VEHICLE: 2006 Lexus IS 250 - RWD - 6spd

This past week/weekend my clutch started slipping pretty noticably and making an odd sort of noise as it was getting up to the higher RPMs, but not really delivering much power to get the car up to speed. Since this is the first time I've dealt with a clutch that seems to have been worn, I'm assuming my clutch needs to be replaced. I bought my car back in April / May time frame of this year from a Ford dealership. Seemed just fine until recently.

So I'm a little lost...called my "local" Lexus dealership (being about 3 hours away) and got a quote estimate on a clutch replacement job. They told me the OEM clutch was about $93 and that the job would take about 2 hrs to do. They said the total cost including the clutch would be $327. WOW...pretty freakin cheap!

Since the factor of being 3 hours away is a bit of an issue for me, I decided to call some of the local transmission shops and have been getting quotes between $650 and $790.

I'm not a genius, but every vehicle I've owned has been more expensive to get the work done at the dealership as opposed to a local shop. Anyone run into this sort of issue before? Maybe I just misunderstood the service person I talked with? Can anyone provide a rough estimate of what their clutch replacement has been?

Also, I'm considering upgrading to the F-Sport clutch since I'm a somewhat aggressive with my driving habits. But that's neither here nor there, since that's going to be $535.05 plus whatever cost to have it installed...so I'm just trying to figure out the base cost to begin with.

Thanks!
Brandon

 

i paid $400 for labor to install a flywheel and clutch at an independent shop and it took them the better portion of a whole day. the price they quoted you is insanely cheap. i have a feeling they misunderstood you or something... like they quoted you the f-sport short shifter price. but if that's the real price i would totally jump on that.

if you're interested, i have an aftermarket lightweight flywheel and stage 2 clutch for sale in the classified forum. pm me if you're interested.

 

def. misunderstood. the clutch can easily run you around 300$ for an OEM one, although I'd recommend the Fsport clutch on Sewell. That'll run you around 500$ish.

Doing any transmission job is a lot of work, and I would bet that at the dealership they would charge you 2x's the amount then a normal shop.

 

Yes that's cheap for an OEM clutch and labor. The parts should run you about $400 and the same $400 for the labor (at an independent auto shop).

Get that in writing if he quoted you that price. Seems too good to be true. If it is true, then that's great for you!

 

Wow...so I called them back yesterday when I got off work...they definitely misunderstood me. That price was for the OEM clutch and just to replace the clutch...not anything else they may have found. The way the lady explained it was that they can't give me a quote estimate for worst case scenario. So all the other things you would do when doing a clutch job weren't in the quote...kinda pissed me off...but whatever. Probably going to just get it done locally at a buddies shop...but not buddy discount.

@ ULTiMaX99 - Yea I saw you're thread for the flywheel and clutch...I'm tempted but there's no way I can afford it right now. It's going to be a few months of saving and working overtime before I can even afford to get to the local shop price. But who knows when I'll fall into some money. You didn't have any problems with your setup when you were running it right? Just took a little getting used to with the foot work?

Thanks for all the input folks...I'm hoping I can baby the car for a while as I get the cash together. That shouldn't hurt anything more right? Just wear out the already worn clutch even more I assume...lol