30 month service takes 6 hours?
 

Just scheduled my 30 month service at my local dealership and they emailed back this morning to tell me this is a 6-7 hour service (they were following up since I had selected to wait at dealership during the service). What's going on in this service to make it take so long? I've done all my previous service at the same dealership and its never been more than 3 hours. This is for an AT. Here's what the dealership lists for the service:





30,000 Mile or 30 Month Maintenance

Details:
Perform tire rotation & inspection
Replace air cleaner element
Inspect cooling system
Replace brake fluid / clutch fluid (MT model only)
Inspect fuel lines and connections
Inspect V-belt
Inspect automatic transmission fluid
Replace engine oil and oil filter

I :iono:

Sounds like an hour and a half job to me. If they wash it, another 15 minutes.

How much are they charging you?


humfrz

Maybe 6-7 hours to complete from the moment you drop it off, but not 6-7 hours for the actual work. We're talking an hour's worth, I think. Get a price quote.

you can do 75% of that stuff yourself

Heard back from the dealership with some more details, apparently for the 30k service "Subaru recommends a few things which we don't address very often. In this instance the most important thing they recommend is flushing out your brake fluid..." I don't have my manual in front of me to see the full maintenance schedule but they seem to think it really will take 6 hours.

Oh, heck, let em have it for 6 hours.

Reminds me of the story about this ol boy who worked in downtown NYC. Every day he would drop his car off at a shop near his work to have the oil changed.

Finally the shop manager said to him "you don't really have to have the oil changed in this car every day". The man replied, I know that, but, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for parking all day".

:D

humfrz

LOL If book time was that lax when I worked on motorcycles I would have never quit.

I can flush my brakes in about 20 minutes with a 50 dollar tool. Hell, I could do all that and change a throw out bearing in 6 hours :bonk:

You will be paying flat rates at the dealer. My guess of charges above.

You can 100% of that yourself. If you have any mechanical abilities.

Hell, I can flush my brakes with a length of rubber hose and a Mason jar - ;)


humfrz

Easy for you to say, you're not old and lazy - :sigh:


humfrz

How much sucking does it take to do quickly :bonk:

It’s because it might take 2hours to even get on a lift and another 1-2 before someone works on it. Also sometimes they say 6hours and if it takes 4 your ecstatic but if they say 4 and it takes 5 your going to be mad.

Also a AT fluid drain/fill has a few additional steps compared to most fluid changes requiring a serious of steps to get the dash into trans temp mode and then doing the drain/fill at precisely 108F-115F. Still not that hard but does add some time.

I'll have Bubba splain it to ya - ;)

https://youtu.be/ioHjV4d6BWk


humfrz

I thought they were just going to "inspect automatic transmission fluid".

:iono:


humfrz

Possibly. I believe owners manual says to do one drain/flush every 30k miles. Trans holds 7 quarts, each drain/fill replaces 2 quarts.

You gotta remember that they all gotta have their smoke breaks and lunch and so forth that there is like 2 hours XD
but seriously when i took my car in for the 1000km inspection it took them 3 hours to do a hours worth of work (inspecting brake pads, see if the tires are holding air, the air filter is clean, nuts and blots are tighten, see if oil is at appropriate level) its a joke tbh
I almost dont want to book my car in for its first actual oil change lol it'll take them 4 hours (small town no where to go)

Also gotta add an hour for them to bring the keys back up to the desk after the car is done.

Well, the maintenance manual for my 2013 FR-S says to inspect the AT fluid at 30,000 miles or 30 months and replace at 60,000 miles or 60 months.

Other cars may differ - :iono:

Hold on - my car is a MT - why are you trying to confuse me? - :confused0068:


humfrz

This is why they are called Stealerships.

I'd ask how much they want to change out the automatic trans fluid and consider doing that. I had mine done at 59,000 miles for about 280 bucks. They used a machine; your dealership probably use a machine too.

Had them do the rear diff fluid too; don't remember the price for that though. My gas mileage improved a bit. In retrospect, I should have done both earlier due to break in material possibly floating around. Definitely do it before the 60,000 mile mark so the power train is still under warranty if they mess up.

Here are some time estimates; I am being generous too. A good mechanic could probably do much faster.

Details:
Perform tire rotation & inspection- 1/2 hour
Replace air cleaner element - 10 minutes
Inspect cooling system - 10 minutes
Replace brake fluid / clutch fluid (MT model only) - 1 hour
Inspect fuel lines and connections - 10 minutes
Inspect V-belt - 5 minutes
Inspect automatic transmission fluid - 10 minutes
Replace engine oil and oil filter - 1/2 hour

I speak dealer. Let me translate..


30,000 Mile or 30 Month Maintenance

Details:
Perform tire rotation & inspection - rotate tires
Replace air cleaner element - Replace air filter
Inspect cooling system - do nothing
Replace brake fluid / clutch fluid (MT model only) - bleed brakes
Inspect fuel lines and connections - do nothing
Inspect V-belt - do nothing
Inspect automatic transmission fluid - check fluid level
Replace engine oil and oil filter - oil change.

They want the car so they can throw it at a tech between real jobs.

At my shop, Rotate is .5, air filter .3, brake fluid flush 1.0, oil change .5, so that's 2.3. We wouldn't charge for general look over type stuff.

Inspect cooling system- verify fluid level and check freeze protection (this is done for every customer as a courtesy at my place,)

Inspect fuel lines- visual inspection of connections, particularly checking at fuel injectors for leaks. At 30K you probably wouldn't see this but also checking for cracks in hoses, and condition of gas cap seal(looking for cracks that could lead to evap codes).

Inspect belt, check for cracks, use gauge to determine wear if appears worn but no cracks. Verify tension.

Inspect trans fluid- verify level, smell it to check for burnt smell, check for leaks.

Customers expect technicians to catch things before they become a problem, and it is their responsibility to do so. Customer doesn't have to approve anything they don't want to, but it needs to be looked at for general maintenance and safety needs.

Edit: I looked up Mitchell book time for official 30K service book time and it lists 2.4 hours.

everything in bold is something you could do yourself with a socket wrench, a jack, 2 jack stands, and a few paper towels to wipe your hands when you're done.

anything not bold is messy. it can be done yourself for those inclined, but i understand taking it somewhere.

v-belt inspection is really easy, you just shine a light on it to look for cracks and odd wear patterns/ fraying. around my area, there's a free widget-tool to help check for this at every auto parts store near the registers.

come to think of it, other than the tire rotation, all the inspection items could also be done for free at an auto parts store, as they want to sell you the parts if it's time to replace.


i use the 2nd graph down to determine replacement schedules:
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/maintenance-2014.html