car stuff

[spinner]

Since you all are talking car talk, I have a situation for you
I take my truck to a small locally owned shop in St. Marys. I've been going there for many years for oil changes and repairs and the like. Probably close to 18 years, several different cars. I'm not a car person, they've always been very nice to me and I have no problems with their work.
Recently my truck had the check engine light come on and I took it in to find out why. It was the fuel sensor, $91 to find that out. OK. So they gave me an estimate of around $950 [minus the $91 already paid] to replace it. They were charging $290 for labor and $582 for the part, plus a supply charge of $48 and tax and stuff to make it around $950. Anyway I have a extended warranty on the truck so the company called the shop and I just had to pay the deductible. When I looked at the bill the part was reduced to $285 the labor to $180 and the supply fee to $20. So the bill went from $850 [$91 was for the computer stuff] to around $500.
So now I'm feeling icky about going back, when I have the chance I'll probably stop over there and find out why the big difference. Is this normal for a shop to greatly reduce the price if there is a extended warranty involved? Because it has really made me wonder about all the other repairs they've done over the years.

 

[MDChick]

How much does the part sell for online?

www.rockauto.com

 

[DEEKAYPEE8569]

Since you all are talking car talk, I have a situation for you
I take my truck to a small locally owned shop in St. Marys. I've been going there for many years for oil changes and repairs and the like. Probably close to 18 years, several different cars. I'm not a car person, they've always been very nice to me and I have no problems with their work.
Recently my truck had the check engine light come on and I took it in to find out why. It was the fuel sensor, $91 to find that out. OK. So they gave me an estimate of around $950 [minus the $91 already paid] to replace it. They were charging $290 for labor and $582 for the part, plus a supply charge of $48 and tax and stuff to make it around $950. Anyway I have a extended warranty on the truck so the company called the shop and I just had to pay the deductible. When I looked at the bill the part was reduced to $285 the labor to $180 and the supply fee to $20. So the bill went from $850 [$91 was for the computer stuff] to around $500.
So now I'm feeling icky about going back, when I have the chance I'll probably stop over there and find out why the big difference. Is this normal for a shop to greatly reduce the price if there is a extended warranty involved? Because it has really made me wonder about all the other repairs they've done over the years.

The big part of the prices you were quoted are for labor. $582 for a sensor? NFW!!!
While reasearching for this part online, what kinda prices did you find?

 

[glhs837]

Thats what I thought, Dee, but maybe the term is really "fuel level sensor", which in some vehicles is an integral part of the fuel pump assembly. A handy person could replace just the pump, but techs dont get that freedom. In the future spinner, when you get a CEL, you can swing into any Advance or Autozone location and standa good chance of them telling you what the light came on for. Some systems they cant read, transmissions, brakes, etc, but anything engine related, they should be able to pull that.

If you are adventurous, and your car in pnewer than say 2006, you could buy a bluetooth OBDII reader, and could read codes yourself right in the driveway with a smartphone and a free app called Torque. Just pop the reader in the port (bu law, they are ubder the drivers side dash, easy to reach, fire up the app, pair to the reader, and you can pull codes, shut off CELs, etc. reader costs about $20 or so for the cheapie chinese version

 

[GWguy]

Unless you have an ODBII reader, you have to take their word for whatever is wrong. For all you know, it was a loose gas cap. You'd still get a 'check engine' light.

 

[glhs837]

, which was my point. Get one of these (or the similar apple version) for under $15 and read codes all day long. Then come back here and we can play remote diagnositcian

http://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Rea...id=1412356671&sr=1-16&keywords=obd2+bluetooth

 

[kickstand]

Unless you have an ODBII reader, you have to take their word for whatever is wrong. For all you know, it was a loose gas cap. You'd still get a 'check engine' light.

Autozone and/or Advance Auto will read your check engine codes all day for free....they can't reset 'em, but they can tell you what's wrong....

 

[dave1959]

How much does the part sell for online?

www.rockauto.com

You cant compare what RockAuto would sell it for compared to a repair shop selling at full retail...Even if you did you would have
to compare the same brand. You cant compare some cheap Chinese import to a OEM factory part...Too many holes in this discussion for anyone to
offer any useful info..

 

[dave1959]

Autozone and/or Advance Auto will read your check engine codes all day for free....they can't reset 'em, but they can tell you what's wrong....

Reading a code and knowing what is wrong are two different things....The only thing a code will tell you is where to look, they very rarely are black and white failures.

 

[dave1959]

Don't feel icky if they have taken care of you all these years. Repair shops charge full retail price for parts and labor. Insurance company's get a discount...

 

[glhs837]

Oh, B.S. with asssitance, there is valid advice to be given. You tell me you have a "EVAP LEAK, SMALL" code, and there's a damn good chance you left your gas cap loose. Is that 100%, of course not, but that's the way to bet. And no, the $20 reader from ebay cannot compare to the $10,000 diagnostic computer at the dealership, not even close, but at free from advance or autozone, it's worth a shot.

there are tons of codes that have simple trouble trees. they dont all require the $10,000 dollar machine to handle them

 

[sm8]

I went to Auto zone to have a code checked and was really happy with their service. Mine turned out to be a loose gas cap. He asked if I had recently got gas and I had not but I remembered chasing my nephew away from that area of my van. He checked it and sure enough it was still loose, He was even nice enough to reset it. He did say he was not supposed to but I was very thankful he did.

 

[glhs837]

Sure saves on a close to $100 diagnostic charge, which is the bare minimum if you had gone to a dealership. Some dealerships might run the scan for free, most wont. Not at the cost of $5,000 to $10000 for the diagnostic machine, they need to pay for that machine. This assumes of course, that deal with straight up and honestly, and dont go "Well, them there small EVAP leaks, gotta hook up the smoke machine, thats $100 right there, take us two days to get to that". Hmmm, seems your frantibulator done went all wenticular, that'll be $300 to fix that". If they want to be crooked, and you dont have the knowledge to shoot them down, you're screwed.

You have a Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler? Those, you can get the codes with nothing more than your key. they have a backdoor, been in the systems ever since they invented codes, back in the 80s.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Reading a code and knowing what is wrong are two different things....The only thing a code will tell you is where to look, they very rarely are black and white failures.

All the repair shop does is look in a book and try the first thing listed for that code, if that doesn't work they try the next and so on.

 

[PrchJrkr]

I went to Auto zone to have a code checked and was really happy with their service. Mine turned out to be a loose gas cap. He asked if I had recently got gas and I had not but I remembered chasing my nephew away from that area of my van. He checked it and sure enough it was still loose, He was even nice enough to reset it. He did say he was not supposed to but I was very thankful he did.

Good for you. They (AZ) say the light will reset after a certain amount of re-starts of the engine if the problem is fixed. I think I'll still invest in a cheapo Bluetooth reader to read and reset the light in our Trail Blazer.

 

[glhs837]

PE is right, for the most part, what you find is part swapping monkeys, it's more cost efficient that way than paying folks that can understand the complex systems and really troubleshoot them.

Prch, they are right, a lot of codes reset after not just restarts, but after a set amount of whats called "drive cycles". Which means you can't just start the car, turn it off, restart and repeat til you get there. I drive cycle is defined as the engine reaching operating temperature, then cooling down overnight, or until the vapor purge canister bleeds off enough vaccum to open up. Thats the scheme Dodge used when my Neon was new, I imagine it or something similar is pretty common.

 

[MDChick]

You cant compare what RockAuto would sell it for compared to a repair shop selling at full retail...Even if you did you would have
to compare the same brand. You cant compare some cheap Chinese import to a OEM factory part...Too many holes in this discussion for anyone to
offer any useful info..

It may not exactly be apples-to-apples, but it gives you a good frame of reference to see what their approximate mark-up is. I understand they need to make a profit, but if a website lists the part for $80-$100 by 14 different manufacturers and the shop is charging $582, I'd find a different shop.

 

[glhs837]

I do want to mention that rock auto offers OEM parts also. For one of the last OEM distributors for the daughters Geo storm there.

 

[glhs837]

Just want to mention about the codes. Charger died at the post office on base yesterday. After eliminating the alternator and battery, only thing left was fuel. No codes, which mostly lets out the computerized parts of the system, since they run BITs and report internal failures. Had it towed to the dealership, thinking I would have my fuel tank replaced and have them toss in a pump. Got concerned last night, thinking about all the ways this could turn into a battle, and how many ways they could turn it into a multi-day and dollar wild goose chase. And the pump would cost $300-$400 from them.

So, after replacing the pump in the parking lot today, had a check engine light. Used my bluetooth adapter to read the codes (both related to fuel level sensor readings) I was able to reset them on the fly.

 

[DoWhat]

Just want to mention about the codes. Charger died at the post office on base yesterday. After eliminating the alternator and battery, only thing left was fuel. No codes, which mostly lets out the computerized parts of the system, since they run BITs and report internal failures. Had it towed to the dealership, thinking I would have my fuel tank replaced and have them toss in a pump. Got concerned last night, thinking about all the ways this could turn into a battle, and how many ways they could turn it into a multi-day and dollar wild goose chase. And the pump would cost $300-$400 from them.

So, after replacing the pump in the parking lot today, had a check engine light. Used my bluetooth adapter to read the codes (both related to fuel level sensor readings) I was able to reset them on the fly.

Didn't I read that you had it towed to the dealership?