My check engine light came on the other day, and I think it might be transmission relaqted as my truck keeps making squeels and what not. I did purchase the extended warranty though which brings it to like 10 years or something like that.

Today the stealership told me they charge 98 bucks per hour for 'diagnostic work" and that I would be charged that. Does that sound normal or am I getting screwed?

 

Sounds like they are raping you if you have the extended warrenty. I would have asked how you get charged for it when you have the extended warrenty and it sounds like a powertrain issue, not to mention the check engine light. Take it to another dealership and see what they tell you.

 

Thats a normal diagnostic fee. Thats why you call them stealership. Take it to advance auto parts or autozone and they can hook their computer up the truck and tell you what the problem is.... and its FREE!

 

I know advanced auto parts does this but I didnt think they charge you if you still have it under warranty. And I didnt go to advance because I figured i would end up at ford anyways so mine as well just go there.

 

Whelp just got the call back from them, they said my air filter caused my Map sensor? to be clogged. They wanted to charge me 440 for that. Doesnt the furgeson act cover this? They are saying the wont pay for this, and my warranty doesnt apply here

 

well several things, they charge the diagnosis fee regardless, and if it is a warranty problem, that fee gets paid by ford or whoever issuing the extended warranty, if its not a warranty problem, you pay for the diag fee and repairs.

if you have service records showing proper interval of air filter service than it is a warranty issue. if you never cleaned, or replaced your air filter than dude thats why your maf got gunked up... now with that said, and your not covered by warranty, **** and moan about the diag fee try to get that dropped. then go home and spray the heck outta your maf sensor with MAF SENSOR cleaner, and you should be good to go. worse comes to worse you eat the diag fee.

 

I got charged $64 for a diagnostic for my truck.

 

Extended warranties don't always cover everything, and depending on what warranty it is specifically, the warranty company may not cover the diagnosis fees which will be your responsibility.

 

Every time I have ever bought my other vehicle in there was a Diagnostic fee. That fee was paid for by the warranty company if they approved the work. Lucky for me the truck is still under 36K so no problems with diagnostic fees yet. As a matter of fact I gotta bring the truck in soon. The light the lights up the mileage and direction is not working. Hopefully they give me no crap.


Sal

 

What irked me was when I asked them to rotate the tires the total was $24 on a $19.95 charge. That's because there was an extra $2.77 for disposal of hazardous wastes.

What hazardous wastes do we get from a tire rotation?

 

Dirty shop rags.

 

it isnt only dealerships that charge all that stuff.indie shops do it too sometimes they hide the charges.i see so many people hate the dealership but trust some grease monkey backyard guy to fix their vehicle then nag after he screws it up.they have to notify you of the charges in case the ext warr company denies the repair and with k&n air filters and such they even have warnings in the cleaning instructions not to over oil the filters so you cant expect a bad mass air flow sensor to be covered when the air filter oil damaged it in the first place.
also as far as going to the auto parts store to find out the dtc for the light sure you know what the code is but that doesnt always tell you what the fix is.so you get a code for something and replace the part in the description it doesnt always fix it.
as far as price the diag fee is about 1-1.5 hours labor so whatever the dealership labor rate is thats how much it costs before tax.the dealership i used to work at the labor is $135 dollars an hour.also dealers now charge diag no matter what because customers want to find out what the check engine light dtc is and then percieve to go fix it themselves.the technician has to make money too they are all on commision.
also going to the dealership they dont want your diagnosis they want to know what the problem is and then they have to do their own diagnosis especially for warranty issues.so you cant get mad when they dont do the tsb repair you found online when there are no symptoms.
im not trying to be a ***** just passing along information.it is what it is.

 

Dirty shop rags?

How many shop rags does it take to rotate four tires?

 

As many as it takes.

 

Thats crazy weird (referring to the guy who works at the dealerships a few post up there). My dealership back home doesnt charge to tell me what my check engine light is. Neither does the other shop a bit further in town I go to. Amazingly this one does (im in school, so this is a college town). Also a basic diagnostic is hooking up the computer to the truck. Very minimal labor at all. especially if its a sensor then all it is, is undoing 2 screws to confirm that. This is sketch as H*** to me. Straight crookin stealership! I will never ever go back to this stealership!