I will never agree that a shop should blindly take a diagnosis from a customer, another shop, AutoZone, some neighbor from around the corner, or whomever at face value.
The point is made that a shop may accept a customer diagnosis and have the customer sign a waiver absolving the shop of all blame if that self-diagnosis doesn’t fix the problem.
Unfortunately, in most cases when the problem is not cured per the customer’s instructions that waiver becomes a point of contention and often leads to an argument with the customer then stating “Well, you shoulda…”.
In other cases not much is said and the customer leaves with their still suffering car. The customer then proceeds to file a complaint with the BBB and curse the shop to everyone within a 50 mile radius.
I’m very cynical on this issue because I’ve seen things go sour too many times because of it. The shop is guilty no matter how blameless they are.
$120 oil change may be related to the potential 8-9 qts it holds and Euro spec synthetic it requires coupled to a quality oil filter. Recent BMW’s have once per year oil changes due to large sump and high quality oil.
The shop did not order your plugs off amazon. They likely paid a parts delivery place to drive them to their location which is sold to them well above the $50 on amazon but less then $110. They get markup on parts bringing price to $110.
The labor depends on hourly rate. My guess $120/hr? I would not trust what autozone monkey told me as that is simply a code and no checks of reality around it.
Btw it is not a good approach to say code is XYZ and fix this to a shop. Let them diagnose and see if it jives. You can throw them into the wrong path and not check properly wasting money on parts/time/aggravation.
There is a middle ground between being a paranoid know it all who thinks every shop is ripping him off if they don’t want to proceed with a Autozone “diagnosis” to guide them and the no get paid for diagnosis or any markup on parts and professional mechanics who don’t think car owners should do any of their own repairs.
I have never made my living as a mechanic and have no certifications but I do enjoy working on cars, mostly mine and my family’s. Brake jobs are fun and satisfying and save you a ton of money. I usually buy my parts at Napa and usually not the cheapest grade. I have replaced head gaskets, clutches, swapped engines transmissions and rear ends but I know my limitations.
If my a/c blows warm, I will put a gauge on the low pressure side and if it is low I will add enough refrigerant to put it in the green, that has always worked and if it didn’t I would take it to a pro.
If I get a map sensor code I will check to vacuum line to it and if thats ok. replace the sensor. If that doesn’t work, off to my mechanic. I do the same thing with most sensors and when I do go to my mechanic I never grumble about his prices or the fact that he didn’t get it right the first time every time.
If it was easy , I wouldn’t have taken it to him in the first place and we both know it.
It’s ok to respond to older posts here, but you’ll get better help to start a new topic with your car and its specific problem. Click “maintenance/repairs” above left, then “new topic” above right.