Even with loaner cars or shuttle service, it still takes time to drive back and forth to the dealership plus waiting time for mostly simple fluid changes.

That lost time adds up if there are 3 cars in the family. It's more convenient for me to do simple fluid changes on the weekend.

There was the issue of being happy with the work done by the dealerships.
Several years ago, my van went in to a Toyota dealership for 30K service. At pick up time, I checked all the fluids. There was no antifreeze in the reservoir. Opened the radiator cap and, couldn't see antifreeze. Service advisor had to fill it up again.

My Honda Accord went in for steering rack repair. At pick up time, the PS fluid level was barely at MIN. What the heck ???

The Lexus went in for ATF and engine oil change. Found out later that the ATF drain plug was so tightly screwed in that I had to buy a long breaker bar to loosen it.

This happened to all my 3 cars and I was really annoyed. I paid good money and didn't get the good service.
So now I do the simple fluid changes myself. I know exactly how much to fluid to put in and the nuts and bolts are tightened properly.

 

txt, I drive 30 miles to my dealer. That's probably 25 miles more than I have to. There are a few others closer. Most trips for simple service take most of the morning or the day for more complex repairs, twice a year. Non-maintenance issues are few and far between. Do I mind? Not at all. My SA takes excellent care of me and only lets two techs work on my RX. And she has more b@lls than they do. Nothing gets by her. Or me. The vehicle I had before my first RX, well, I had so many dealers that didn't take me seriously when I brought it in for various problems. It was the classic she must be a neurotic female attitude. I had to argue with them to check it. And inevitably something was repaired or replaced. That vehicle wound up going back to the manufacturer under the lemon law. I haven't had any kind of attitude with my Lexus dealer ever.

Now if I decide to change professions and become a mechanic which is tempting, that's another story

 

Txt, I can appreciate your frustration, you've been burned too many times.

 

Not going to bring my RX to dealer for services if they are going to charge German cars like price..
$100+ for minor service & 300+ for major service is just ridiculous...

 

A couple of war stories that occurred to me.

In 2009, I had an issue with the stuck crossbars on the Lexus RX350.
I went to the only dealership in town to get it repaired under warranty.
The tech put int the new crossbars. Great but......
I drove home but soon found that the new crossbars made a lot of noise at 40mph or higher.
Drove back and the Lexus service advisor told me to wait while the tech took a look.
Service advisor came back telling me nothing was wrong with the installation, maybe it was just wind noise.
I told him, let's get in the car and listen. Sure enough, he agreed there was more noise up on the roof than normal.
I told the service advisor maybe the tech installed the crossbar backward ?
Half an hour later, the tech agreed he installed the things backward.
I drove home with much less noise.

I bought a CPO van in last year that still had the original factory warranty. I felt the brakes were softer than usual. The dealership technician drove it and said the brakes felt normal. I drove another van from the same lot and the brakes felt normal and firm. The tech said each model year had a different brake feel so it was not apple to apple comparison. The tech told me to drive it for a while and if I didn't like it, I could bring it back and get it fixed under warranty.

So I bought the van.

I then brought the van to a different dealer shop and got the same story from the tech there.

I thought these techs was BS'ing me. The brakes were soft because the brake fluid probably had some air in it. I doubted these techs would allow their spouses and kids to be in a van with soft brakes like my van.

Since it involves safety to my family, I had to do the fix myself.
So I bought a can of OEM brake fluid and $30 worth of tools to do a brake bleed.
I spent 1 hour, removed 4 wheels and bled the brakes. Now the van's brakes were much firmer than before. I feel safer and happier.

 

Would you mind elaborating on the tools you bought for the Brake Fluid change? I was going to follow the instructions in this thread to try this myself but would like as much info as possible

 

I bought the tool from this ebay seller.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Motio...item2a0b3f15d4

The manufacturer's product description:
http://www.motionpro.com/motorcycle/partno/08-0143/

The instruction is here:
http://www.motionpro.com/documents/p...08-0143%20.pdf

This tool makes brake-bleeding a 1-person job. I did all 4 wheels by myself.

I follow the instruction almost exactly but I skipped the "priming" part in step 5 (not needed in my opinion).

PS: There's a hose clamp included with the product. The instruction sheet made no mention of what to do with the clamp. I used the clamp to hold the hose to the bleed screw.

 

^ thanks, regarding the actual bleeder item in what you linked, it seems an alternative is the Solo Bleeder that is mentioned here in this thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...o-bleeder.html

This seems specific to my car so I'm thinking I should probably just go with that instead?

 

Shahryar,

If you plan to do brake bleeding very often (ie. you are racing your car one a week ?), the solo bleeders may be the right thing for you.

But if you are not racing, then solo bleeders may be an overkill.

The average car needs brake bleeding once every 3 years, so the motion pro tool is a better choice for two reasons:
First, motion pro is $15 + shipping.
Second, if you have more than one car, the motion pro tool can be re-used on the other car.

 

^ Hey thanks - just ordered based on what you said. I also want to use this for the brake fluid change on the other cars in my family which haven't had them yet (2007 CR-V AWD and 2007 Accord EX Coupe). I hope I can get it by Saturday because that's when I'm getting together with at least another clublexus person to attempt this. Any suggestions for other parts, tools etc I should have (other than the brake fluid of course which I already have)