rsq123

I have a friend who insists that bringing your car into the dealer for regular servicing and checkup is a waste of money. So he does the oil changes, spark plug changes etc, himself regularly.

For me, since I don't feel comfortable messing around with the engine components of my car, I prefer the peace of mind I get when I drop it off at Acura and they take care of it for me.

What are your thoughts on this? Anyone else skip the regular service check-ups in favour of doing it yourself?

Ryan Hubbard

I worked as a powertrain engineer in the automotive industry for about 8 years and there is some good reasoning behind taking your car to the dealer for all its service. If you have all the work done at the dealer you have prove the work has been done and the manufacturer has a record of it also. So if something happens say 6 months or 5000 miles out of warranty you can usually get it covered under warranty. This is the one advantage of this. My sister has an Excursion Diesel and they had some problems right after the warranty period and since all the work was done at the dealer they covered it. But you have to do the leg work yourself by calling the manufacturer if the dealer is unwilling to do it for you.

I used to do the work myself but since I bought a new car I am going to let the dealer do it now. Plus the last thing I want to do is turn wrenches onmy new car after workng on my race car.

MadSklz32TL

personally, i think goin to the dealer is a waste of money. i jus did my 30 K maintainence job on my TL myself. total cost = $80 as opposed to the $450 that rallye acura was gonna charge me. a large chunk of the cost from the dealers is labor, if ur willing to do it urself then go for it.

BlackShadow

I also think going to the dealer is a big waste of $$$. Why waste hundreds of dollars when you can do it yourself for less than a hundred unless you guys got $$$ to throw away.

medic

a lot of the maintinence is pretty simple - changing spark plugs, oil, etc takes a few minutes of time. When my car is out of warrently, I do all teh basic stuff myself.

When the car is in warrenty, I get it done at the dealer or at a shop that's approved to work on acuras. As long as it's dealer approved it won't void warrenty. The non-dealer shops are sometimes cheaper. Also, if you want, buy the parts yourself and tell them to install them. That way, they do the labor but you don't pay 2x the retail price for parts. If the parts fail, you can get the manufacturer to replace it; you'd be laible for the labor to redo the install even if you bought the parts from the dealer or the shop.

TLS RULZ

OK... For now since it is under warranty I go to the dealer. But, while I agree it is sometimes more expensive, it depends I guess on what you are doing. Being more specific.
For eg an oil change at my dealer is CAD $35, I get a refund of $17 since I supply my own oil, and an oil filter (retail) goes for $7, so in the sence I am paying $10 for them to do the labour and lube the suspenion, door jams etc, etc... WELL WORTH IT IMO for $10!!! than me doing it .

Now the other service...Hmmm, I'll probably only do the Type 4/5 ones... you know the BIG ones (which is once every 2 years) where they do stuff like adjust VTEC timeing etc etc..... otherwise its 12Kkms oil changes and yearly brake service for me !

peiqinglong

It's definitely worth doing major stuff at the dealer. I do all my oil changes and everything and so does my friend with a TL. So far they have given us under warranty with no questions asked...my navi has been replaced, a new steering wheel due to a slight blemish, a new driver side door panel because of a slight bubble, they even put in a blue led for me and so on. My friend has had his ripped leather on the driver seat replaced, the entire side mirror on the right side replaced, the entire front passenger seat replaced, tranny flush and so on.