Took my '11 570 in for an alignment and presented with a recommended 'Service List' of $5,528.60
- Thread starter skymast
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Yeah - my Toyota dealer charged me $550 out the door to do the spark plug replacement. And gave me a loaner car for free.
Humm.. Just did my alignment - $168 at the Toyota dealer...
To be fair I do have the dealer do stuff I don't want to namely the transmission flush (less than $200 from what I remember), and the brake flush (also about the same cost. )..
Brakes, full set is about $250 in parts (front and Rear - Rotors and Pads... all of it) - takes a hour per axle the first time you do it. Less than 1/2 that time after that.
Spark plugs, straight forward except for the passenger side firewall one in the back... just unbolt the bracket securing all the coolant lines to the block and it can be pushed out of the way enough to get the plug out.. Whole think took a hour or two working slow and having a beer break or two..
Rear Diff, 15 minutes labor - use Redline oils for all Diffs
Front Diff, 1st time spend an hour doing it, and replace the fill plug with a Koan one which uses a socket to get off.. 2nd time maybe 20 minutes
Transfer case, 1st time an hour since there are a lot of bolts on the guard... 2nd time 1/2 that...
power steering flush? ... all they are going to do is suck the fluid out of the reservoir and refill... unless its black, then they will do it twice
- just buy the power steering fluid and well, do the above... takes 15 minutes, maybe.. turn the truck on, cycle the steering wheel lock to lock a few times, and recheck level, etc..
I use Redline oils for this too..
Transmission.. My dealer has an extractor... so I let them do it..
Anyway I spread the stuff I don't want to do, and such out over a few trips but try to get to everything once every 60k miles, which is shorter than the Toyota service recommendation anyway.. (so I've done it twice now since I'm at 135k).. I take the truck in for a look over every 10k-ish and see what they recommend..
I record all my service stuff in the Toyota app with mileage, so I can pull it up, and I think they can see it as well, but I'm not sure about that really.
They did catch my water pump starting to seep so I had them change it, and the pulleys and belt ($1,200 - ish)
umm.. GDI service?
Well..... it's not direct injection...so all they are going to do is pour a can of BG44K in the tank and call it good, and maybe spray the MAF off with some MAF cleaner I guess...
Amazon sells BG44k in 6 packs.. - it includes a funnel
If I was charging for the work, your dealers quote looks fine to me
To be fair I do have the dealer do stuff I don't want to namely the transmission flush (less than $200 from what I remember), and the brake flush (also about the same cost. )..
Brakes, full set is about $250 in parts (front and Rear - Rotors and Pads... all of it) - takes a hour per axle the first time you do it. Less than 1/2 that time after that.
Spark plugs, straight forward except for the passenger side firewall one in the back... just unbolt the bracket securing all the coolant lines to the block and it can be pushed out of the way enough to get the plug out.. Whole think took a hour or two working slow and having a beer break or two..
Rear Diff, 15 minutes labor - use Redline oils for all Diffs
Front Diff, 1st time spend an hour doing it, and replace the fill plug with a Koan one which uses a socket to get off.. 2nd time maybe 20 minutes
Transfer case, 1st time an hour since there are a lot of bolts on the guard... 2nd time 1/2 that...
power steering flush? ... all they are going to do is suck the fluid out of the reservoir and refill... unless its black, then they will do it twice
- just buy the power steering fluid and well, do the above... takes 15 minutes, maybe.. turn the truck on, cycle the steering wheel lock to lock a few times, and recheck level, etc..I use Redline oils for this too..
Transmission.. My dealer has an extractor... so I let them do it..
Anyway I spread the stuff I don't want to do, and such out over a few trips but try to get to everything once every 60k miles, which is shorter than the Toyota service recommendation anyway.. (so I've done it twice now since I'm at 135k).. I take the truck in for a look over every 10k-ish and see what they recommend..
I record all my service stuff in the Toyota app with mileage, so I can pull it up, and I think they can see it as well, but I'm not sure about that really.
They did catch my water pump starting to seep so I had them change it, and the pulleys and belt ($1,200 - ish)
umm.. GDI service?
Well..... it's not direct injection...so all they are going to do is pour a can of BG44K in the tank and call it good, and maybe spray the MAF off with some MAF cleaner I guess...
Amazon sells BG44k in 6 packs..
- it includes a funnelIf I was charging for the work, your dealers quote looks fine to me
skymast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #24
Thank you!Humm.. Just did my alignment - $168 at the Toyota dealer...
To be fair I do have the dealer do stuff I don't want to namely the transmission flush (less than $200 from what I remember), and the brake flush (also about the same cost. )..
Brakes, full set is about $250 in parts (front and Rear - Rotors and Pads... all of it) - takes a hour per axle the first time you do it. Less than 1/2 that time after that.
Spark plugs, straight forward except for the passenger side firewall one in the back... just unbolt the bracket securing all the coolant lines to the block and it can be pushed out of the way enough to get the plug out.. Whole think took a hour or two working slow and having a beer break or two..
Rear Diff, 15 minutes labor - use Redline oils for all Diffs
Front Diff, 1st time spend an hour doing it, and replace the fill plug with a Koan one which uses a socket to get off.. 2nd time maybe 20 minutes
Transfer case, 1st time an hour since there are a lot of bolts on the guard... 2nd time 1/2 that...
power steering flush? ... all they are going to do is suck the fluid out of the reservoir and refill... unless its black, then they will do it twice
I use Redline oils for this too..
Transmission.. My dealer has an extractor... so I let them do it..
Anyway I spread the stuff I don't want to do, and such out over a few trips but try to get to everything once every 60k miles, which is shorter than the Toyota service recommendation anyway.. (so I've done it twice now since I'm at 135k).. I take the truck in for a look over every 10k-ish and see what they recommend..
I record all my service stuff in the Toyota app with mileage, so I can pull it up, and I think they can see it as well, but I'm not sure about that really.
They did catch my water pump starting to seep so I had them change it, and the pulleys and belt ($1,200 - ish)
umm.. GDI service?
Well..... it's not direct injection...so all they are going to do is pour a can of BG44K in the tank and call it good, and maybe spray the MAF off with some MAF cleaner I guess...
Amazon sells BG44k in 6 packs..
If I was charging for the work, your dealers quote looks fine to me
My Toyota Dealer does this BS with every Toyota I own. I pick and choose what I feel is important to be done, what I can do myself, and what can wait in order to spread out the cost. Almost everything they put on their list of recommended maintenance comes under the heading of "upsell" in my opinion.
If they did an alignment with you having bad tie rods that means 100% the alignment was not done correctly. That and they should know the tie rods will constantly move giving false alignment numbers. Bring that up to them they will either A give you your money back for not doing it correctly or B admit they where lying.
skymast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #27
I'm ordering parts Monday. I'll probably go in this order. Brakes, Diffs, Transfer case, Transmission, Spark Plugs, then address the tie rod ends. As echoed in the comments, somewhat frustrating with the prices as well as the fact that the alignment shouldn't have been done if the ends were bad. Living and learning but I will say after lots of vehicles, I really love the LX.
It’s when you have a gasoline direct injected engine that has no port fuel injectors, and they spray a cleaner into the intake to try and clean the valves
As far as I know, Toyota doesn’t even make engines that are direct injection only
32cls6speedmt
SILVER Star
FYI. I feel a Toyota dealership parts sale will be coming for Memorial Day. I would wait if you are ordering from Toyota dealership.
They probably could have made this recommendation without even looking at your rig.
I have had a dealer recommend services that were done 6months earlier and questioned whether they looked at the rig or even their own service records. Very frustrating and puts into question whether they can be trusted to offer real recommendations based on real needs.
The dealer looks at mileage and offers recommendations based on this alone...not any consideration for what needs to be done.
My most recent service at Groove Toyota in Denver the SA told me I should delay a specific service, based on the use, lower mileage, and condition of my LC. What a concept! He could have easily said the recommendation is to do it and collect my money!
Re the rear brakes, how is your hand brake? It uses a drum brake system with the drum incorporated in the rear rotor disc. My hand brake has a very distant relationship with actually slowing the vehicle down. I tried replacing the pads (not the same ones as the rear disc pads), but not much difference.
You have to adjust the pad distance to the inner drum, there should be rubber cap on the rear rotor you can remove and then you can use the screw driver to adjust until it locks the e-brake, then back it up about 4 clicks. Someone might have exact procedure.
If you can't get it tight enough and the handle is still pointing too high, then usually you need to adjust the cable which could be more difficult, may require taking off console or pieces. If it wasn't yanked very strong everytime in the car's service life, the drum adjustment might get you back to good.
My brother has a GX and got a ridiculous quote like that when his air suspension sensor went bad. It wasn't even a dealer. For everything they listed, it was over $12k. Just the suspension fix alone was quoted at +4k.
He isn't the car guy like I am, but I "walked" him through ordering and installing the Metal Tech rear air suspension delete kit and new shocks. Cost him a few hundred bucks and some time.
HIs neighbor who was a certified Infiniti Master mechanic told him that getting charged for $100 a plug was fine and when he helped my brother with a caliper change awhile back, never flushed the fluid when no one knows how old the fluid was. I walked him through ordering the plugs online for about $6 each and sent him a link on how to do them and what tools to he will need. Craziness.
Not telling you what to do but I would address the tie rods first that is a health and safety issue. Also if they are bad you are going to eat a set of tires and have to buy new ones. That would be my top priority I wouldn't even drive it if I was not 100% certain the tie rods are fine.
If you want to save $900 i would find a friend buy a beer and bbq some meat. It should be a
job rent a torque wrench and get it aligned again.They even charge you for a few cans of brake clean and rags ($17.94).
