Beware Tires Plus
- Thread starter mAlice
- Start date
desertrat
0_0
How so? They did something not needed?
mAlice
professional daydreamer
Yes. Said a belt needed to be replaced that didn't. My husband looked at the old belt and its practically new. Even has the print on it still.
desertrat
0_0
Bummer.
itsbob
I bowl overhand
Hard to say if they were taken or not. A lot of belts are replaces on a schedule, not when needed. Belt may be in great looking shape, but at x miles (per the factory) the belt should be replaced.
$120 doesn't seem unreasonable either depending on the car..
glhs837
Power with Control
Should be Inspect/replace. Amount if plastic covers need removed is fair. Some cars have to support motor and unbolt motor mount. Takes time and time costs. Print still belt doesn't mean anything. With many cars having lower engine covers, far less crud and water. Inspection should be for glazing and cracking
CrashTest
Well-Known Member
I have to jack the motor and remove the motor mount to do the belt on my mighty F.
120 to replace a belt is not bad. Friend or hubby should go back and ask why did they replace it. Did the lady agree to have it replaced? Most times you get a choice, she should have called hubby first if she was not sure of what to do.
dave1959
Active Member
Trust me, I have no love for Tires plus or Mr tire or Jiffy lube or any other mass merchandiser repar shop. But, $120 for a fan belt sounds resonable.
Most belts now days retail anywhere from $60-80, even as much as $100.
Add in a labor rate of $80-100 per hour, 1/2 hour or so to put on a belt and you are at $120 easy. Remember at these places you are paying full retail. If you go to auto zone and buy the belt you are paying wholesale. You can't compare DIY to having someone else do it for you.
Most belts now days retail anywhere from $60-80, even as much as $100.
Add in a labor rate of $80-100 per hour, 1/2 hour or so to put on a belt and you are at $120 easy. Remember at these places you are paying full retail. If you go to auto zone and buy the belt you are paying wholesale. You can't compare DIY to having someone else do it for you.
dave1959
Active Member
Turn the belt over and fold it in an ark. ribs outside writing inside.. How many cracks do you see ?
glhs837
Power with Control
What Dave said. A close inspection on the car, looking at where the belt bends backwards around a pulley will quite often show this without removing it. Or you can loosen the belt tensioner and manipulate the belt that way, but care must be taken to get that belt back on right.
awpitt
Main Streeter
I've seen cases where belts had been running for 80K miles and still had the print on them. 80K miles was way beyond the replacement interval. Belt may look fine but when it snaps, it'll be at the worse possible moment. Especially is it's a serpentine belt.
mAlice
professional daydreamer
None. The belt was in good shape.
To everyone else: The 'rip off' wasn't the cost, it was that the belt did not need to be replaced at all.
I know most of the folks on the forums like to make it the 'victims' fault, and that's okay. The point of my post was a warning for the people out there who do not know their way around a car. Not for the know-it-all's.
DEEKAYPEE8569
Well-Known Member
If you go to a place like Tires Plus for tires, let it be known that that is ALL you want done. The same for places like Laser Lube. If you go there for an oil change; tell them that that is ALL you want done. Otherwise, they tell you, 'Well, you need this, and this, and this.' Your best bet is to go to someone who knows what he/she is looking at before you go to these places.
That way, you know for sure wether or not the "needs" were really necassary.
How did you get so smart?
DEEKAYPEE8569
Well-Known Member
Voice of spernts there DoWhat.
A few years ago, I went to Val Spencer @ Laser Lube for an oil change.
In addition to an oil change in my '92 Laser, she told me I needed a radiator flush and fill, a new air filter @ something like $20 a pop, and a timing belt change. They got away with the radiator flush and fill and the oil change for $100-something. Just an oil and filter change was in the neighborhood of $40; and that was with my own stuff. So most of the $40 or whatever it was, was labor. You can go to Mr. Tire and they only charge something like $15 if you take your own stuff.
dave1959
Active Member
Was'nt insinuating it was your fault at all. I was just giving some info. Work that is done when not needed is the main problem with repair shops in general.
But the thing people need to realize is that most recomendations for repair are subjective. What one person says needs to be done will not nessacerally be the same as someone else, that does not make either one wrong.
But praying on unknowing or inexperienced customers is a problem