peacefrog81

I recently brought my 98 sr5 4runner into an auto shop near me to get an oil change and tune up thursday morning around 8:30 am. I called back later in the day to get the status of it and they said that a bunch of other things needed to be done, the timing belt needed to be replaced, in addition to the rear brakes and rotors needed to be replaced. I told them to do it, and they said they would get back to me with a price estimate and so forth, i expected to hear back from them that evening but did not.It seemed as if it was a necesary thing to do, neither of those had been changed in a few years. I called friday morning at around 8 and they said that they would get back to me with an estimate and a time frame. I received a call back around 11:30 and the guy said it wouldnt be done friday. He offered to give me a loaner till its done. I went in to pick up the loaner around 12:30 and it was just sitting on a lift with no tires, air filter was off and no one was working on it. I called again this morning and it seems as though the person who was working on it was not in on saturdays and it would be done monday if not tuesday which is BullÅÅÅÅ to me since i dropped it off thursday morning at 8:30. I am going to call them monday morning as I have done the past 3 days to try and push to have it done monday. I do not feel as though I should pay 1200-1500 dollars for it to be done in 5 days. I could see paying that much if it took a day and a half.

I decided to try that shop out since they were very kind and helpful to me when I had to have a photo taken of my car to send to insurance. The guy said that he would be able to hook me up with good prices, service and so forth so i decided to. Instead of paying over the roof prices from the dealer.

I am curious to know what a normal time frame and price range would be to have all of this work done so I know what to tell the people at the shop when I call monday morning.

I can release the name and location of this establishment if anyone wants to know.

Nic

What I don't understand is how you take it in for an oil change and tune-up and they find these things wrong with it-things no way related to the work. What reasons did they give for it needing a timing belt? If it was a chain and making noise, it would be different.

Were the brakes giving you a problem? If they actually checked it, it would mean that they took the drums off and inspected your brakes. Some may consider that nice. It would just make me mad. I don't like people screwing with stuff I didn't ask them to. I would have been suspicous.

The price sounds high too, unless there are other things they are doing you left out. 5 days for the work would be too long a wait in my opinion. I have waited that long, but my car was left at a one-man garage, so it was to be expected.

peacefrog81

I guess they do a very thorough check of your car to make sure everything is working fine. The hoses, brakes, tires, cables. etc. I bought the car when it had 58 thousand miles it now has 105k and the timing belt has not been replaced. Threatening to put there name out on the internet for taking incredibly long could also scare them and put them in a situation where they need to accomodate me

They might as well just tell me i need a new car and keep mine so I cant drive it.

Crux

I just had my timing belt done at the dealer for $250.
Took them an afternoon.

midiwall

Ummm.. _wow_...

How handy are you with tools? Would you like to become handier?

Replacing your front rotors is $70 in parts for the pair (that's on the cheap, they can become more than twice that) and takes about 15 minutes per side with a lift, maybe twice that with typical hand tools and the stock jack. Replace the disc pads while you have the wheel off, that's another $20 in parts.

The rear brakes are a 20 minute/per side job (once you do it the first time).. A pair of shoes is about $30.

The timing belt can be tricky, and it's about 3 hours and $50 in parts. While _YOU_ are in there though, you can also replace the water pump, another $70 in parts. It's up to you if you want to mention this to them, but they should only charge you for the pump itself if you do.

fwiw, the timing belt is recommended to be replaced every 90k, many folks go way beyond that, but it gets "interesting" after a while. I'm still running my original one, I'm at 150k.


$1200.. wow.


fwiw #2... A "thorough" check to see if the timing belt _NEEDED_ to be replaced would take the majority of time required to replace it. I'd bet they looked at the odometer, looked up the recommended interval, asked you if you had replaced it since you owned it, you said "nope", and then they told you that it "had" to be replaced.

02SE

Ditto...

sswearin1

not at the dealer but at a toyota dedicated shop i had timing belt, water pump, t-stat, oil change, change oil on both diffs, brakes cleaned and adjusted (my e-brake tightens now), transfer case checked and serviced and complete tune up (new plugs, no new wires needed) on my 2000 for 691, done in 1 1/2 days.

jimstoy

A guy just did my timing belt, water pump, t-stat, front crank seal, oil &filter $420. in 4 hrs. Lot better price than the $1150. the guys boss quoted me. A toyota dealership.

peacefrog81

Thank you everyone for all of this information. Keep on continuing to post your thoughts and comments. It is a great resource for me for when I speak to them tommorow. I look forward to getting this resolved and am in the process of doing some research to get there name out there so it doesnt happen to other people.