davesixtythree said:
Thank you all for the advice, I will take it to the dealer for the
service.
Oh...one last bit of advice, it's a sales recession and dealers are
looking to make up the revenue in the service department. Don't be
surprised at a lot of suggested services, like the oh so lucrative
fluid power flushing services that come in transmission, brake, engine
oil, and differential varieties. All of them costing around $139
each. If you can check and eyeball those fluids and know when last
you had them serviced going in, you'll be in a better spot to know
whether the "your fluids are FILTHY!" FUD you'll likely get is
legitimate or not. If you haven't had any of these done lately,
though, they probably are worth thinking about though as the service
interval on a lot of the fluids is a lot more frequent than a lot of
people realize.
I'd be interested in the list's collective opinion of these power
flush services and whether they're really worth the benefit they
advertise vs drain and fill, and whether there aren't reliably just-as
good places to have it done outside of a dealer. Refilling coolant on
Subes does seem to be trickier than most other cars, so there may be
an argument for having that done with a sube savvy place? I'm
curious.
Dave--as for less specious upsells you might face: when doing a timing
belt, it's usually advised to change the water pump since it's not
that much of an adder to the job, and if the water pump takes a shit,
you're stranded, engine overheats, and would have to re-do all the
labor of getting that timing belt in there (and be stranded) anyway.
Timing belt tensioners on the 2.5L cars are like disposable candy too,
so it's possible that they'll suggest a new "cold weather 2 minute
ticking device" (aka the timing belt tensioner) with the timing belt
service too.
Good luck!
