I replaced the valve body on my '12 Sport Limited Impreza (136,500 miles) only to find out that the part I purchased was defective. Shame on me, I don’t need any comments on that.
So I took the car to the dealership. In addition to needing another new valve body, the following repairs “require immediate attention”, according to them:
Axle Hub & Bearing (Damage / Leaks / Boots):
Replace Wheel Bearing Left Front - $310.84
Those in addition to an alignment ($149.95) and the $1,766.55 estimate for the valve body, fees, and taxes add up to $3729.91.
I got another quote from a different Subaru dealer of 1K for the valve body. I am asking this dealer why their estimate is so much higher. If they match, or if I just get it done at the 1st dealer, the total would go down to $2,963.36.
I’ve checked a couple of different places, and my car’s worth is somewhere around the middle of those 2 values, ballparking.
Is this worth it to you? Are any of these repairs ones that I can possibly save hundreds at a regular garage? Is the “stealership” tag living up to its name? To be fair, I saw a lot of this coming, as I can hear and feel issues in the locations they are describing.
If you go to an independent shop don’t tell them what the dealers said. Just tell them the symptoms you have and let them evaluate the car. If you really have axle and suspension problems they will find them and give you a price. The rule is never to ask for work. They should be peofessionals and will find them in their own.
That sounds like a very rusty vehicle with a bad wheel bearing… Here is your price for the Hub IF WE can get the axle out of the bearing and the Hub out of the knucle, but not sure until we get into it… So that should be an either or or 2 out of 3 things to replace and they are CYA worst case problems…
I have replaced a lot of hub bearings and axles on Subarus but not at the same time… The steering knuckle is more of a wreck item then a wear item unless rust keeps it from coming apart…
About either price sounds about right for a repair shop depending on location anyway…
However an independent shop will probably spend more time then a dealer trying to keep from having to replace the knuckle… And if they can’t seperate the ball joint from the knuckle then you can add the cost of a ball joint into the bearing price…
The one dealer is probably using a new valve body while the other is using a reman valve body as that is a huge price difference… reman if done right should have any updates done to it and or normal wearing valve body spool valve bore that wear out, already repair with the hardened sleaves that may never wear out again (if available) were as a new one may just be like the one that came from the factory…
Is it worth it, well that all depends on your bank account and credit and overall condition of the vehicle lol (NO we don’t need to know them)… Has most/all of the maintenance been done on the vehicle and other wise in good shape?? $3000.00 is a lot cheaper and probably better then buying another used higher mileage vehicle that will probably have to have work done to it also… But a new/much newer vehicle may be more reliable but that comes at a much higher cost also…
If the vehicle is rusted all out then I would probably loo for something else, if the vehicle is in pretty good shape otherwise I would probably repair it…
But it never hurts (unless you are paying to have it towed) to get another opinion on repairs…
Hello, thank you all for your replies. I know this is a “it depends” situation and isn’t easy to answer. I do have an update…
It_s-Me - Thanks for pointing that out, I’ll ask about that.
I do live in the north so there is a lot of rust. Undercairrage washes can only do so much. It hasn’t been in a wreck.
So here’s the thing. I originally took the car in for the CVT relearn. They went ahead and did a full inspection, and found these additional issues. They took the left front wheel off and started dismantling. During this, they “found” a broken bolt, stating. “it was already broken”.
So now, the car literally cannot leave the shop without $1,800 in repairs. For things I never even asked them to do. Is this normal for a dealer? I feel like I should be extremely pissed off but maybe this is a normal scenario I was unaware of? I don’t recall ever taking my car to the dealership before for repairs.
Without seeing the vehicle it sounds like this thing might be at the end of it’s safe driving point . Maybe they can just put the wheel back on enough that you can have it hauled to another shop .
Dealers are just not geared to do patch work because they are much more vernable to law suits and bad publicity. As much as I dislike large repair bills the quoted amount will not buy you a decent used vehicle .
They’ve stated that the car cannot leave the shop without the repairs. The old parts cannot be put back on. So it would be 1800 just to get my car back. And they did offer me $1,000 to take the car off my hands which I declined. But that was before I knew it was going to be 1800 just to get my car back.
So after they did the inspection without asking me, I at least gave them the benefit of the doubt and took it as a courtesy. I approved an alignment because I knew the car needed it. I didn’t approve any other work at the time. Also, not all of the work they stated that needs done was listed out with the original work list. More things were added a day after they sent me things that were additionally wrong with the car.
Difficult situation. What is their response to you saying you never approved the work?
You may have to pay some other mechanic to check it out at the dealer’s shop. The dealer might be right, or they might be trying to extort work out of you. One option might be to have it towed (on a flat bed) to a shop of your choice.
I have no idea what the correct thing to do here is and I doubt if anyone else on this site does either.
My thought is that I would have the work done which will have some kind of warranty . Drive it for a few weeks to decide keeping or replacing . The tradein price should be a little more than the repair cost . At least that way you can decide what brand you want without being pressured by the Subaru dealer.
I would ask to see everything that they are saying HAS to be replaced (except for the valve body) and take pictures… If the vehicle is NOT on the lift and all 4 wheels are on it and sitting outside then it CAN be moved… And I would flat bed it elsewhere… You can tell buy the rust if a bolt has been broken for a while or just broken…
I had a vehicle towed to me years ago with the engine cylinder head in the trunk because the customer took the vehicle in for overheating and the shop removed the head and said it was a blown head gasket without permission…
Remember it is Your money, Your vehicle and Your decision, not theirs… I know some states have laws that a shop can report as being unsafe and have the tags removed until deemed safe, but that can’t stop you from having it towed…
Unfortunately it sounds like the vehicle has a lot of rust on it and it is not the shops fault things are breaking and it could of happened to any shop, but they probably gone about it a little differently…
You need to look carefully at any paperwork you were presented with at the time you dropped off the car. Especially anything you signed or initialed that may have been an approval to do any kind of work. If I dropped off my car for one thing, they did their obligatory “inspection” looking for other issues and started taking anything off the car, I would be very upset if I hadn’t authorized them to do so.
I had something similar but not as bad happen once when I took a truck in for diagnosis and service. I signed for a diagnosis only and call back with estimate before performing any work. When they called, they had a laundry list of stuff they wanted to do and were adamant about doing. 99% of which had no bearing on the actual issue at hand. I told them to wrap it up, I would be by in an hour to pick up my truck and pay for the diagnostic. Oh, it’s all apart and we can’t do that. Oh really? Well, I suggest you review the paperwork for this job, no work is authorized. I’ll be there in an hour so it better be back together in same condition it was dropped off in or there’s going to be a big problem for you guys. Hour later I picked up my truck, took it home and did the work myself…
Thanks again all. I really appreciate all of your input.
So here’s what happened…
At first, the only item listed as “needing immediate attention” was a ball joint. It was $250. I ended up approving it, not realizing that it would result in them finding multiple other issues that were listed the next day, including the ones in my OP. So apparently, if I never approved the ball joint, none of the other issues would’ve been found and tacked on.
So as long as their initial inspection should’ve been expected, and they are being honest, it sounds like I am s.o.l…
OK, so then the question becomes, what on this list is relevant:
Wheel bearing is listed twice. Why is it spiked out separately at the top when it also appears in the more comprehensive list below in the second repair?
The other thing that bears asking- these seem to be listed as separate repairs when in all likelyhood they are done as one big repair. Separately, there could be duplication of labor between all three repairs. For example, replacing the lower ball joint is a much simpler job when the knuckle is already off the car. It’s right there, already separated from the knuckle so why is it $253??
As I stated before, I am pretty sure the 2 different wheel bearing jobs is a best case est and worst case est… I have on many Work Orders written a double est (either or) just incase X part breaks (seized) during the repair due to unforeseen circumstances due to the condition of the vehicle…
I did a clutch in a Mazda a couple years ago that I had to remove the whole steering knuckle cause the axle would not come out of the hub bearing on the vehicle…