Recently bought a WRX, the O2 sensor went bad, the shop I normally use didn’t want to mess with it so I went to the dealership. While I was waiting I get a text saying my car needs $8,000 worth of work, I just bought the thing so I am starting to panic, the advisor said the battery sensing plug was messed up and to fix it the ENTIRE engine harness had to be replaced. I asked to see what they were talking about, so we walked into the shop, it was a small plastic plug about the size of my pinky finger the previous owner had wrapped in electrical tape so i asked if we can just wrap it back up, the mechanic shrugs but wraps it back, that was 2 years ago still never had an issue even though the advisor was like you need to get this fixed sooner rather than later. Never went back.
Or, you know, depinning the connector and replacing it? Sometimes there’s a weird connector but I have a hard time believing they couldn’t find a replacement if they tried. Some mechanics are just parts replacers and that’s it. My friend had a muffler break off on his Civic and the mechanic gave him a straight faced $1500 quote because they “couldn’t get a repair kit” and wanted to just replace all the parts. New pipe with resonator and new muffler is what they wanted to do. I welded it back on at home in an hour instead.
Dealer parts catalogue likely doesn’t have repair kits for most plugs. It’s the loom or nothing. They’re not even allowed to do repairs like that because “if something related breaks next, customer will blame the dealer/manufacturer”.
Little point in going to dealer unless specifically trying to keep the warranty, in which case you’re probably not paying to get repairs done yet
Recently bought a WRX, the O2 sensor went bad, the shop I normally use didn’t want to mess with it so I went to the dealership. While I was waiting I get a text saying my car needs $8,000 worth of work, I just bought the thing so I am starting to panic, the advisor said the battery sensing plug was messed up and to fix it the ENTIRE engine harness had to be replaced. I asked to see what they were talking about, so we walked into the shop, it was a small plastic plug about the size of my pinky finger the previous owner had wrapped in electrical tape so i asked if we can just wrap it back up, the mechanic shrugs but wraps it back, that was 2 years ago still never had an issue even though the advisor was like you need to get this fixed sooner rather than later. Never went back.
Or, you know, depinning the connector and replacing it? Sometimes there’s a weird connector but I have a hard time believing they couldn’t find a replacement if they tried. Some mechanics are just parts replacers and that’s it. My friend had a muffler break off on his Civic and the mechanic gave him a straight faced $1500 quote because they “couldn’t get a repair kit” and wanted to just replace all the parts. New pipe with resonator and new muffler is what they wanted to do. I welded it back on at home in an hour instead.
Dealer parts catalogue likely doesn’t have repair kits for most plugs. It’s the loom or nothing. They’re not even allowed to do repairs like that because “if something related breaks next, customer will blame the dealer/manufacturer”.
Little point in going to dealer unless specifically trying to keep the warranty, in which case you’re probably not paying to get repairs done yet