Maintenance quote
 

Vehicle: Subaru 15 Automatic



I'm at 135,000 km and I've yet to replace my spark plugs, so I thought now would be a good time.. as well as a Transmission flush + differential fluid + brake fluid etc, except I was quoted $403 labour and $90 parts + tax for the spark plug service.
I found this interesting considering the dealership lists it at $390 + tax, meaning the dealership would be cheaper?


If someone with experience can please look at this and tell me whether any of these are good/bad deals and if I should just do it or look elsewhere, it would be greatly appreciated! They also said "The visual inspection of vehicle components comes with the oil change as a courtesy."


Thanks


Maintenance Quote: https://prnt.sc/skkdct

I'm confused - who gave you this quote if it wasn't a dealership?

A mechanic/auto service place I've brought car to recently to get an oil change/tire swap gave me this quote.

FWIW, my local Subaru dealer charges 400 USD for sparkplugs, but they only charge 500 USD for the full 60K service.

that includes:
Engine oil, filter
Transmission fluid
Rotate tires
Rear differential fluid
Engine coolant
Air filter
Brake fluid
Pollen filter

AND spark plugs

Might be worth looking into.

Well an auto tranny flush is about $200 or so, and oem spark plugs are $25-30 a piece so....
Besides the auto tranny flush, you could do it all yourself....but for $400 for all that it's not a bad idea to let them do it all.

Oh no for all of it and then some it'll be about $1500 which was very surprising for maintenance!

I attached a link which is a screenshot of the full quote.


Main services in Canadian Dollars:
$265 + tax for auto transmission flush.
$166 + tax for brake fluid.
$494 + tax for spark plugs replacement.
$97 + tax differential fluid exchange.

Is that the dealer or an independent shop?

Oh holy fuck no.
$18 for a napa gold filter. Lol.
Dude for that much money, I would buy a nice tool set with jacks and jack stands and do it all my self. If you have a drive way or know of someone who can let you do work on their drive way or garage I would do that.

There's no way I can do this stuff, I have never touched a car underneath before unfortunately.

From the independent shop.

I would check with your local dealer. Sounds to me that the independent shop is trying to rip you off.

In that case, I'd suggest that you just take your car into a dealership and have them do the work.

YouTube it. It is as easy as it looks.
Minus the spark plugs and auto tranny, those I would pay someone to do them. Only because of my bad back and itchy balls, right @humfrz

Well, as far as the itchy balls, I suggest you dust them from time to time with DDT. That gets rid of the crabs.

If it was ONLY my bad back - I got these elbows, knees, shoulders and hips that just don't like concrete floors.

Hell, I have the tools, ramps, jack stands, garage plus the experience and knowledge to do all of those things, but I don't. Why not? Because I'd rather drop my car off at the local shop, have them run me home, I take a nap and they come pick me up when the job is done.

OK, OK, so, I'm old and lazy - :(

However, I do have a plan. My FR-S now has about 25,000 miles on it, it is about 7 years old. In 7 more years, when it will be do for that 60,000 mile work, I will be 84 years old, and it will be time to trade the old buggy in.

I'm gonna get me one of them level 5, totally self driving cars. Yep, I just get in and tell it where I want to go. It starts itself, backs itself up (that feature sold me) goes and parks itself. When I'm ready, it remembers its way home (another big selling point).

Yep, I got a plan - :thumbup:

I just want to make the comment, that if you're at that milage it is very possible you might need new spark plug tube seals. I'd purchase a set of valve cover gaskets and tube seals before getting that labor done. If you don't need them, return them.

They won't know until they are in there and have everything torn apart. Might as well get them done while you're in there vs. paying that labor over again just for the seals.

I recently went to the dealer and got a 100k maintenance quote for my 2013 FR-S.

They wanted ~$720 for the spark plugs, $150 for brake flush, $260 for drive belt(serpentine)

I guess they didnt want to include the oil/filter in my quote but Id hope it wouldve been done if I pulled the trigger on them doin the work. Really wanst expecting a $1000+ maintenance bill for this car haha.

Also had them look at my engine wiring harness that a squirrel chewed up. They want $900 for a repair. Looking at it myself, its one ABS/traction control wire that was severed [green/black stripe] and a few others that are exposed on and near the area. Little bastard also severed my wiper hose. Other than that, Im thinkin I should just do the work myself and got a $30 portable solder gun and some electrical tape.

The stealership can take someone elses money this time. I just needed them to confirm drivability with the ABS and traction controls illuminated on the dash, and if there was anything else the squirrel got to. Luckily not.

get the water-seal type heat shrink. don't just wrap it in electrical tape. electrical tape will fall off.

the heat seal crimps are even easier, and are the official recommended repair method(solder is less preferred in cars, as the solder creates a hard spot in the wire-- where it transitions back to a stranded wire becomes a wear point, and it's susceptible to breaking just past the solder joint), just grab some trailer harness wiring from anywhere with an automotive section.

cut out the bad section, crimp in a piece of wire, heat up the crimps to seal them, and you're done.

^ ^ ^

What Soundman said. Waterproof heatshrink crimp connectors are worth their weight in gold when mucking around with the wiring on these cars.

$720 for plugs? Sheeesh. I know dealership upcharges for everything but I didn't expect it to be that much. Isn't the labor rated for like 3 hours under their book? That's still expensive, $200/hour.

Go find someone in your local 86 group to do it for ya. My pal down here did it for $150. In and out in less than 2 hours.

WTF.

Brake flush is like a 20 min job. Swapping the belt is a 10 minute job if you have to pee first, find the belt, and then install it.

Man I needed to see this post, reminded me on how much money I'm saving by doing maintenance myself. I do agree that 150$ for a brake flush is outrageous. The belt is about $30 and 10 mins worth of work.

Electrical tape will fall off unless you are trying to remove it. Then it will be on there forever.

some are tamper evident. as in, once you touch it, it turns to an impossible-to-remove gum that sticks to anything and everything and smears even worse.

it's the electrical version of a bank dye pack.

Never said better.

You guys are great, thanks for the advice!

Although, this area of the harness sits fine and shouldnt move at all, even with vibrations of the engine - it was up near the driver firewall and cowl. Just gonna solder and shrink tube it, then maybe a 1.5in loom around it all to protect from elements.