The fine line on mechanic work
 

Hello,

So I just paid a $5000+ mechanic bill for my wife's subaru. Head gasket ($3800) and sunroof ($1500).

I am not complaining about either bill but rather, the way the mechanic shop is run.

This is my wife's car. I have a Boxster and a Landcruiser - both of which don't seem to need much mechanic work. I use a different mechanic - by design.

The question is this. I feel that the mechanic my wife uses treats her subie like the space shuttle. Meaning, they service EVERYTHING possible. I understand good preventative maintenance. And, I am happy to pay a fair hourly rate.

I have told my wife for years that this mechanic is hosing us. My wife thinks that this is possible as well but has not done anything about it.

Question: how does one know when good preventative maintenance crosses the line into making payments on a lake house?

Thanks!

Well you could post a scan of the invoices here - I'm sure you'd get a decent amount of feedback that is specific - which (in theory) might be more enlightening than just general responses.

Just a thought......

Another thought is when the time comes to sell the car, perhaps such documented maintenance would pay dividends with an increased valuation.

When I took the '77 Targa to Andial I could expect all the lights to be checked and replaced as well as anything else unless I specifically told them to leave such things to me. This is to say I blew the air box once and they practically rebuilt the car. It cost a lot of money. I didn't work on Porsches then, I was too busy with karts.

I think there is a range of how much preventative work one might do on a car, and it depends on 1) car's value and if you plan to keep it a long time, 2) how much preventative work that model needs to be reliable, 3) if the user of the car will raise holy hell if ever stranded waiting for AAA.

I don't buy the resale value argument, because the difference in resale for a well-used Subaru w/ and w/o a thick stack of receipts isn't $5K.

We don't have a Subaru, but have 08 Honda Element and 06 Toyota Prius in the family fleet, both around 200K miles, and I'd guess they get $2K/year of maintenance/prevention/consumable-type shop work (so, excluding the occasional larger thing that needs to be fixed because it has actually failed - e.g. windshield, Prius inverter, etc.)

My wife's 2018 Forester needed a head gasket at 70K miles, and after being quoted 3500. for both sides, I got on the horn with Subaru North America, with my position being that we'd done everything "right" by this car, scheduled maintenance wise, and that 70K miles was way too soon to have this happen. Subaru N.A. then agreed to lower our total bill to 1K...thank goodness!

But don't interpret the above as dissing The Forester...as it (and the Foresters before this) has been perfect for our location in hilly northern Vermont. We are now looking forward and considering a "Wilderness" edition of either the Forester or Outback

You're just begging for that pinhole leak in the head gasket between number five and six on the Land Cruiser, unless yours is a 91-92. (IIRC, you have an 80)
I can't remember the last time someone worked on my cars, other than me, so I can't answer.

Depends on what the labor rate, parts prices are there in that area

Yup. That's why I just traded in my wife's Outback in on a Corolla.
Ticking time bomb.

Here’s one viewpoint. The tech is doing a 15,000 mile / one year service. They should be checking all the appropriate systems that a 15K calls for and report any discrepancies found as well as anything else he sees that needs attention. A good service advisor will report to the customer what was found and prioritize. For instance: front pads are about 75% worn, you could probably get another 5K, but won’t make it to your next 15K. Anything the tech sees and does not report will come back to bite him. A month later the guy needs a water pump and says, “I just spent $1500 on a service, why wasn’t I informed it was seeping?” Two sides to the story…”they’re trying to upsell me” and “why wasn’t this caught on the service?” Between a rock and a hard spot.

$1500 for sunroof repair? That alone sounds really high, or did he cut the hole for a new one?

^^^Repair. With USED parts.

It isn't a cheap wrench. I get what Porsche Tech is saying and I don't begrudge anyone to make a living. It is the fine line between getting soaked and doing a great job that I am walking. Great perspectives so far. Thanks all!

I put in the other thread: I think the problem with subarus is they can be a bain to work on and parts are expensive. At least in the context of relatively affordable cars.

Routine things like changing spark plugs and valve cover gaskets will have you cussing up a storm. I dont think any worse than alot of german or fancy cars, but compared to a typical pedestrian FWD car with a transverse I-4 design stuff is hard to get to.

At least they make some interesting cars in a world where cars have gotten pretty boring and similar.

The mechanic prolly had to pay his vet bills :D.

Some "pros" will take ya to the cleaner$, some are worth their weight in gold and many are in between. Every single profession .... same as it ever was.

Who decides what work the shop will perform?

What year and model Subaru? Mileage? Condition? Guess I'm curious because you may be paying a service bill on a car worth less than the bill.

^^^Pretty certain Paul hit the nail on the head. 2010 Outback (I think!)

We provide a detailed digital inspection showing what was good and what requires attention. The CLIENT decides what work they would like performed. Declined/deferred work gets stored in our system for future reference.

For various reasons I use my local Pcar wrench for some things and the local Porsche dealer for others on my 997 GT3. The dealer always does an inspection and takes a video. If they find anything I get a detailed video on the issue and a quote for the cost. I really like having the video…

Thirty-eight-hundred bucks for a head gasket on what is very likely a four-banger pretty much answers your question.

_

Two head gaskets for a flat 4 and engine certainly has to come out, I can only assume timing parts, spark plugs and every other PITA flat 4 items were replaced as well.

3800 is a bunch but doesnt seem crazy for a subaru........therein lies the issue. Give me a transverse i4 for sub 40k cars, or at least make sure the car doesnt eat head gaskets.

CarShield? Being in the ins. business, I'm just shocked the OP isn't covered ....

$hocked ... I tells ya :D!

My man Ice-T recommends them ...

I do most of my own work (otherwise, why would I be on Pelican :) ) but I have the dealer do warranty work and some stuff I don't feel like and an independent for stuff like alignments and stuff I've gotten too lazy for in my old(er) age.

Both the dealer and the independent know I do my own maintenance and small items so they don't even ask anymore. The first time I took my Cayenne to the dealer (at least the one I use now) they gave me a big long list of maintenance items. I told them I do all that myself. The next time I took it to the dealer there was no list. I thanked my service advisor for that and he said, "no problem, we know our customers"

If it was a complete job it would include fly cutting the heads, new head studs, high end gaskets, complete timing belt/WP/pulley kit. Around $750-$1,000 retail for parts.

I did it to my sister's 2006 with engine in. Pulling would heve been easier overall.

^^^BobK. I wasn’t asking if this was reasonable, but is it? Not sure the hourly rate. It’s certainly not low.

$3,800 is a lot of money

To put all the new parts in for a comprehensive job with pulling the engine and running heads to the machine shop I would think it would be $3,500, maybe more.

However, when I did research for the job there were guys on this board that could do the job in a day. I have to think that job is alloted 16-20 hours and a good wrench can beat it.

Thank you. I will review my invoice.

I thought subaru head gasket problems was a thing of the distant past. My little Legacy wagon is old enough to vote.

Struck up a conversation just last night with a young man who owns a really nice VW super beetle that was in the parking lot of the restaurant where he busses tables. He just had a local indy foreign car shop perform a valve adjustment and change the oil in his VW super beetle. $400. Four Hundred Dollars! I told him that's insane.

This is what I'd expect from any indy that I trusted with my repairs.