Costs vary widely by geographic location, but $150 sounds a little high. I recommend that you contact several service facilities in the area.
Also, do you have an automatic transmission or a manual transmission?
The fluid changes should take less than an hour.
Transmission fluid should be changed every 60,000 miles or so, brake fluid about every 80,000 to 90,000 miles.
Absolutely! Check your owner's manual for the corrrect fluids.
There was an article about widespread consumer fraud at several oil change chains in California. While that kind of fraud is not completely nonexistent at dealerships, from my personal experience dealing with over
100 dealerships, it is not nearly as common.
Engine oil is not specific to a Corolla, however, some automatic transmissions need special transmission fluid that is not widely available at non-Toyota service facilities.
Ray, Please tell us why flushing and refilling brake fluid is a necessity?
I've driven at least two dozen cars (maybe more) in almost sixty years of driving, and I've never flushed brake fluid. and I'm guessing that when mechanics renew my brakes, they don't do it (unless a bit of bleeding), since I'm never charged for it.
when the idea caught on a few years ago, I thought it was just something else to line the dealer's pockets, since cars had become largely trouble-free over the years (with long intervals between oil changes and no zerk fittings to lube any more). Much as dentists had to go into tooth bonding, whitening and orthodontic procedures after flouride lowered the incidence of so many cavities over the years. What is the result if brake fluid is not flushed and refilled?
But as you say, fraud and charging for procedures that haven't been done are not unheard of. This is secondhand, so I can't vouch for the veracity of the story, but I heard of one case where a timing belt had broken on a car...the customer towed the car to an independent garage. The customer was shocked to be told that the timing belt was broken, "because I just had it replaced at the Toyota dealer a few months ago!" They took a hard look at the broken belt and found that while the outer surface had been cleaned up with something like Armor-all, the inside surface had lots of cracks in it, indicating that it was indeed the original belt. ...for what it's worth, if true.
On my '85 Corolla GTS (Hachiroku..;) the pdeal was so hard I had to brace myself against the seat to stop the car! Man, were the brakes HARD. This was with about 240,000 mile on the car.
I was trying to think of something to do to get the brakes to work better, and I noticed the fluid looked like molasses. So, I took all the wheels off one afternoon, and shot new brake fluid through the entire system.
WOW! It was just like brand new again! The difference was dramatic. I had never done this before, and i had had a couple high-mileage Toyotas already.
Also, getting the old fluid out helps the brake lines from rusting, since you are also removing any moisture trapped in the lines/fluid.
Brake fluid is hygroscopic - it absorbs water over time. Water in the brake fluid lowers the boiling point of the brake fluid and will corrode the inside of brake pistons and cylinders. Here is a pretty good explanation:
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Realisticially, you could probably go well over 100,000 miles without having any ill effects from not changing the brake fluid, but for my personal vehicles, I change the fluid every other time I do a brake job. I do the work myself and so a quart of brake fluid that costs in the neighborhood of $5.00 is inexpensive enough that I consider it peace of mind.
The performance characteristics of brake fluid degrades over time but I doubt if anyone can tell the difference in peformance between fresh and old fluid.
The biggest advantage of periodically flushing the brake fluid is reducing the corrosive effects over time.
Actually the recommendation to periodically change brake fluid has been around for a long time, but when the average life of a new vehicle was
100,000 miles, people were not as concerned. Now, just about any new vehicle will easily last well over 100,000 miles, so people are paying more attention to other components.
Bottom line: The car's brakes are unlikely to fail catastrophically or blow up or disintegrate if the brake fluid is not periodically changed, but stuff like brake calipers, wheel cylinders, and master cylinders will probably be less likely to fail if it is changed every other brake pad change.
Unfortunately, I once dealt with a customer who had the same problem with a dealership, (which is now out of business) but I've dealt with a lot more problems with independents and quick lube chains, and I'm sure I didn't hear of every problem with those places. In my experience, 1 problem with a dealer that deliberately cheated a customer to dozens with independents and quick lube chains tells me that without any experience or recommendations from people I trust, one is more likely to get honest service from a dealership service department than a quick lube place. On the other hand, one can save some money at a competent independent shop, as long as someone you know and trust has recommended them.
Many thanks for the college education on brake fluid and the reasons for renewing it!
Of the fraud discussion, I would imagine that one thing that keeps dealership shops honest is that if there's too much feedback to the auto manufacturer about a particular dealer, they'll yank his franchise out from under him. (Many years ago, a Packard dealer in southern California took on Volkswagen, then a very unknown quantity, and sold quite a number (for a new and strange foreign car). But then he took on a DKW franchise ...remember them, the two-stroke little german sedan? Anyway, to get folks into the dealership to try out the DKW (which stood for Das Kleine Wunder (the Little Wonder) ) he sent his VW customers a sales letter in which he said that "now that you know how good German engineering is, we suggest you come in and try our DKW, which is larger, more commodious, rides better, is just as economical, etc etc.." Some ardent VW fan got the letter and forwarded it to VW's headquarters in New Jersey, and within a week or two, the guy no longer sold VWs. They yanked his franchise and removed all the cars and literature from his store.
The automakers do keep a very close on dealership performance with customer satisfaction. I thought that it was ironic that our region had both the highest and lowest performing dealerships in the country at that time. The dealership with the lowest scores has since gone out of busisness.
This is one of the reasons that automakers do not like multi-line dealerships and prefer to have a separate facility for their brand.
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