The garage that I have been going to for years charged me $600 to replace the EGR valve, the EGR solenoid and EGR pressure transducer to clear a trouble code P0401( EGR airflow restricted ) on my other car–2000 Toyota Camry. Was I overcharged?
Those things rarely really go bad but tend to clog up.
They can usually be cleaned out with some carb or brake cleaner.
It sounds expensive. What was your bill’s break down?
I don’t know the labor costs in your area. The parts may have had to come through Toyota and were pricey. If your car is running well and you have been a customer of this shop for a long time, the price was probably right.
In my over fifty years of owning a car, I have had only two times that I thought I was overcharged or the job wasn’t done correctly and the shop wouldn’t make good. One service station I tried because it was convenient and had been recommended to me put in a pair low quality shock absorbers and charged me for a top level shock absorber. The other time was I once had an alignment done at a Sears store. The car didn’t drive right and I took it back. The manager claimed it had been aligned to specifications. I finally just took it to another shop and Sears had set the toe so the front wheels toed out instead of in.
The independent shop I use isn’t the cheapest in my area, but they always do the job correctly. In the long run, I think I have come out ahead.
I don’t think you were overcharged but your car could possibly have suffered a bit of shotgun guessing at the problem. The odds of all of those parts relating to the EGR system failing at once would be astronomically low so the shop threw everything at it.
However, without parts in hand and knowing the diagnostic procedures used it’s impossible to say whether the above is anything more than theory.
That’s about $350-400 for parts and $200-250 for labor, so it might be a bit on the high end but not unrealistically…IF all these parts were actually needed. Restricted flow is usually caused by a simple carbon buildup at the valve, easily cleaned. The solenoid and pressure transducer wouldn;t both normally need changing as well as the valve.
However, it’s always easier to second-guess the tech after the fact and over the internet than it actually is to fix the car. So I’ll end by saying that if all the parts were actually needed, the price isn’t too bad, just a bit on the high end.
Thank you so much for the answers to my question about the EGR problem on my Camry.