Is my dealer ripping me off?
 

My 2017 Acura RDX has 30K miles and showed 30% oil life. I’m headed on a long trip (3K+ miles), so I took it to my dealer to get an oil change. The dealer told me that I also needed front and rear differential fluid changes as well as automatic transmission fluid change. He told me those items were required by the service codes. Those items cost me $230. Is it reasonable that those fluids need to be replaced after only 30K miles, or am I getting ripped off by the dealer? How can I look at those service codes?

He also charged me $105 to change the engine and cabin air filters.

I'm not seeing anything unreasonable in what your dealer is recommending.

Yes on fluid changes. Even if the car didn't require it, I'd still have them done. Especially the AT. Honda products have glass AT's. Keep the fluid clean.

I'd say $230 is a fair price. Granted, doing it yourself, the fluids would probably run about $50 is all. But for it to be serviced professionally, $230 is about right. It would probably take 1.5 hours of labor or so. Combined with fluids, that's a fair price. The differentials especially aren't super easy to change. Not rocket science but sometimes a bit more involved than an oil change.

Bull:turd: on the cabin and air filter. Not to say it didn't need it, but those parts can be had for around $10 each and take about 15 minutes for even a novice tech to replace. But those have always been big money makers in the auto maintenance industry. They didn't do anything that any other mechanic or lube shop wouldn't do.

That's a VERY reasonable price for those fluids and it is recommended to get those done around 30K.

And yes, take care of your own filters.

Thank you for the responses. They are reassuring. As I said, my Maintenance Minder was showing 30% oil life and no service codes when I took it in prior to going on my long trip. Given that there's no longer a set service schedule, how can I see the codes that the mechanics saw that necessitated the specific service items?

I'm not sure if your Owners Manual has a list or not, but there used to be a guide as to what fluids were recommended. A 'standard' list and a 'severe' schedule (necessitating them more frequently)

In general, major fluids are every 3 years/30K miles or sooner if dirty.

Agree with others on the fluid changes and filters. You likely could of saved some $$ by having fluids done by your local Honda dealer and as mentioned filters are very easy DIYs.

Lets hope that is based on Acura's maintenance schedule.

Some dealers (VW) would change my maintenance reminder from 16,000 km (~10,000 miles) to 10,000 km (~6,000 miles). I switched it back using my Ross-Tech, but would still do my oil change at about 6,000 miles. I know that is ultra early considering I am using synthetic but I don't drive that much and I'd like to do it once a year.

On my RDX, I changed the oil early* but did not reset any maintenance minder thinking it might affect future maintenance minder notices (time and mileage)...not sure how that would work.

* I changed it early because I didn't want to change it mid-winter having to lie on snow.

Engine air filter takes 5 minutes to change, with a Phillips screwdriver. Cabin filter takes less time to change than it takes to clean out the glove compartment.

Not so, with earlier models, but is now.

I change my own cabin and air filter, saves a lot of money, and the folks at the dealership seem to understand - everyone needs to save a buck or two when you can.