My car: jerking movement and check engine light yesterday. Towed it to a shop.
Diagnosis: $175
They said: misfire cylinder #1, the induction coil needs to be replaced.
My oil needs to be changed, my engine filter needs to be replaced and my throttle body needs to be cleaned. Total: $713
What do you think?
One coil, an oil change and a throttle body cleaning for an additional $713? Or $175 for the diagnosis and $538 for the rest?
Are you at a dealer? That seems like way too much money for all that unless you live in San Francisco, New York City or Chicago then it is still high!
With what they are trying to do to you, I hope they at least kissed you first.
How long did it take to do the diagnosis? If it was over an hour, then it is about right.
My concern would be why the coil went bad. Often it is because the spark plug has been misfiring causing it to overheat and arc internally. So why wasn’t a new spark plug included? If one plug is bad, they why? If they have over 120k miles on them, all four are overdue for replacement. That would add about $120-200 to your bill but if you risk driving on old plugs, you could be buying more coils.
I’m seeing about $110 + 1/2 hour labor to replace one ignition coil. Figure around $170 parts and labor for the coil. $175 diagnostic fee seems reasonable for a dealership. So they are charging you $713 - $175 - $170 = $368 for an oil/filter change and a throttle body service. That seems a little more than I’d expect, but not massively excessive, esp for a dealership. I expect you could save a little $$ having this work done at a Prius friendly inde shop. In other words it’s not worth it to put up a fight, since the car is out of warranty just move your future business to a less expensive repair shop.
does the oil need changed? How long since it was last done?
I have been to shops that try to upsell lots of unneeded things- just to see if I will bite.
“You brought in for tire balancing? You also need injectors cleaned, bearings, blinker fluid swapped out, and your muffler bearing is starting to get noisy…”
Alacart the diagnosis and coil repair was $450.
Just my humble opinion on this matter but a coil usually fails for one of 2 reasons.
Moisture in the plug well.
Aged spark plug.
If they did not replace the plugs then this is a mistake; at least as far as my 2 cents is concerned.
If those are the original plugs then it’s a no brainer as far as plug replacement goes.