I sit in the repair shop for my Sub Forrester, and look at the “Scheduled Maintenance At Regular Times”, I can’t help but think if I am being taken advantage of.
Is this maintenance schedule scientifically based for my benefit, or financially based for theirs?
When it comes to changing oil, I’m on the clock and regular. I know how important it is. But now my car is at 36k, and here is what the dealership is recommending I do:
$100 Engine Flush
$200 Flush Automaitc Transmission
$130 Fuel Injection Service
$100 4 Wheel Alignment
$50 Clean and lube breaks
$150 Flush cooling system
$90 Clean throttle body
$100 Service front differential
$140 Break system flush
$90 Power steering flush
Total = $too much
On the other hand… if there is some truth to doing these items… I wouldn’t want to save $1k here… and pay for it in a few years.
Any advice?
Thanks!
The answer is in your owner’s manual. I’ll bet none of the services you listed are recommended by Subaru, either at 36K, or for most of them, ever. The dealer is trying to maximize profits, pure and simple.
Agreed. Your list has been drawn up by the dealer, who has his own needs to consider. Such as next month’s boat payment. As mentioned above, refer to your owner’s manual.
You are NOT being taken advantage for SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE…The problem is…those services are NOT part of the SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE.
You do NOT have to take the car to the dealer for scheduled maintenance. Any independent mechanic can do ALL scheduled maintenance. If I was you I’d sure find a different place. This dealer is a crook.
Agree; the services listed are mostly “revenue generators” for the dealer. Having said that, at 100,000 miles some of them would likely be a good thing to do. For the time being, however, consult your OWNERS MANUAL, and only oil and filter change, and maybe cabin air filter change might show up at that that mileage. And these do not have to be done by the dealer. But keep all receipts in a binder, in case there could be a later warranty claim.
Unless you habitually bump into curbs or do rough offroading, a wheel alignment is not mecessary until the front end starts to wear, much later.
So, save yourself the money and only do what your book says.
Thank you all. FYI, I have pulled the maintenance manual, and this is what is recommended:
INSPECT: drive belts, camshaft drive belt, fuel system, lines, and conections, transmission and diff, brake linings and drums, steering and suspension.
REPLACE: Oil and oil filter, air cleaner, spark plugs, brake fluid
PERFORM: Replace engine coolant and inspect cooling sytem, Inspect brake lines and check operation of parking and brake system, Rotate and inspect tires.
I wonder if I had brought the car in for this dealers maintenance, if they would have even done the things they said they would… or if they would have just “inspected them”, gave a check box, and charged the full fee???
I wonder if I had brought the car in for this dealers maintenance, if they would have even done the things they said they would… or if they would have just “inspected them”, gave a check box, and charged the full fee???
They probably wouldn’t have. And MOST would never know.
Likely they would have indeed inspected – primarily so that they could report to you that something needs immediate attention. The purpose of inspection should be to find something amiss; too many mechanics treat it as an opportunity for themselves.
"Thank you all. FYI, I have pulled the maintenance manual, and this is what is recommended:
INSPECT: drive belts, camshaft drive belt, fuel system, lines, and conections, transmission and diff, brake linings and drums, steering and suspension.
REPLACE: Oil and oil filter, air cleaner, spark plugs, brake fluid
PERFORM: Replace engine coolant and inspect cooling sytem, Inspect brake lines and check operation of parking and brake system, Rotate and inspect tires."
That list sounds more reasonable that what the dealer was trying to sell you. My only addition would be to replace (not flush) the automatic transmission fluid/filter. I like to replace tranny fluid every 30K miles, or so, whether it’s recommended or not.
You’re getting opinions based on a car in which you did not state the year, mileage, or anything else.
There’s a bit more to your question than you’re being told or having explained to you.
I could make a wild guess and assume by your ID that the car is an '05 Forester?
Maintenance is a religion not a science or an economic theory.
The religious answer is right there in your car’s Bible. Open the glove box and pull it out. It is called the “Owner’s Manual.”
If your dealer or mechanic wants to change it, call them the heretics they are. Remember that all the quick oil change places are all Godless atheist and can not be trusted. Both the heretics and atheist are influenced by the writings of the Prophet of the economic theory of Profit
Others have eloquently pointed out that the owner’s manual is the true maintenance guide and anything above that recommended by the dealer is solely for his profit.
However, I did want to add that the maintenance schedule in your owner’s manual really is based on scientific study and should be adhered to. Reliability engineers perform various “accelerated life” and “environmental” studies on parts, materials and assemblies and combine that with empirical data determine when they need to be maintained and/or replaced. These numbers are not just “picked out of the air”.
Mountainbike is right; there is a rationale behind the maintenance recommendations. However, there is a wide descrepancy between car companies and their recommended intervals. For instance OP needs coolant changed at 36,000 miles, my Toyota says 80,000 miles. OP needs spark plugs replaced at 36,000, my Toyota at 120,000 miles. Also, no mention of replacing brake fluid on my Toyota. From this I conclude that Subaru is very conservative, while Toyota now has enough experience to recommend these longer intervals with long life fluids and iridium spark plugs. I won’t follow the Toyota schedule, and will change fluids earlier.
Hi OK4450
Your guess is right.
It is a Forester 2005, that I’m the orig owner of, and have about 36k on.
Thanks Craig58!
You have made a distinction between “replacing” and “flushing” the tran fluid. What do you mean?
I thought that simply “draining” the fluid was not enough, because much of the fluid is still in the transmission… so it was required to “flush out the old” fluid with new fluid – which was the way to replace it???
Thanks again!
In addition to the very questionable transmission flush, I would be very hesitant to take my car to a place that states that they will perform the following services:
Clean and lube breaks (sic)
and
Break (sic) system flush
If they don’t know the difference between brakes and breaks, it is not likely that they could properly interpret a repair manual, and as a result they would not be allowed anywhere near my car.
Here is a article to help explain the distinction. In general, replacing the fluid involves draining (most of) the old fluid out and replacing it with new fluid, as opposed to actively flushing (pumping) fluid through the transmission. It should not be necessary to flush the transmission on a low mileage car. Personally, I just replace the fluid and filter about every 30K miles:
I won’t say that all of that stuff is bad. Some of that stuff should not be needed at 30K+ miles but flushing the cooling system and break system could be beneficial. If there is no apparent problem with the way the engine runs then skip the throttle body and fuel injection service. There’s a time and place for this stuff but your mileage is too low for a lot of that to be an issue.
Depending on environmental issues and driving habits it’s possible that a vehicle could use all or most of that stuff. On average, probably not.
Guess I’ll have to disagree a bit here, as usual. The purpose of these maintenance services it to INSPECT things, not repair them.
Think of it as not feeling well and going to the doctor. The doc examines you, does a few tests, and says you need surgery.
The doctor visit and tests (maintenance service) does not include surgical costs (repair of items founds defective).
I’ll also disagree that automotive engineers are the final authority on how your vehicle should be maintained for 2 reasons.
One is that mechanics routinely have to repair things that an entire building full of engineers thought up. The lowly mechanic will look at a broke whatsit and wonder aloud - “What in the xxxx were they thinking”.
Another is that something exists between the engineers and car owner and that is management/marketing. All car makers want their cars to appear to be more maintenance free and that is why the trend over the last 20-25 years to extend intervals on various items. It makes no difference to management/marketing because items left neglected will probably fail after the warranty is up.
(Example of M/M interference. The lawsuit against FOMOCO over the TFI-IV ignition modules. Memos surfaced during this suit in which the engineers said the modules were going to be prone to heat failure and should be redone. M/M said no, too much time and expense so off to production they went. The results are available with a net search for “TFI-IV Settlement”.)
I say to get a four wheel alignment if your tire wear looks funny or fast but check for the other stuff with the maintenance schedule in the owner’s manual. Brake fluid flush is a good idea that a lot of people skip and get away with skipping. They want a fortune for servicing the front differential which shouldn’t cost even what an oil change costs. Clean and lube brakes when they might be close to needing replacement sounds crazy sometimes. Do you live where the weather is terrible? If not, maybe wait. They seem to want you to flush yourself to some other shop. 36,000 mile service usually maxes out at $450.
You should go to a different shop. These guys sound like total crooks. Over a thousand bucks for just that?!?!?! If the car needed all that so soon, I would want a different car. But it doesn’t, so get a different shop.