Vroomin350

iTrader: (28)

I still havent gotten around to DIY on the oil change, I hear it isn't hard, however the spark plug change am a little scared of,

dgsx1997

Honestly, it appears rather simple. I think what gets people is the removal of so many items that most haven't done before. Document and record locations of the screws, make sure you don't drop any bolts and off you go.

SlickRSM

Yes but if you don't get the 60k work done by the dealer you lose your extended warranty if you have one just a heads up!

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I don't believe that is true.

Nova

iTrader: (21)

this is why i love being able to work on my car i save close to $3000 by doing the work on my SC, not including the alignment and tires that i did myself as well. perks of working at a shop haha good job on the savings OP

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

No you do not, lol. They can not void your warranty for failure to do the maintenance at the dealer. However, if you go in for a failure that could have been caused by your lack of doing the service, then they can reject your warranty claim. You can have your car serviced wherever you want, hell..so many people here are DIY'ers and do all the servicing themselves.

I agree with the spark plugs! It doesn't seem that hard, but a f*** up on our motors would be disastrous lol

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

I definitely wasn't criticizing you, I was posting mainly for others' benefit when dealing with dealers. Your post caught my attention because I just went through the same thing as you - I bought my car used at 56k and needed the 60k service. I called around and got outrageous quotes (close to $1000). That's actually what spurred me to get onto CL where I learned a better way was to just ask for the necessary services.

I would ask them for an itemized cost breakdown so you can see where the costs truly are. When I called the dealerships asking for an item-by-item parts and labor breakdown of the crazy quotes they were giving me, they obliged and that's where I saw where they're really gouging you.

The SA is right in that the spark plug replacement is the bulk of the cost. But every dealer I contacted quoted their spark plug parts costs at twice what Sewell sells them for. So you're at least paying a 100% markup on spark plugs themselves alone, before labor's ever factored in. Spark plugs are $13 on Sewell, and were $25 at every dealer I contacted. So that put spark plug parts at $150. Labor ranged from 3-5 hours, and came out to around $300-500 depending on the dealer. So spark plug quotes I got in total made up about $500 of the $1000 I was being quoted.

The remaining key services are brake fluid flush, oil change, and filters. Filters are dirt cheap online and you can do them yourself, so factor about $30 for those. An oil change at my dealer was about $50, and brake fluid flush was $112. I'm not including tire rotation because I have staggered tires.

So add up $500, $30, $50, and $112 and you get to $700, at least $300 less than the quotes they were giving me. So essentially I was paying $300 for them to "inspect" a car that I'm having no noticeable problems with.

What I ended up doing (and maybe it'll work for you too), is had them do the spark plug change at the same time as the cam gear TSIB. I bought the plugs on Sewell for $13 each and left them in glovebox. I took my car to the dealer for the cam gear TSIB. After they diagnosed it and told me what they had to do, they told me I also needed the spark plug change. They quoted me something like $500. I said that's fine, but all the pre-work for the spark plug change is the same as the TSIB, so I should be charged much less in labor. He told me he'd look into it. Called me back and said they'd do it for a half hour's labor ($57). I told him great, plugs are in the glovebox.

This also works for the fuel pressure sensor recall if you haven't had it performed, since the pre-work is similar to the TSIB/plug change.

Nothing about this is true. You can't lose a warranty just for not having a recommended service not performed at a dealer. You can't even lose a warranty for not having a recommended service done at all, anywhere.

A warranty claim can be denied if it can be shown that lack of performing a recommended preventative maintenance item caused or contributed to the failure in question. So if you never get an oil change and your engine blows, yes of course they can deny your warranty claim because your lack of oil changes contributed to or caused the engine failure. But you don't lose your warranty - they just won't warranty that particular claim. If you never get an oil change and your nav screen dies, they can't deny your warranty claim on the basis of not getting oil changes, because oil changes have nothing to do with nav screen function.

You can do all service yourself and all your Lexus (and aftermarket) warranties will apply in full. If they were to find you did something incorrectly and caused a failure, then they simply wouldn't warranty that failure. Very simple.

This can all be researched with a quick Google search for Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

CCJ22

iTrader: (26)

Fellas, if you all ever played with legos as kids then changing the spark plugs is not difficult.
Don't ever take your car to the stealership for service. Unless of course you know one of the mechanics and / or you don't have time to DIY.

CCJ22

iTrader: (26)

The worst you can do is not tighten the plugs and run on 5cylinders instead of 6. The plugs already come pre-gapped from sewell too.

dgsx1997

Thanks for all the replies and shared experiences.

The last 60K I had done at a dealership was on my 1997 GSX eclipse. Their 60k includes a timing belt replacement which is a much deeper dive into the engine bay. This cost $1200 total which is very understandable considering the cost of a broken timing belt and the work involved. This cost is ridiculous because we all know this takes their techs less than 2 hours of actual work.

jadu

iTrader: (42)

pricey. DIY saves moneys

SlickRSM

Calvin this is what I was told at my dealer I was simply relaying what I was told, U don't own these message boards

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

A dealer lied to you? HOW SHOCKING


Anyway... it's illegal to condition a vehicle warranty on having any non-free service done at any particular place. You always have the right to do it yourself, or at any shop of your choice, with no impact whatsoever on warranty (assuming the repair is done correctly.. obviously if you DIY and you break something during the work that's on you... though ONLY that is on you, the rest of the parts on the car remain under warranty.)

Likewise it's illegal to require you use only OEM parts (but again if you use a crappy/defective aftermarket part they don't have to cover a problem cause by that part, they still must cover anything else)

SlickRSM

Yea they told me that after I did all the work myself! They prob missed out on their commission from me purchasing the warranty work

funglenn

iTrader: (10)

Two things-- you probably meant the Lexus dealer in colorado springs--I called them and they told me the same thing but they even throw in extra stuff like an alighment!!!

The lexus dealer in dever wanted $800...still I am going to do it myself and save the cash.





Also Calvin--thanks for the right info on the warranty. While we are here to help each other, we also need to help each other ensure the info is right.