I need to get my 90,000 mile service on my 2008 Town and Contry. Dealer says need spark plugs replaced and coolant flushed and wants to charge over $700. I think this is a rip-off. I think the plugs should only take 30 min to and hour to replace and can do myself, but van is still under warranty. What should a 90,000 miles service cost?

 

That does sound a bit steep if it's just those two things. You should find out the following:

• Does the 90k mile "service" include anything else such as air filter, suspension, power steering, transmission, air conditioning, etc? Look in the owners manual to see what mother Chrysler (not its dealerships) recommends at 90k miles and make sure that those are included in that price.
• What does the next dealership charge for 90k mile service and does it include all the services recommended by mother Chrysler?
• Will your warranty be void if you do these services yourself, have a qualified non-Chrysler shop do them, or don't do them at all? (I don't really recommend the last one but it's good to find out)

Just for comparison, I have recently priced or bought spark plugs, wires, and antifreeze for my 2008 GC with 3.3L. I do the work myself and I bought the car used so no warranty to worry about. The prices were as follows:

• Spark plugs: $24 for a set of Champion Double Platinum
• Spark plug wires: about $40 plus shipping for Mopar wires from several Mopar online wholesalers
• Antifreeze: about $20 for a gallon of Zerex G-05 and a gallon of distilled water

If you have the 4.0L engine then the plugs and wires will likely be more expensive.

Hope that helps a little bit.

 

A 4.0L SOHC spark plug job would be tough to reach rear plugs. I think it goes for about $400 with labor. Factory plug wires are real expensive, but the equivalent aftermarket autolites are cheap as dirt. The old 3.3 and 3.8L are cake to do plugs and wires.

The 90K mi service probably includes a bunch of work and might include a $250 full tranny flush, but I'd have no clue. I just siphon 50% of the fluid out every 30K mi or so and dump $50 worth of fresh fluid in to top off. A genuine coolant system flush isn't so cheap either and it would be more effective than draining just 50% of the total and topping off with 1-1/2 gallons of mix, as most do in their driveway.

I do my own work, so my terribly neglected vehicles only seem to last 300K mi before the undercarriage rusts off lol.

 

For that price, I hope they change the blinker fluid and remove the stale air from the tires. No way I'd drop $700+ for that service. On my '99 GC 3.3L, I first changed the plugs at 130K miles! Well, it was a horrendous job on that van. The old plug gap could be measured with a tape measure, but the engine still ran fine. Modern ignition systems are very tolerant of plug condition, apparently

 

I'll do it for $675
Did they give a 100K power train warranty on the 2008 T&C? If so, do your own work and don't worry about the last 10K of that one. If not, and this is some kind of "required" service for an extended warranty, then my guess is that you are being ripped off, big-time.

 

08 Comes with lifetime Powertrain warranty for first owner. So, yes, you kinda do have to do everything in the owners manual.

Maybe call around and look for a cheaper dealership? And I do Recommend using a Dealer if you still have factory warranty.

 

Wasn't aware of the lifetime on the '08, and superficially it sounds like a great thing. BUT, if they are going to clip you like this once or twice a year, then I would have lots of reservations about participating in this program. Just consider how solid the trannys and engines normally are on these vans. My '03 has 156k with never a hint of any powertrain problems. I've done all the maintenance myself, with a total cost of parts and fluids for those 10 years at somewhere around 1K. This powertrain is probably going to continue running great, right up to the day it falls out of the rusted-out body onto the road (still running of course).
Let's say that the absolute worst-case for someone would be a rebuilt tranny + engine at a cost of 5-6K. It seems to me that once the amount paid for these mandatory services exceeds that number, this plan is at that point automatically in the red for the owner. And it gets more red as time goes on. Now I don't know how much they're extracting with these required service things - maybe it's not as bad as I'm thinking it might be.
Personally I would always choose to save the $$ upfront by avoiding dealer service completely, and take my chances doing the work myself. I've been fortunate to have had very good luck doing this for many years. And of course this is all very much JMHO.

 

In order to maintain the Chrysler Lifetime Powertrain Warranty, you must have a powertrain inspection performed by an authorized Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge dealer once every 5 years. This inspection, performed at no charge, must be made within 60 days of each 5-year anniversary of the warranty start date of the vehicle. It is your responsibility to perform preventative maintenance on your vehicle. You’re strongly encouraged to follow the instructions contained in the Scheduled Maintenance Service guidelines in your Owner’s Manual. You will also need to have receipts for all oil and filter changes so good luck with that. If they find a single deadline opr receipt missed, they will deny warranty. I have a good friend with a GC who knows all too well. If you don't have all your maintenance history receipts or you do your own work, you might as well forget about that warranty. When your motor ortranny blows they will tell you it's been forfeited.

The 5 yr inspection fee isn't much more than a $300 service job. The remainder of the cost is basically serving as a lifetime insurance premium payment kinda like having term life insurance lol.