Necessary Services

Cmike2780 · 01-16-2012, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strangler

Thanks Cmike. I'm and idiot and I fell into their trap!! I had the induction and brake flush today. Also, the dealer did ask me about balance and rotating tires. Then he went on and looked at the tires and wasn't sure so he said he would ask the tech. In the end they charged me $45 for balance. He said they balanced left to right (change left and right tires I'm guessing). So at the end of the day I felt like an idiot and lost a bunch of money. Not sure why I agreed to those services but I certainly learned.

In the service and maintenance manual, Schedule 1 maintenance doesn't really require to do much except for oil change. It's the premium maintenance schedule that services everything. When you say probably not needed at 18k miles, when would you recommend to start looking at those services?

Forgot to mention. I came in for an oil change when all of this occur.

Does it annoy you when the tech gets their dirty hands all over your steering wheel and shifter? It's pretty annoying to me to have to clean it up after them.

Lesson learned, and hopefully you can spread the word on this garbage. They prey on your trust and instinct to perform precautionary actions. Hey, It's not like you're hurting the car, you're just a little lighter in the wallet.

As far as when you should do this, for the most part, it really depends a lot on your driving habits. For normal street driving, changing the coolant, brake & trans fluid can be fine for 60k miles or more. It could be as little as @30k miles or less if you tend drive it harder than most with some autocross or track use. The oil change and air filter is all the maintenance you really need to do until you reach the 60k mark for normal driving. Other things like the clutch, brake pads and tires obviously depends on the amount of wear.

Balancing add's those little weights you see on the wheels. Basically, it keeps the wheel from vibrating/wobble at speed. If you didn't notice any steering wheel shake at 60mph, chances are, they didn't need balancing.

Rotaring the wheels involves moving the back tires to the front to prolong tread life. Something you can't do because our car has a staggered set-up (back wheels are larger than the front).

Just remember, most of the service reps (the guy behind the computer screen) know surprisingly very little about cars, let alone the cars they "service." They are just reading off a screen and either want themselves to look good for their boss or fill a quota. They are just as useless as the car salesmen. It's a hit or miss with the tech's at the dealers (the one's who actually work on the car). Usually though, oil changes and the the easy stuff like "flushes" are handled by the least experienced of the bunch, so be warned. Make sure you are getting what you paid for. I have the maintenance plan for oil changes and they have tried to skimp out on me by using regular oil instead of Ester. Ester by the way is around $90 for an oil change, a huge difference over regular.

Next time they leave your car dirty or damaged in any way. You have to complain and tell them. I hate being that guy, but you have to complain, especially before leaving the lot.

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