Due to my living situation I don't have the tools or garage to do any of this myself.

What do you think a fair estimate from a dealer to do all of the following including parts/labor would be? Think I'd get hit for more than $900 for this laundry list?

-Oil change
-Air filter change
-Indoor cabin air canister change
-Standard 40K miles maintenance (everything recommended in the car's manual for things like engine adjustments, inspection or replacement of parts like belts/sensors/wires/plugs/distributor cap/rotor, tire rotation, fluid replacements)
-Replace fog light bulb
-Replace rubber part on hood causing my hood sensor to trigger
-Replace 4 brake pads
-Replace 2 rotors
-Adjustment to parking brake
-Lube clutch pivot point (to stop squeaking when pressed)
-All 4 tires balanced
-Full alignment
-Sway bar adjustments
-Free wiper blades replacement
-Free loaner car

Posted by trent Due to my living situation I don't have the tools or garage to do any of this myself. What do you think a fair estimate from a dealer to do all of the following including parts/labor would be? Think I'd get hit for more than $900 for this laundry list? -Oil change -Air filter change -Indoor cabin air canister change -Standard 40K miles maintenance (everything recommended in the car's manual for things like engine adjustments, inspection or replacement of parts like belts/sensors/wires/plugs/distributor cap/rotor, tire rotation, fluid replacements) -Replace fog light bulb -Replace rubber part on hood causing my hood sensor to trigger -Replace 4 brake pads -Replace 2 rotors -Adjustment to parking brake -Lube clutch pivot point (to stop squeaking when pressed) -All 4 tires balanced -Full alignment -Sway bar adjustments -Free wiper blades replacement -Free loaner car

Your dealer probably offers service packages that will cover most of this for a flat rate price. That flat rate will still be more expensive than going elsewhere. Dealers typically charge $100/hr, mine charges $96/hr.

The brakes and rotors ... go elsewhere.
I got quoted
four brakes four rotors
Dealer = $945 for the cheapest brakes/rotors available for the car.
Cheapest Mechanic = $315 for the cheapest brakes/rotors available for the car.
The guy I went to = $415 best ceramic brakes/rotors available for the car.


$415 of that 1.5 hours labor = $108 (72/hr) -- parts and taxes make up the rest.

They probably wont do half of the stuff on that list, and claim they did. Sway bar adjustment? LOL! FREE wiper replacement? How is it free if you are paying for it? Man, the words these assholes throw in their ads to make people think they are getting a good deal...

Posted by trent Due to my living situation I don't have the tools or garage to do any of this myself. What do you think a fair estimate from a dealer to do all of the following including parts/labor would be? Think I'd get hit for more than $900 for this laundry list? -Oil change -Air filter change -Indoor cabin air canister change -Standard 40K miles maintenance (everything recommended in the car's manual for things like engine adjustments, inspection or replacement of parts like belts/sensors/wires/plugs/distributor cap/rotor, tire rotation, fluid replacements) -Replace fog light bulb -Replace rubber part on hood causing my hood sensor to trigger -Replace 4 brake pads -Replace 2 rotors -Adjustment to parking brake -Lube clutch pivot point (to stop squeaking when pressed) -All 4 tires balanced -Full alignment -Sway bar adjustments -Free wiper blades replacement -Free loaner car

this is the most ridiculous list i have ever seen...
Oil change (bring your own oil and filter)- $20.00
Air filter... come on, Trent, you can do that shit yourself. My mother can change her own air filter fer chrissakes!
Cabin filter... again, you can do it.
The 40k inspection basically is going to be the tech opening the hood, looking down at the belt and closing the hood. Fuck that. Even you can do that. Look at the belt... is it chewed up, cracked, frayed, missing pieces? No? It's fine then.
Also, your car probably doesn't have a distributor cap and rotor... welcome to the 21st century- Distributorless ignition is your friend!
Fog light bulb? Come on, seriously?
Why do you need four tires balanced? Are they vibrating? Is the car shaking?
Why do you need an alignment? Is the car pulling to either side or wearing the tires funny? By wearing the tires funny, are the outside edges balding, is the center of the tread balding?
Sway bar adjustments???? there are no adjustments in a sway bar... 99.8% of sway bars are fixed to a point in the suspension and insulated via rubber or urethane bushings. The only adjustment is changing the bushing out.
If you go to an Advance Auto, Napa, Auto Zone and buy a set of wipers, they will change them for you right there for free.
A loaner car? from a shop? Ahahahahahaha... good luck with that.

100% with Sam on this one. I have done more major work in a Advance Auto parking lot. I thought ya would have a blowed headgasket or something man. If I remember ya have a Hyundai which are pretty simple to wrench on. If you can save $500 bucks doing most of it yourself, I would scrape a knuckle or 2.

Posted by jeepdave 100% with Sam on this one. I have done more major work in a Advance Auto parking lot. I thought ya would have a blowed headgasket or something man. If I remember ya have a Hyundai which are pretty simple to wrench on. If you can save $500 bucks doing most of it yourself, I would scrape a knuckle or 2.

he's already said in another thread that he has not the time, inkling or wherewithal to work on the car... but the stuff he just listed here, to me, isn't working on a car.

Trent, and please don't take this the wrong way because I have way more respect for you than this is going to sound, but garages love to see people like you coming because they can get out the service cock and stuff it in dry.

900? MY GOD...even the shops around here I know will do all that for 250...maybe 400 tops!

oil change should be around 20. Air filter and cabin air filter are $10 part each and 3 minutes of your time.

Sway bars don't get adjusted unless they're broken or the linkage is extremely worn.

I can do fog lights in like 5 minutes... bulbs are usually $10/2-pack.

Wipers are cheap, Hyundai dealer OEM blades suck from what I've heard. Get the cheap anco's from autozone and just replace them every 6 months... never have a cleaner windshield. You're looking at 6-8 bucks for both and 5 minutes of your time for install.

running total of things that are super easy to do yourself or cheap to get done? maybe 60 bucks, and about an hour of your time, including the time at the shop for the oil change.

-Standard 40K miles maintenance (everything recommended in the car's manual for things like engine adjustments, inspection or replacement of parts like belts/sensors/wires/plugs/distributor cap/rotor, tire rotation, fluid replacements)

- like sam said, you dont have a distributor. i can help you check plugs and belts in mere moments. sensors - do you have a check engine light on? or an air bag or ABS light? if no, then those are good. Tire rotation is easy, and they often do it with a brake job. Good shops will throw in the balance and rotation with a brake job. It doesn't take that much time for a skilled mechanic.

-Replace rubber part on hood causing my hood sensor to trigger

- probably a good idea... didnt you tell me there was a recall or something on this? definitely get this done, that hood latch of yours is a problem.

-Replace 4 brake pads -Replace 2 rotors -Adjustment to parking brake

- Brakes are good... especially the parking brake since you drive a manual. If you're willing to travel, there's a nice little shop up on Ling Road, near Russell, that will do brakes for you on a weekend and probably be around $400 for the best parts they can get. Honest guys, too. All the Greece school bus drivers who don't have time to do their own maintenance go to Greece Town Garage.

-Lube clutch pivot point (to stop squeaking when pressed)

- wd-40, srsly. I can't imagine a shop really using anything out of the ordinary for this.

-All 4 tires balanced -Full alignment

- again, these seem like things that an honest shop would throw in, because they really don't take much extra time, especially after they've got all the wheels off for the brakes anyway. Alignment may be worth the extra cost if your car is pulling left or right or the tires appear to have uneven wear... which I can't recall either of these happening the last time I rode with you.

one thing i forgot to add was that most new cars (everything after 1998 or so) have 100,000 mile ignition systems.
that means leave the fucker alone until 100k and then worry about it if it starts misfiring.'

Posted by Samurai one thing i forgot to add was that most new cars (everything after 1998 or so) have 100,000 mile ignition systems. that means leave the fucker alone until 100k and then worry about it if it starts misfiring.'

Good point. I never replaced plugs until after 100k miles. Wires were still great.

NEVER get the el cheapo wires from Napa, Advance, Autozone, et al... spend the money and get decent wires. They last longer, get better performance out of them and your ignition system will love you for it.
Personally, I always run Accel SuperStock 8mm or 8.8mm's.

Posted by Samurai this is the most ridiculous list i have ever seen... Oil change (bring your own oil and filter)- $20.00 Air filter... come on, Trent, you can do that shit yourself. My mother can change her own air filter fer chrissakes! Cabin filter... again, you can do it. The 40k inspection basically is going to be the tech opening the hood, looking down at the belt and closing the hood. Fuck that. Even you can do that. Look at the belt... is it chewed up, cracked, frayed, missing pieces? No? It's fine then. Also, your car probably doesn't have a distributor cap and rotor... welcome to the 21st century- Distributorless ignition is your friend! Fog light bulb? Come on, seriously? Why do you need four tires balanced? Are they vibrating? Is the car shaking? Why do you need an alignment? Is the car pulling to either side or wearing the tires funny? By wearing the tires funny, are the outside edges balding, is the center of the tread balding? Sway bar adjustments???? there are no adjustments in a sway bar... 99.8% of sway bars are fixed to a point in the suspension and insulated via rubber or urethane bushings. The only adjustment is changing the bushing out. If you go to an Advance Auto, Napa, Auto Zone and buy a set of wipers, they will change them for you right there for free. A loaner car? from a shop? Ahahahahahaha... good luck with that.

I guess I should have known better to post this in a 'car guy' board since I'm not a car guy. Too late though, all this work has been done. I was just curious to see what you guys though would be fair for a dealer shop to perform all of this work.

Of course having the work done is more costly than doing it yourself. That isn't a surprise. I used to do a good amount of it my self back in the day living at my parents and access to my dads tools. The dealer I've be using for years actually does do the work I ask of them without ripping me off, maybe pricey, but they're actually doing the work and putting in new parts.

As for buying all the parts beforehand myself, it's just not worth it to me for the hassle for finding low-cost parts and making sure they're the right ones. That may sound dumb, but I just don't want to be bothered by it. Sam you're right, I'm sure shops do love people like me. But until I have my own house, driveway, garage, and appropriate tools, fucking around with my car in my apt. complex parking lot at night, after work, day-after-day until everything is fixed isn't enjoyable or worth the cost savings to me.

A lot of the smaller things like wipers, bulbs, filters I could have and would have done myself normally, but when bringing it into the shop for bigger more costly things I basically said 'I don't give a fuck' and decided to have all of my car issues hit in one shot with no time spent by me except dropping the car off and picking it up. Working on my car does not bring me enjoyment like it might to others here.

Oil change was free and usually is unless I specifically go there for only an oil change.

Fixing the clutch and parking brake noises were free.

I told them the wipers and loaner car were going to be free due to how much other work I was having done there. I can change my blades, I just wanted free ones from the deal due to back when my car was new them replacing my awesome factory blades without my permission with shitty ones. Both the blades and loaner car(w/ free gas) did end up being free with the fee's waived by the manager.

I changed my air filter 6 months ago, but decided to put it on my 'wtf I don't want to deal with it for a long time' list.

Brakes and rotors were less than $400.

The engine was running like shit, was vibrating, and making more noise than it should have been when it was just idling. And I don't know shit about cars, so randomly picking parts to replace until its running better wouldn't be wise for me to do (as you can see by the fact of me not even know what parts I have in my car). So even if they just opened the hood and closed it, they corrected what I paid them to correct. Also, since no real maintenance work has been done on my car since I've owned it (besides oil changes), I figured it'd be good to have a real mechanic (not me) take a look and make some adjustments since I want to get a solid 7 more years out of it without letting it goto shit in year 3.

Yes the car was vibrating and yes the tires were starting to get worn funny. I was willing to pay money to not have any vibration at all. I wanted the tires rebalanced since I've had them on a long time, longer than I've ever managed to keep treads on a set of tires in my life. Also, I've gone through like 2 sets of tires without an alignment on this and wanted that done too.

I was told the sway bar was loose. I don't know shit about them except now after they worked on it when I hit a bump I no longer hear a metal-on-metal pounding noise coming from under the car, so something was corrected.

I'm glad I had the breaks looked at, they said the rear brakes were seized up? Really? It didn't require any parts and was covered under the work done on the front. Also they did take some money off for things like tire rotation since they needed to be taken off to do the brakes.

The hood sensor needed to be adjusted. There was a known issue the rubber stopper on the hood not making proper contact with it and it needed replacing. It was important to me due to my car alarm going off while parked outside buildings I'm urbexing.



So that's that. Not trying to argue with you guys, I'm sure you guys are correct on almost everything, but giving my laundry list to someone else to take care of is worth it to me. I often tell people that computer people are just like car people but they work on different machines. I could assemble a computer blindfolded and take care of any issues so I know what it's like giving advice to clueless people. But, with cars it's reversed for me and I'm the clueless one.

How much was the total?

And we're just looking out for the best interest of your wallet... not trying to make you feel badly about it.

Posted by velcrozeppelin How much was the total? And we're just looking out for the best interest of your wallet... not trying to make you feel badly about it.

It's okay and I appreciate it. I'm aware that for my car I just did the equivalent of taking my computer to Best Buy for repairs. (okay, not as bad as best buy - they're horrible, more like the local computer shop)

Ended up being 900. 525 w/o the rotors. The way I see it though, I won't have to spend more money on it besides oil changes for another 3 years.

Posted by trent The way I see it though, I won't have to spend more money on it besides oil changes for another 3 years.

lol... sorry, chum, cars are like people, only on accelerated gradient; the older they get, the more money they cost.

i tell this to every person I meet who admits they know nothing of cars, let alone the car they drive... "LEARN!!!!!!!!!!!!"
even if you don't work on it yourself, you'll know whether or not someone is trying to put the wood to you.

20 dollars for an oil change? I do it myself and it still costs like 70-80 bucks

Posted by Nismo 20 dollars for an oil change? I do it myself and it still costs like 70-80 bucks

That was helpful. Have any more useful tips or relevant input?

That's because Nismo also changes the oil pan

He's actaully not that far off the mark. If you Synthetic oil plus a excellent filter, it probally would be 50.

Posted by Agent Skelly That's because Nismo also changes the oil pan He's actaully not that far off the mark. If you Synthetic oil plus a excellent filter, it probally would be 50.

Ah, this is why I thank Jeep for these under powered tractor engines. Could lube it with lard and it wouldn't care.

Posted by Agent Skelly That's because Nismo also changes the oil pan He's actaully not that far off the mark. If you Synthetic oil plus a excellent filter, it probally would be 50.

OEM filter and always synthetic oil