sfmarine0311

My car (05), has been overdue for the timing belt service as it now has 114k. I was going to do it last summer but pushed it off to do other work. A friend of mine bought a timing belt kit from eBay and it turned out to be fake so that had me thinking it was best to have it done at the dealer as I'd be well taken care of...or so I thought. I dropped my car off on Friday and they gave me a loaner for the day: A very nice RDX Advance. I thought it was base but quickly learned it was the Advance package. I was very impressed with it.


They said it would be done around 4PM. They originally quoted me $1350 for the job which included a coolant flush.

14400-RCA-A01 Timing Belt $125.69
14520-RCA-A01 Tensioner $221.19
19200-RDV-J01 Water Pump $227.36
56992-RV0-A05 Serp belt $68.47
Labor $475.00

The coolant flush came to $171.99 which seemed steep to me. It really blows because I had a flush done over the summer.

They called me around 1 and said I needed a right engine mount. I had no idea it was even bad so get your mounts inspected. Surprised they didn't replace all of them given its age. They said they had to order the part and it would be in on Monday. So I got the loaner for the entire weekend which was nice.

They said they would not charge me labor for the mount and it came to $332
They called me again around 3PM and said they found another issue. I have a slow oil leak above the oil pump. The mechanic said he would personally not worry about it and just check the oil level frequently. They quoted me $800 for a new pump. That's pretty extensive as it requires you to drop the oil pan.
They made note of the AFS light blinking but did not ask me about it. I am so used to that freaking thing at this point. Last time I had a quote of $700 to fix it. Really wish Acura would have done a TSB on it.

At this point, I was wondering what else they would find but that was the last time they called until Monday afternoon to tell me it was fixed.

I got the silly multi-point inspection stapled to the back of my invoice. It was blank which means they probably didn't check anything. Being that it's winter my washer fluid was pretty low and I expected them to top off my fluids which is usually the norm. It was not filled. They also love to push the cabin/air filters but they did not ask me about them this time around. I do all that stuff myself and the cabin air filter is super easy to do but for some reason they charge $120 to do it.

I also noticed the mechanic did a messy job with the flush. There is coolant residue all over the radiator.

Did he not have a funnel? Pretty sad he didn't take the time to clean up his mess. They had it for almost 4 days and I expected better from the dealer. To top things off (pun intended), he did not fill up the coolant reservoir tank! I guess he forgot to fill it? Really split on this whole process but at least the timing belt is done and I can look forward to hitting 200k in a few years. They did wash my car though...so at least there's that!

TonyCD

Sounds to me like you were charged reasonably for the work performed, and like they didn't invent nonproblems to pump up the bill. That's really all you can ask for, and you were smart to keep up on the timing belt maintenance.

altair47

Oh my God, everything is extremely expensive.

schen72

I agree that it looks like sloppy work to me. One time with my RL, when they changed the oil, some old oil spilled onto the under frame. Overnight in my garage it made a tiny puddle on the floor. I went back the next day because I thought it was a leak but they confirmed it was just residual oil dripping. They wiped it all up and the SA said he'd have a talk with the tech to more neat next time.

The 3G RDX is very nice. If I was in the market for an ICE sporty SUV, it would be #1 on my list for sure.