driving my boat to the top of the MS river ... unfortunately, while we're in denver on the way out (and i'm in WY fly fishing) the car starts showing unusual behavior ... when you first start it in the morning, it acts like it doesn't want to stop. the brake pedal goes all the way to the floor without the expected amount of coincident braking.
the boulder shop can't reproduce the problem, but my brother's in town so i pop the hood and he takes a look when we get back from the great wild.
in less than 60 seconds, he spots a missing PCV valve (and line). odd that the shop didn't even bother to look under the hood for it.
as long as it's in the shop, i'll change my oil too, although it's due in another 1,000 miles ... it's easier to change here/now than in MN. it also means that my car shuttler won't have to do it on the MN/LA run.
the oil change is already paid for as part of my package (last one!). the PCV valve and line run me $62.
Showing posts with label extra repair costs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extra repair costs. Show all posts
2014-07-24
2014-04-04
117,316 mile service (and more, unfortunately)
took my car in for the standard oil change, but when the adviser came out to get me he had that surgical "i've got bad news for you, b1" look on his face.
the techs have found oil in the spark plug tubes. (that i believe, you could see very slight oil seepage around the tops of the plugs.) they've also found a problem with the control arms (not the first time this has happened).
the vast majority of these repairs are covered by my service contract, but the new spark plugs (and wires) are not.
(as long as they were doing everything else, they also replaced the engine mounts, again, which surprised me ... i would have expected them to last longer ... but who knows? that other work was sahara ... and anything is possible with those jokers.)
this now puts me well, well ahead of the game with my service contract. (it also has me wondering, a little, if maybe radioactive dave wasn't right with his $0 deductible comment.)
$319, including $100 of service contract deductible
$3570 of SCR
{what was odd is i was given a rental for two days as part of this repair ... i'm almost certain i'm not supposed to -it's certainly not what the contract says- but i took full advantage of it and put 400 miles on my loaned chrysler 200 [with satellite!] ... went to death valley one day, valley of fire the next.}
the techs have found oil in the spark plug tubes. (that i believe, you could see very slight oil seepage around the tops of the plugs.) they've also found a problem with the control arms (not the first time this has happened).
the vast majority of these repairs are covered by my service contract, but the new spark plugs (and wires) are not.
(as long as they were doing everything else, they also replaced the engine mounts, again, which surprised me ... i would have expected them to last longer ... but who knows? that other work was sahara ... and anything is possible with those jokers.)
this now puts me well, well ahead of the game with my service contract. (it also has me wondering, a little, if maybe radioactive dave wasn't right with his $0 deductible comment.)
$319, including $100 of service contract deductible
$3570 of SCR
{what was odd is i was given a rental for two days as part of this repair ... i'm almost certain i'm not supposed to -it's certainly not what the contract says- but i took full advantage of it and put 400 miles on my loaned chrysler 200 [with satellite!] ... went to death valley one day, valley of fire the next.}
2013-12-13
113,142 hiccups!
errr.
my car started missing (and i mean it never does this), and threw an engine light ...
bad news because i'm not entirely sure i can limp it the 13 miles i need to get to my favorite dealer out here. after waiting a day i'm able to get it in, not really worried about what's "wrong." why should i, i'm covered, right?
turns out it's a split vacuum line, and lo' and behold, it's not covered by my service contract.
in fact, i spent a l-o-n-g time on the phone with chrysler and even the reps (i spoke to more than one) couldn't believe it wasn't covered. my guess, and this is only a guess, is that it was simply omitted.
odd.
not expensive (only $46 more than my deductible) but still not welcome.
$146
my car started missing (and i mean it never does this), and threw an engine light ...
bad news because i'm not entirely sure i can limp it the 13 miles i need to get to my favorite dealer out here. after waiting a day i'm able to get it in, not really worried about what's "wrong." why should i, i'm covered, right?
turns out it's a split vacuum line, and lo' and behold, it's not covered by my service contract.
in fact, i spent a l-o-n-g time on the phone with chrysler and even the reps (i spoke to more than one) couldn't believe it wasn't covered. my guess, and this is only a guess, is that it was simply omitted.
odd.
not expensive (only $46 more than my deductible) but still not welcome.
$146
2013-12-04
112,469 new battery ++
i'm in CA and my car keeps acting like it doesn't want to start ... in fact, sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. not that big a deal since i carry jumper cables with me, but i don't like the idea of crossing deserts with questionable batteries ... you run out of juice in the middle of nowhere and you may get a lot more than a frame stripped.
so i go to the local walmart and get a battery to do my own swap (the warranty is better and it's cheaper) ... the switch isn't trivial since the engine compartment is SO tightly jammed together, except ...
when i go to pull the battery out, the air hose to the air cleaner is almost completely cloven ... not what i was expecting.
so i call up normandin ... they're able to take me right in ... i have them replace the air line under my service contract and install the battery for another $35. that makes my battery more expensive than i had originally intended, but still cheaper than if i'd had the whole thing done at the dealer to begin with. (i'm actually kinda surprised that they had the air hose in stock ... turbo versions of cruisers have to be getting just a touch rare.)
i'm starting to wonder if i'm gonna get nickle-and-dimed by the continual car.
$35 for battery install
$100 service contract deductible
$250 SCR
so i go to the local walmart and get a battery to do my own swap (the warranty is better and it's cheaper) ... the switch isn't trivial since the engine compartment is SO tightly jammed together, except ...
when i go to pull the battery out, the air hose to the air cleaner is almost completely cloven ... not what i was expecting.
so i call up normandin ... they're able to take me right in ... i have them replace the air line under my service contract and install the battery for another $35. that makes my battery more expensive than i had originally intended, but still cheaper than if i'd had the whole thing done at the dealer to begin with. (i'm actually kinda surprised that they had the air hose in stock ... turbo versions of cruisers have to be getting just a touch rare.)
i'm starting to wonder if i'm gonna get nickle-and-dimed by the continual car.
$35 for battery install
$100 service contract deductible
$250 SCR
2013-03-01
102,284 mile service
because it involves a timing belt, from a dollar point-of-view, this is the big one.
i called prestige last month, hoping to get a free rental on my belt change before i hit 100K miles, but ran out of time ... the price they quoted then was $1350 for the timing belt alone ... but it was clear in the conversation that the price had some flexibility to it ...
so before i went in, i negotiated ... according to the manual, i was supposed to change plugs back in august, but hadn't gotten around to it yet ... my brother and i did these at 60K miles and he was appalled by how hard the job was ... so maybe i can get that thrown in as well.
for $1400 they did my timing belt, replaced the spark plugs, did a radiator flush (first one! -- only needs it every 100K miles) and did an oil change. it's not cheap (especially considering that all my dealer services to this point have been $1750), but i feel good about the discount, remembering that i want to keep this work at a chrysler dealer and considering the alternatives.
i'm also completely caught up with my car now (and it'll be another five years before i have to hit this hard again).
my service advisor asked about the engine mounts ... when i told him they'd never been replaced, he was surprised, so he had the crew look them over as well (he wrote "CUST STATES THERE IS A VIBRATION WHEN IDLING," which i definitely did not, but they have to write something in order to look it over). yet, when they inspected it, it was fine.
"someone must have changed 'em sometime."
maybe. but i drive a car pretty soft. i don't excessively speed. i don't jackrabbit start. i don't corner hard anyway, but especially not in a cruiser (which has way more understeer than i'm comfortable with). i'm infamous for coasting to a stop ... so maybe it's just the way i drive.
$1413
this is by far the biggest charge i've ever had against this car ... it'd be nice to not beat that record.
(i asked for my used spark plugs back to examine the ignition characteristics on them. the replacement boxes they were in were Champion with a two year warranty -- regardless of mileage ... i'm using this as a green light to back off changing if i get more than 30K miles in the next two years.)
i called prestige last month, hoping to get a free rental on my belt change before i hit 100K miles, but ran out of time ... the price they quoted then was $1350 for the timing belt alone ... but it was clear in the conversation that the price had some flexibility to it ...
so before i went in, i negotiated ... according to the manual, i was supposed to change plugs back in august, but hadn't gotten around to it yet ... my brother and i did these at 60K miles and he was appalled by how hard the job was ... so maybe i can get that thrown in as well.
for $1400 they did my timing belt, replaced the spark plugs, did a radiator flush (first one! -- only needs it every 100K miles) and did an oil change. it's not cheap (especially considering that all my dealer services to this point have been $1750), but i feel good about the discount, remembering that i want to keep this work at a chrysler dealer and considering the alternatives.
i'm also completely caught up with my car now (and it'll be another five years before i have to hit this hard again).
my service advisor asked about the engine mounts ... when i told him they'd never been replaced, he was surprised, so he had the crew look them over as well (he wrote "CUST STATES THERE IS A VIBRATION WHEN IDLING," which i definitely did not, but they have to write something in order to look it over). yet, when they inspected it, it was fine.
"someone must have changed 'em sometime."
maybe. but i drive a car pretty soft. i don't excessively speed. i don't jackrabbit start. i don't corner hard anyway, but especially not in a cruiser (which has way more understeer than i'm comfortable with). i'm infamous for coasting to a stop ... so maybe it's just the way i drive.
$1413
this is by far the biggest charge i've ever had against this car ... it'd be nice to not beat that record.
(i asked for my used spark plugs back to examine the ignition characteristics on them. the replacement boxes they were in were Champion with a two year warranty -- regardless of mileage ... i'm using this as a green light to back off changing if i get more than 30K miles in the next two years.)
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