SilverJ

Just curious. I did both of these in like 20 minutes going pretty slow, taking my time. I saw something on youtube that says the dealer charges 170.00 to replace the cabin air filter ? That sounds crazy.

NBP04TL4ME

Dealers will get what they can, but have seen $139.99 as a special. Remember anything is easier when you know how -

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

they dont call them stealerships for fun.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

$50 in filters...a half hour of labor for each...$170 sounds about right.

DIY for the filters is a no brainer.

DrewQ35

the filters can take you 15 min to do yourself. 10min for the air filter and 5min for the cabin air filter in the glove box. You can order them off of rockauto.com

C8N

It's bad enough they over charge for parts... but labor... argh...
Those engine bay plastic covers... its just there to increase labor times for the dealer. Conspiracy i say!

SilverJ

Im with you ! Even though they only take 30 seconds to pop off, the dealer probably bills that as a half hour "labor"

aIRpeACE

iTrader: (2)

that's why they are stealership

NBP04TL4ME

They certainly aren't going to do it for free and remember most of us on this site are enthusiasts, so we able/capable of doing this ourselves. With that being said, we represent a very small minority and there are too many "others" that are willing to pay for this service.

Booya4139

i snapped one of the air box screws using a socket wrench to tighten (should have used screwdriver but was rushing and needed socket wrench to untighten without stripping the screw)

Its crazy what they charge, 50-70 each when the cabin filter is $10 and the engine filter is $20. Cabin filter takes maybe 2-3 minutes if you take your time, and engine filter is maybe a 5-10 minute job

'99-6SIC6

Well said.

-greg

Chrisdg19006

Mine wanted 80 for the engine air filter and 90 for the cabin filter. This was quoted recently when I dropped it off for an oil change. I said I actually do both myself and I also asked why the cabin filter was higher. The service advisor didn't know, that was just the price list the service manager gave to all the advisors. I just said it was odd because it took me 5 mins for the cabin filter (no tools) vs 15 for the engine filter and you need a screw driver for that.

I did have a few problems with the engine filter the first time I changed it. I found the screws on the box were way too tight from the factory and I broke 2 of the 4. I just bought replacements for those.

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

It's simple...they charge that much because they can. As long as people are willing to pay ridiculous charges for service, dealerships will happily take their hard earned money.

I don't care if it was free, I'd still do it myself. Letting other people put their hands on my car causes me more stress than parting with a few dollars to buy the parts and do it myself.

JdmStyle

I work at a honda dealership... we charge $81.88 to replace both filters..

SilverJ

Thats not horrible. Whats the OEM engine filter cost ? Like 40 ?

JdmStyle

$30 ish for the filter, $36 for the pollen filter. .3 of an hour @$72 and hour for labour.

SilverJ

For someone who doesn't want to (or cant do it themselves) that's not too bad.

Art unique

Just do it yourself. Stop being lazy. It the easiest thing you can do to a car right after pumping your own gas.

SilverJ

You can take your own advice and read the first post.

PaulAWD

Keep in mind a lot of people who own cars aren't on the forums looking up DIY filter replacement tips and most likely don't have a clue where or what a cabin filter is. Of course, knowing how easy it is and actually being hands on makes this an easy job, but dealerships usually have a $100+ an hour rate and it takes time for a tech to get the car to their work stall, get the parts, tools, read through the items you left in the glove box and install the parts. It may not seem like much but we all need to get paid for doing others a service. You all have already outsmarted the dealerships by being here and knowing how to do these things. And knowing is half the battle. What's the other half??

MisterZDX

Very well said. Also the fact that some of us just don't mind paying to have things done, no matter how easy or time consuming the task may be.

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

Knowing is half the battle, actually doing it for the first time is the other half. Granted this is really meant for tasks that aren't as simple as changing a filter, but it's amazing how easy something is the second time around.

Whether it's taking out / putting in the rear seat, re-installing the front bumper, opening and sealing the headlights, etc. Doing it for the first time can be intimidating and simple mistakes (or just not doing it efficiently) can double or triple the time it takes. Not to mention add frustration via dinging the door with the rear seat, scratching the headlights with the bumper, not re-sealing the headlights properly (or not getting rid of the trapped humidity). Yeah, been there done all of those and then some...

SilverJ

So true. I always hate when I try to do something "simple" and it takes me twice as long. And then I'm like WTF ? ..and then I do it again and I'm like, ahh, that really IS simple. No substitute for experience. With anything really.

jterp7

what, i swear the last time I was quoted over 200 for both of the close honda dealerships in the DC area.

PRNole47

OMG! Even I -- who have 10 thumbs and put my seeing eye dog in the cabin to help guide me -- did an in-and-out test replacement of the filter in less than 45 seconds (once I emptied out the glove box).

Incredible!

dyp

Right after I bought my '12 TL SH-AWD from CarMax, I took it into the deal for a check-up. They recommended changing out both air filters for $180 which was ridiculous. Cabin air filter takes 5 minutes to change out. They made a big deal about it since I know my wife's old '04 MDX required taking apart the glove compartment. But the '12 is easy as pie (I just checked YouTube).

Ultimately, I took it back to CarMax to take care of it.

IndyRDXfan

I'm not very mechanical but on my 13 RDX it took me a total of 10 mins total to change both and 5 of that was probably emptying the glove box. Not kidding. Got OEM parts from AcuraPartsWarehouse delivered in 3 days for 45 bucks. for the cabin filter, empty out, remove shelf by gentling tugging out and down. remove back plate by two finger clip holes, filter holder has two clips on each end just push both in toward eachother and plate comes off. slide out filter and reverse process. (note the filter arrows point down) For engine filter, pop hood. there are two silver clips that hold the filter cover plate, raise end of plate about 3 inches and remove the filter, put in new and slide both clips back on. Probably saved 100 bucks. Im sure i could find them cheaper or with cheaper shipping if i hunted around but the wife was bugging me since she wanted to pay the dealer and i balked promising to do it asap. Now im just irritated i ever paid for them to change these filters on my previous cars. Seriously, no tools, 10 mins going in blind and i could probably do it in 3 mins now. ugh

fattydub

Didn't happen at Acura but thought I would share what happened to me this morning. Just had my wife's car in for an oil change and alignment at a Toyota Dealership in my area and they tried to sneak in the cabin filter replacement in my bill. Additional $60. I questioned them about it and they said it was in bad shape and desperately needed replacement. Had service advisory come out with me to the car and I asked him to open the glove box to look at my invoice for my new filters I bought and replaced last month for the car. Priceless!! He all of a sudden lost his swagger in his walk and proceeded to credit my account.

CostcoFanAUS

How can people be so shameless and with no integrity in deceiving others like this service advisor? It's a good Gotya

dainmezron

2014 SH-AWD TECH

Both of those replacements took me 10 minutes total, in my 4G TL, its so much easier then my 2004!

jim_c

I have a base model 3.5L 2010 TL.
This car is exceptionally easy to work on.
I do all my own filters, all my own brake work and recently I changed the serpentine belt and the spark plugs.
The dealers have to charge high prices because they have very high overhead. They think they need monstrous buildings with marble tiles, fancy glass, mirrors, granite counters, etc. Their utilities alone must be horrendous. If you do it yourself you will very likely do a better job since it's your car and you care about it. The tech at the dealership is just a pawn in the game. No disrespect towards techs intended.

ITSJESTER

Agreed. DIY is not an issue for simple tasks like this, especially with so many helpful posts and videos out there.

My girlfriend was shocked when I replaced her horrible wiper blades with Bosch Icons on her Ford Escape. PepBoys had been telling her ever since she owned it that "her model had special electronic wiper blades that plugged into the wiper arm and had to be specialty ordered and installed by a professional." She does not know much about car maintenance so she bought into it. Ridiculous that they scam people like that and get away with it.

NBP04TL4ME

Because they can............. And nowadays the dealership makes their $$ in the shop and used car sales. Years ago it was on new car sales, but with the interwebs, you can find out what a car actually costs.

If you don't know any better, you don't think it's ridiculous or you think that it is and pay it anyway because you don't have a choice.

I'm not saying it's right, just pointing out it's reality smacking you right in the face

ITSJESTER

Tried to edit this but it looks like since I'm new it wont let me yet. It was Jiffy Lube...not PepBoys. Being an enthusiast I of course know never to go to these places for anything, maybe an oil change if you're desperate, but she did not. They also got her for filters, charging outrageous amounts for a license plate bulb, and other "necessities". I now do most of the maintenance work on her car.

ITSJESTER

I agree with this. She had no idea and trusted them. Pretty scummy to me that they scam on people like this, I'm sure she wasn't the only one.

Live and learn though, she said "oh well" and that was that haha

NBP04TL4ME

You can only edit your post for 15 minutes after it is posted.

No she wasn't the only one. It happens everyday all over the place. Unfortunately women in general get scammed because they know little or nothing about cars. So whether it's buying them or maintaining them, they get taken advantage of. Someone comes and tells them the flux-capacitor is failing or will fail soon and convinces them it's important, many cave or simply say replace it.
Reminds me of an MP3 someone sent me where it was a radio station calling this girl and they pretended to be the shop where she had dropped off her car. Said she was low on headlight fluid and did she want regular or halogen fluid. Told her front tires were on the back axle and her rear tires were on the front axle, she only had one transmission and she really should have two unless she didn't need to back up. They also told her she was missing her cigarette lighter and they would would throw that in for free but was $75 to install. It was going to be some crazy number like $4K and she said she needed to call her Dad. Turns out her Dad put the radio DJs up to it and he was on the phone listening the whole time

ITSJESTER

I tried to edit right after I posted so maybe I'm just not familiar with the buttons yet. I'm coming from ClubRSX, looks like mostly similar functions.

Thats an awesome radio prank, I'll have to check youtube to see if they have it up so I can play it for her hahah

NBP04TL4ME

I found it on line - Enjoy!!

dainmezron

Here is the link


radio prank daughter car repair - Bing Videos

Paste it into your browser...

ITSJESTER

You're the man! I'll watch as soon as I get outta work!