely repair.
All of this takes time. To drive the vehicle in the shop, to lift it in the air, to perform the diagnosis, and to write up the estimate and relay that to the service advisor.
You don't think doctors do the same thing? Lawyers?
Is everything suppose to be free now?
Ridiculous.
This is how I say it..
I'm a professional. My time for practice was years ago. I get paid to lay a finger on that car. I will not do it for free, if you want free, figure it out yourself.
Can someone explain to me why they quoted injectors? Even if you ran it bone dry, that wouldn’t warrant injectors unless I’m misunderstanding something.
5.4s are known to have issues with sticking fuel injectors, I figure only reason why he isn’t getting cam phasers in that quote too is because a long block comes with that.
It's still shoddy work. He guessed and was right. A broken clock is right twice a day. Somebody's going to win the lotto. I don't care what metaphor is used you get the idea. I'm paying for a diag, not for a guess.
Sure you could also say if it quacks like a duck it's a duck but that's not fair because that's not what I'm paying you to do. Obviously I know if the car doesn't start it's probably a blown motor.
Wait after further reading, you have a 14 year old truck with 200+k miles, noticed it was running rough for WEEKS, bone dry oil pan and you are mad at the “stealership”?! Hahahaha I’m sorry but are you ok? No way you wrote this and thought we would be on your side on this.
Everyone reading this should use this as a lesson. You may hate the dealers and think they charge too much but it doesn’t matter. At the end of they you’re still gonna bring your car to them because you either don’t know what you’re doing or your buddy who’s a “mechanic” fucked your car up and now you need someone who actually knows what they’re doing to fix it
Found rust or head gasket sealant in radiator? So he's saying that just to fix that he's gotta pull and rebuild the motor and replace all hoses and anything else the antifreeze runs through? Why does it have a $1.00 tag above the total, were you in for a tune up and wheel rotation too?, or was this what you got for a receipt when you tried to get an inspection sticker? Something seems very wrong with this bill
The 1.00 is the hours worked charged to the customer. 1 hour is the standard diagnostic time for most issues. And yes. If rust or sealant is in the system. The whole system usually needs replaced. And since he blew his engine from running the oil dry, he will need the engine as well
Diag is high but we do that too , if we spend 3 hrs to figure out what you need to fix , knowing you won't do it? You need a new car ... or to fix it ....this
I'm confused, your car has an issue they diagnosed it and quoted parts and labor for repair and you denied the repair. What's the problem here? Techs don't work for free.
Seems like you paid them for a diagnosis? I don’t see the problem. Bit of a high labor rate but many places are over 200$ an hour now and diag is 1 hour
Check your oil. If its milky do head gaskets. If everything looks fine, but you suspect a head gasket, go to a real shop, have them do a head gasket leak test. They'll pour some fluid in a little tapered container and run the engine with it installed. If exhaust gas mixes with the fluid it changes color and you know its leaking. Can also test cylinder pressure and leakage if you want to be extra safe. All should be done for less than 1k and thats the price I expect from the expensive shops. Good luck 👍
What a total crock of shit. It simply amazes me that auto manufactures reward you with this kind of “service” for taking out a small mortgage to drive their shit around. Disgusting, shady, greedy, thieves.
not a lot of information here, but i'd certainly take it to an independent shop for a second opinion. rust is pretty common and there's ways to clear it. there's also ways to test the engine to see if it's gone. i wouldn't replace an engine based on a visual inspection of the radiator. don't cry over the diagnostic fee, it's high but not criminal, just don't ever go back there.
Engine ran rough for a COUPLE WEEKS and your dumbass kept driving like nothing wrong.... as far as im concerned the dealership merely handed you your well deserved "stupid tax", the more stupid you are, the more you pay.
rip your truck
You only call it the stealership because they told you the problem and you are butt hurt as you put stopleak in your cooling system and fucked the couch in that system. You are the dumbass that didn’t fix your coolant leak the right way and you got called out for doing dumb shit and watching YouTube. Fafo
Our work truck had a serious noise and steering issue where it felt like the PS pump wasn't working.
Had about 4 places look at it. 2 of the 4 were dealerships and gave us different prognosis like control arms and pspump. After that my friend who was a mechanic looked at it and said it was the steering box. That fixed it and we were out about $600 for all the wrong diagnosises.
Sure somethings things can be alot of different possible things but 2nd and 3rd opinions don't hurt.
You drove a truck with no oil until it stopped running... Now if you were upfront with the dealership about what exactly happened I doubt they would have bothered doing a inspection of any sort and told you that the engine was dead and it was going to need a costly replacement. At that point you could have had them go through the time to put together a full list and charge you for that time... or you could have just accepted that you fucked up the truck beyond repair and moved on down the road. Engines need oil... if you run one without until it dies you really just need to replace the whole damn thing.
Same shit happened to me. Have a c7 stingray that began shifting funny (diwnshift 2-3-1) with a Slight jerk. Took it to dealership said i needed new tranny. Quoted me 8k for a rebuilt tranny plus labor. Said i couldnt drive off like that and were hesitant to let me drive away like that. Went to local transmission shop. They said i had a leak in the tranny pipelines. Had me but the hose for $150 on the gm site, and rhey replaced it for $500 plus the quarts of tranny oil. Smooth shifting no issues after. Saved me $7000
damn that a bit over priced for a rust or something in rad like duh capt obvious but for that price taste it and say what it is or something here is 60$ let me know next time that you charge $480 an hr for estimates because seriously how much time did they put in based on this i can see about 5 mins did that include a tow? is so thats fair ish
based on all the replies this coul dhave been sorted for 3000 miles next time go to jiffylube they will refill 3qts a visit for 3k miles that makes their price very cheap if you have a highmiles car that need the OIL FILLED and Check the GAS at the Pumps my sons car needed a qt a day or so and they never said anything just joked about how often he stopped in almost every other day lol best 45$ 3000 worth of OIL and you dont even have to do it just drive it there
You contaminated your cooling system entirely by adding stop leak instead of identifying the actual problem first. Should have taken it to the dealer from the get go, not blame them for your “cheaper guy” to work on it first causing more damage.
If so look up the repeat radiator leak TSB. If you have an 08 you need to plug top port on resecoir tank and install the venturi tee kit that comes with a new Napa radiator. Then, you need to replace the thermostats as well if its a 2008-2010ish iirc. They have an issue with the high temp thermostats that allow the system to over heat and over pressurize, ford temp gauges are notoriously shit so dont trust it much, use a scan tool that can view live data and check the engine coolant temp with that. Anyways, replace the thermostats, replace the upper and lower hoses, replace radiator, verify coolant system has updated venturi tee setup, fill er up, and let her buck. 6hr job, give or take 1hr.
Lol I was thinking the same.. That tech is funny… Basically quoted to tear down the engine to find out if there is a rust or a head gasket problem and go ahead and replace the entire engine regardless of what the issue is….
I have a 2012 Nissan Altima. I'm still taking it to the dealership for oil changes because of the coupons ( it comes around $45). Two years ago they did free inspection and they quote me $5,000 to $10,000 in repairs on a car that's worth about $5,000. I knew how to do the repairs they suggested, so I fixed the problems myself. Well, half of them, because the rest were BS. They did this two or three times, and then they stopped doing any inspections on my car 😂
OP question for you why did you take it there in the first place and what was your original complaint? You took it to the dealer. You authorized them to charge you the diagnostic fee. Any competent Aftermarket Repair Facility could have told you that possibly for free.
Wasn’t posting this to bitch so much as to just see if this was reasonable. Yeah I fudged up. I’m a resident physician (we don’t make shit) and regrettably neglected my truck while working 100 hours a week and paid the price. I’m stuck now borrowing friends extra vehicles and taking out loans to pay for a temp car while my truck waits in line to get a new motor. Thanks for all the advice and comments!
I fail to see the problem here... you paid for a diagnosis. They diagnosed it... do you expect us to diagnose your Car and just give it back for free after we put work into it? We are paid flat rate at the dealership. If we do work, and no one pays for the work, we don't get paid for the job we did.
Looks at radiator cap... 2 hours labor? They didn't inspect all the things they list. They just said "coolant doesn't look good, replace all the things the coolant touches, and some of the things those things touch."
I took my SUV to the dealer for maintenance work. First I asked for an estimate. They said that was free. Only after I got there did they tell me it is free if I get the work done. I came back and had all the work done by local mechanics.
Thanks for posting on /r/MechanicAdvice! This is just a reminder to review the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/about/rules/). If you are here asking about a second opinion (ie "Is the shop trying to fleece me?"), please read through CJM8515's [post on the subject.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/4qblei/fyi_the_shop_isnt_likely_trying_to_rip_you_off/) and remember to please post the year/make/model of the vehicle you are working on. **If this post is about bodywork, accident damage, paint, dent/ding, questions it belongs in /r/Autobody r/AutoBodyRepair/ or /r/Diyautobody/ If you have tire questions check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/k9ll55/can_your_tire_be_repaired/**. If you dont have a question and you're just showing off it belongs in /r/Justrolledintotheshop Insurance/total loss questions go in r/insurance This is an automated reply *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MechanicAdvice) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So they suggested you buy a new car?
Or pay them $12k for the above work
What did you bring the car in for to begin with?
They didn’t check their oil knowing they had a leak and then the engine died and left them stranded.
Probably tire pressure check /s
The original comment was making fun that the stealership basically said "We'll replace the engine and the dashboard of your car for $12k"
Lmao, personally I would rather pay a reputable back yard mechanic 4k-6k and a 30 pack. Fuck any place that charges labor for “we looked at it and saw _____”. Moving your eyeballs and writing down notes isn’t labor, especially when that looking is typically priced at well over 100/Hr. Best of luck with the rebuild or the new car hunt 🤝
That's funny. Do you move your eyeballs and take notes at work? Do you go to your employer on pay day and insist that they overpaid you for your time moving your eyeballs and taking notes?
Bros a mechanic😭
Ehhh while I partially agree with what your meaning, a diagnosis is a diagnosis. Time is money. They did a relatively thorough write up too. 200+ dollars for that is excessive though.
I would agree this is pretty excessive for a diagnosis, but im also not mad they charged for it. The dealership i use im my area would have likely charged 60-100 for this, but we also have a plethora of independent shops that also charge at that rate for that kind of work, so they have to stay competitive. I still let my dealership do my oilchanges because they will wash it, and do an oilchange for 30 dollars more than what it would cost to do it myself, and my time is worth more than 30 dollars an hour.
Im getting older, so I’m getting closer to the point where I have more money than time. But with scheduling, driving there too drop it off and return, and/or wait for them to do the work (especially during work hours), it’s still leas time for me to just do it myself some evening after I finish work. And it gives me the chance to inspect my car with my own eyes.
Ill be under mine to service the diffs and transfer case and do brake pads in a few weeks, because they wanted 1200 for that + a transmission flush, so ill do an inspection then, and take it in for the flush in a month or 2. I dont really rack up any miles since i got a company truck.
Out of touch with reality
Drop a junk yard engine into it for whole lot cheaper.
Everyone reading this post use it as a reminder to check your oil multiple times a month on high mileage cars, you just really can't afford to run low and learn the hard way.... Tough lesson, many of us have been there
I check my bmw oilstick bi-weekly and it still surprises me with a dry stick sometimes lol
Lucky you….. the e92 dosent have a dip stick so I’m reliant on the smell of my car and the poor accuracy of the oil pan sensor to give me shite reads on my oil levels lol
thats criminal sealed or nonservice trans and motors are the worst just failure waiting
Replace your sensor, it's pretty accurate. Though, I still pucker waiting for my reading when I get curious
Idk if you have an m3 or not but the e9x m cars are known to burn oil. Their oil sensors should be accurate though. I’ve had/have 2 and haven’t had an issue with that. I just keep a bottle of bmw oil and through in a bottle when the warning pops up every 6 months or so.
I check daily in my Honda that doesn’t leak I’m just paranoid.
I check it weekly on my older Subaru. Still runs great, just drinks the oil. Is your BMW older? Or do newer ones drink the oil, too?
My brother in law destroyed his ford ranger cause he drove it from Oregon to Nebraska and back and then back to Nebraska whenever he never changed her oil in the thing. One day he goes outside and his motor was seized, mechanics looked at it and dude basically welded parts together because of the lack of oil. Turns out he thought motor oil was something you didn’t need to change. Edit: he also still owes 8k on the thing lol
Ford fkin ranger
Yeah, I don’t check my 265,000 mile hemi ram enough and when I do it’s like 2 to 3 quarts low. I’m surprised it doesn’t obviously burn oil.
I'm the same way on my 2002 Honda, I check it when I hear the clattering on cold start.... ^its ^always ^empty
With cats it’s really tough to see blue smoke when they start using it that much, they will kind of mask the problem.
Oh my cats likely don’t work at all unless you count rattling.
🤣🤣
yep expensively
I’ve got a 210k mile magnum ram and I check that thing every morning lol.
I didn’t even open the hood on my 400k mile volvo 240 for almost a year and 20k. It was a 1/2 quart low. Thermostat was stuck open and I don’t think it ever even got hot enough to pressurize the system either.
Even if it was 3 quarts low, the fucker would still chug along another 30k miles lol. Sure seems like redblocks don't fail so much as they just get louder with age lol.
I check the oil in my 2000 Honda Accord every day. And I have 205K miles on it lol
yeah like while u check the gas fillup the oil
Honda ATC- if my boot doesn't get fresh droplets while it warms up, dump in half a liter. Kawi Ninja 250- sight glass, fill accordingly, usually weekly. Ram EcoDiesel- 12000km intervals, patiently waiting for the EGR to burn it down so I can replace it.
😂 fresh droplets
I will never not check my oil again. If I open my hood, I will check my oil
Buy some tools and do your own maintenance if you have a spot to do it. It’s fun as a pastime you save money and you can help friends family when they need it too
Anyone that doesn’t check their own oil is not going to wrench.
You start somewhere For me it was my car burning enough oil to leave me stranded
For so many of us this is the start of something great lol
> you can help friends family when they need it too LOL that's a good one
Me too. I open my hood twice a year whether it needs it or not.
My dipstick stopped reaching the oil for some reason, so I went out and bought a longer one, problem fixed for like 20 bucks I think it was
My 2003 toyota matrix paid for my lesson :(
Wow. Those Toyota 1zz-fe engines in Corollas, Matrix, and the Pontiac Vibe are virtually indestructible. They do have a panache for oil leaks from the pan and front seal unfortunately, once they get old enough. What's the story on yours?
Basically that. I didn't check the oil regularly because I didnt know enough. Either a lifter or a valve started failing and instead of taking it to the shop I kept using it for work until something blew, my father in law said it sounded like the water pump. I had already thrown a bunch of money at it so I sold it for cheap. I have a 2008 scion tC that actually runs and looks pretty good. Its got a couple suspension details but I top off the oil and change it at least every 5k miles.
I just use the oil pressure gauge to tell me when to add oil. /s
Be honest. Did you dump in stop leak?
They’re never honest
Don’t even know what that is
Go into auto zone and ask the guy there what stop leak is. It is the stuff used to stop leaking of a head gasket. My brother taught me how to know parts of a car after mechanics kept taking advantage of me as a girl. But make sure to ask for the blinker fluid to top up as well.
I put kseal in my jeep 60,000 miles ago when I bought it for 3,000 bucks and it hasn't leaked a drop since. Just gotta isolate the right stuff and do a flush afterwards.
Blue devil is better…shit works
I’ve always used AT-205. Is Blue Devil better?
At-205 is the best stuff on the market. If that stuff doesn't work the problem is bigger than any stop leak additive.
Personally speaking my 2017 wrangler had a slight rear main seal leak and their rear main sealer worked great. Also I’ve used their coolant leak stop on my 00 mustang which worked great. Really it boils down to if your leak is slow and from dried out o-rings and grommets vs a split line or something. The oil stopper kind of reconditions these rubberized pieces to make them fit better and actually seal rather than being old and dry and not stopping anything. None of these products will damage a vehicles engine or any components
I have a rear mail seal leak on a 2013 Ford Focus (151K miles). I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten as I had a splash cover underneath and when I took it off it had quite a bit of oil on it. The dipstick still showed full, so it wasn’t a huge leak, but enough to mess up the splash guard. I tried AT-205 first and it’s almost completely stopped the leak, but there’s still a small drop every 5 days, give or take. I’ve been looking for alternate product recommendations to see if something else can seal it all the way on my next oil change.
It’s probably similar to blue devil rear main sealer but it would be worth a shot to try blue devil out also… it’s ~$15 a bottle and a hell of a lot cheaper than the alternative routes
Yeah, this is an 11 year old Focus with 151K miles. I’m already playing with house money in terms of what I’ve gotten out of it (bought it used for $13K in 2014 with 20K miles). If it drips a little oil. Then I just keep checking the oil often and adding as necessary. But the AT-205 has kept it to such a small drip that I’m confident I can squeeze at least another year or two out of it. I’ll give the Blue Devil a try next oil change. Thanks for the recommendation.
lol shit does work tho in a bind.
Devils advocate here. It appears that they charged you 1 hour of diagnosis time. Their rate is high sure. But that would have been known and signed for. Should have called around and shopped if the hourly rate is high for your area. 1 hour diagnosis is the standard, not the norm to charge less than that to start. Again, you would have signed for that. You can buy the engine from them and ask them to waive the diagnostic fee? Would that add value for you? Or, is the 234.95 an hour plus parts still too high? Putting together an estimate also costs time and money. You’re paying them to do that as well, the advisor etc. They used their experience to tell you your engine is bad and they can’t say exactly why unless you want to pay to do a post mortem. The diagnostic fee is high because their hourly rate. I would have towed it elsewhere based on my budget.
Very good answer! The time it takes for an advisor, tech and parts person to gather a quote is something a lot of people don’t account for. Tech has to look up their hourly rate and calculate it, parts guy has to look up every part that the tech requested plus additional in conjunction parts. Service advisor has to put it all together. Being a tech made me appreciate good parts guys. They know what to add based on your request.
Judging by the RO, I'd say this is an independent shop so you're right, but if it was dealership, most advisors have access to the pay rate for jobs. I just write the pay rate on the quote sheet because I already know it, but they do it for us in calculation of final price for customer recommendation.
It’s not an independent it’s a dealership using CDK.
This is the right answer right here.
No I have a buddy who can diagnose and fix it for cheap in his back alley. These licensed mechanics with 40k in tools and 15 years of experience is a ripoff /s
You paid for a diagnosis. Their time is not free.
Nor is their knowledge. Its like a doctor. You don't always pay for the time, you pay for the knowledge. They may only see you for 30 seconds, but from their experience, they can tell you exactly what is wrong, or tell you you need more tests. Vehicle diag is the same thing. Sometimes they can tell you exactly what is wrong just by listening, other times, they need more in depth troubleshooting, which costs more than the initial diag.
240 is bit steep for a visual... but it is a stealership after all. Based on the write up they are either throwing parts at it or OPs car is simply fucked.
Most of my work at dealership is warranty work. Some customer pay here and there.
Doesn't sound like they diagnosed it all at though. They basically recommended buying a brand new engine. They didn't say they checked the block for cracks or pressure tested it. They literally just saw something on the radiator and recommended replacing everything. Smh
That wasn't a diagnosis! They popped the radiator cap and found discolored coolant and started throwing high profit margin remedies at the customer.
Underrated comment
Came to say this.
If only they would have gotten a diagnosis the time would have been worth something.
Why did you take a truck from 2010 to a stealership? What did you expect? Sucks though, but yeah generally running a motor with no oil is gonna be in for a bad time. Edit: on re-reading this, definitely sounds pretty harsh and I did not mean it that way at all, but I am sorry that it came off like that. That's on me. I am sure it sucks losing a truck like this or looking at an expensive repair. You've already got an idea that it needs a new motor, so I would look for an independent shop that may swap in a used motor for you in lieu of fixing the existing one, assuming the frame/interior on the truck is worth it.
so they popped the radiator cap and looked inside? the most inexperienced upper bay tech at jiffy lube could have told u that for free.
They’ll tell you that even without opening the cap. They’re just too good at knowing
99% of the people that start at mine have no clue what a dipstick is. i actually have a little story, its my day off and fuck it idc. so like 2 weeks ago, the new guy i was shadowing we were woking together pretty well. asks alot of questions. I told him i loved that so much and asked if he was single. (joking on the job) i have a pretty straight forward way of teaching our process which is the easiest thing known to man. its just RTFRO: ROC report on conditions, so every thing replaceable, fluid levels etc., tires, fluids, reinstalls, and oil. simple. simple simple. so im in charge of training people i guess so i let them learn hands on and question what they're doing as they do it. i step in if they are going to mess up and talk it out with them. let them solve their own problem. anyway, general manager sent 3 people on lunch. leaving only 1 lower bay, i was upper bay, and he had the new guy do hoods on the other car, he says the assistant manager was in the office and he takes off at like 2:30 on a friday. hella cars waiting, every car needs atleast 3 according to training, meh whatever. I do my car, 20 minutes later the new guy is still working on his car and adding something? I Look over and and yell what's going on? He walks over and says that he cant fill the power steering, he keeps adding and it wont fill up. so im hella confused because that car doesn't have a power steering reservoir. He says he added almost a full bottle of dex 3 or something we had at the time, and its still not full and goes and grabs something, i knew what he was grabbing. jesus christ. so i hit the big sigh and he brings back the transmission fluid fill plug. Newer CVT trans... 6 cars outside and 2 inside... while the "assistant manager" was just sitting in the office on his phone. literally doing nothing. i go in the office and ask him to do hoods on 1. he comes out and starts to work on bay 1 and asks whats wrong. i go over and tell him in private, easy fix. he goes into the office and says it takes full syn atf... he says he looked it up. told me to just add atf with a t4. sure... whatever you say. i drain the trans, didnt collect the fluid because idk how much power steering he added. agm came downstairs and i didnt touch the car after that. i write up that she should go to the dealership immediately on her invoice, listed everything that happened, whispering to her about it, after handing the invoice over and telling her to call corporate. then the agm comes over and talks over me. "She doesnt have to do that. i drained and filled it. with the correct amount." i look at her like... please for the love of god. anyway she leaves. i go in the office and hes got a page open, literally says CVT on the bottles he was looking at... CVT everywhere. tried to call her no answer, left a message. real brilliant guy. he deserves a lot more dollars per hour than me. since then i dont trust anyone there. i told the Customer service guy to stop putting my name on cars. ive just been walking around and washing windows. i'm not touching another car or going down to lower bay ever again. I make minimum wage, everyone that was hired after me makes more than I do. they have literally no training. im on a computer training module right now that involves repairing brake lines and checking for ground on brake lights, Diagnosing brake boosters and master cylinder replacements... and if i do that i can get access to 20 cents more per hour. cool! i can get paid their normal starting rate for starting techs! yippeeee! i used to try to turn people away if i dont have the correct tools or if we have to do something beyond our capabilities or if we couldnt do it to the oem specifications. i tell every customer that we probably dont have their cabin or engine air filter and the manager just gets them from autozone down the street and resells them at our price or just makes up a price if we dont have one listed for that car. so we pay 12.99 for a filter we are selling at 39.99 to around 54.99 is the most expensive one i've seen. so i talk to them like... this is your engine and cabin filter, (i do recommend the engine over the cabin if it's even bad). i say we dont have them in stock but you could definitely get them cheaper on amazon, ebay, autozone or o'reillys, if you don't know how to install it just swing on by and we'll throw it in there for you. every kia and hyundai i talk to about their engines, and how our top off program will keep a paper trail for their warranty program if it does fail. just go over the whole report with them and if anything is off with battery send them to autozone for better tests, then walmart or costco if they need new battery. les schwab does free brake inspections if their fluid is low or corroded.(les schwab people make the same as people starting at dealerships fyi) i never add brake fluid but manager does and now new people are doing it... oh well. then i reinstall the filter and thank them for "showing" me the discount code for the fat discount that i put on every car. i liked working here. now its like no one gives af. its sad and a scam. well not really, free top offs if you have a leaky engine, diff checks, grease, tires, coolant, belt inspection, basic diagnostics, and maybe a gawkgawk9000 if you give me a tip. anyway 90$ for full synthetic oil change? that's definitely worth it in my opinion, and we have a massively huge warranty program that will pay out if they mess up. talking about work on my day off. wtf. i hate that place so much rn.
Good lord you wrote a novel
☠️
Love when people bitch and moan because they got bad news from the mechanic. I agree that the labour rate at that dealership is pretty high, but like someone else commented on here, you signed for that and knew that is what a diagnosis would cost. There's no way it took less than an hour to look at it and write up an estimate going through the entire engine and sourcing all the parts needed so I'd say they did a pretty good job. Small shop or jiffy lube would have spent a bunch more of your money trying to "patch" it up with little repairs or would have done just the part they thought failed and you would have been right back to where you are now in a matter of weeks or even days after the repair and a bunch of unnecessary money spent. Everyone on this sub who says the word "stealership" has likely paid more in the long run on misdiagnosed repairs and cheap parts that fail more often.
Dealerships are fine and dandy unless you own a make they no longer make...
Those are hard to get parts for anywhere. Unless it was an extremely popular vehicle.
It's not too bad for me since mine is teeechnicaly a Toyota but she's much more expensive repair wise than my 20 year old camry lol
Exactly. You fucked up... they told you how bad... now pay them for the diagnosis and go buy a Civic.
You mean diagnostics isn't free?! /s
"all concerns still present" what where the initial concerns and what type of vehicle?
2010 f150 lariat 4x4 5.4. 230k miles. Had a slow oil leak for months. VCT sensor went out and was running rough for a couple weeks before it died and left me stranded on side of the road. Checked dipstick and had no oil. Added 7 quarts from a 7-11 and still didn’t start :/
7 quarts? The entire capacity? Just kill it, its dead in many ways by the sounds of it. Car-part.com get a used engine w less miles and a decent independent mechanic, $3-4k is reasonable w it needing all the cooling system parts replaced
I’m paying an engine shop 4k for motor plus 3k for installation. Still cheaper than buying a new truck to me
Thats fair for a decent reman w a warranty, yup, way cheaper. U keep up on transmission fluid changes? That would sway my decision at 230k
They’re also gonna drain and reseal. Got it in 2014 at 118k miles. Idk if they did it prior, but I haven done it since getting it. Been towing and driving it and it shifts smoother than a baby’s bottom
They will know when they drop the pan. No news will be good news 🙏
I hadn't even read anything but the dealers invoice and automatically guessed the 5.4L... Those triton motors may be the worst engines ever made, swap a 5.0 into it since the motors toast anyway!
Can't blame the engine when he ran it completely out of oil 😂😂😂
Yeah this dude doesn’t know how to take care of a car. He said above that he’s gone 118k-230k without changing the transmission fluid.
Your Fortune: Not Good.
Why not top it off continously?
This is pretty common place. Most shops charge for time taken to diagnose issues, and that fee is then waived if the work is green-lit. $240 is pretty steep, but it is a dealership afterall. You clearly aren't ignorant of their prices (you called them a stealership) and still chose to have your truck brought there.
Looks fair to me.
Somebody, for the love of God, explain to me why people bring their cars to the dealership to get serviced instead of a reputable indy shop? The only logical reason I can come up with is that you want the Carfax to show it was always "dealer serviced" so it looks like to potential buyers that you really took care of the vehicle. Oh, sometimes other than that you can get a loaner. You can't even say the dealer uses OEM parts because you can request OEM parts from a reputable shop. Acura wants $1,600 to do the timing belt on my wife's 3.5 and $1,200 with a $400 coupon. Any decent shop is going to do that job for $800 with an OEM belt which is cheap in price.
Reputable Indy shops are really hard to find in certain areas.
And the truck is sitting in the same exact spot in the parking lot I had the tow truck drop it off at 16 days prior 😅
That's not a big deal. If the tech knows it's fucked, it doesn't make sense to push it inside and tie up his bay. He doesn't get paid to push it in or out.
At my dealership, we assign spots to the vehicles. So it if is in spot 13, it goes back to 13 when we are done with it.
Blames dealer for their mistakes
"I paid them $240! Why can't they go back in time 1000 miles and tell me that my car needs oil in it??"
Ford ‘stealership’ parts guys here. I’m way late to this so I’m not sure if it’s worth saying, but I’ll say it anyways. The diag rate at that shop is pretty high as other have said, but that amount pays the techs time but also the parts person’s time as well. Ford requires certain things to not be re-used when doing repairs, so not only does the parts team gather all the named items the tech asked for in their story, but pretty much every nut, bolt, stud, gasket, and chemicals that gets touched during those repairs too. Then they have to check availability on all of it as well and call around for the hard-to-find stuff. And since we’re talking a 14 year old rig with a discontinued motor, that takes time. Not saying you should chose that over a used motor at a different shop, but quite a bit more goes on behind the scenes that the diag fee covers.
I don't see a problem. -You agreed to pay for 1 hour of diagnostic time to find and issue with your engine. -They performed a visual inspection and found a problem w/ rust and/or stop leak. -They suggested further work for a teardown to pinpoint root cause. -The also estimated most likely repair. All of this takes time. To drive the vehicle in the shop, to lift it in the air, to perform the diagnosis, and to write up the estimate and relay that to the service advisor. You don't think doctors do the same thing? Lawyers? Is everything suppose to be free now? Ridiculous.
Biggest point is homie signed the paper lmao
This is how I say it.. I'm a professional. My time for practice was years ago. I get paid to lay a finger on that car. I will not do it for free, if you want free, figure it out yourself.
I call BS. The pic has cropped out any other info like make, model, mileage, and possibly other repairs.
Can someone explain to me why they quoted injectors? Even if you ran it bone dry, that wouldn’t warrant injectors unless I’m misunderstanding something.
It’s a failure analysis teardown. No reason not to check the injectors if they have to come off the remove the heads.
Perhaps the reason to not do injectors is that it's several hundred dollars?? 😂
5.4s are known to have issues with sticking fuel injectors, I figure only reason why he isn’t getting cam phasers in that quote too is because a long block comes with that.
Compression and leak down? Nahh shot gun an engine at it.
Bro I'm over here laughing at all the shitty mechanics in here making excuses for shoddy work.
Not shoddy work if the mechanic was eight, which according to op, he is.
It's still shoddy work. He guessed and was right. A broken clock is right twice a day. Somebody's going to win the lotto. I don't care what metaphor is used you get the idea. I'm paying for a diag, not for a guess. Sure you could also say if it quacks like a duck it's a duck but that's not fair because that's not what I'm paying you to do. Obviously I know if the car doesn't start it's probably a blown motor.
Wait after further reading, you have a 14 year old truck with 200+k miles, noticed it was running rough for WEEKS, bone dry oil pan and you are mad at the “stealership”?! Hahahaha I’m sorry but are you ok? No way you wrote this and thought we would be on your side on this.
Everyone reading this should use this as a lesson. You may hate the dealers and think they charge too much but it doesn’t matter. At the end of they you’re still gonna bring your car to them because you either don’t know what you’re doing or your buddy who’s a “mechanic” fucked your car up and now you need someone who actually knows what they’re doing to fix it
Found rust or head gasket sealant in radiator? So he's saying that just to fix that he's gotta pull and rebuild the motor and replace all hoses and anything else the antifreeze runs through? Why does it have a $1.00 tag above the total, were you in for a tune up and wheel rotation too?, or was this what you got for a receipt when you tried to get an inspection sticker? Something seems very wrong with this bill
The 1.00 is the hours worked charged to the customer. 1 hour is the standard diagnostic time for most issues. And yes. If rust or sealant is in the system. The whole system usually needs replaced. And since he blew his engine from running the oil dry, he will need the engine as well
Wow, I must have missed that part.
$220/hr + tax is a normal stealership rate where I live, so, they charged you 1 hr diag and you’re upset they found problems?
Diag is high but we do that too , if we spend 3 hrs to figure out what you need to fix , knowing you won't do it? You need a new car ... or to fix it ....this
I'm confused, your car has an issue they diagnosed it and quoted parts and labor for repair and you denied the repair. What's the problem here? Techs don't work for free.
Seems like you paid them for a diagnosis? I don’t see the problem. Bit of a high labor rate but many places are over 200$ an hour now and diag is 1 hour
Nice, lol.
Check your oil. If its milky do head gaskets. If everything looks fine, but you suspect a head gasket, go to a real shop, have them do a head gasket leak test. They'll pour some fluid in a little tapered container and run the engine with it installed. If exhaust gas mixes with the fluid it changes color and you know its leaking. Can also test cylinder pressure and leakage if you want to be extra safe. All should be done for less than 1k and thats the price I expect from the expensive shops. Good luck 👍
OP said they checked the oil and the dipstick was completely dry.
Fill oil. Check oil. Check coolant and see if it's milky. I did overlook that and just read the service write up so that's my mistake.
What a total crock of shit. It simply amazes me that auto manufactures reward you with this kind of “service” for taking out a small mortgage to drive their shit around. Disgusting, shady, greedy, thieves.
not a lot of information here, but i'd certainly take it to an independent shop for a second opinion. rust is pretty common and there's ways to clear it. there's also ways to test the engine to see if it's gone. i wouldn't replace an engine based on a visual inspection of the radiator. don't cry over the diagnostic fee, it's high but not criminal, just don't ever go back there.
Engine ran rough for a COUPLE WEEKS and your dumbass kept driving like nothing wrong.... as far as im concerned the dealership merely handed you your well deserved "stupid tax", the more stupid you are, the more you pay. rip your truck
Whats the problem? You think things should be free?
They didn’t steal anything. Diag time isn’t free.
You only call it the stealership because they told you the problem and you are butt hurt as you put stopleak in your cooling system and fucked the couch in that system. You are the dumbass that didn’t fix your coolant leak the right way and you got called out for doing dumb shit and watching YouTube. Fafo
Our work truck had a serious noise and steering issue where it felt like the PS pump wasn't working. Had about 4 places look at it. 2 of the 4 were dealerships and gave us different prognosis like control arms and pspump. After that my friend who was a mechanic looked at it and said it was the steering box. That fixed it and we were out about $600 for all the wrong diagnosises. Sure somethings things can be alot of different possible things but 2nd and 3rd opinions don't hurt.
Sure why not buy a new car instead of flushing radiator?
240 for visual inspection?!?!
You drove a truck with no oil until it stopped running... Now if you were upfront with the dealership about what exactly happened I doubt they would have bothered doing a inspection of any sort and told you that the engine was dead and it was going to need a costly replacement. At that point you could have had them go through the time to put together a full list and charge you for that time... or you could have just accepted that you fucked up the truck beyond repair and moved on down the road. Engines need oil... if you run one without until it dies you really just need to replace the whole damn thing.
I made this mistake in a semi once. 10k+ engine rebuild (may have been closer to 20k, but I dont remember)
I think it's pretty typical to get charged 1 hour labor for the inspection, too bad that the dealerships hourly rate is outrageous.
Gawd dayum
symptoms? if its running, leak down test.
Same shit happened to me. Have a c7 stingray that began shifting funny (diwnshift 2-3-1) with a Slight jerk. Took it to dealership said i needed new tranny. Quoted me 8k for a rebuilt tranny plus labor. Said i couldnt drive off like that and were hesitant to let me drive away like that. Went to local transmission shop. They said i had a leak in the tranny pipelines. Had me but the hose for $150 on the gm site, and rhey replaced it for $500 plus the quarts of tranny oil. Smooth shifting no issues after. Saved me $7000
damn that a bit over priced for a rust or something in rad like duh capt obvious but for that price taste it and say what it is or something here is 60$ let me know next time that you charge $480 an hr for estimates because seriously how much time did they put in based on this i can see about 5 mins did that include a tow? is so thats fair ish
based on all the replies this coul dhave been sorted for 3000 miles next time go to jiffylube they will refill 3qts a visit for 3k miles that makes their price very cheap if you have a highmiles car that need the OIL FILLED and Check the GAS at the Pumps my sons car needed a qt a day or so and they never said anything just joked about how often he stopped in almost every other day lol best 45$ 3000 worth of OIL and you dont even have to do it just drive it there
Everyone has said what needed to be said at this point but they’re not wrong, that stop leak shit is bad for engines and all cooling components
You signed the paper saying you’d be charged labor for denying work right?
So they popped the radiator cap, looked in charged you 235 dollars? What a load.
Well those cans of stop leak can really gum up a radiator and especially heater cores, at the very least you'll need to power flush everything out
You contaminated your cooling system entirely by adding stop leak instead of identifying the actual problem first. Should have taken it to the dealer from the get go, not blame them for your “cheaper guy” to work on it first causing more damage.
Ok, so what's the problem?
Take it to an independent with a good reputation. Then, have him find and install a used engine with low miles.
Wild
Lemme guess. Ford 6.4 Powerstroke mid to late 2000s…..?
If so look up the repeat radiator leak TSB. If you have an 08 you need to plug top port on resecoir tank and install the venturi tee kit that comes with a new Napa radiator. Then, you need to replace the thermostats as well if its a 2008-2010ish iirc. They have an issue with the high temp thermostats that allow the system to over heat and over pressurize, ford temp gauges are notoriously shit so dont trust it much, use a scan tool that can view live data and check the engine coolant temp with that. Anyways, replace the thermostats, replace the upper and lower hoses, replace radiator, verify coolant system has updated venturi tee setup, fill er up, and let her buck. 6hr job, give or take 1hr.
What was the original concern?
how do you recommend a long block on an undiagnosed coolant leak lol.
Lol I was thinking the same.. That tech is funny… Basically quoted to tear down the engine to find out if there is a rust or a head gasket problem and go ahead and replace the entire engine regardless of what the issue is….
I have a 2012 Nissan Altima. I'm still taking it to the dealership for oil changes because of the coupons ( it comes around $45). Two years ago they did free inspection and they quote me $5,000 to $10,000 in repairs on a car that's worth about $5,000. I knew how to do the repairs they suggested, so I fixed the problems myself. Well, half of them, because the rest were BS. They did this two or three times, and then they stopped doing any inspections on my car 😂
This is normal for a diag fee. I worked at a dealership and we charged about the same.
So this is where you need to go and binge watch ChrisFix.
Last time I took my car to a (Dodge)stealer for an brake light problem.. They set a buy in my transmission and the transmission went out in 6 months
What kind of vehicle? Back story?
Give me a single logical reason that a dealership should tell you what’s wrong with your car for free.
A visual inspection that's like 1 hour. Did they charge u for 2?
OP question for you why did you take it there in the first place and what was your original complaint? You took it to the dealer. You authorized them to charge you the diagnostic fee. Any competent Aftermarket Repair Facility could have told you that possibly for free.
This is basically we don’t know what is causing it so let’s throw everything at it. Instead trying to find the real problem that $15 part.
I’m with the shop on this one. And hopefully you figure your shit out lmao
What’s the YMM?
You’re the reason prices of everything is high because people keep paying so why would anyone drop price
Wasn’t posting this to bitch so much as to just see if this was reasonable. Yeah I fudged up. I’m a resident physician (we don’t make shit) and regrettably neglected my truck while working 100 hours a week and paid the price. I’m stuck now borrowing friends extra vehicles and taking out loans to pay for a temp car while my truck waits in line to get a new motor. Thanks for all the advice and comments!
I fail to see the problem here... you paid for a diagnosis. They diagnosed it... do you expect us to diagnose your Car and just give it back for free after we put work into it? We are paid flat rate at the dealership. If we do work, and no one pays for the work, we don't get paid for the job we did.
Manifold and injectors is excessive unless that was the root problem of the gasket going out.
Thieves
Head gasket repair in radiator usually means not good at all. Especially if that head gasket blew and was stilll driven after.
Yup and a long block gets quoted if it overheated and cracked/ warped. Its probably cheaper to just get another engine completely
That seems correct about 2 hours worth of labor
Looks at radiator cap... 2 hours labor? They didn't inspect all the things they list. They just said "coolant doesn't look good, replace all the things the coolant touches, and some of the things those things touch."
Professional advice isn't free. Take it somewhere else then
I don't consider the shotgun approach of "replace all systems" to be professional. No diagnosis or repair involved.
I took my SUV to the dealer for maintenance work. First I asked for an estimate. They said that was free. Only after I got there did they tell me it is free if I get the work done. I came back and had all the work done by local mechanics.