aftermarket Skid plate removal additional cost?

Hey everyone, first post and sorry it's a bit of a stealership rant! Been into doing my own maintenance lately and this justifies it even more!

Just curious what everyone else's experience with this is? Took the truck into the dealership (Stevenson West in Colorado if that helps) for a transmission drain and fill this morning and just got a call that they're charging an extra 90 bucks to remove the 4 bolts that hold on my transmission skid plate and catalytic convert guards on.

I think this is ridiculous since i could do it at home without a lift in about 5 minutes and i would have done that prior to bringing it in there had they mentioned something about the cost. I'm contemplating refusing to pay that and throwing a fit haha I'm generally not that guy but i feel like it's somewhat warranted am I being crazy?

 

Do the drain and fill at home

 

You're brave for letting dealership service monkeys touch your skids.

They usually crossthread bolts or lose hardware etc. Take it off before going next time.

Them charging you 90 bones is unbelievable tho

 

haha next time i will! i did all my other fluids but fairly new to all this and was reading that transmission was a little more involved. for 315 bucks (225 for drain and fill and 90 for skid plate removal) I definitely would attempted it! I probably won't have to take it off haha because i'm most likely never going back for anything again.

 

I already took over oil changes, and will do the differentials/transfercase/transmission. Some things are best left to professionals like alignments. Local TW members can provide advice/service for UCA/LCA, shocks. It is a truck that I can slide under so will blame only myself for most of the service issues ...

 

Last year the dealership I'd been going to for 20 years charged me an hour labor to replace the skid pan bolts that magically broke off. The "service manager" showed me where they were sheared off, but had no explanation why that would happen since I never touched them.

After I left I called the Service Director who I know pretty well. He apologized and said, "We're in business to make money, but that's not how we do it here." and gave me a credit for the labor to use the next time I was in.

It was really the only sour note in 20 years, but the next couple of times I was in I paid very close attention to the charges on the bill.

 

I did my oil service last weekend. Sheared off two bolts. Looked like the front skid had never been dropped. Took minimal force for these to break.

I replaced all four bolts in both skids.

Oil filter housing torqued right down as well as the drain plug, which was also missing a crush washer.


As far as the dealer charges, it shouldn’t get passed on to the consumer.




Good stuff!