2000 Eclipse 15,000 mile maintenance

kkyle1

I have all my recommended maintenance done at the dealership, always have with all my vehicles. I called today to schedule the 15,000 maintenance and they said it needs: lube, oil and filter, rotate and balance tires, align front end, replace air filter, replace spark plugs, and clean throttle body, at a cost of $270.00. I usually keep my vehicles for around three years and have never had to have spark plugs replaced or a throttle body cleaned. Is it necessary?

armtdm

If you like being ripped off. If you look at your owner's manual I will guarantee that it says air filter is 30,000 miles, plugs are probably platinum and will go a minimum of 60,000 miles, no need to clean the throttle body if it is running fine, no need to align front end of tires are wearing fine, no need to balance tires if they are wearing fine. Rotation, well people will disagree on this, some say never rotate and buy two tires at a time, I rotate once a year (at state inspection time) and tires last the same as those that rotate every 5000 or 7,500. Only oil and filter is needed really and depends on your schedule and last change. Never ever say"DO THE 15,000 mile or 30,000 mile maintenance" Ask them to do only specific items or you will pay for inspecitng hoses, belts (at 15,000 give me a break) door hinges, fluid levels etc. Basically no maintenance done just inspections which 99% you can do yourself via plain ole eyesight.

And do not fall for the line you need this because of the climate you live in. Every dealer says that from CA to ME, SD, SC etc. It is a way to keep their service dept working

eharri3

Oil and filter: If it's synthetic 50 bucks or thereabouts is reasonable, if not, you could get it done for 25 elsewhere.

Rotate and balance tires: no good reason why it should cost more than 10-15 bucks to rotate since there's very little labor involved and no parts, just 10 minutes with an air wrench and they're done. It's basically a question of what you prefer: Do you you want to replace two tires at a time which means it costs less but you pay more often or do you want to keep the fronts and rears wearing evenly so you dont have to worry about it that soon but you have to pay for 4 instead of two tires when its time for them to go. If there's lots of snow though you want to try to avoid excessive wear on your drive wheels.

Alignment: No idea how much it cost should cost for your car. I usually pay about 40 dollars for my truck but Im sure since you have a more complex suspension it's more.

Air filter: Another relatively cheap part that can be replaced in under 15 minutes, though dont know how much the cost of the filter itself is for your car.

Plugs: Agreed, they normally only need to be replaced every 60 thousand miles.

Rotating tires: I do it about every 5 thousand miles just because Sears does it for free and Im hard on rear tires. There's no need to balance though.

Lube: Do you mean chasis? Because I thought most front drive cars didn't need to have chasis lube points anymore, though I could be wrong.

Sounds like your dealership is offering you unnecessary work, and even once you weed out the fluff sounds like their prices are pretty darn high. My formula for figuring out my maintenance schedule: Check the owner's manual for myself, leave out any sentence that starts with 'check' or 'inspect', and then ask specifically for a set of items that I want done.

I of course was duped into paying for one of those absurd 300 dollar 'inspection' services a few years ago. After I took a closer look at the owner's manual I realized how dumb Id been and vowed never again. For me since then it has basically been oil and filter changes with chasis lube and tire rotations every 5 thousand miles, timing belt and serpentine belt at 65 thousand, air filter and plugs at sixty thousand miles. Oil changes I do myself, just because I like to and instead of paying 25 bucks for everything I pay 10 for oil and a filter.

Consider comparing prices for each of those individual service items at maybe 2-3 other major auto-repair shops to get a better idea of what they're should reasonably cost.

kkyle1

Thanks for confirming what I thought. I'll have done what I need, not what they want to do.