Biddles

iTrader: (2)

The Toyota dealership quoted me $560 to do the timing belt service. So I bought the extended timing belt kit from Sewell, and when it arrived I dropped my car off at night for what they said would be a one day job, and I could pick it up the following day.

I got a call the next day around 5pm saying my car won't be ready on time stating that they were busy.

I get a call the next day saying that one of the seals(crank I believe) wasn't included in the box from Sewell and that they needed to overnight one to the shop, however this seal would cost me an extra $230 in labor on top of the $560 I was quoted. I agree as I need my car, still knowing the seal was supposed to be in my kit from Sewell. They assure me the car will be ready the following day.

So today I missed a call and decided to just go down there since they are only a few blocks away. Surprise surprise....I can see my car being worked on in one of the bays.

So I go inside and talk to the service rep, he says my car has been a total nightmare. He's also mad at whoever quoted me $560. He then asked why I didn't bring the car to the Lexus dealership instead, and I told him because of poor reviews(which is true it's rated pretty poorly out here). He understands avoiding a poorly reviewed dealership, and tells me again that whoever quoted me the price(which I was given, and he approved) should have done more research on the work at hand. He claims to have contacted Lexus and that just replacing the one seal requires 13.4 hours of additional labor on top of the timing belt service....

He quickly tells me of course my car won't be ready today, but that he won't be charging me extra for the additional 13 hours of labor due to the estimate I've received. He says I'm getting a insane deal and that the mechanic has been working on it all day, and will continue working on it tomorrow and that it should be ready mid day.

He wants to show me my car, so we check it out and it looks properly taken apart, he pointed toward the timing belt stating the seal is deep inside the engine behind the exposed pulley's and they are working on that shortly.....

My question is....what seal is so deep in the engine it requires 13 hours of additional labor after having the timing belt out and exposed? He did have the timing belt in and everything else looked good so I can't really complain, but does this sound legit? I was thinking maybe he broke something and was making an excuse to keep it longer to fix what he may have broke.

What doesn't make sense is that he called me saying a seal was missing from the kit, but that it would cost an extra $230 for them to order it and install. Now the seal that was missing is an extra 13 hours labor on an already exposed engine, and he's giving me that labor for free... He did say he thought my car was the 6 cylinder version, but that he's never serviced an SC before...

I've never heard of a great dealership story, only nightmares so I'm kinda concerned. At $112 an hour for their labor rate, it's hard to believe they are giving me 13.4 hours($1500) of free work.

dogwisper

iTrader: (3)

I think what he is confused with is if you were to just replace the crank seal or camshaft seals, without any other work being done it would be a 13 hour job (which sounds outrageous). But while you are replacing the timing belt you already have the whole front end of the engine removed and the crank AND cam seals are easily replaced in a few minutes. They are very inexpensive if you look on Sewell our price is under $50 for all 3 seals retail. The shop gets the parts wholesale. Sounds to me like they got in over their heads here. If your SC was a 97 or newer they may be way over their heads with the VVT-i engine. With the $230 for the seals that they added on to the price that would get them much closer to where the price should have been quoted in the first place. Good luck and keep us posted.

jimbow

I think at most it would be an 8 hour job, even that is on the high side.

Now 13 for a rear main seal... Yes I can see that.


Sounds like your getting jerked around.

At the dealer I used to work at we always serviced lexus cars, The customers would rather bring them to our desler than the Lexus desler because it's a more down to earth desler, not many ****** there, customer or employees. Lol

SC4ME

I get my sc repaired regularly at the lexus dealers here in jersey. I never thought to goto a Toyota dealer but I agree they are all just trying to make a buck and they will stiff you when they get the chance but prices are reasonable because of the perks you get.

Barbary

I think a dealer belt job here is around $1,500
$560 is not even in the same ballpark
My last timing belt replacement service was a grand (from family in LA) but that included a new windshield & whole front engine, pumps etc. ///^\\\ family got me my paint job too.
I'm looking @ its time for me to do my belt again. I'm looking @ spending a grand Mines an SC400
I love the top end on the V8's
"thank God 4 family !"

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Sorry to hear you're getting a bit of the run around, biddies :/ Toyota dealers can service these cars (SC300's anyway) with the Supra TSRM to gauge the hours of labor. It's all the same service procedure. The only reason for them to have trouble is because they don't see many 2JZ powered cars to service any longer and thus may not be familiar with it... or they have some non-compete agreement with a local Lexus dealership upon which to base refusal to service a Lexus even if the above applies. At least they agreed to work on your car.

I think my price for my timing belt service from a Toyota dealer was $750 labor. I believe their rate was $120/hr which was identical to most Lexus dealerships unfortunately but I trusted them and still do. I had previously bought all the parts and seals needed and left them in the car in a box. That's all very pricey but they had no troubles.

The crank front seal does take a bit longer to get to. No harm in checking the condition of the harmonic balancer while they're in there.

Every Lexus dealer I took my car to was austere, insular, service agents very snooty (except for the parts counter guys), and I rarely if ever was able to talk with the mechanic actually working on my car. They're probably the worst service experiences I've had with this car to date.

An independent mechanic, independent Lexus service specialist, Toyota dealership or any shop familiar with maintenance for Supras is best.

scENFORCER

I thought we all already knew not to take our cars to stealerships? Is this not common knowledge to everyone already? To pay a premium price to someone whose never worked on your car before makes no sense to me.
Or perhaps I'm just lucky to have an experienced independent mechanic who charges a reasonable price that is better than any stealership trained kid.
Also why is it so hard for people to drive to 3-4 different mechanics to find someone who can confidently say YES they can fix your car, and for a reasonable price? I dont know about the US but here there is an independent shop on almost every block in certain parts of the city. I'm sure its the same in basically every city in the US.

Although you're not really getting screwed here, I think you should consider yourself lucky. The only horror stories I've ever heard come from dealerships, either messing up your car or charing insane prices. I've never gone (or will go to one) in my life.

Do some research, take some time, FIND someone who you can count on to regularly work on your car. You have plenty of resources online to help you narrow someone down.

Biddles

iTrader: (2)

The only repair I ever planned to take my car to the dealership for was the timing belt, as it's a big job, and I get a warranty for the work they perform, as well as dealership maintenance history if I decide to ever sell it. I asked other's about performing the work, and they all didn't seem confident about doing it. A few local shops seemed iffy, and I've read a few horror stories at Meineke so....the Toyota dealership is only a few blocks away and seemed like a good choice.

I'll update later when I hopefully have my car back.

Maserati

iTrader: (1)

Yeah man, that's totally a steal, i did my timing belt for 520 and it took like 9 hours and i have VVT-i, The cause of the extra hour was because i didn't get a seal for the water pump, but the previous dealer that did the car put silicone to hold it in place? Either way after we used silicone to seal the pump. it was all good.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

these are the horror stories that i hate reading about.. Timing belt would be the only dealership service i think i would do as well...Lexus knows the car better than anyone (hopefully) and can do the job correctly... $560 seems like the 60k mile service price... I thought about the Toyota dealer also as i've read that they can be cheaper than Lexus.. ..

HiPSI

iTrader: (2)

The timing belt job on 2jz is a breeze, everything is in front of you. Now my DSM with the timing belt against the shock tower and hidden wasn't fun!

mecheng10

its a piece of cake on the 2jz. there is so much space to fit tools in the engine bay if you pull the radiator out.
it took me about 10 hours to do mine, but im ocd and everything was tripled checked ha.
but yea, like you on my Honda when I cant even fit a 3/8th ratchet in the space provided to do a timing belt.

Cleanshots

iTrader: (2)

560 for t belt is fine, the front main seal once timing belt is off i can ****in do in 5 mins.. tear them a new one! the seal is like 50 bucks max.. so if they said like 250 more for the seal then thats them saying it will take 2 hours.. basically.. dealers make money on labour not parts.. soo thats why. any ways.. tell them you are gonna have some serious issues if they try to charge you more than 800 MAX for everything to be done..

CatManD3W

iTrader: (18)

Several years ago I made my decision that I would tackle all work on my vehicles....With the TSRM it isnt really that difficult to peform....

I guess thats why they call it a Stealership....

mecheng10

exactly! and not to be mean or anything...
but most of the time the people who are working the assembly line are idiots (trust me I know)
so if they can put it together, you certainly can do it if you have half a brain...