original_tsp

It's not that surprising that the dealers charge so much. This is comparable to allowing someone to cut your grass for you. Of course they are going to charge you a lot more than it would be just to buy a mower and do it yourself. This goes with any business. It's always way cheaper to diy.

J BODY

Filter minders seem to be about as effective as the battery condition eye. Neat toy, but not always accurate. I've seen filter minders that have barely moved, but the filter was concaved from the engine trying to suck it through the intake.

J-DUB

There is a B-Line Lube Center in Brookshire TX, right off the south side of I-10 that will do it for 15 bucks. The gentleman that owns the shop worked for Cummins for 30 years and now owns this lube center. It's 40 miles from my house in Houston but I will still drive the extra distance to have him and his crew change all my fluids and filters. It's a wonderful operation and saves me tons of money.

Peterbilt

bchesley

Just write it off as training .


I pay $16 at dealer for air filter, $9 for oil filter (worth it for the PR).
I buy fuel filters at Freightliner for $11.99.

Pete

NJMurvin

Sched B maintenance says to do the axles, yes. Sched A, which is what I asked them to do, includes only the items I listed in the original post - plus some BS inspections.

I think I'm going to take it to a transmission shop and have the tranny and axles serviced there. Based on this experience, this dealer has now been relegated to (coupon only) oil changes and warranty work. Anything else . . . I'm taking to an independent.

John Rodriguez

Axles are easy to do. VERY EASY.

All you do is get a nice big oilpan, get under the truck, and start taking off the bolts, but leave the top one half in. The AAM axles don't use a silicone gasket, they use a reusable one, so no need messing with RTV. Drain it, take the cover off, spray carb cleaner and clean the cover, and the bottom of the diff. I usually spray everything with cleaner and wipe it with a towel to inspect. Put the cover back on, remove the fill hole, and fill. The rear end (11.5) is one hell of a thirsty beast.

Elmo

My dealership charged $37.50 for the fuel filter, and $22.50 in labor to plug it in. Since I can schedule to stop by in the afternoon & wait, I let 'em do it while I BS with the sales & parts guys. The tech's finished long before I am. Granted it's a simple task, but I see it as cheap insurance should something in the fuel system go belly-up. DC can't make excuses to weasel out of warranty work.

NJMurvin

That's less than half what I paid. How can there be so much variation in charges for the same service? Don't they look this up in a book to determine what to charge for labor? I've got to pull the receipt again and look at how they broke down the charges.

wexman

Neil, like I said above, my dealer charged $35, and didn't even charge for the labor. At least, that' show it's broken down on my invoice.

Elmo

On the wall in the waiting room is a chart that says labor - $66/hr. The invoice doesn't say how much time was spent on labor, but I guess they just charged for actual time spent rather than the 'minimum charge one hour' like most places. Whether or not it's because I bought the truck there or if that's their actual business practice I don't know. Regardless, the $$$ some dealers are charging is just plain rotton. They do charge a $2 "Misc. Charges" on the invoice, which they don't specify what it's for. My guess is it's the 'hazardous waste' charge since diesel is an oil...