The attempt ....

[W2R]

DW came home with the air cleaner ripped off on her old Wrangler sucking dirt. We lived on a dirt road, the guy knew enough to try to say they didn't do it. They eventually reimbursed me but I check everything possible about the work and the shop.

Well I am speechless. Maybe shop around? Honestly it's not THAT hard to find a place that is willing to change an air filter properly. At least not here in Louisiana it's not.

If I thought that the only possible way to get a filter changed properly in my community was to do it myself, I'd move to someplace more reasonable.

 

[MRG]

Well I am speechless. Maybe shop around? Honestly it's not THAT hard to find a place that is willing to change an air filter properly. At least not here in Louisiana it's not.

If I thought that the only possible way to get a filter changed properly in my community was to do it myself, I'd move to someplace more reasonable.

There's a lot of folks in the business, some are good, some not. This owner turned a store over to an inept kid. In fairness the design stunk, still no reason to lie about the damage.

I'm very cautious about any oil change and all shops, many are a major ripoff. There's a big name tire place who told me several years ago my six month old battery was shot. Five years later I sold the truck still had the old shot battery.

 

[NW-Bound]

I'm very cautious about any oil change and all shops, many are a major ripoff...

+1

If you are lucky, all that costs you is just money for unnecessary work. If you are unfortunate, on top of the extra money, your car gets damaged. 'Nuf said.

 

[travelover]

..........If I thought that the only possible way to get a filter changed properly in my community was to do it myself, I'd move to someplace more reasonable.

How do you know it has been done right? Unless you physically check, you don't know if they really changed the filters, didn't strip the drain plug, didn't leave an opening in the air system for the engine to suck dirt.......

I do my own work on my car but take my DW's car in. I've had it overfilled, a double (leaking) gasket left on the oil filter, access panels not correctly reinstalled - all at different places. It is a low paid, low skills job and a good place today might ruin your engine tomorrow.

 

[Ronstar]

I went to Jiffy Lube to get an oil change in our 150,000 mile Acura. They tried to sell me "high mileage" oil. I said no - regular oil is fine. They found a parking light bulb burned out and told me it would cost $60 to fix it. I said no - I can get 2 bulbs for $10. They double-checked their price and found that it was really $12 to fix instead of $60. So I had them do it.

I used to take my car and truck to a Mobil1 oil change place until I found a tube of grease sitting on the air filer cover the next time I opened the hood. I think I'll do my own oil changes from now on.

 

[NW-Bound]

Dealers charge a lot of money, and you would think they are better.

My son brought in his Audi S4 for them to look at something that might be under warranty. The mechanic took it for a drive, and managed to scrape the front spoiler on a curb that my son only discovered afterwards. He had them repaint it, and never came back there.

How did the mechanic scrape the spoiler on a parking curb? Stopped by a doughnut shop on his test drive?

 

[MRG]

+1

If you are lucky, all that costs you is just money for unnecessary work. If you are unfortunate, on top of the extra money, your car gets damaged. 'Nuf said.

Exactly. They let DW drive it home, on dirt roads, with zero air filter! No know damage since I spotted it, but I understand air filters are a good idea.

 

[Ronstar]

Dealers charge a lot of money, and you would think they are better.

My son brought in his Audi S4 for them to look at something that might be under warranty. The mechanic took it for a drive, and managed to scrape the front spoiler on a curb that my son only discovered afterwards. He had them repaint it, and never came back there.

How did the mechanic scrape the spoiler on a parking curb? Stopped by a doughnut shop on his test drive?

Kind of like DW's Acura. In for an oil change and maybe brakes etc, the 16 year old intern took the car for a post maintenance test drive. Collided with another 16 year old intern driving a propane truck. Propane company paid for the repairs.


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[NW-Bound]

Eh, while we are sharing anecdotes, I've got a few more.

My daughter took her car to an oil-change place. They insisted that her brakes were worn out and unsafe. She was so scared, but still asked me for advice before agreeing to it. To convince her, I pulled off the wheels and showed her how thick the brake pads still were. Told her not to come back there. So, she bribed her brother to do the oil changes. She's married now, so I think her husband is doing it.

My BIL had some tire work done, but it was not Costco or Discount Tire. They torqued the lugs so tight with an impact wrench that they were stripped and damaged the next time the wheels had to be off. All new lugs had to be pressed in. Did not go back there to claim, except to yell at them, because he could not prove it.

 

[NW-Bound]

On the other hand, there are small and honest shops out there.

The above BIL eventually found an honest small independent shop by word of mouth. He always takes his cars there, even if it is 30 miles away.

When the AC in my car broke, I was not in good health, so did not even think of replacing it myself. That place quoted a very reasonable price to replace the compressor, the condenser, the accumulator, expansion valve. He also replaced the cabin air filter.

He later complained about extra work due to having to work around the after-market towbar that I installed (this is the toad for the RV), and wanted an extra $75 for the unanticipated labor. I had no problem paying that, because I knew that the accumulator was in a terrible spot even without the towbar blocking it.

 

[GravitySucks]

Removed the tire on my 2014 Camry and found four of the five lug nuts stripped. The shop I use to have the car inspected must have over torqued the nuts. I use this shop all the time and I'm going to have to have a talk with the owner next time I'm in. Can't do a NY State safety inspection by myself.

$50 for filters? Are they high performance type like a K&N? Does anyone have anything to say about high performance filters, are they worth the extra$$$?

 

[aja8888]

$50 for filters? Are they high performance type like a K&N? Does anyone have anything to say about high performance filters, are they worth the extra$$$?

You can find independent test reports on K&N filters vs. OEM ones and the results do not favor the K&N.

One more thing about K&N is that the filter mesh requires a periodic "oiling" WITH ONLY their oil. Most folks don't know that. If you over oil (spray on) the oil, there is a good chance you will screw up your Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor which is in the path to the engine intake. Messing that up will sometimes throw a "check engine light" and/or cause poor engine performance. A new MAF can be hundreds of dollars if it can't be salvaged through solvent cleaning. Want to take a chance?

 

[Happyras]

Eh, while we are sharing anecdotes, I've got a few more.

My daughter took her car to an oil-change place. They insisted that her brakes were worn out and unsafe. She was so scared, but still asked me for advice before agreeing to it. To convince her, I pulled off the wheels and showed her how thick the brake pads still were. Told her not to come back there.

I got very angry last week when I took my 2014 Jeep in for a recall, <30days past warranty. They told me I needed to do "maintanance", which I declined as I am an engineerd and do my own auto work except for programing changes. Also the TSB (technical service updates) were out of warranty and I would have to pay them to flash multiple updates not being addressed when they flash the computer for the recall..

I then got a call that my radiator now had a leak and they could do a change for $1500. I declined, looked up a new radiator for <$100 and thought I would swap it out myself if a plastic weld would not work. Their "service" manager called me insisting this was a big problem and they could contact Chrysler for extending the warranty, but I still needed to pay them for "maintenance" or pay a huge part of the repair. Of course I declined, but how many poor folks get screwed by these dealerships? They stated I needed to flush my 3 year old brake fluid, and perform a full fuel injector cleaning, including a through chemical cleaning of the throttle plate.

As many know, the brake fluid is changed/flushed when there is evidence of moisture, typically during a brake job, but not until many years. What really fumed me was their insistence on the fuel injector cleaning. You see....the throttle plate can not, and should not ever be chemical cleaned. Chrysler states it should only be changed out and never attempted cleaning or it would void the engine warranty.

Needless to say, my radiator is fine. The coolant was 1 quart low due to evaporation, which should only be topped off with distilled water. The system has HOAT antifreeze, typically good for more than 5 years.

The entire experience was a scam to create work for their dealership at my expense. I only hope others on this forum are savvy enough to know better, or at least can learn a bit from this attempted rip off.

 

[jazz4cash]

Those cabin air filters are all exorbitantly priced in my experience. I only change them when my dealer has a special.
DD moved across state line where they require an annual safety inspection. She has an intermittent head light that goes out every 6 months. Bulb is $15 but the bumper cover has to be partially removed ( only takes 15 minutes after you've done it a few times). Those plastic parts and fasteners will only come apart so many times before they deform. After getting it apart the old bulb worked fine so I checked the circuit and cleaned out some connectors. I downloaded a copy of the inspection form and checked all lights horn wipers spare etc. DD was misinformed by DMV about the deadline for the inspection and got $50 ticket for no sticker. She went to nearst dealer to get the sticker which only costs $16 but they found the bulb for the license plate was out (I didn't check that one!) and charged her $5 for the bulb and $35 for labor.


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[travelover]

...........
The entire experience was a scam to create work for their dealership at my expense. I only hope others on this forum are savvy enough to know better, or at least can learn a bit from this attempted rip off.

Dealers love recalls and warranty work because it brings in the chickens to be plucked.

 

[Music Lover]

$50 for filters? Are they high performance type like a K&N? Does anyone have anything to say about high performance filters, are they worth the extra$$$?

I'd never pay $50 for air and cabin filters. The last time I bought filters, they were $12 each on Amazon.

 

[SteveNU]

Used to own a VW and it had a belly pan under the engine compartment. It was always too much work to get the car up on ramps and drop the belly pan so I would try and do what I could from the top even if it was more difficult. Inevitably whenever I worked on something from the top I would drop a tool or a screw and it would find the most inaccessible point to hide out in and I would end up having to take the pan off anyways.

Nowadays I have a good local shop that takes care of the work I don't want to do. My son is a mechanic so I have him do things if he wants to and pay him what he would make at work.

I used to always have to check things out after I had work done at a dealership. I've found oil filters not changed, oil caps missing, various nuts and bolts missing or not tightened back up. I once had to have the transmission replaced on my truck after it ate itself at less than 40k miles following some routine service done at the dealership. My son and I crawled under the truck to check things out after we got it home and found the main frame member that held the transmission up had all four bolts just threaded in finger tight. Also several of the wire harnesses were routed wrong such that they were stretched tight and would have pulled right apart after a short while.

My favorite story was when my son was first starting out working in a dealership and he was changing the tranny fluid in his VW manual transmission during his off time. He had dutifully drained the fluid and decided that the inspection port on the clutch bell housing was where you filled it back up. So he carefully pulled the little rubber plug out of the hole and filled up his clutch housing with four quarts of tranny fluid. He was the subject of some good natured ribbing from his coworkers after it all ran out onto the garage floor! And he was one of the mechanics fixing people's cars! That clutch never was quite right after that!

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[Beldar]

Sometimes I have parts leftover....

The latest thing staring at me is a complete Rochester Quadrajet that I picked up at an antique swap meet for $5. Sure, there are Youtube videos, books, and web forums on how to rebuild this baby, but if I did that I'd have to buy a car for it.

No, those days are over for me. Maybe I can just polish it and use it as a yard ornament.


_B

 

[aja8888]

The entire experience was a scam to create work for their dealership at my expense. I only hope others on this forum are savvy enough to know better, or at least can learn a bit from this attempted rip off.

Wow, just WOW! Good job of warding off the scam artists!

Maybe the dealer "experts" don't know that gasoline is a pretty good solvent and it just keeps fuel injectors clean as it passes through them. And it has special detergents in it to do so!

 

[SteveNU]

The entire experience was a scam to create work for their dealership at my expense. I only hope others on this forum are savvy enough to know better, or at least can learn a bit from this attempted rip off.

The service techs are all pushed hard to sell service. When they get a car to work on they are expected to find something else that needs to be done. Some of the dealer's where my son has worked give the service techs a bonus each week based on what types of service they have "sold". I do feel sorry for those that don't know any better.

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[Keim]

You can find independent test reports on K&N filters vs. OEM ones and the results do not favor the K&N.

One more thing about K&N is that the filter mesh requires a periodic "oiling" WITH ONLY their oil. Most folks don't know that. If you over oil (spray on) the oil, there is a good chance you will screw up your Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor which is in the path to the engine intake. Messing that up will sometimes throw a "check engine light" and/or cause poor engine performance. A new MAF can be hundreds of dollars if it can't be salvaged through solvent cleaning. Want to take a chance?

I can report to the OP that K and N makes both these filters for your CRv. I clean the air filter about once a year. I think instructions claim they only need to be cleaned every 50k. I haven't bothered to clean the K&N cabin filter. It's fairly new. The blower does blow considerably more air thru now.

RE Aja's above comment. I was curious about K and N, so I experimented with them on my 76 Monte in 2010. I saw an increase in gas mileage and improved horsepower. I liked it enough I replaced the filters in my other cars (93 Ford truck, 2003 and 2012 CRvs). Newer cars did not see an increase in MPG. I suspect modern electronics vs the Monte's carburetor took care of that. Did feel an increase in power.

Oiling and cleaning is easy. I've had no problems. Importantly, they also will last the life of my vehicles.

I save money on filters in the long run, and waste less environmentally. In some cases I get improved performance.

I'm a satisfied customer.

 

[rayinpenn]

To clarify
It was $50 for both the normal air filter and the cabin filters (there are two that sit side by side)
I did a little research and it it appears the two air cleaner assemblies I need would be $130. Apparently the problem I had with the seized bolts is common. What a pity no one thought to put a drop of anti seize on the bolts when they replaced them. Maybe they wouldn't I would need both parts today.


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[Just_Steve]

I am a huge fan of anti seize as long as it's not a torque critical bolt.

 

[rayinpenn]

Took a leap of faith and ordered a air filter assembly $170...


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[rayinpenn]

Got an email yesterday that the parts finally shipped (upper and lower air cleaner assemblies) before I try to remove anything the bolts are getting a healthy helping of penetrating fluid at least an hour before... And anti seize on the upper unit bolts when I finish (I say that with cautious optimism)


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