15,000 mile service - this is unbelievable!!!

Hello Patrick

Remember that Canadian gas is crap. It tends to contain high sulfur, and they still blend a metallic anti-knock additive called MMT (Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese Tricarbonyl) which can cause early fouling of the plugs.

MMT can also shorten the life of the O2 sensor and catalytic converter. The company that makes MMT used to be called Ethyl, the same nice folks who put lead in gasoline.

They now call themselves Afton Chemical, and they hotly dispute any hint that MMT is anything but wonderful for the vehicle and our health. Afton has even gone so far as to suggest the car makers don't know anything about fuel or engines. Hmmmm.

The ACEA (Association des Constructeurs Européens d'Automobiles) had the World Wide Fuel Charter specs, and they offer proof of MMT damaging cars. Which is why the car makers don't want MMT gasoline

http://www.acea.be/images/uploads/pub/Final WWFC 4 Sep 2006.pdf

Page 26 bottom to page 28 discuss the impact of MMT on O2 sensors, spark plugs, catalytic converters, and emissions

The Prius in Canada has a plug interval of 192,000 km, a bit over 100,000 miles. IMHO that is optimistic

In Canada, every 48,000 km.

Oh boy, now you have me worried. Not. I'm sure a problem like that would show up before warranty ran out

Good idea. I just use the plug socket (It has the rubber insert to tightly grip the spark plug) and the extension. I run it in by hand until it bottoms out. It's easy to tell if the plug isn't threading correctly

 

If you consult your owner's manual it tells you @ what milege to do everything. After reading this post I'm so glad I do all the maint. myself in my garage. Oil & Filter is a piece of cake along with tire rotation. All I need for most tasks are 2 floor jacks, an electric impact wrench, and basic hand tools.

Dealers are in bus. for THEIR health, NOT yours. The greed factor of this one is truly astonishing. This also reminds me of the time my Ford van's A/C was blowing hot. I brought it to a shop & he said I needed a $900 job. I had a gut feeling this bum was a crook so I did the smart thing- I left. Then, I went over to my general mechanic's shop and it ended up costing me $75 out the door. That van blew cold A/C for many years after the $75 repair job.

As to "your" dlr., drop that place like a bad habit. All they want is your money.

 

Go to your independents. Encourage them to get training
on hybrids. Tell them you look to them to do a competent,
honest job for folks who want to avoid the dealer screw.
Help empower them [and no, that isn't done by grabbing both
ends of the big battery]...
.
While I haven't thought about it for a while, I do wonder about
the water pump belt. I bought a new belt since the existing
one was looking sort of glazed, but haven't seen a huge need
to replace it yet. It does whip around a fairly sharp curve
over the idler pulley and uses the *back* as the contact surface
to drive the water pump, so I started thinking that it's got
a bit of a tough life and wouldn't last all that long. Maybe
that's wrong.
.
_H*

 

You don't need this forum to tell you what service is necessary, it's in the scheduled maintenance guide that came with your car. Don't let the dealer sell you anything else, and don't ask for a "....... service", ask for specifically what you want done......"oil and filter" change. Nothing else. If they try to convince you something else is necessary, tell them you don't like repeating yourself.
The 15000 mile service doesn't differ at all from the 5000 service, best I remember, it's oil and filter.
Please folks, stop letting yourselves get ripped off by these theives.
If your mileage went down, they probably overfilled your oil.
Not only did you overpay, you may have overpayed for poor and unnecessary service.

 

Well said. I'm disappointed how most of our economy seems to operate this way, with no thought to the long-term consequences

 

I just did a 15,000 mile (well, it's actually 16,800) oil change and a tire rotation at the dealer. Paid $54. Nothing different from my 5000 and 10,000 services. Hope that's ok. Also, as usual I asked for 3.75 quarts of oil instead of 4, and they said they do between 3.75 and 3.80 anyway for the Prius.

 

This is fine. If you want to save money on tire rotations, you might move to 10K mile intervals for that item.

 

I did my 15k service in my driveway. Don't tell anyone.

 

Had the same thing happen to me.

It was the day before thanksgiving, and I had a long trip to go on that came up unexpectedly.
I was just glad they had an appointment available.

I ended up paying $305!
I bought their schtick that the 15000 is a "major service", and didn't realize until afterwards that it was a scam.

 

I often suggest that the ScanGauge is the most important first mod as
over time It will pay for itself -- ~$150 US initial investment.

But over time, I've come to realize that a no-cost way to save money is
to read the various threads here about the service/periodic maintenance
ripoffs that stealerships are pulling, and be forwarned.

Our Amapola has just over 16K on the Odo now. Her first three service
intervals were performed in Maryland, Maine, and Florida. At each, I took
the required maintenence book out of the glove box and carried it to the
service writers desk pre-opened to the corrrect page.

Following the general recommendations here I pointed to the required
service and said, "I want this and no more." When the list of items was
presented for my OK, I wrote on it, "Set tire pressure to 42 front/40 rear.
Do not overfill the oil, 3.5 quarts is sufficient. I will check these before I
pay the bill."

Every time I've gotten a raised eyebrow. But I've not yet paid more that
$60 US. :rockon: (Yes, I do check the oil and air before I pay. It really surpriises
them when I actually ask to see the tech, and invite him (so far) to come
along.)
Thank you PriusChat and all the Prius-smart posters. :cheer2:

 

I attached the paperwork they gave me.

I think I'm just trying to figure out what makes this "special" service so much more expensive than the $25 regular oil change or the ~$60 5000 & 10000 services.








(they're hard to read until you make them full-size)


Is there anything in there that's a blatant rip-off/scam?

 

I've had Fiona for 2 years and she has 16K miles on her. When I went in for an oil change & tire rotation the week before Thanksgiving, they wanted me to have the special 15K service. I looked over the list of things they would do for $175 and said no thanks. On my receipt it states "customer refused 15,000 service". Yesterday I got a letter reminding me that I had refused their service, but offering me 10% off the price of the remaining things I didn't have done if I would repent & make an appointment to come in. (One of the things included in the service I refused was "checking my battery"; a free battery check was being offered with a coupon and an oil change.)

As far as I can tell, changing the oil every 4 months & rotating the tires every 5K files should be sufficient to keep my warranty in place. Until this time, they have been good about not trying to push their whatever-K service on me.

 

Ouch. The bogus items are balance tires (should last the life of the tires unless you lose a weight), engine air filter (30K recommended, not 15K), cabin air filter (ditto), tighten driveshaft bolts (huh?), inspect transmission fluid (only necessary if it's leaking; I'm 99% sure they didn't even remove the plug), clean battery terminals (only if they're dirty, unlikely after 15K), load test charging system (the Prius can self-test its own charging system, no need if there's no "check engine" light), "BG service kit" part BG9102. This isn't a standard Toyota part, it's a fuel injector cleaner, totally unnecessary after 15K. The PCV valve should last much longer too.

Depending on the condition of the wipers, they might have needed changing.

 

- I agree the PCV valve should last at least 60K miles; this one item may be responsible for $100 of the overcharge (when considering labor involved to replace)

- You should have been charged for 4 qt of engine oil, not 5 qt. Also the price is pretty high for bulk oil. Have you checked the engine oil level on the dipstick to see whether the engine oil was overfilled?

- The "load test" of the "charging system" sounds bogus, no need for that.

- Note that transmission fluid and differential fluid inspections are itemized separately; of course with Prius both are the same fluid.

- Although it is true that the prescribed service interval for the engine and cabin air filters is 30K miles I have found that 15K miles is reasonable in an urban environment. When you hold up the used engine air filter to the sun you should be able to see light passing through. If not it is time to replace the filter. Regarding the cabin air filter since you have to breathe through it you may (or may not) want to replace it when it gets nasty, which may be sooner than 30K miles depending upon where you park, etc.

 

-

 

That "servicing" is exactly what you would expect from a Bob Ciasulli owned dealership. They are not exactly known for their honesty and integrity. Google his dealerships' history.

 

I noticed that they charged you list price for all the parts - so they made a big profit just on those. For example, they charged $8.05 for the oil filter. My local dealer usually has them on sale for about $5, and I bought 10 for $3.99 each w/ free shipping from Toyota of Dallas. Similarly for the gasket; $2.16 vs. $.80.

 

I think the dealers are looking to recover costs from reduced sales.

My dealer would like to offer a 5K service:

Only
$89.95
Replace engine oil and oil filter
Rotate tires and adjust tire pressure
Service and adjust rear brakes
Adjust parking brake to specification
Inspect fluid levels and top off as needed
Inspect brake linings/drums and brake pads/discs
Tighten drive shaft bolt (Corolla and Matrix)
Reset "Maintenance Required" light
Inspect drive shaft boots
Inspect engine air filter
Inspect nuts and bolts on chassis and body
Inspect steering linkage and boots
Inspect ball joints and dust covers
Re-torque propller shaft bolt when applicable
Tighten nuts and bolts on chassis
Reset low tire pressure warning light

This is clearly bulk mail, much does not apply to the Prius. I get the oil changes every 5K at the dealer for about $30 dollars including a car wash, and rotate the tires at Costco, since I obtained my new set of tires there.

 

If everyone (pass the word please) would read Galaxy's sticky regarding "Maintenance you need & don't need" ... then folks wouldn't be getting a ride to the cleaners. Second ... holy ancient threads! This post is about four years old!

 

Just looking at all the different charges the dealers