Holy Crud! Thermostat

1 hour to change the Tstat
1 hour to put on a condom
1 hour to lube your ass
1 hour to ride you to the bank and back.

You could probably save a few bucks by asking them to forego the prophylactic and lube but all that friction might score your cylinder and then you'll be visiting a different kind of mechanic to take you on the same trip.

 

Some folks here were quoted 1500 for the replacement

 

Op.1 00CEL -CHECK ENGINE LIGHT

Labor: $174.95 <------ Just to tell me what I already knew. I told them when I dropped it off I read the Codes with my BlueDriver (P0128). And told them it was not coming up to temp fast and the stat was likely stuck open.

This is what the tech wrote....

1. Performed a health check to locate root issue.
2. After performing health check the codes that appeared were P012800 & P012807. These codes are related to
Coolant Thermostat mechanical issue.
3. Looking into TIS for more information to resolve the Coolant Thermostat mechanical issue.
4. After looking over all my resource, to resolve the issue at hand I will need coolant and a new thermostat. After
installing all the new parts and fluid, will need time to drive the vehicle to bring it to operating temperature under 75 c
or 167 F. While running the Tec stream, to confirm all is good with the new Thermoset, & reset the codes.
Parts $56.84
16031-31051 - INLET SUB-ASSY, WATE 1 - $0.00
00272-SLLC2 - SUPER LONG LIFE COOL 2 - $56.84


They want $147 for the INLET SUB-ASSY.
I would assume that they will not include the "health check fee" if I take it back for the job to be done.

 

Is this what’s on your invoice word for word?

 

Yes.

 

Might want to alert the tech that if they start it and walk away for a few min it will come to temp and open also. LOL... In other words, I'm gonna drive this dudes truck to lunch and run a few errands.
It drives me crazy that dealers won't waive the diagnostic fee if you agree to do the work. If you decline it fine, that is fair but when it checks out to be what the customer suspected and it takes a tech 5 min to run the code and the console tells them exactly what it is. Just waive that shit.

 

Go buy a made-in-Japan Aisin thermostat for $50, no point in padding Akio's pockets: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=13931953&cc=3354143&pt=2200&jsn=13

 

Must be the reason for the 4 hour labor charge, creative writing time.

 

Most likely including a coolant flush in their quote.

 

I think both of these nails it!

 

Has OP called around and gotten any other quotes?

 

OP says they stated $56 for coolant. That means 100% does not include a flush.

 

Maybe it's a 1 hour labor charge by their master tech. Increasingly dealers are introducing tiered labor rates, with the highest tier in the $300/hr range for hybrid system diagnostics.

 

I went and picked up the truck late yesterday afternoon. They didn't even have the part on hand. They had the truck there for 5 hours and only managed an oil change and 60,000 mile checkup. They revised the labor down to 2.5 hours but the charge would have still be over $600.

I drove the truck home and about 15 minutes later hopped back in it and started it up - no check engine light. So, I drove it 35 miles to work and 35 miles back on still no CEL. I just called them to cancel the job I was going to have them do tomorrow. They did apologize for taking so long yesterday and took the diag fee off. At this point, I owe nothing.

I just ordered the part off of Rock auto (thanks for the pointer) and will do the job myself if the light comes back on. I think I'm also going to do the spark plus because they didn't get around to those either. The rest (if needed) will be done at my local indy shop which is very good but long wait time to get in.

 

You don’t flush with coolant. You use distilled water. The coolant only goes in after the flush comes out clean. It only took my truck one time but my wife’s Jeep. It took nine flushes of distilled water before it came out clean. you’re also supposed to drive 100 miles after you fill up with distilled water for the first time. which I did.

also, if you have a bad thermostat, you 100% need a flush that coolant is no good. It is probably what caused the thermostat to fail. It gets corrosive overtime.

 

^On a 2021? I doubt the coolant is degraded. Most likely the switch in the thermostat is broken, kinda what you'd expect for having an electrical component inside a plastic thermostat housing...

 

Yeah, you got a point there. Mine was at 100k and coolant was actually still good. Just changed it because I was doing all the 100k maintenance.

 

Bud, first of all. No shit and also. You must refill the system with coolant once it is flushed. No way the coolant is bad on a 2021. 2nd, doubtful the DEALER is selling you several gallons of OEM coolant for less than $50. And also when the dealer does a coolant flush they are just hooking it up to a sealed system and replacing the old with new. In my experience anyway. I could be wrong. Have been many times before but I doubt they are flushing the coolant. The point I was making is I do not believe the dealer would sell him the quantity of new coolant required to refill the system after the flush for the price reflected on the quote. Toyota's recommended coolant intervals is 10 years or 100k.
These are not mid 80's small blocks. A lot of thermostats are two stage now and many use a wax filament cartridge opposed to the springs we were used to in our old Chevy small blocks. The majority of thermostats that die on modern vehicles is not due to bad or dirty coolant. It is because they are engineered to fail shortly out of warranty and they are sourced from the cheapest bidder and thus made poorly.