Leonidas583

Well, looks like my wife didnt take the car to the dealer for the airbag recall. Well, I dropped the car off and of course the headlight was burned out. He calls me back and tell me that my airbag isnt the one recalled but he noticed that my headlight was out. Heres the conversation..

"Do you know your headlight is out?" - dealer
"yeah - the seal broke somewhere and condensation burned out the ballast. Just for giggles..how much would you charge me to fix it? 350?" - me
"350..Umm..put a one before that..." - dealer
"1350?? Are you kidding me?" - me
"actually, 1395.00. Worse case senario." - Dealer
"Wait..Are you telling me that for a 2003 3.2TL Type S the frikin HEADLIGHT is 1395?!?! You guys are smoking CRACK!" - me

And NO - I didnt have them fix it..I actually found a ballast on EBAY and ordered one.. It came in and of course it DIDNT WORK. I tested the bulb, ignitor and everything...its the ballast...

Just thought yall would get a kick out of it..

AaronMattison

thats ridiculous..... when i took my car down to the stealership for my airbag light "the airbags checked out" but since we also did a complete walk around of your car to make sure your breaks were fine the oil was changed and fluids were good etc. they wanted $75.00 for the walk around of my car i didnt ask for lol i said no way im not paying for something that i didnt ask you to do... its all about money no longer actually helping someone out :/

03blackbeast

Hey man I've got an oem ballast for the passenger side I think somewhere at my parents. I'm not using it. If I can find it I'd be happy to sell it to you.

Yikes

A lot of those walk arounds, checks ect. really have no purpose other than raising the amount of billable hours for the service department.

HairyMonkey019

iTrader: (7)

$1400 for a brand new, TERRIBLE DESIGN, OEM ballast... L O L.

ErickUa5

I noticed when this happened on my friends 3rd gen that the old balast would blow the fuse every time we put a new fuse, Check the headlight fuse.
Theres a reason why they are called stealership. lol

3.2TLc

Yeah man, ya oughta know better than to even step into a stealership's door !!!

fsttyms1

Not all are. Mine never did that. Hell, mine went out of their way to cover 2 of my trans failures so i didnt have to. (1 before there was an extended warranty on them, and 1 well after i was past the mileage)

ErickUa5

Yea there are good ones and bad ones, I guess you need to have some previous history with one for good will.
Everyones experience differs but I chose to never go to the dealer and gained confidence working on my own cars.

3.2TLc

The dealerships are normally outstanding to their original customers who purchased the car new from them. They also make out rather well on the warranty type of work and they desire to keep the customer's interest level up in a positive way when the time nears for the next new car.

However, don't expect alot from the dealer if your car is over ten years old and has tons of miles......unless they can interest you somehow in a newer car because of the high costs of maintaining your old jalopy !!!

01tl4tl

a smart ziner goes to an aftermarket source like our sponsor www.hidextra.com and gets a full new set of hid parts and bulbs for the TL.... for under 60 US Dollars!!

a small amount of thinking needed to install, most can do it~
includes 2 new bulbs ballast capacitor and igniter

get 35 watt ballast- same as stock and 5000k color bulbs to best see debris and potholes in the road

why install the same garbage when new modern micro sized WATERPROOF systems are available..is my opinion

AcraAdi93

DDMTuning.com hid kit 55W 6000K with a little bit of splicing gets the job done

Acur8Lady

Does anyone have an idea as to why my Drivers seat does not recline? I have a 99 Tl 3.2 V6 - not the "s" style. It sounds like the gears want to work, but it is just stuck. Can I just take off the left side of seat and see the gear mechanism from that vantage point. I refuse to take it to ANY dealer - Any suggestions would be great! Thanks!

Nicks2001tl

I would check first if anything is keeping it from reclining, maybe something stuck in the gears. Try moving the seat back all the way and do a visual inspection.