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While I was out fishing yesterday, the wife took her Escalade in for a oil change. I get a call from her that something was wrong with her vehicle upon inspection and it was something about a light. Without a good explanation of a light, I'm thinking a check engine light. This is a dealership outside of Cadillac that she bought her Escalade from but services her warranty work. They had no way to troubleshoot the light so it was recommended she take the vehicle to the Caddy dealer and there was told it would cost her $99 an hr to troubleshoot. Later on she called me back and told me what the dealer said. It turned out it wasn't a check engine light but a driving light on the front. I told her to not have them troubleshoot and I will take a look at what they are talking about. From what I could tell the dealer saw an opportunity to take advantage of some extra cash to bring in by telling her something is wrong with her vehicle. I had to remove the whole complete light assy to get access to the bulb that needed attention which was easy to do. Removed and replaced bulb, problem fixed. Are our vehicles that complicated today that a simple light bulb costs a paycheck to change or are the dealers really thinking that there are helpless people that they can take advantage of? The price went from $99 to a $3.00 bulb plus my know how.
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I was in a Sears repair/parts store and overheard a fellow talking to the clerk about his lawnmower. Sears wanted like $120.00 to troubleshoot it. The guy asked if that fee would apply toward repair costs and the clerk said no. Seems repair shops are trying to fund their retirement through exorbitant labor costs - like $90.00+ per hour, all the while paying mechanics maybe $25.00 per hour. ??????????????????????????
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I hear you my Girlfriends Audi was making a squeaking noise when she braked I told her she probably just needed to replace the brake pads. So she took it the dealer and they told her she needed new Pads, Rotors and possible new calipers... 1300+ bucks
I freaked told hell no bring it to my place and ill take a look, pull the wheels off
Calipers look brand new, all but one rotor looked new, front pads were worn. All in all I spent around 150 bucks ..bunch of crooks.
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I've learned that most auto repair shops charge what it will cost them to do the job twice plus 20% - that way if they have to stand behind a job they still come out on top.
Example - Son's Subaru was needing a new timing belt and I have a friend that runs a parts store - parts were about $480 - I know a guy that runs a great repair shop so I called and had them give me a estimate $1200.
Well long story short I did the job myself cause I figure I could just about do it twice for the price of the repair shop. Lesson learned
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If you ever do find yourself at a dealer getting major repairs, always buy the lifetime warranty.
Those are the only ones they fix correctly, ask me how I know.
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Hang in there and read all of this and you will understand my logic. I do about 95% of my own vehicle repairs/upgrades. One of the weird things that I always do is find out how much it would cost to have the stealership do it.
I had a pump seal go out on my Allison transmission. She had about 148,776 miles on it. The trans was tough but for whatever reason I lost a pump seal and she was spewing fluid out the weep hole. I called the stealership and they questioned why the seal would go out. They said for the cost of dropping the trans and replacing the seal, that just may go out again, it would be better to replace the trans with a re-manufactured GM Allison 1000 trans. Looking at a $6k fix...umm,ya, I don't think so.
So. Here is my logic; If it's going to cost me that much to fix it, I better have it fixed right, right?
Watch this video [url "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrNIyLP-zVY"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrNIyLP-zVY[/url]
So I had a Suncoast transmission and TC built by Dmitri. A list of other upgrades. I learned a lot about every little thing on my truck inside and out, got new tools that I needed for upgrade projects, found the best forums and parts for Duramax performance. Added some beauty queen stuff. Walked away happy, 'saved money' by not going to the stealership. It might have taken me a lot longer.
I ended up with a new trans, a 'new' truck, had my Dad help me and learned that the right tools do make a difference again and I added them to Datass (name of the big tool box).
However, the GM mechanics are awesome. They really do know what they are doing which is comfort to the price and I couldn't have done it without their help.
I'm looking forward to the next problem with the truck.
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Well, my big mouth got me again. I had a glow plug go out. Here we go
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At my age now it's difficult to be doing certain jobs. Unfortunately, I'm caught in some situations where I have to farm out the job, such as a transmission R & R. I purchased glow plugs for my F250 but after seeing what was involved decided to put it into shop. There are those jobs that require estimates to identify the troubled source that seem to be dancing in circles before the task begins and an upfront source of green always seems to be the answer.
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] ) is some shops use a program called Alldata. Alldata is a computer program that has a list of auto repairs, the estimated time, and the estimated cost ( the auto shop programs in the hourly rate.) and estimated part cost