WTH! Price On Toyota Corolla Service.

[ROGER4314]

Today, I brought my 2006 Toyota Corolla in for a recall to replace the Engine Control Module. The work took about one hour and the ECM was replaced. I went for a walk to kill time and they called my cell. They said my accessory drive belt had numerous cracks and needed to be replaced. I asked him how much that would cost. The answer? $150! I said "Hell no, not for that price!"

I figured some of the TGT members would know if they were trying to gouge me. I bought the belt a while back and keep it in the trunk for emergencies. The belt was $28 after market. Is there anything about that belt replacement that would justify a $150 charge?

It's been my experience that the flat belts always have some cracks in the ribbed inner part. Isn't that normal? The car has 68K miles on it.

Flash

 

[drew02a]

Today, I brought my 2006 Toyota Corolla in for a recall to replace the Engine Control Module. The work took about one hour and the ECM was replaced. I went for a walk to kill time and they called my cell. They said my accessory drive belt had numerous cracks and needed to be replaced. I asked him how much that would cost. The answer? $150! I said "Hell no, not for that price!"

I figured some of the TGT members would know if they were trying to gouge me. I bought the belt a while back and keep it in the trunk for emergencies. The belt was $28 after market. Is there anything about that belt replacement that would justify a $150 charge?

It's been my experience that the flat belts always have some cracks in the ribbed inner part. Isn't that normal? The car has 68K miles on it.

Flash

It's probably about time you changed it, but it's an easy enough job to do yourself, and there's no real harm in waiting till it breaks on you.

 

[M. Sage]

It sounds about right. Alldata is telling me that it's a half hour job plus a fifty dollar belt. So maybe they are a bit on the high side... I'd say $100 is about right, but we all know how dealerships are. I'd take it to an independent shop that has a solid reputation. They'll still be pricey, but they'll be a lot better than the dealer.

No, there shouldn't be any cracks on the ribbed part. And waiting until it breaks isn't a good idea. If nothing else, it's possible to damage the tensioner when it unloads suddenly. If you're on the freeway and don't notice right away, it's possible that you could overheat the engine and destroy it, since the water pump is driven on that belt.

If you do it yourself, remember that the kind of tensioner you have needs to be moved with steady pressure. It has a hydraulic damper on it.

 

[ROGER4314]

So my reaction should be less than outrage, huh? How about "I'll shop that price." Better?

Thanks!

Flash

 

[Dcav]

dealer parts are insanely expensive. we charge 98.00 an hour labor, so 50 bucks plus 100 for the belt is about right.

 

[ROGER4314]

I guess it pays to shop. Thanks for the information!

Flash

 

[ROGER4314]

My neighbor and I installed the drive belt in about 15 minutes. The belt was $28 (after market) and it required a 19mm long box end wrench or breaker bar with socket to release the belt tensioner. You put the 19mm wrench on a "fake" nut cast into the tensioner and apply force towards the front of the car. Remove the belt from under the tensioner and away you go. There was NO belt routing decal under the hood so we drew our own.

I still say $150 for that job at the Toyota dealership was a major gouge! Technicians earn their money as the new cars are very complex and sophisticated but a $150 for a very simple routine repair just defies logic.

I appreciate my neighbors here. They are all great folks and you couldn't find any better!

Flash

 

[TexasRedneck]

Flash, I hear ya....but look at it another way.

You check your car in with a Service Advisor who has to write the repair order...say it takes him 20 minutes all told...
Porter takes the car to a holding area....20 minutes
Mechanic has the car brought in to him....10 minutes
Get the belt from their parts department....another ticket....20 minutes
Install the belt, clean up and put tools back away....30 minutes
Take car back out to hold area...10 minutes
Deliver the car to you, do the paperwork....15 minutes

That simple repair job added up to 165 minutes - over 2.5 hours. At just $50/hour, that means they've got $125 worth of labor in it.

Still sound expensive?<G>

Bear in mind - I do service work almost every day. I may drive 1.5 hours to do a 30-minute repair. If I charged 'em $70/hour only for my time on site, I'd be out of business quickly. 80 miles one-way in a Ford F450 that averages 11 mpg of diesel means about 14 gallons of fuel (@$4/gal), not to mention wear and tear.

It's the stuff that goes on behind the scene that we so often overlook!

 

[TrailDust]

dealer parts are insanely expensive.

I guess it pays to shop. Thanks for the information!

That's why a new set of tires bought over the internet and installed at a local shop/private mechanic will save you some huge wampum. For those that don't already buy your tires that way, it's time to start.

 

[Dcav]

Tire and such have very little markup, since they are all sold through another vendor.

 

[M. Sage]

Flash, I hear ya....but look at it another way.

You check your car in with a Service Advisor who has to write the repair order...say it takes him 20 minutes all told...
Porter takes the car to a holding area....20 minutes
Mechanic has the car brought in to him....10 minutes
Get the belt from their parts department....another ticket....20 minutes
Install the belt, clean up and put tools back away....30 minutes
Take car back out to hold area...10 minutes
Deliver the car to you, do the paperwork....15 minutes

That simple repair job added up to 165 minutes - over 2.5 hours. At just $50/hour, that means they've got $125 worth of labor in it.

Still sound expensive?<G>

Bear in mind - I do service work almost every day. I may drive 1.5 hours to do a 30-minute repair. If I charged 'em $70/hour only for my time on site, I'd be out of business quickly. 80 miles one-way in a Ford F450 that averages 11 mpg of diesel means about 14 gallons of fuel (@$4/gal), not to mention wear and tear.

It's the stuff that goes on behind the scene that we so often overlook!

Yep. Don't forget the test drive before (and usually after) you work on the car, either. Got to make sure there is nothing that can come back on you or your reputation. Then there's the time the car spends in the shop. We don't usually get to work on the car right after we get it. I'm not a dealer tech, but this is the way I'm used to it being:

Get the ticket. Test drive. Write notes from test drive. Underhood inspection (notes). Rack it; under-car inspection (more notes). Bring the car down, park it outside, turn the ticket in to the office, hopefully pull another to inspect. Office monkeys run down prices on parts and labor for anything I kick up in the inspection.

Even if you brought it in and said "put a belt on it", we have to do all this stuff...

Office monkeys call you with what I found on the inspection, talk prices, help you prioritize if you have to. I've seen some really long phone calls for fairly low-cost jobs... If they get authorization, they order parts and kick the ticket back to me. I get the car back in and on the rack if I need it. Then I work on it, double-check everything and test drive. If it's good, I park it and turn the ticket back in as done. Oh, then we have a quality control drive, where someone else drives it to make sure I didn't miss anything. And after all that, the guys in the front call you again and tell you that your car's done, nothing went wrong and you can come pick up.

And then we keep your car hanging out til you pick up. If it stays overnight, it gets pulled inside at the end of the day and back out again in the morning.

They've got to pay all of us, they've got to pay for the building, they've got to keep the lights on, they have to pay for tons of equipment that gets used hard all the time...

Running an auto shop is expensive! And for a lot of our customers, it's worth it to pay us $150 for something that'll take me five minutes (not counting all the incidental driving and looking and writing...) to fix because they don't have any tools, they don't know what they're even looking at... and where I work, because our customers usually make a lot of money, so it's not even worth their time to deal with personally.

 

[TexasRedneck]

....and besides - if we don't keep the mechanics busy, they sit on the street corners offerin' to wash our windshields!!!

<g,d&rlh>

 

[M. Sage]

....and besides - if we don't keep the mechanics busy, they sit on the street corners offerin' to wash our windshields!!!

<g,d&rlh>

Only the weak-minded ones. Real techs build doomsday machines when they're bored...

There's a boar spear being built in the shop right now, along with some mods to a custom hatchet. At another shop, we got bored and built air guns that could puncture steel cabinets at 30 feet.

And that's just a sample of the more sane things I've seen or been a part of.

Seriously... keep us busy, folks. Otherwise we're going to end up with smoking craters where cities used to be after some bored tech goes "hey, watch this one, guys!"

 

[TexasRedneck]

Not our guys....air cannons an' actylene bombs.....plumbers are wicked-crazy!

 

[ROGER4314]

Bloody Hell! I didn't know that by doing the job myself, I was taking work from a whole army of people!..........snicker

I'm retired, took a 64% pay CUT and I'm living on what I made in 1978-1983! How can I justify keeping a balanced budget while throwing 1/2 of the nation's workforce out of work? I know......I'll ask Obama Yo Mama. He'll know!

Flash

 

[M. Sage]

Bloody Hell! I didn't know that by doing the job myself, I was taking work from a whole army of people!..........snicker

I'm retired, took a 64% pay CUT and I'm living on what I made in 1978-1983! How can I justify keeping a balanced budget while throwing 1/2 of the nation's workforce out of work? I know......I'll ask Obama Yo Mama. He'll know!

Flash

It's not complaining. It's just explaining where the costs are. If you can do it yourself and it's economical for you to do it (IE you have time and you don't make $100 an hour), go ahead and do it yourself.

 

[TexasRedneck]

Not at all....I do much of my own work - and when I retire, I'm sure I'll do even more of it. Hell, there's a 16 x 20 workshop in my back yard that I did everything but the slab on - electrical included. I have no issue w/those that do it themselves, but when we're goin' to complain about costs, we need to understand what lies under those costs rather than just gripe about bein' "ripped off". I've got customers that pay me $500 to drive out, test 6 sites and drive back....each and every month. Flip side is, I will do it consistantly and with documentation - and their folks were TELLIN' them they did but...but didn't.

 

[M. Sage]

Yeah, you do get kind of used to hearing people tell you you're charging too much or that you're flat ripping them off. Usually their uncle's cousin's boyfriend's sister's BFF's dad is a "mechanic". It's a good thing I don't work in the office, because I've always wanted to ask why that mechanic (that they always say "took a look at it") didn't fix it.

 

[T-FAST]

Lmao, cause he didn't have that one tool.

 

[country_boy]

Well said TXredneck, on all fronts.