Most expensive O-Ring ever?

To put it lightly, I have the impression that I am being royally shafted by my local service dept (sorry if swears are not allowed).

Here is the deal. After buying this car used a month ago, I noticed a coolant leak coming from the driver side radiator drain plug. As their report says (and I agree with it), likely the O-Ring or plug failing.

But I got the surprise of a hefty bill, including a CAD$180 drain plug and to top it off a CAD$163 O-Ring!!!(this is at a Dodge stealership btw, no Toyota one up here)

Now the interesting part is, we purchased a $5000 additional coverage for the vehicle when we bought it (I do regret it). The final bill ended up being $700 and I had to fork out $273 out of pocket.

I have a feeling that the actual labour and cost should have been $273 in the first place and they jacked up the prices of the parts to get money from the coverage company. Would that be something common or seen before?

Or are those simply the average insane stealership markups on basic parts? I would be curious to hear your opinions on this. I just have a hard time believing that.

Thank you!

 

I would look up the part numbers online to see what they cost. If the dealer is way above that then you can call them out.

Just looked up the O-ring online and found it for under $50.

 

Welcome to the forum

Wow...
Why did they charge you $100 for "electrical diagnosis" for a coolant leak?
The $80 freight hurts but probably isn't too far out of line.
At least they used the correct parts and coolant.


From: https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/
Toyota 16417-0C420 Cock, Radiator Drain -- MSRP $7.13
Toyota 16442-0C420 Ring, O -- MSRP $67.92

From: https://www.toyotaonlinepartsdepot.com/
C0009-00120 Coolant, Super Long -- MSRP $21.81 C
Interesting, this is actually a Canadian spec coolant premixed 55/45.

 

Just wow . They rode you on that draincock.
The draincock costs $7 before tax and shipping.
O ring for some reason is quite expensive. Im Seeing $54 for it. Must be flavored

 

I think that I would contact Toyota corporate about it. Skip dealing with that dealer altogether.

 

Besides the massive price gouge for parts and imo freight also, I don't buy for a second that the draincock needed to be replaced. They did that just to charge you a ton more.

 

No sympathy from Toyota, it was repaired at a Dodge dealer...

 

Because it's what they do.
Subaru wanted to charge me $160 to diagnose a broken sensor ( windshield wiper fluid sensor mind you ) and I'm
like why would I pay you $160 to tell me the sensor is bad when we already know that.

Left them in the dust and asked my independent go-to-dude to disconnect that sh*t - he reached under, pulled a plug
and now the sensor light doesn't stay on. Oh and I still can tell if I'm low on fluid if I use it and nothing comes out - LOL

 

$270 out of pocket isn't terrible for dealer work

 

1.5 is about right, they have to pull it in and inspect it, so 0.5 then a coolant service with oring change is 0.7-1.0

The price of the oring is crazy, but the labour is close to on par.

 

That O ring was about .12 cents.

And yes, they padded the hell out of the bill.

The cost and labor for the antifreeze was probably the most expensive part of the job just to refill it properly and ''burp'' it.

 

The part price jacked up may be due to you going to a dodge dealer, I know when I was a ford tech if the parts dept had to order parts from a non local other brand dealer they jacked up the price due to the extra work.
Sorry you don't have a Toyota dealer near you.

 

Your “warranty” company and the dealer work together to inflate the costs… then stick you with a $273 bill which covers the complete repair and then some. Dealer and warranty company split profits and you lose buying the warranty and using it.

 

Did they lube you up, give you a reach around or at least a kiss on the cheek before they rammed it up in you like that?

 

I HATE working on vehicles, but I may have to reconsider if that is "normal" now days.
Actually, I still wouldn't work on them at that price. My conscious would get to me.
I already have a hard time sleeping at night. Karma....blah....blah.....


That's not right what they did to you.
Live, Learn, Never go back, and tell other people about it.
I don't typically complain about prices when I get "taken". I pay my bill, and warn others.

 

I'm sorry. The most expensive o ring ever was manufactured by Morton Thyocol for the Challenger Shuttle Launch.
It failed and all the astronauts died. It failed because it was too cold to launch.
That was the most expensive o ring ever. Yours is chump change.

 

Well, thank you guys for all of your inputs. Turns out my instinct wasn't too bad in the end...

As said above, corporate toyota wouldn't do anything about this as it was at a Dodge dealer and unfortunately we just have american brand dealers here. Although it is part of one of Canada's largest dealership group which does have Toyota in other cities. But I doubt anything would happen anyway.

I probably have no way out of that shitty coverage I bought. It gave us some piece of mind buying a used, fairly new (14k km) truck that had been sitting at the dealer for 5 months in a -40F winter. It's actually the second time that I have to use the warranty, before delivering the truck they had to replace the oil pressure switch which likely failed due to being unused and stored in rough conditions. Never saw that bill though.

I am a fairly good handy man and will be able to do 80% of the preventative maintenance without needing to go back there.

At least those cars are bullet proofs. Live and learn.

 

Did you pay the bill?
Or the warranty pay for it?

If it was a warranty job........Yeah, that the "right" price.

 

If you only bought the truck and warranty a month ago you may be able to get the warranty canceled and a prorated refund.

Highly recommend you find a decent local shop, if possible a import specific shop, granted not sure if indie shops take warranty though.

 

if you read the post he was at a Dodge dealership