Am I being ripped off by dealer on maintenance?

D

drabina

Registered
Hi,

I have my car serviced for not working seat and just few minutes ago I got a fax from a Lincoln dealer stating that besides that my car needs a lot of maintenance (fluids, filters, etc). Below is the price quote. The total looks high to me. Unfortunately, I do not have a mechanic near by to take care of all the maintenance so I would have to go to a different shops to get all the stuff done.

Transmission service $123.50 + $79.00
Filters (air, fuel, pcv) $76.00 + $52.00
Power steering fluid $95.00 + $45.00
Heater plenum service $95.00 + $50.00
Fuel Injection Service $95.00 + $54.00
Cooling system service $95.00 + $45.00

That's labor + parts. Total with tax is $974.24.

Strange thing is that the transmission fluid was changed at 30K and now car has 54K so with recommended maintenance I should still be able to drive the car for another 6K. When I checked the air filter over the weekend, it did not look dirty to me (maybe a little but definitely not at the point of needing replacement).

Thanks
 
WTF are the parts for the cooling system service $45? is excessive Are they doing a flush or drain and refill?
Don't need the fuel injection service RIPOFF
What is the heater plenum service? Sounds like a ripoff to me.

POwersteering filters and transmission soung good to me. I would wait until 60k though.
 
Can you not perform most of these services yourself?...tan't difficult.
I don't even know what a Heater Plenum service is??? Prob something like the guy that comes by and wants your $ to vaccum out the air ducts in your house. I doubt if you need that....

Fuel injector service - you can do it (so long as you aren't having idle problems) by using preminum fuel and dumping a can of injector cleaner in the gas tank.

Power steering Service...stop by a Dollar Store and buy a turkey baster or some other plastic thingie to suck out the old fluid. Dump it in an old milk jug. Stop by the same auto parts store or the dealewr and buy a quart of Mercon V tranny fluid and refill it to the cold mark. I a week do it again. It'll be fine.

Changing the coolent is a little more difficult, but you should be able to do with a minumum of hand tool experence. There are instructions up in the tech/faq section (at top of page) that give you lots of help in doing things to your Mark VIII yourself. What vehicle do you have?
 
Thanks guys for replies. I have 2001 Continental. I figured that fuel injection cleaning is a ripoff. The car idles fine and I have always used premium grade fuel.

Anyway, I have called my local place (actually across the street from the dealer) and they do perform those services. Here is their price list:

Transmission flush: $170.00
Coolant flush: $97.00
Power steering flush: $80.00
Brake fluid change: $90.00 (not on my list)
Fuel injection cleaning: $80.00 (I will skip this)
Fuel filter and PCV filter change: $74.00

So they are like 1/2 cost of what dealer wants to charge me. Guess where I will take my car :)

I think the PS flush I could do myself but for $80 I do not think I want to spend time going to a dollar store and getting my hands dirty two weekends in a row :)

I just do not know if I should do it now or wait. With my 10-15 miles a day driving it might take me a while to hit the 60K.

Best regards
 
The sad part is your dealer prices are about 1/2 to 1/3 of what we're charged here...

That said make sure they use Mercon V transmission fluid when they flush it.
 
Just me, but I would not do the tranny flush. Go get a drain, refill and new filter somewhere. Should be the same price, it's easier on your transmission and you get a new filter.
 
I am in Leonia NJ (close to Fort Lee and GWB).

I live in apartment complex and I have no provisions to do any work myself (except easy stuff like air filters, battery, etc). Plus I am not that technically savvy :)

Just got the other service perform all the maintenance for about 40% of what the dealer wanted to charge me.
 
drabina said:
I am in Leonia NJ (close to Fort Lee and GWB).

I live in apartment complex and I have no provisions to do any work myself (except easy stuff like air filters, battery, etc). Plus I am not that technically savvy :)

Just got the other service perform all the maintenance for about 40% of what the dealer wanted to charge me.
Click to expand...

I am not far from there, I live in Kearny. You are not too far from Maplecrest Lincoln Mercury in Union, NJ. They are the best dealer to go to if you need dealer work done, they are like the top rated for customer satisfaction in the nation several years in a row. I went there for warranty work, they are very good. Now I go to a guy down the street from me that I have know for years to do the maintenance I am not able to do my self.

http://www.maplecrestautogroup.com/
 
I don't think you want to use that in the radiator...that's for cleaning the throttle body and inerds of the induction system.
 
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