I’d use Rockauto instead of Amazon.
Next time my 79 year old mother has trouble with the gas furnace or needs an oil change on her car I’ll tell her quit being lazy and if she wants to exist to go fix it herself.
9 Likes
Or being to frugal to pay for the TTI headers that fit better… 
I could just jack the engine up (block of wood on the screw jack or floor jack for those that don’t know) just far enough I could sneak in there… But boy oh boy did I have to go in behind a lot of younger techs and clean the threads up after they (started to) cross threaded the plug hole… After I would tell them, hey when you get to it let me show you a trick… but yeah, I saw some techs using the Snap on wobble socket, I just kept hoping I wouldn’t have to do many more… lol
In my twilight years, I’m enjoying not needing to have a car ready to drive 100 miles every morning anymore so can take my time. My car needs brakes. The parts have been sitting for two weeks waiting for me to start. Who cares?
I also will never complain about the cost of hiring work done that I don’t want to do anymore. On the contrary I wonder sometimes how they can charge so little and stay in business. I had the timing belt changed at the Acura dealer. It was going to take all day so they gave me a car to use. 60 miles from home, what am I going to do all day? So I drove to the casino. Within an hour, ding ding, I won $1000. Timing belt bill was $1500. I’m not complaining. I also don’t suggest anyone else try this.
2 Likes
What does the “1” superscript on spark plugs represent?
1 Like
1
Required under the terms of the Emission Control Warranty
@Clueless33 - I would find out the exact make and number of the OEM plugs and get those from a trusted source.
1 Like
hmmm … seems a lot of deferred maintenance & incorrect repair methodology is happening amongst some car owners these days … a bit of an oil sludge problem there, eh? Well, on the + side, at least they saved the expense of a lot of oil and filter changes … good vdo, thanks for the chuckle … lol … 
A bevy of DIY’ers is one of the traits that makes America great imho. However, one thing I’ve always wondered is why folks attempting a diy’er job don’t start the job by reading a repair manual? That’s why repair manuals are published. There’s no need to reinvent the repair process over and over again, by trial and error. Does this occur b/c the diy’er are too cheap to buy the repair manual? Or is it simple hubris, they believe they don’t need a repair manual? Other ideas?
It should be right in the owner’s manual, I’d think. Somewhere with Maintenance / Specifications and the like.
Thank you. I will definitely make note of this. I might run into one issue, though: will an independent shop agree to use my own parts ? From what I’ve learned, an independent shop might refuse to use customers parts to protect themselves against lawsuit. They use aftermarket parts instead that are insured by their business.
Suggest to compromise, ask the shop to use the specific part you want them to, but not to use parts you purchase yourself. Reputable shops won’t do that anyway for the most part, partly b/c of what you mention above. Your best bet is to let the shop decide what parts to use. B/c if there’s a problem with any of the parts, they’ll be responsible. Even if you just tell them which part to use, they may claim they then aren’t responsible for any adverse outcome. Keep it simple in other words.
1 Like
Remember plugs are out there that are fake counterfeits to oem. They are near identical to the real thing and have the same marking and packaging as originals. Only an expert can tell the difference. Often sold on Amazon or other. On line and also can make their way into other suppliers inventory. If I were a shop I’d be reluctant to use plugs from an unknown source. If the come apart they can ruin an engine. So I would say don’t do this and a low price isn’t always the lowest cost.
3 Likes
Not really a lawsuit thing as much as it is a what if the part fails thing, is it the installers fault the part failed or the part was defective when installed… So the shop doesn’t want to nor have time to argue with the customer about who pays for the labor, and how can the shop warranty a part you brought to them, when a shop supplies parts and labor, the warranty is for both, as a rule of thumb… Plus a shop has to cover their expenses and mark up on parts is part of that, so as a shop owner, why would you want to do job A (customer supplies the parts) and only make X profit when you could do job B (and make more money with the parts mark up) and make Y money… Another words, would you do the same work for less money at your job because someone was being cheap??
Another way to look at it is, how often do you go to a fast food or nice sit down dinner (or whatever) and tell the waitress/waiter to cook the food you brought with you… They would tell you to go fly a kite…
Most any repair shop will gladly get the parts from the dealer if you ask them to, or like in the case of spark plugs, almost all OEM plugs can be bought from local parts houses…
But, most repair shops also have to keep vehicles in the bays moving or they loose money that that bay could be making them, so don’t expect them to order parts online (RockAuto, Amazon etc) when they can make a call and the dealer will deliver the parts that day depending on order time and or call the local parts house(s) and normally have the parts delivered in under an hour, most of mine got delivered in 15-20 minutes or less cause of the amount I spent with them (through the company)…
2 Likes
I agree. I’ve settled with letting the Lexus dealer do the service for peace of mind. Independent shops prices are very close to the dealer as well. 
1 Like
So I’m looking deeply into your comment here. Are you saying flushing the transmission fluid is likely to cause harm than good?
I was on the clublexus forum for this specific information and a lot of mixed answers are on there. Many are saying the same thing you are saying, then there are also some opposing views.
Toyota told me themselves I need the flush at 60k miles but Lexus dealer said I don’t need it until 100k miles. And now you, and some others, saying I shouldn’t do it. This makes me nervous.
During the supply chain problem a couple of years ago, my local indy mechanic told me that he only orders parts from the local dealerships, even if it might increase the delivery time for the parts.
Funny thing is we were spending $10,000+ a month per shop (during the lock down, double to triple++ other wise) with multiple parts houses and dealers and had more issues getting parts from the different dealers and very rarely had any issues with the parts houses at any time… Now tires, well that was a different story… lol
Depending on the shop, they run 90 to well over 120K in service sales a month, you have a big parts bill every month… lol… That does not include tire sales…
I was averaging 88K in service out of a small 7 bay, plus 1 alignment bay, back in 2009 & 2010, biggest shop has 18 bays…
The fact that you take @TheWonderful90s comments seriously makes ME nervous 
3 Likes
I have the dealer “flush” the fluid every 60k or so. I’d love to see the “facts” behind the doubters’ claims.
Ignore them.
2 Likes