Radiator and Additional PM Work Labor? (1 Viewer)

[Hugga99]

Hey everyone.

Just picked up a 2008 LX570 (210k miles). Great history, runs perfectly. It has had most things replaced already (starter, water pump, control arms, etc), but not the radiator.

I know it is on its last legs, so dropped it off to get it replaced today. Quote was for 3.8hrs labor. From the boards, it seems doing the water pump, and a bunch other work while doing the radiator makes sense.

My question is the dealer didn’t seem to acknowledge the “do it while in there” discount on the labor charge. Before they come at me with a ridiculous quote, I was wondering if anyone has a reasonable idea for how long these things should take, when being added to the radiator.

Radiator (3.8hrs)
Water Pump
PCV Valve
Heater T
Fan Clutch
Thermostat
Idler Pully
Belt Tensioner

.....I might be missing something. The dealer is already more expensive than other options, so I don’t want to get completely taken for!

 

[Hugga99]

Photos of Radiator and T’s as they sit now. I know we all love photos.

 

[TLC2013]

When I replaced my radiator I had the shop also do the following:

radiator hoses
water pump And gasket
Idler pulley
Tensioner pulley
Serpentine belt
Thermostat

this was done as preventative maintenance as I only had 84,000 miles and a minor crack forming on the radiator. All the Parts (OEM) totaled $700 and it was around 5hrs labor for the install. This was done at an independent Toyota shop. The radiator was 3 hours to install and we agreed to a couple more hours for the other parts.

 

[Hugga99]

Perfect, that is great. Yea, I tried explaining that doing all this other work shouldn’t add too much labor, but they didn’t seem to agree. I’ll definitely take it to an independent if necessary, but would be awesome to get them to do it for around 5 hours. Thanks for the reply.

 

[TLC2013]

Perfect, that is great. Yea, I tried explaining that doing all this other work shouldn’t add too much labor, but they didn’t seem to agree. I’ll definitely take it to an independent if necessary, but would be awesome to get them to do it for around 5 hours. Thanks for the reply.

Do your research and find a reputable independent shop. I looked through 4runner and tundra forums for recommendations in my area and found a shop local to me that had good reviews. Still was not happy with their work, found a couple loose bolts, low coolant. They did stand behind their work, and made things right but i had to make another trip back for them to get things corrected. Got a free oil change out of the hassel.

In hind sight I should have done the work myself as these repairs are pretty straightforward.

 

[Hugga99]

Yea. There are some good shops in Austin. Frankly, though, any job that takes more than a few hours I prefer the dealer for the loaner. All of the popular shops in Austin have prices that aren’t THAT much lower than the dealer, certainly less....but the convenience and fact that the dealer will certainly stand behind the work makes it worthwhile I find. The past 2 well-revised shops actually cost more than the dealer (both for oil, but still).

As long as they are within reason I am happy with it. I was mostly curious as to what a fair labor range should be, time wise. I don’t want to be told 12 hours when it should be 6, or he told every job is completely independent of the other so it is $1,500 more than it should be.

 

[32cls6speedmt]

My independent mechanic replaced all the items you listed for 3.9 hours. He agreed while I am in there and no additional time. I have a 2013 lx at the time 86000. I purchased all the parts online from a Toyota at a discounted price. I picked up the parts.

I did shop around for competent independent mechanic who would not charge extra labor hours. Total price was about $400 for labor.

 

[Hugga99]

My independent mechanic replaced all the items you listed for 3.9 hours. He agreed while I am in there and no additional time. I have a 2013 lx at the time 86000. I purchased all the parts online from a Toyota at a discounted price. I picked up the parts.

I did shop around for competent independent mechanic who would not charge extra labor hours. Total price was about $400 for labor.

Great, thanks. If the estimate is insanely high, I will certainly do the same. I’m sure I won’t get anywhere close to the 3.9 hr mark, but it is sounding like somewhere around 5-6 hours is a reasonable expectation. 3.9hrs sounds like a

I think they will come back with some insane number (10+), but we will see. Once again, I was always an independent mechanic guy but all the popular shops in my area seem to have gotten closer and closer in price to the dealer....and the few that are amazing, and offer awesome pricing requires a ton more effort to schedule, and get into. Dealer is convenient.

Part of me felt I should just wait for these things to go, and only do the work then....but I read these forums far too often, and it would just bug me.

They also were familiar with the 100 Series Heater T, but said the 200 didn’t seem to have the issue.

 

[32cls6speedmt]

I did have to schedule it but I knew I had to be patient. It did take about 2.5 weeks before my appointment.

 

[Hugga99]

I did have to schedule it but I knew I had to be patient. It did take about 2.5 weeks before my appointment.

Yea, similar with the great (and well priced) shops in this area. Definitely worth it the majority of the time.

 

[bloc]

My Ts were perfect at 105K, but a couple others with more mileage have had then fail. A couple, not anything like the 100 guys.

Radiator really isn’t that hard. Consider doing it yourself. Or if there is no crack wait until it’s cooler outside. When was your water pump done? Might not need one yet. But if you do, and all the other pullies, make sure you look at the fan bearing bracket. Mine was just going bad at 150.

If it can wait for a while and you want to tackle it with some help I’m local. I can’t recommend any shops because I do my own work other than alignments.

Also for parts search for Autonation toyota south Austin website. They have a will-call option that is usually $5.25 per order and their parts are very very well priced. The guys are great to deal with too.

 

[Hugga99]

My Ts were perfect at 105K, but a couple others with more mileage have had then fail. A couple, not anything like the 100 guys.

Radiator really isn’t that hard. Consider doing it yourself. Or if there is no crack wait until it’s cooler outside. When was your water pump done? Might not need one yet. But if you do, and all the other pullies, make sure you look at the fan bearing bracket. Mine was just going bad at 150.

If it can wait for a while and you want to tackle it with some help I’m local. I can’t recommend any shops because I do my own work other than alignments.

Also for parts search for Autonation toyota south Austin website. They have a will-call option that is usually $5.25 per order and their parts are very very well priced. The guys are great to deal with too.

Awesome. I would love help, and to do it myself (with help), but I’m not the type to want to inconvenience someone else. I would be happy to pay you, and help/learn, if you have the time!

Water pump was done at 90k miles (at 210k now). Radiator isn’t cracked yet, but we are going on a road trip in a few weeks, didn’t want to worry about anything going while on the trip. Great advice on the fan bearing bracket.

I will definitely check out AutoNation S. Austin. Been there a few times, last time they have a 100 Series that was traded in (low-mileage), and they sold it in 15 min.

I’d also be happy to come help out if you are doing work, and I can learn to do some things myself that way. I

 

[bloc]

Awesome. I would love help, and to do it myself (with help), but I’m not the type to want to inconvenience someone else. I would be happy to pay you, and help/learn, if you have the time!

Water pump was done at 90k miles (at 210k now). Radiator isn’t cracked yet, but we are going on a road trip in a few weeks, didn’t want to worry about anything going while on the trip. Great advice on the fan bearing bracket.

I will definitely check out AutoNation S. Austin. Been there a few times, last time they have a 100 Series that was traded in (low-mileage), and they sold it in 15 min.

I’d also be happy to come help out if you are doing work, and I can learn to do some things myself that way. I

I don’t like straight up doing work for money, but will accept a gift of beer or whatever to help you do it. My goal is to help other people learn how to do this stuff so that eventually they become self sufficient. And, I enjoy doing the work. That said I don’t think I could find time before your trip, so sorry for not being available.
That water pump mileage is indeed getting high. The good thing about the WP is it’s almost never a catastrophic failure, it’ll just weep, and evidence of that is easy to track with a flashlight. So personally I wouldn’t be worried about that on the trip, but you are headed down the right path with the radiator since it can be a sudden dramatic failure. and “while you are in there” for the pump and pullies is definitely a sound decision, even if that shop refuses to acknowledge the cost savings.

I just remembered if it hasn’t been done a coolant dump and refill is also good while you are in there. Don’t flush, it just dilutes the resulting mix.

I just finished a bunch of PMs (oil change, trans drain/refill, tire rotation, driveline lube) so you just missed a bunch of relevant jobs.. but I will be getting King 2.5s in about a month and installing them. Would be a good job to learn some stuff, even if you don’t have KDSS and probably will be sticking with factory AHC suspension. Send a PM and I’d be happy to teach.

 

[Hugga99]

Update. Heard back from the dealer. This is what they quoted:
Radiator Fan Clutch: .5 hrs
Radiator/Hoses: 5.2 hrs
Water Pump: 2 hrs
Drive Belt Tensioner: .3 hrs
Thermostat & Gasket: .5 hrs
Heater T's (with hoses): 2 hrs

I imagine this is likely twice as long as everything should take. I do understand their need to charge more, but this amount to nearly 11 hrs of labor, everyone seems to note 5 hours is reasonable. Think this is so outrageous I should just pick the car up, or should I try to haggle the labor down to 7 hrs?

Would the Heater T's possible take 2 hours? I think they are easier than the 100 series, but the tech said they were more difficult. I did not think they were. They also said it does not save time to do the water pump with the radiator out, which seems to be contrary to what everyone has advised.

 

[CharlieS]

Sounds like they're just quoting book rate for each job separately, not taking into consideration the labor savings of already being in there.

 

[bloc]

What Charlie said. They are adding everything up separately.

Heater Ts might be a 30 minute job, but it does introduce air into different parts of the system so maybe they added time to purge it.

Common work for radiator/water pump: remove belt, fan, shroud, upper hose. What they are ignoring is if you do the pump/t-stat/tensioner/idler/fan bracket with the radiator out, it all goes more quickly.

 

[Hugga99]

Sounds like they're just quoting book rate for each job separately, not taking into consideration the labor savings of already being in there.

Thanks. They advised that there is no time savings with the water pump with radiator out. They said there was a very slight reduction in labor. It did sound like book for each.

 

[Hugga99]

What Charlie said. They are adding everything up separately.

Heater Ts might be a 30 minute job, but it does introduce air into different parts of the system so maybe they added time to purge it.

Common work for radiator/water pump: remove belt, fan, shroud, upper hose. What they are ignoring is if you do the pump/t-stat/tensioner/idler/fan bracket with the radiator out, it all goes more quickly.

Perfect. I’ll use this when countering in the AM. I think I’ll ask for 50% off and go from there. (Joke!)

 

[bloc]

Thanks. They advised that there is no time savings with the water pump with radiator out. They said there was a very slight reduction in labor. It did sound like book for each.

I did this exact job. It definitely saves time to have an extra few inches of room. You still need to protect the condenser core from damage but in such limited space that few inches is valuable.

 

[Hugga99]

I did this exact job. It definitely saves time to have an extra few inches of room. You still need to protect the condenser core from damage but in such limited space that few inches is valuable.

Awesome. They did seem to imply that they would work on the labor charge. They already charge a very high hourly rate, so this is extremely helpful in trying to negotiate it down with them. Certainly to a reasonable level.