Business is slow = throttle body cleaning!

Every time I took my car to the dealership I was offered a Throttle Body cleaning. I'll admit though, my car really did need it! I always turned them down because a quote of $250 seemed ridiculous to me. I finally did it myself, and all is good.

I think that the dealership Throttle Body Cleaning ranks up there with the Cabin Air Filter replacement fee of $75. Those are probably their two go-to up sells to put $$ in their pockets.

 

#3: saying that the engine coolant pump needs to be changed when it actually doesn't and charging $500 for this repair. The Prius owner needs to look at the pump to verify the bearing is leaking before authorizing this replacement. Then, call around and see if you can get a better repair price - since the part costs around $80 and a fair labor charge would be 2 hours...

 

Just got told that my throttle body was starting to get dirty and they offered to clean it for $150... I said, I can wait.

Searched here, found this thread, watched the video; guess who's going to autozone after leaving Toyota to buy cleaner?

 

It's an easy job. If I can do it, anyone can, but if you are going ahead and do it, I would go ahead and blow out the snorkel that enters the air filter. I do that twice a year and get all sorts of stuff out of there, like Nabisco Shredded Wheat....

 

how many miles on her?

 

85k

 

does it run poorly?

 

No, she runs great! They suggested that she'll absolutely need it when I bring her in next (at 90k).

However, after watching the video, if they truly checked it and saw that it was getting a bit dirty, the next step would have been to put cleaner on a rag and wipe it out. So they did the majority of the work by removing the filter & duct, only to re-cover it because they wouldn't make $$$?

You would think it would just be a part of scheduled maintenance every 30k or so, since the work is minimal and they could charge $40 or $50 bucks each time and make more money in the long run.