odette

08 Civic LX sedan (which I love, BTW.) Mileage is 44,000 (mostly highway.) The other day when I took it in for an oil change the following maintenance recommendations were made:

Front brake pads and "resurface" rotors
Clean and adjust rear brakes
Flush power steering and engine coolant
Replace air filter and cabin air filter

This was the first time they recommended anything beyond the basic oil change. When they quoted me a price of $96 for the filter replacements and $305 for the front brake "job," I told them to just do the oil change. Then my husband replaced the front brake pads and the filters.

The front rotors looked brand new. And I mean brand new. The wear on the pads was less than 50 percent, and they had worn evenly on both sides.

The power steering fluid was water clear.

The air intake filter was obviously used, but no evidence of oil or anything like that. He replaced it. The cabin air filter was grungy and replaced.

Neither of us could see the purpose of replacing 60 month coolant at 30 months. Inspection of the coolant did not show any residue. The only issue we found was that two days ago the dealer did NOT top up the coolant, as the reservoir was noticeably low for a warm engine. Fluids other than brake fluid is supposed to be topped off at maintenance checks. THAT issue is going to be resolved TODAY, when I go to the dealership and scream bloody murder about it! BTW--there ARE no coolant leaks on the driveway.

As far as I can tell, the only things that really needed attention were the filters. Yet the recommended services they wanted to sell me would have cost in excess of $700.

Parts for the brake pads and the filters cost me a total of $77 at AutoZone, and the filter replacements certainly are well within my range of expertise (minimal.) There is a lifetime warranty on the brake pads (in other words, bring in the old set and get a new set.)

I'm a little more than mildly aggravated right now about the shameless way they tried to get me to do these maintenance jobs, and drop a pretty healthy chunk of change.

Comments, anyone?

MelJ

DAAAAAAAMN! That's pretty hefty for dealer service.

Ggsbassist

Mechanics have a huge rep of trying to rip you off. This happens like crazy. My girlfriend has paid way to much money over the passed few months for brake repairs on her car. I would have done it myself but I was working 3 jobs and never had sunlight to do any of the work. Sears ripped her off and so did a "friend" of hers. Tire kingdom guys where actually pretty honest but they don't do much other than tires and fluid changes. After replacing her calipers, pads, rotors, system flush, tie rods, shocks, springs, and tires she's still having brake issues... In short, most mechanics are thieves. Find one who isn't and just stick to him. Or do the work yourself.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

even the dealer here used to charge $25 for an oil change few yrs ago now charges $68!! for an oil change!

Kennykid2002

iTrader: (1)

Dealers always try to rip you off
It works well when you have an expensive car like a BMW or Mercedes, because they are technically harder to work on than a honda

Everything on your list you can do yourself for less than $150
for $700,
I can get some brembo brake rotors, hawks performance brake pads, royal purple engine oil, replace all my filters, flush all my fluids, and still probably have 350 bucks in my pocket

Btw, do your own oil change, or get your husband to, it takes bout 20 minutes, and saves you $$
I think dealership charges like $40~60 for an oil change, and gives you their generic honda brand engine oil

for $23 at walmart, I can get a 5 quart mobile 1 synthetic engine oil, grab a $3 fram filter, and if needed, get a filter wrench and oil pan (which will last you pretty much forever)

And best of all, you wont use powertools on your oil change, i had the bad experience of dealership changing my oil, and using powertools, breaking my oil pan, then having them try to charge me for it

MelJ

GTFO! That's a new video game and a meal at Taco Bell! That is insane.

lazlong

You have to remember that the dealership guys are told to put it in the air for the oil change and to find at least $400 in repairs that need to be done- every time.

WTF! $68! Go to the dealer for any other make (besides GM, of course) and you can get an oil change for $10 or less. They don't make money on oil changes, the oil change is only to find "repairs". That's why most of the other dealers give free oil changes now, they're losing money on them anyways.

You need to change your own oil to be safe, or get lucky like I did and know someone at the quik lube place.

MelJ

I agree 100%, lazlong. When I first got my Corolla, I wasn't really into cars. Just needed reliable transportation for school. FIRST oil change at the dealer, "Sir, your wheels are bent(weren't), radiator is fubar(fins were fine and no overheating), fuel line is leaking(which wasn't)". Every other time after that, something else was wrong with the car. 6 years later the only thing off that list that was changed was the radiator.

02civicsi02

Another reason why they are called the stealership. They will rip you off and the funny thing is that over half of the people that work there dont know what the hell they are doing. The only thing they know how to do is hook the car up to a computer and then read how to do the things. First off they need to know what they are suppose to do in the first place. Most of them dont know hondas either, everytime I go to honda they ask me what kinda car mine is that or either say nice honda fit or nice ford focus .

I have a story. I was going to the beach bout 2 weeks ago and my eps (electronic power steering) light came on and no power steering. Well when I get to the beach I went to honda and asked them to read the eps light for me cause they have the special reader. Well they said they wouldnt be able to get to it today. I was like it will take 10 secs to give me the code and they said still no. I was like you are sitting on your *** and your bussy with something that you cant come read that code. Well they both said that it was probably my eps motor and I was like no its not my motor. They was like I am 100% sure its the motor. Then they actually had the time to look up the motor but no my code and was like well themotor and labor is going to be 450$. I said **** you and I would rather take my chances. So I went back to the hotel and stopped and got my labtop out and I started testing things from all the code diagnosis that it should. I took some tools and stuff with me so I used my multimeter to read everything on the motor. Cheacked out good, then next I took out the speed sensor and looked at it and cleaned it and then put it back and then reset the ecu and cranked the car and it was gone. Ya 100% sure it was the motor right when it was a speed sensor malfunction.

MelJ

I went to the dealership for something a while back and told them I had a 2000 Si. Guy asked, "Manual or automatic?". Seriously? I plan on going into the automotive field after college, so I kinda think it's important to have some skill in this area.

02civicsi02

Yupp most of them are retarded. And i am already in the automotive schooling learning up.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

worst thing i saw was a 350Z with automatic... Corvettes are sad as well...
but an auto Si?!? noooooo!

Ggsbassist

Today I was trying to help a friend change his water pump on his cobalt ss. We got the entire front end off the car and were trying to get the sc when we realized the bolts were way over torqued AND fubar'd! Couple months back the sc seized so he took it to the dealer for a new one. Apparently whatever f***ing c**t they hired just got the impact wrench and went to pound town on his poor sc bolts. We couldn't get it off today... I wish "stealership" (awesome name btw) would hire people who knew what they were doing or could at least follow simple damn instructions and gave a s*** about other peoples cars!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

impact wrench: a stealerships best friend (especially for lug nuts). if they have this handy tool, it means they dont have to go searching in the service book for torque specs. and its great for repeat business when the bolts break later.

Ggsbassist

Gearbox, simply awesome. I'm quoting that and + rep! That summed up todays frustration very nicely.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i aim to please lol. whenever im forced to take my car to a shop for something im not able to do, i always have to loosen and retorque the wheel nuts. usually i can barely get them loose using all my strength and a huge breaker bar with cheater pipe on the end. so much for 80 ft.lbs

02civicsi02

Any kinda like tire shop or dealership has the impact wrench as there best friend. They need a damn torque wrench instead and torque them to there specs like they are suppose to.

And I have had a tire shop put new tires on my old eg. Now my eg was damn nice and I had 100$ lug nuts on them and I told them not to use the impact wrench on them. Well I went and sat down in the lounge of the tire shop and waited. Well the guy came in there and said well we have a problem. Well that mother f'er used the impact wrench to put them back on and ****ed 2 of them up. I was like well you know that that lug nut set was 100$. He was like no and I was like oh yes. Well I made him buy me a hole new set.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

I freakin hate the laziness associated with impact wrenches at dealerships.

When I got a rotate and balance done at discount tire, I was watching them like a hawk, and specifically told them to use a torque wrench on my wheels. They assured me that they practiced nothing BUT taking a torque wrench to lug nuts, and I watched them do nothing but the same on 4 other cars.

Mad Dog Tannen

Odette. Oil change is acceptable, everything else they suggested get done is complete BS. Your brake pads don't need to get changed until they start to make a chirping sound, there are wear indicators that are designed to make noise when they are close to needing replacement. The filters don't need replacing unless they smell or are noticeably dirty. Coolant doesn't need changing unless it is discolored.

They obviously picked the easiest things they could do. The stealership is a waste of money. Find a local machanic that you can trust near to you and go to him from now on. Just my .02

MelJ

OMFG. I hate those things with a passion. This is one of the main reasons I hate getting inspections here. They need to take the tires off to inspect the brakes, suspension, etc. That and I plan on getting some good summer tires next year. I have only one place I trust to use that because they put my first pair of tires on correctly with that thing. Every other place seems to overtighten the lugs . When I put my tires back on, I always use the torque wrench. It won't bite! It's there for a reason! . Also, 02civicsi02, that sucks. At least that moron paid you back. Some people don't get it. You seriously have to get stuff in stone cold writing or they'll completely ignore your requests.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah i can relate. took my car in for a balance, told them specifically to use a hand wrench to take the special tuner lugs off using the key because an impact will strip them. 5 mins later some mechanic with a retarded look on his face comes and says, we stripped two of the lug nuts trying to get em off. wow. i said youre really lucky i have a few spares (that i kept in the car at the time just for this reason). if i didnt, you would be buying me $50 set of new nuts.

happened again at sams club getting tires put on. you would think the task of mounting and balancing tires is so easy anyone could do it. i was partially right. except that when they were done, i found out i was missing a lugnut. not just any nut, an expensive maglock key nut from the locking set sold at the dealer. and walmart is supposed to have two people do an "idiot check" before the car leaves the bay but i guess all the idiots were too busy to see that i had all my nuts on. total cost to them, $125 for a set of new locking lug nuts. and i got the work done for free.

most of you know this old story, but its still a good one. i had a honda dealer swap the headgasket, they said they would have their top mechanic do the job. when i got it back, everything was wrong. i told them to put back the oem header, but instead they put back the aftermarket one and then in the notes said it wouldnt line up right with the exhaust. there was a ground wire dangling inside my radiator fan, there was oil and coolant all over the engine bay and on the front bumper (didnt even try to wipe it off), two spark plugs were at 50 ft/lbs, one was 6ft/lbs, and the other was loose, the front driver side wheel nuts were at 300 ft/lbs, battery cables were loose, dipstick was not even pushed in the engine all the way, oil was low, coolant was low, and a bunch of other stuff i cant remember cause i was so pissed. i limped it home and spent most of the day refixing when they shouldve done. and no i wouldnt take it back and make them fix the problems, not if thats the kind of sloppy work they do. oh yeah they also dented my front fender. how did i know? it was the only dent with greasy fingerprints and oil/coolant all over it. and its the only dent they marked on the repair order with a huge highlighted circle saying WE DID NOT CAUSE DENT (even tho i have about 10 other dents all around the car, they chose to deny just this one next to the engine bay).

Brian1037

wow... that's horrible. just think about all the cars on the road with loose bolts and nuts in their car... or over tightened ones just about ready to fly off at the next pot hole... or all the improperly installed parts.

My worst story isn't by a mechanic but it kind of related because it still screams "don't trust your car to just anyone". my friend has a little hyundai accent and he needed an oil change and one of my other friends said he'd do it for free. so my friend (friend 1) brings his car to the other guys place (friend 2)... but friend 2 obviously didn't know what he was doing and he drained the auto tranny fluid. thinking he drained the oil, he added more oil (which was already really low because the crappy accent was burning it) to top it off and then bam he said the car was ready to go. friend 1 took it and drove about 70km from his place to our college and once there called friend 2 and told him that the car is shifting hard and really jerkey. so he drove it another 70km back and friend 2 noticed his mistake... all that to say.. dont trust your car to someone you dont know.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

oh yeah another time i took car to sears to put new tie rods on to replace the old ones (i knew alot of the mechanics and techs over there so i thought they would do the best job for me), and about a month later driving home one side tie rod almost fell out. when i took it in to a different shop to have them check the loud clunking when turning the wheel, they said the bolt was loose and a few threads from falling off. i wouldve lost all steering control.

HD~Silverado

When I bought my car new back in 05 I always went to the dealership for all my "scheduled services" probably for a year. Was looking at receipts the other day and I would fork over $400 for a bunch of stuff like filters, tire rotation, ect. I now do all my own work but damn I was a retard!

Ggsbassist

Sad to say but I did something very very similar to my gf corolla when we first started dating... I went to change her oil and got the tranny instead. The second I saw red fluid I knew I messed up and just let it drain out anyway. Replaced with new tranny fluid and went to do the oil change the right way. She still hasn't let me live it down...

mac25

i love it when they ask if you want the cabin air filter changed for $10000000000! lol. takes like seriously 5 seconds in the 7th gen.

oh and gearbox you break your bolts on the ground before you loosen them jacked up right? i just stand on top of the stock tire iron and slightly move (i'm only 158 pounds) and even after impact wrenchs its quite easy. then jack it up and unscrew them the rest of the way.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah you have to lol. they are just on there so tight. and yeah cabin filter change $175 ftw! thats basically $15 for parts and $160 for 5 minute of labor)

mac25

hahahaha i know right!

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

is that seriously how much they charge for that...?

MelJ

Yeah. That sounds about right. I know that Toyota charges around the same for the same thing.