Minor car repair rip-off?

[Spike]

Just wanted to know if I got ripped off how badly it was. We took our 98 explorer in after the front left tire was "bumping" will driving, it felt as though it was bottoming out. After it was in they said we needed new shocks as they where no longer compressing, at all in some cases. We also had them fix the brakes and do a complete tune-up since the car had not had one for many a year. It has 127k miles on it and is only driven 6k or so a year now since it's no longer a primary car. I'm just curious how much we got ripped off, if at all, since neither of us is very good at vehicle repairs.

Repairs (as far as I recall)
New shocks
brake pads, rotors, calipers (rotors where too thin to machine)
complete tune-up
new plugs and wires
belts (4 belts, don't remember all the names)
transfer case service
few other misc things...

I'm not sure if that is enough info to explain what was done but it was a fair number of things. The mechanic said the car would basically drive like new and we would not need to come in for another 30k or so.

Any thoughts on that? Sorry, pc's are so much simplier than vehicles...

 

[Bignate603]

What was involved in the 'tune up'. That's something that gets thrown around a huge amount with varying definitions. Did he mention anything about fuel system cleaning? Also, I'm not sure how your explorer is but changing plugs on some vehicles is pricier than you would expect because they didn't put enough room around them to get at them.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Bignate603
What was involved in the 'tune up'. That's something that gets thrown around a huge amount with varying definitions. Did he mention anything about fuel system cleaning? Also, I'm not sure how your explorer is but changing plugs on some vehicles is pricier than you would expect because they didn't put enough room around them to get at them.

I'm not sure about the tune-up, I'll pick the car up tonight and hopefully the detailed invoice will be inside. I should also mention they had to do an alignment after the shocks and brake work, or so they claim. I'm not sure about a fuel system clean but the wires for the plugs did cost $90 or so, seems kinda pricey for wires.

I'll edit the original post with more detail when I have that invoice.

 

[postmortemIA]

is that car even worth $2100?

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
is that car even worth $2100?

If it gets them another 50+k miles with no problems, then yeah...

 

[Itchrelief]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
is that car even worth $2100?

People always say this, but how many car payments is $2100? If the car continues to run that many months after the repair, he got his money's worth.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: Itchrelief

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
is that car even worth $2100?

People always say this, but how many car payments is $2100? If the car continues to run that many months after the repair, he got his money's worth.

Exactly. He's got a car with a known history. If it only takes $2100 to keep it going for a year or two he comes ahead.

 

[halik]

way too ambiguous to know what exactly went into it,
explorer spark plugs are easy though... a ton of room in the engine bay.

 

[PottedMeat]

Does it have a timing belt? Timing belt + water pump replacement is like ~$500 by themselves. Whats 'transfer case service'?

And they replaced spark plug wires? I've always had a hard time understanding why plug wires wear out / need replacement - it's a fairly thick stranded wire protected by thick rubber carrying a high voltage low current.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Does it have a timing belt? Timing belt + water pump replacement is like ~$500 by themselves. Whats 'transfer case service'?

And they replaced spark plug wires? I've always had a hard time understanding why plug wires wear out / need replacement - it's a fairly thick stranded wire protected by thick rubber carrying a high voltage low current.

Drastic temp changes and long periods of high heat are detrimental to most all flexible 'rubber' compounds. Small cracks allow moisture to further damage the connectors.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Bignate603

Originally posted by: Itchrelief

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
is that car even worth $2100?

People always say this, but how many car payments is $2100? If the car continues to run that many months after the repair, he got his money's worth.

Exactly. He's got a car with a known history. If it only takes $2100 to keep it going for a year or two he comes ahead.

EXACTLY. Exactly why I paid $3400 for my '95 SUV to get its tranny re-done. I know all of its history. It was quite steep for a secondary car that does less than 2k mi. a year, but it's... a 2nd car and very practical at that. Who really cares if you spend more than it's worth... at that point if it's junk it's junk, you're never going to sell it for what it's worth anyway.

 

[Spike]

As a note I bought the car about 4 years ago from my parents for $3k, it had 90k miles on it and was in great shape, blue book was just under 10k (something about the V6 SOHC that made it worth more supposedly) so I got a decent deal. This has been the only real maintenance it has had so I can't complain too much. Insurance on it is cheap, it's invaluable when the show hits and when we hit the back roads so it's important to keep it up. I like having never had a car payment in my life and want to continue that trend. Here is what the invoice shows for full service:

UHL Transfer Case Service $40
UHP Serpentine belt $50
UHP Belt Idler $50
UHP Belt Tensioner $87
UHL Serpentine Belt labor $89
FEP Sway Bar Link Pin Kit (x2) $60
FL Link pin kit R/R labor $89
Shock Monroe Front and back (x2) $394
Alignment $70
BKP Front disk brake rotor (x2) $138
Labor front brake $90
Front Caliper (x2) $170
Labor Caliper $45
Flush line $39
UHP Ignition wire set $97
Shop supply $38
120k service charge $269 included the following:
Oil and filter
Air filter
Coolant exchange
Tranny fluid exchange
Brake fluid exchange
Wiper blades
Rotate tires
bunch of inspection items
Spark plugs $50
UHL Tune-up $60
Fuel filter $30
Differential, front and rear $100

That about sums it up... Seems like alot to me but I know nothing about cars so I could have been ripped off. It broke down to $1201 in parts and $738 in labor and another almost $200 in tax but I did get a 10% off for AAA member. I'm just curious how badly I was taken for or if it was a halfway decent price for the services provided. As it is obvious, I could not really do any of this myself with the exception of oil changes and brake pads as I have done those, though never with new rotors or calipers.

Thanks!

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Does it have a timing belt? Timing belt + water pump replacement is like ~$500 by themselves. Whats 'transfer case service'?

And they replaced spark plug wires? I've always had a hard time understanding why plug wires wear out / need replacement - it's a fairly thick stranded wire protected by thick rubber carrying a high voltage low current.

Drastic temp changes and long periods of high heat are detrimental to most all flexible 'rubber' compounds. Small cracks allow moisture to further damage the connectors.

In this case apparently the wires fell apart when the removed them. They where factory so I guess 127k is a long time for factory wires to last though I don't know.

 

[radioouman]

Originally posted by: Spike
As a note I bought the car about 4 years ago from my parents for $3k, it had 90k miles on it and was in great shape, blue book was just under 10k (something about the V6 SOHC that made it worth more supposedly) so I got a decent deal. This has been the only real maintenance it has had so I can't complain too much. Insurance on it is cheap, it's invaluable when the show hits and when we hit the back roads so it's important to keep it up. I like having never had a car payment in my life and want to continue that trend. Here is what the invoice shows for full service:

UHL Transfer Case Service $40
UHP Serpentine belt $50
UHP Belt Idler $50
UHP Belt Tensioner $87
UHL Serpentine Belt labor $89
FEP Sway Bar Link Pin Kit (x2) $60
FL Link pin kit R/R labor $89
Shock Monroe Front and back (x2) $394
Alignment $70
BKP Front disk brake rotor (x2) $138
Labor front brake $90
Front Caliper (x2) $170
Labor Caliper $45
Flush line $39
UHP Ignition wire set $97
Shop supply $38
120k service charge $269 included the following:
Oil and filter
Air filter
Coolant exchange
Tranny fluid exchange
Brake fluid exchange
Wiper blades
Rotate tires
bunch of inspection items
Spark plugs $50
UHL Tune-up $60
Fuel filter $30
Differential, front and rear $100

That about sums it up... Seems like alot to me but I know nothing about cars so I could have been ripped off. It broke down to $1201 in parts and $738 in labor and another almost $200 in tax but I did get a 10% off for AAA member. I'm just curious how badly I was taken for or if it was a halfway decent price for the services provided. As it is obvious, I could not really do any of this myself with the exception of oil changes and brake pads as I have done those, though never with new rotors or calipers.

Thanks!

They covered a lot of items there, but I don't think that you were ripped off. Although they mentioned flushing the brake lines and then also brake fluid exchange and those are the same things. I wouldn't worry about it. It was expensive but if you can't do those items yourself it was good to get them done at once. You probably will be able to get another 50-100k miles out of this now.

 

[SuperSix]

They weren't ashamed to mark up the parts at all - but overall, it's a decent deal for someone not mechanically inclined. I question the tranny flush the most - may not be a good thing down the road.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Not a rip off, you just had a lot of overdue stuff done at one time. If you had it on a regular maintenance schedule, a lot of that stuff would have been spread out over time, instead of on one trip.

You can take most any 10+ year old car into a shop and find $2k worth of work it needs. Catching up the overdue maintenance, then all the "minor" things a car that old will have, that the owner has just been living with.....they do add up.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
Not a rip off, you just had a lot of overdue stuff done at one time. If you had it on a regular maintenance schedule, a lot of that stuff would have been spread out over time, instead of on one trip.

You can take most any 10+ year old car into a shop and find $2k worth of work it needs. Catching up the overdue maintenance, then all the "minor" things a car that old will have, that the owner has just been living with.....they do add up.

This.

I'll admit that at first blush the mechanics do seem to be a bit proud of the parts they're using, but the prices still aren't into "rip-off" territory.

ZV

 

[ViviTheMage]

what...he replaced all FOUR calipers???

 

[bobdole369]

They did very good service.

UHL Transfer Case Service $40
UHP Serpentine belt $50
UHP Belt Idler $50
UHP Belt Tensioner $87
UHL Serpentine Belt labor $89
FEP Sway Bar Link Pin Kit (x2) $60
FL Link pin kit R/R labor $89
Shock Monroe Front and back (x2) $394
Alignment $70
BKP Front disk brake rotor (x2) $138
Labor front brake $90
Front Caliper (x2) $170
Labor Caliper $45
Flush line $39
UHP Ignition wire set $97
Shop supply $38
120k service charge $269 included the following:
Oil and filter
Air filter
Coolant exchange
Tranny fluid exchange
Brake fluid exchange
Wiper blades
Rotate tires
bunch of inspection items
Spark plugs $50
UHL Tune-up $60
Fuel filter $30
Differential, front and rear $100

Looks like transfer case is the hydraulic oil change on the awd.
diff case fluid change (this may never need done, but nice insurance)
Engine Belts/Idler
plugs/wires/oil change/"tune up" (likely checking timing)
alignment
coolant/tranny/brake fluid changes
ENTIRE brake assembly replacement at all 4.
front shocks, suspension components


If you don't feel ripped off, then it was a good deal.
Personally I would do all of that myself, and my cost would be about a third of that.

 

[Spike]

Thanks for the posts. Sadly some oil changes and occasional brake pad replacement's are about the limit of my abilities when it comes to vehicle maintenance. From what he told me they only did the front brakes, I should have just skipped the brakes and had les schwab do it since they are usually the best price around but ah well, something to be said for convenience.

Sadly the car is still not 100%. There is one tiny issue that we have lived with and will continue to. The door inside the climate control box that swings back and forth between hot and cold is broken. The car will only do max heat or max AC, anything in between on the temp dial gives you max heat. The part is cheap and the repair is easy, according to them and the research I did, it just takes almost 9 hours of labor to do the fix since they have to remove the entire dash. Ah well, it's mainly my wifes car to and from the park and ride and our car for weekend adventures so I don't mind too much.

Thanks again, I feel a little better. I know had I been mechanically inclined or even had a good place to work, as I have plenty of friends who are, we could have saved some money. In the end I pay for my ignorance so whatever. At least the car feels better to drive now...

 

[Pacfanweb]

It's funny.....the same customers (not talking about anyone in this thread, just in general) who will go to the mall and buy clothes that are marked up 400% over cost, will bitch about a repair shop marking parts up 15-20%.

Yes, everyone here could order those parts that were put on OP's car somewhere and get them cheaper. So what? Someone knowledgeable had to first look at the car to see that it needed the parts, then spend time calling somewhere to get prices and availability, call the OP and get his approval to do the repairs.....then either call back and have the parts delivered or go get them/send someone.

Time is money. OP paid a fair, retail price for the work.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: SpikeSadly the car is still not 100%. There is one tiny issue that we have lived with and will continue to. The door inside the climate control box that swings back and forth between hot and cold is broken. The car will only do max heat or max AC, anything in between on the temp dial gives you max heat. The part is cheap and the repair is easy, according to them and the research I did, it just takes almost 9 hours of labor to do the fix since they have to remove the entire dash. Ah well, it's mainly my wifes car to and from the park and ride and our car for weekend adventures so I don't mind too much.

Problem here is, the blend door for hot/cold is broken. Was a common thing back in the day.

It is not an expensive part, as you were told.

I do, however, have some info on this for you: You DON'T have to pull the dash to replace it.
A tech can remove the outside part of the heater case (under the hood), file a small place on the corner of the new blend door, and replace it from there.

About a 4-5hr job doing it that way, which would save you quite a bit from the old way of pulling the dash.

Don't know if Ford makes just the blend door anymore, or if you have to get the whole case, but either way, you can do it from outside.....if you HAVE to get the whole heater case, you just take the blend door out of the new one and still do it the way I described. The case isn't the problem, just the door.

Just an alternative....if you decide you want it fixed, ask the shop if they're willing to do it that way.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb

Originally posted by: SpikeSadly the car is still not 100%. There is one tiny issue that we have lived with and will continue to. The door inside the climate control box that swings back and forth between hot and cold is broken. The car will only do max heat or max AC, anything in between on the temp dial gives you max heat. The part is cheap and the repair is easy, according to them and the research I did, it just takes almost 9 hours of labor to do the fix since they have to remove the entire dash. Ah well, it's mainly my wifes car to and from the park and ride and our car for weekend adventures so I don't mind too much.

Problem here is, the blend door for hot/cold is broken. Was a common thing back in the day.

It is not an expensive part, as you were told.

I do, however, have some info on this for you: You DON'T have to pull the dash to replace it.
A tech can remove the outside part of the heater case (under the hood), file a small place on the corner of the new blend door, and replace it from there.

About a 4-5hr job doing it that way, which would save you quite a bit from the old way of pulling the dash.

Don't know if Ford makes just the blend door anymore, or if you have to get the whole case, but either way, you can do it from outside.....if you HAVE to get the whole heater case, you just take the blend door out of the new one and still do it the way I described. The case isn't the problem, just the door.

Just an alternative....if you decide you want it fixed, ask the shop if they're willing to do it that way.

Thanks for the info. At the moment we will live with the issue since even a 4-5 hour job is not cheap. I will, however, save your post and if/when we decide we have enough extra cash to do that I'll ask around.

And your above comment is correct, I'm not worried about a 10-20% markup on parts as I did pay someone else to find the problem, get the parts, and install those parts. I just wanted to make sure I was not taken advantage of and it sounds like thats a no. He did list all the fixes in emergency (shocks), really needs to be done (brakes), and preventative maintenance that should be done soonish but could wait if we wanted (tune-up, belts, fluids, 120k reg service, etc...). We had budgeted for a 120k service and had just been lazy about getting to it so this was not completely out of the question.

I'm just glad it's all done and the car should go for quite some time. Everyone I talk to who claims to know anything about engines seems to think this particular SOHC v6 is a good one and should go for quite some time.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb

Originally posted by: SpikeSadly the car is still not 100%. There is one tiny issue that we have lived with and will continue to. The door inside the climate control box that swings back and forth between hot and cold is broken. The car will only do max heat or max AC, anything in between on the temp dial gives you max heat. The part is cheap and the repair is easy, according to them and the research I did, it just takes almost 9 hours of labor to do the fix since they have to remove the entire dash. Ah well, it's mainly my wifes car to and from the park and ride and our car for weekend adventures so I don't mind too much.

Problem here is, the blend door for hot/cold is broken. Was a common thing back in the day.

It is not an expensive part, as you were told.

I do, however, have some info on this for you: You DON'T have to pull the dash to replace it.
A tech can remove the outside part of the heater case (under the hood), file a small place on the corner of the new blend door, and replace it from there.

About a 4-5hr job doing it that way, which would save you quite a bit from the old way of pulling the dash.

Don't know if Ford makes just the blend door anymore, or if you have to get the whole case, but either way, you can do it from outside.....if you HAVE to get the whole heater case, you just take the blend door out of the new one and still do it the way I described. The case isn't the problem, just the door.

Just an alternative....if you decide you want it fixed, ask the shop if they're willing to do it that way.

Had the same problem on my wrangler...it's a tiny dumb resistor. Luckily on the Wrangler it's very easy to get to and replace.

 

[radioouman]

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb

Originally posted by: SpikeSadly the car is still not 100%. There is one tiny issue that we have lived with and will continue to. The door inside the climate control box that swings back and forth between hot and cold is broken. The car will only do max heat or max AC, anything in between on the temp dial gives you max heat. The part is cheap and the repair is easy, according to them and the research I did, it just takes almost 9 hours of labor to do the fix since they have to remove the entire dash. Ah well, it's mainly my wifes car to and from the park and ride and our car for weekend adventures so I don't mind too much.

Problem here is, the blend door for hot/cold is broken. Was a common thing back in the day.

It is not an expensive part, as you were told.

I do, however, have some info on this for you: You DON'T have to pull the dash to replace it.
A tech can remove the outside part of the heater case (under the hood), file a small place on the corner of the new blend door, and replace it from there.

About a 4-5hr job doing it that way, which would save you quite a bit from the old way of pulling the dash.

Don't know if Ford makes just the blend door anymore, or if you have to get the whole case, but either way, you can do it from outside.....if you HAVE to get the whole heater case, you just take the blend door out of the new one and still do it the way I described. The case isn't the problem, just the door.

Just an alternative....if you decide you want it fixed, ask the shop if they're willing to do it that way.

Had the same problem on my wrangler...it's a tiny dumb resistor. Luckily on the Wrangler it's very easy to get to and replace.

Your problem was the fan speed. The blower resistor fails. His problem is the blend door . Different part entirely.