I took the car in for a rough-unsteady idle, and idling higher than it should. Took them 4 hours of labor to diagnose and replace the throttle sensor. It was $62 for the sensor itself. Total for labor was $396, plus tax.

Does this sound like a fair price?

They also found a code for intermitten low voltage from the knock sensor, but didn't think that was worth fixing.

 

Honestly, no that doesn't sound like a fair price at all.... 4 hours to diagnose that?!!!!!! What the hell were they doing? Not to mention that calculates the labor rate to nearly $100/hour? I work at a shop and we are priced the same as dealerships locally at $83/hour. If it was any kind of reputable shop they would have the tools to recognize that problem in less than a half hour. I would do some serious bitching.

 

I dont know about that 4 hours of labor....

 

It sounds like your getting scammed . Hour labor at the most + part cost . what shop was it?

 

4 hours is what a diagnosis pays, like lets say an oil change pays 0.3 even though it toke a tech. half an hour(half an hour = 0.5) to do the oil change he only gets paid 0.3 of an hour. Whenever you take it to a dealer they have there own way of paying a tech. each service that is provided has a fixed fee regarless how long it takes, but labor is always higher if it isn't covered under warranty.

 

Diagnosis does not pay 4 hours ..... If it did we would all work on cars and diagnose everything. At my shop what we would probably do is sell the customer a half hour, maybe an hour labor for diagnosis. If the problem wasn't found then it would be up to the customer if they wanted us to keep going. I'm very confident though that that problem could have been identified in about 30 minutes.

 

I have that same rough idle problem. I have never herd anyone saying the throttle sensor can cause rough idle, where is this part located. I might have to replace mine

 

3.9 hours to smoke cigarettes and look at the car, 0.1 hours to turn two screws...

 

lets see, 2 min to hook up a code scanner and read the code, and 2 min to replace TPS. id say u got majorily scammed

 

The codes they found were something like "intermitten low voltage" from the throttle position sensor and the knock sensor. Apparently, that threw them for a loop and they claimed they weren't sure what could be wrong, so they looked at the wires on the PCM, that looked fine, then finally got to changing out the tps.

 

But yeah, labor is $96 an hour here in Seattle. And a coffee is $4.50, I wonder what you could get for a kidney and a ********, as I've got one of each I'll need to be selling.

 

I love how people say hook up a code scanner and it gives you the magic replace this part. Hell half the time it just gives you a code and it is up to you to test and find out what and why the code was thrown. Especially on evap codes and misfires as quite a few things can trigger that.

However, I need to leave Toyota and work for them if thats how they roll.

 

But if you know how to use tools properly, scanners can do a lot more than just read why a check engine light is on. You can look at exactly what every sensor is reading while the car is running. If they would've looked at the TPS sensor, they probably would've noticed- maybe not since it doesn't sound like they know what they are doing...

 

I know that. However, you work on cars too and you know darn well that other factors have to be checked to eliminate other possiblities. I commented on that because people associate with any problem with a car or truck you hook a computer to it and thats not always the case.

Just like if you got a misfire code, you sure arent just going to recommend to replace plugs. You would also test the injectors, the coils and wires to make sure.

But like I said, that price is high.

 

You hit the nail on the head.

 

Lots of things can be done to "rule out" a possibility, but sometimes you have to look at the obvious. If I get a low voltage TPS code, and I have a TPS sensor laying there, I'm gunna go for the obvious first. Why in the hell would I pull the PCM to look at the wires? Misfire? Swap a plug and wire over from another cylinder, if the problem swaps cylinders, your done, if not, try the coil, then injectors. Obvious things first, then the less common failure parts. I think you got T-totally ripped.

 

Yes, I'm convinced this was a rip off. What can you do? I expected it, but took the car in anyway. I assumed since it was a Chevy, I should take it to the Chevy dealer.

I sent them a very pointed email about getting 3hrs of labor refunded. And I will call tomorrow. I will file a complaint with the Better Bus Ber.

The sad thing is, I pretty much expect to get ripped off any time I take a car to a dealer. I once had a Subaru dealer attempt to charge me $900 for what ended up being a new fuse. Yes, this is true.

 

I am talking in General not to his specific incident

 

I understand your unhappiness and you have every right to be. However you would be suprised at how many customers try and rip us off. Also , not every dealer is a ripoff and I have also given stuff for free when I should have flagged it.

 

4 hours of diag is crazy. i work for a dealership as a service advisor. when me and our other advisors talk to a customer about diag we always cover 1 hour or 88 dollars. 99.9% of the time the only reason we would discuss more diag would in a wiring issue. the only instance offhand where i had to get alot of diag was when a xterra got hit by lightning. insurance paid his bill which was just shy of 11k. had to replace almost every computer and transmission because its an electronically controlled trans and it was cooked.