"Kiy Oting" wrote in message news:V9e1c.24055$1k.22288@okepread01... | Well, I finally did it. I took the truck to the shop. Just as I thought. It | was only a sensor that malfunctioned. The O2 Sensor to be exact. Total cost | to replace the sensor: $351, labor and part. | | I feel like I just bent over for the Isuzu Dealership. The diagnostic alone | cost $88. Total time of fix was 2 hours. I waited at the shop to peek at the | work, all they did to run diagnostic was plug it into an electronic reader. | It took 5 minutes...$88. That's sick! The part is no bigger than a thin | light bulb. It looks like it just needed to be unplugged, and plugged back | in. I didn't stay for the whole show. But as soon as I got home from the | shuttle van, they called within half an hour to tell me it was fixed. | | I wonder if another shop could've done it for alot less. |
I've had a similar experience with getting my TOD on my trooper repaired. There is a valve, actually a pair of valves connected together on one bracket, the whole thing about half the size of a door knob, that cost $150+ and the labor was another $150+ for a total bill with tax of $326 at the Isuzu dealer. The "diagnostic" took about 3 minutes and the repair about 10 minutes. Of course they "stretched" out the apparent time by taking a half hour just to pull the trooper into one of the bays and then when it was done, keeping it in their parking lot for another half hour. I could have replaced the valve in no more than 20 minutes myself. Of course they still would have wanted "full" price for the valves. I should have done what I did with them when I owned a cadillac that lost its remote base unit in the trunk. I went to their parts department and got the part and told them it was for "Chuck's Service". They had 6 places on their files called "Chuck's Service" so I just picked one. That saved me about 40% on the part and I installed it in 10 minutes, without even knowing what I was doing. I'd watched their technician try to reset the codes in the old one to see if that's all it was, so I knew how to ground the unit and do that 15 second operation.
I suspect that the mechanics aren't the one's who are making out on these repairs. I think the dealers are pocketing half the total cost of the repairs for themselves and paying the mechanics $10-12 and hour.
Since the experience with the trooper, I contacted my old mercedes (foreign car) mechanic to see if he would work on my trooper. He said he does work on troopers. But I think he keeps his prices below, but pretty close to the dealer, so I don't expect to save too much through him.
Chuck