KtBruin

I brought my car into the dealer because the Check TPMS error light came on. They kept my car for a day and after looking over it, they said that my aftermarket alarm was the problem. And they said since the alarm tampered the system, it is not covered under warranty. So they charged me labor hours for finding the source of the problem. They told me that I should bring my car back to the place that installed my alarm to have them fix the problem and reimburse me.

My brother brought it back for me and the alarm place fixed the check tpms light. but they said that acura is not suppose to charge me just for finding the problem. they said something about there was a lawsuit against that in the past. so they told my brother to go back to the dealer and demand a refund or else call acura's headquarter to complain.

i don't know how that's going since i'm at work. i tried looking up for such a lawsuit but can't find anything about it. does anyone know anything about it? is acura suppose to charge me even though the did not fix anything?

this whole thing is such a hassle for me -.-

dwest1023

In this case, the dealer is right. Its not Acura, fault if somebody else work caused the problem.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

KtBruin

Thanks for the inputs.

I just got a call from my brother and he said that the dealer is giving me $150 service credit... so i'm not even sure anymore if what they did was in fact right. but oh well, this is better than nothing.

GTSX-05

iTrader: (1)

What Acura charges for diagnoses are outrages! I was at my local dealer today because of a mysterious shake coming from my front end of my 2004 Acura MDX. They charged me $99 dollars CDN for diagnoses and in return I found out that I need to change my engine motor mounts, which is another headache all on its own. I just think that to hock up a computer to diagnose problems should be free, how much effort does it really require anyway?

Just my

KtBruin

The guy there told me that the technician spent 3 hours to find the problem. They were going to charge me $100/hr, but the guy talked to the manager and got them to only charge me $50/hr. But yeah... they do charge too much just to diagnose problems.

weeeerd

I hate to say it.. but your brother is wrong. The dealership had the right to charge you for the repairs made, due to the fact that since it had to deal with your alarm (which is aftermarket). Warranty is pretty strict on what they can and cannot do. Here's a better example..

1) your car won't start and you have a remote starter: if the problem is something that is related to the car starter you had installed, Acura cannot cover that under warranty. if the issue was with the starter itself (which was not tampered with when the remote was installed, that itself would be covered)

It's a little confusing on how it works but there is not and and should not be any type of lawsuit against Acura for it.

If this doesn't help.. Let me know, I'll see what I can dig up.

nbtx

Put yourself in the dealer's shoes. How long could you stay in business doing free troubleshooting? You provide the facility, pay the mechanic and his benefits and get no income at all. Consider yourself fortunate that the dealer forgave half the labor charge.
And learn that aftermarket alarms, starters, anything that breaks into the factory wiring system are problems waiting to happen.

CGTSX07

I also took mine to the dealer for a TPMS issue and they said it would cost $199 just to take a look at it and then the hourly rate on top of that. I knew what the TPMS issue was (I had TL sensors instead of TSX sensors) but I wanted to see if they could reprogram the sensors or something. I think it's standard practice with Acura to do this because then they don't get overloaded with a lot of BS issues and they get paid for their work. nothing unusual here. they were nice to credit you the money back though!

davidspalding

^ Highway robbery. If they need to charge labor to investigate, there's their income. A flat fee just to open the hood on a year old car with a malfunctioning component is just wrong IMHO. But then ... did you TELL them you had the wrong sensors in there, or just leave it for them to "discover?" Can't expect people to be fair or generous if you're being less than forthright about what you think the problem is.

I find most service stations will be kind on the labor rate for "the discovery phase," if it's brief and they're getting the repair work. But then, how many repairs do you bring in, then after they identify it, you take the car to be repaired elsewhere? NO ONE could stay in business under those circumstances.

SoCaliTrojan

Dealerships have high labor costs, and they have to charge for diagnostics. Otherwise, everyone would go to them first, and then take their car elsewhere. People usually bring their cars to dealerships for diagnostics when it's something complicated (since the dealer should know the car inside and out).

When we my mom's accord to a dealership to have the vtec oil seal recall fixed, they placed the cam wrong into the engine. They then wanted to charge $90-$99 for a diagnosis. I went with the mechanic on a road test, and he said it was perfectly normal (which it wasn't...the car didn't really go unless you floored it). I had my mom b**ch at the dealership on the phone a few times, and he finally agreed to look at it for free. That's when they found out that they had installed the cam incorrectly.

As for the service credit, is it a refund or are they just going to credit you for future work at the dealership?

miner

When I take my car in for service at the dealership I make it a point to wander outside and look over the garage area. More times than not I see a 'group' of techs just BSing- work a bit more - BS some more. Do we really get our horly rates worth? I think not. Since jobs are charged a book rate it would be hte techs advantage to get the job done ASAP & move on to the next one.

nbtx

Mechanics get paid a percentage of the book rate, and the good ones can routinely beat the rate. Example: flat rate is 1.5 hours and the guy completes the job in 0.8 hours he can move on to the next job and perhaps do 12 book hours in 8 work hours. The slow mechanics take home less money and eventually find other work. If the shop rate is $80.00, you pay $120 for the 1.5 hours regardless how fast or slow the job is completed. If the mechanics are outside BSing it's because they don't have enough work, are lazy, or don't need the money. And if the job is done incorrectly, the mechanic does the rework on his own time.

KtBruin

Well it turned out that one of the TPMS wires was not connected so that was why it was having the error light. The place that installed my alarm was arguing with my dealer because none of them wanted to reimburse me. Alarm said it was dealer's fault and that they could have fixed the problem just by connecting that wire. Dealer said that because I have an aftermarket alarm it void the warranty even though the alarm had nothing to do with setting off the TPMS light tho...

KtBruin

They just gave me $150 service credit for future work there.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

If the problem happens right after the alarm installation, then it's clearly your alarm installer is at fault regardless if the device itself caused the problem or the process of installing it caused the problem, such as disconnecting a wire, even by accident. Why should the dealer fix someone elses problem for free? Sure, some dealers may perform free services out of good gesture, good will, or courtesy especially if you are a good customer. However, they are not obligated to do so.

KtBruin

My point was, they told me the don't know anything about aftermarket alarms that's why they couldn't fix it. However, the wire that wasn't connected was part of the TPMS. They should have caught that and plug it in for me since they're already charging me a fee. It was a hassle to go back and forth between the alarm place and the dealer. And I'm not blaming the dealer completely, I blame the place that installed my alarm too because I brought it back to them first to have them check it out for me as soon as I saw the light go on when I left their place.

davidspalding

I don't trust those alarm places much. BTW, why did you install an aftermarket alarm? The TSX has a basic one installed as std equipment.

SoCaliTrojan

aftermarket alarms provide more features, such as window-break detection, paging services, etc. I don't trust my local alarm shop either...it was frustrating working with them to have my car working 100%

davidspalding

Thanks for the reminder. ... Paging services? Wow. Wonder if a system could have a motion (impact) sensor (like if someone hit it), and instead of honking like crazy, page my phone. Worth some $.

I would presume that if I had my dealership recommend an alarm shop, confidence would be higher (not 100%, of course) that those add-ons would be done right. Same with things like TPMS mods (keeping us on topic). I would think if you wanted to mod your car like this, having a trustworthy service manager make a suggestion/recommendation is worth the phone call. After all, these guys/gals see all kinds of vehicles come in for repairs/diagnosis.

KtBruin

Well I didn't really install an aftermarket alarm... that was what the dealer kept saying. I actually just installed sensors into the factory alarm...

And if nothing I said made sense... don't flame me >_< I don't know much about cars, my younger brother is actually helping me with the car. I didn't care much about cars until the last two months because I didn't have the money to fix my last car since I was still in college. And I would also say that I don't know much about cars since I'm a girl, but I'm sure there are plenty of girls on this forum who knows their stuff =$