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Comments
Expect to pay more at the dealer, that's always the case, just like if you get anything repaired by the manufacturer you are going to pay more.
-mike
It takes me only about 10-15 minutes to change a battery, and I'm not a mechanic, i.e. I have to get my tools out, find the right size wrench / socket, and clean up and put everything away afterwards. One hour of labor to change a battery in a shop?
I don't hear you complain about McDonalds charging $2.00 for a Large Coke which costs $0.25 for the cup, $0.05 for the syrup, and $0.10 for the carbonated water and about 10 seconds of labor!
-mike
I don't complain because:
A) I don't eat at McDonalds.
Fast food places don't pray on little old ladies.
C) Even at $2 a Coke, these places are still very cheap to get a meal at.
D) All of the above.
Answer: D
:surprise:
I don't see how you feel that the battery was a ripoff. You are just wrong. You have to pay for 1hr of labor and $70 for a battery from a dealer is NOT outrageous.
-mike
I think it's a pain to remove the bugs, fit the track onto the spring bar, sliding it down, hoping it doesn't hang up somewhere, fitting it to the next holder...
Besides you're often sold two inserts the same length!
Jim
You might have an argument if the battery was actually superior in some way, but it's POS Subaru OEM junk. A DieHard Gold that will last twice as long and has 50% more CCAs will cost less than $100 installed.
The only decent value at a dealer is a sub $30 oil change. Everything else - hold on to your wallet!
:sick:
-mike
As for the OEM battery being sub-par, you may be right, you may be wrong, however you are always going to pay more for an OEM component than an aftermarket component. That's just how it is, same goes for nuts and bolts from the dealer, and tires, and wipers, and oil changes, and everything else at the dealer.
As a result I suggest you not go to the dealer then we don't have to listen to you complain about how it's so expensive, and if everyone else feels the way you do, they'll go out of business.
-mike
PS: I never go to a dealer for anything but warranty work, although recently paid $90 to get my front sway bar tightened when I brought it in for a noise in the front end that I thought would be under warranty. It happens, but I'm not fretting over $90 which was 1 hrs worth of labor.
I almost always take my business to the dealer, but I still have to scrutinize everything they're trying to peddle to me as part of their service packages, and only choose what is really necessary. People who don't know better, get fleeced.
You, on the other hand, are defending these practices, while, you yourself don't go to dealers for service. If you're so concerned about their profits, then you need to go to them for service more often and give them more of your hard-earned money.
P.S. I'm done with this discussion as I think it has been beaten to death. You have your opinions, I have mine. If you want to keep arguing, you'll have to find someone else.
-mike
Is $80/hr shop time fair or a ripoff? Depends on the repair type, and what else is going on in my life at the time. I change the battery in my wife's van last weekend when I got back from a trip. Paid $60 for a better battery than the OEM, but it took a total of 2 hours including the 40 miles of driving to get the battery, two stops as the first store was out of that size, etc. So what was the real cost? My wife could not have done it. Just lifting the battery out of the shell it was held in took a terminal strap, move of the cruise control cable routed over it, and strained my back. If I had been away longer, it would have been a tow as well as shop time. Last spring I did brakes on the OBW, but in the fall I let Honda do brakes on the van. No time available. It is all about tradeoffs...
Has a Subaru dealer looked at it?
Should be easy enough to find out.
-juice
We shouldn't assume they're ripping off little old ladies if they're actually doing all of the above.
Shoot, my dealer charges $85 to read a diagnostic code. That takes me about 30 seconds with my cheapie Actron OBD2 scanner.
-juice
I have a 2000 forester S with 104,000 and It's mechanically perfect... I just bought a new Outlander and am now selling the Forester privately for $6,700...($2900 for a rebuilt tranny is almost half the cost of a good used forester}
I think they want to rip you off..I would drive with the pesky noise until the problem defines itself more clearly..
If it was a differential problem, I would expect to see the symptoms appear more readily under high-stress situations, like while accelerating or actively turning in a tight radius. Driving straight down a highway is not high-stress. As for transmission, it does not sound like that at all.
FWIW, the center differential lives in the same housing as the transmission, so a full replacement entails replacement of both units. It is spendy, so should not be considered lightly.
-mike
-John
-John
-mike
But reading back you said MY2000, and the wheel bearings on those were fragile (up until MY2003). So the most likely culprit is your wheel bearings.
Sorry the pic is tiny, it's the only one I could hot-link:
It was not an uncommon fix, even for people here on Edmunds.
-juice
I have a 2002 WRX with interior electronics that seem to be slowly degrading. This fall, my dashboard clock died. Actually, it was working intermittently for a few weeks, but now the display is almost always blank (once in a blue moon, it will show the correct time for a few seconds). Since this problem has apparently happened to others (I found a few mentions on this on NASIOC), and it seemed to be an isolated problem, I just shrugged and let it go.
A few weeks later, I noticed that the backlight on the foglight button (not the indicator light, but the light that illuminates the button when the headlights are on) was no longer functioning. Then, a few weeks after that, I found that my power socket (cigarette lighter) wasn't working. Finally, yesterday, I discovered that my power mirrors are not functioning. Now, every time I start the car, I wonder what else will go.
I plan to take the car in to the shop, but I was looking for some possible diagnoses that I could perhaps check on my own first. Has anyone experienced similar problems? Even though the car is drivable, I'm worried that I will discover more problems down the road that could be more serious.
Thanks
Jeff
I hope this helps.
Len
On the lighter socket and mirrors, I would check the relevant fuses (in car and under the hood as applicable) if you haven't already.
Len gave some good advice on the bulb, which is probably an isolated problem.
Let us know if you figure anything out.
Craig
-mike
Also, when cold it downshifts abruptly. No problem when warmed up. Will new plugs and transmission flush at the 30k service help? Any other solutions? Thanks.
Sorry
By the way, the fix for piston slap does not require an engine replacement, just a minor rebuild to install new pistons. On an 01 with only 56K miles, I would not expect any trouble that would require a complete engine replacement. The whole thing sounds fishy to me.
Please describe the exact symptoms so that we can give an independent opinion here.
Ok. First off I'm not really mechanical but I am interested in understanding. The car has always had the oil changed regularly and I have had the front brakes done that is about it. I don't drive it hard.
The sound that we are talking about sounds kind of like a diesel truck sound. But I have heard it for a long time (long being 5000 miles or so; maybe a bit less). But driving in Minnesota in the cold, at startup-it didn't really surprise me- I always just attributed it to it being cold. It doesn't totally go away after it is warmed up either but I didn't act on it because seemed to be working fine. I drove it down here last month - performance and fuel efficiency seemed normal. About 10 days ago I came out to my car and the battery was totally dead. I jumped and took it to Autozone to have them test the battery because I had just replaced it in Minnesota in September. They said the battery was fine but the machine said it was the alternator. When I took it to my local guy and told him I think I need a new alternator - he hooked up and said the alternator was fine (I mentioned he was honest). The installed CD had always run hot (second one) and was recently retaining a fluorescent backlight even when I turned the car off so I pulled the radio fuse just to make sure that wasn't somehow draining the battery at night. A few days later - totally dead again. Took it to my guy again and asked him to find out where the drain was coming from. When he called back he said he hadn't done anything with the drain because he was more concerned with the engine noise which he attributed to the 'rods'. He suggests we replace the engine; said it would be about $3000 (1500 labor).
My guy was going to call around and see about engines and we were going to talk today. This all happened on Friday afternoon - I just left the car because I can get by temporarily without it and he kind of scared me with visions of rods through blocks etc. But I called SOA and explained the situation and they said they would open a case number but it was true that I was out of warranty by 6 months (not mileage) - they said if I took it to a dealer that would see if they could work some 'good will' but it didn't sound like they would cut me much slack. Like I said I have changed the oil regularly so I don't think I can be faulted for lack of mainenance - I mean what else needs to be done to an engine under 60K?? Arrghh
Get recommendations for a good Subaru dealer in your area, and have them take a look.
-juice
My wife and I just bought a 2003 Forester with only 19K miles on it. Not having owned a Subaru before, we're slowly getting used to the quirks and noises. As for the "diesel truck" sound that another poster described when starting cold--we've had two dealers tell us it was "a normal operating condition" caused by changes to the engine from 2002 to 2005 or so. Sounded fishy to me, but other owners have reported the same experience (with their cars, and at their dealers.)
Our biq question now: the car has developed a loud buzz when accelerating. You can somtimes hear it when turning and first starting it in the morning as well. But its loudest when hitting the gas. Sounds metallic, like a heat shield vibrating.
Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.
Steve