I'm an off and on lurker around here, but I thought I might share today's adventure. I have a decent background working on vehicles - dad was a mechanic, have rebuilt my share of engines and fixed my share of autos. However, as I have progressed through my career, money has been less and less tight and sometimes it just made sense for me to have the mechanic fix my vehicle so I would have my weekend free. That, andfor the past ten years I have had a string of new vehicles under warranty so all repair work had been covered.

Today I needed to bring the D into the shop. She's a 2002 SLT with tow package. She's got just under 80K on her. Been a runnin' beast. Tows my boat (220 Sea Ray Sundeck ~3500lbs) to the Keys, been across country a couple of times, did the family thing, etc. Brought her into the shop for a brake issue - brakes felt like they were collapsed on the rotors and the pedal was soft.

Here was the diagnosis (get ready to laugh)-

The brake lines had collapsed and there was considerable fluid buildup in the caliper. We are going to have to replace the calipers, pads and machine the rotors. By the way, we also performed our standard inspection and here is what we found-

Busted hose on windshield washer resevoir - $92
Replace calipers, pads and machine rotors - $749
Service rear brakes - $80
Replace upper ball joints - $465
Wheel alignment - $80
Replace wiper blades (set of 3) - $72
Replace fan clutch - $274
Nails in two different tires (repair) - $50
Air filter - $28
Rear axle service - $109
Rotate tires - $45
Oil change (I asked when I dropped off the car) - $29

Total - $2,073

My response, "That sure seems like a lot. Let me catch up with my wife and get back to you. I don't know if I have the resources to cover that." A call back about an hour later from the service guy letting me know that they would take care of all of the work for .......... $1,999. What a deal!

It just became worth my while to do a little auto repair.

I can perform brake service, that's easy. My research around here has led me to belive that the fan clutch and the ball joints should be pretty straight forward. And I can use the savings to accumulate a few more toys (read - TOOLS).

Thanks for listening.

John

 

While it's nothing comparable to your situation (though I've been there before with other vehicles), I placed a call to the local dealer to have the latest recall taken care of (G28 Gear Shift Interlock). I use a local Chrysler dealer to take care of all my major repairs, but after talking to them, they inform me that Chrysler cannot handle the repair because they 'don't have the tool and parts' needed to take apart the steering column and correct the recall.

Now, this is interesting because the recall notice says 'CHRYSLER' at the top, so I figured a CHRYSLER dealership would have the parts/tools. Nope! I was told to call a DODGE dealer instead. Go figure, isn't Dodge just a specialized Chrysler dealer anyway?

Oh well, they lost business to another shop. But I guess it just goes to show you that you cannot make any assumptions about Chrysler/Dodge and a dealer's ability to handle them.

 

$72 wiper blade service is my favorite on your list. lol

They're $2.67 at Wal-mart and take all of 30 seconds each to put on.

 

These prices are reasonable for the "have no clue no questions asked" owners or owners with very deep pockets and don't want to mess with under the hood themselves. I wished I had that type of customer base!

 

I was kind of partial to $92 for the windshield washer resevoir hose replacement. $3 for the hose and $89 for the flat-rate hour (ten minutes work).

What kills me is that there is a standard built-in labor charge for each item when clearly some of the items are going to be done simultaneously. Brakes and ball joints are in the same area - the labor to put the car on a rack, expose the area, close the area and drop the car is the same, yet due to standard rates for work, you get double charged.

I'll be working on these things over the weekend and then will bring the D in for a front end alignment.