15,000 Mile Service

[Jharkins]

My tundra is due for its 15000 mile service and the service guy at my dealership told me $230 for the service. I about went through the roof. The manual say that they suppose to check the tranny and diffs but this guy swears that it is required to be changed. I hardly ever tow the truck, but I do live in new england and have seen some snow. What did others pay for their service? I think I am being robbed.

[nhparrot]

Jharkins Check in the Maintenance forum of the "Garage" I posted a copy of the recommended service. Read through it, there are a lot of "inspect this & that items". When, I take my Tundra in for service, I have them do the things I don't have the time or tools to do myself. Rather then say I want the 15K service, I tell them do 1, 2 & 3. etc. Works out much cheaper. You can do your own oil & filter change for about 1/2 what the dealership charges, your own transmission fluid change for about 1/3. Diff service for about 1/2.

PS - I have posted in the Garage forums a number of How-To's on the basic maintenance.

[aika]

hahaha- i dont know about the oil change- it cost me fifty bucks with the mobil 1 and the filter. it seems the more i do on my own the more expensive it is- although i know its being done right and with superior products...

[KLS]

Why have the service done at a gouging dealer? If you like the dealer's service and price, great. If not, there's no reason to go there for routine service. Find any quality repair shop. Show them the maintenance book, get the work done that need doing, and be sure to get a receipt that shows exactly what jobs they did. Save this receipt.
Ken

[TC]

I am fortunate enough to have a shop that I have complete faith in. They do the 15K service for $99.95 (I love my Tundra too much to allow myself to work on it). At 30K it is $219 which is where they change the dif and trany fluids as per the owners manual. They inspect and add to all fluids including dif & trany at 3K when they do the oil change. I suggest you go with KLS's advice and lose that dealership for maintenance.

[mitchr]

I have seen alot of posts about people changing the tranny fluid at 15,000 miles or the dealer saying to change it at 15,000 miles, but like you said the manual calls for a 30,000 mile change(automatic tranny). My question ..is this just a preference thing or does certain conditions warrant changing it sooner(15,000) or is this just the dealer wanting to gouge for more money??

[nhparrot]

The maintenance schedule calls for replacing the ATF Fluid at 15K miles in a Tundra if you Tow a Trailer or Use Camper or Car-Top Carrier

[ESUguy]

It's about time for my 15k mi. service also. Anyone in the KC area that can suggest a shop?

[tundrawes]

What does the 15,000 service checkup entail??? Is it worth is and how much does it cost?

Thanks,
Wes

[Parshal]

Originally posted by nhparrot
The maintenance schedule calls for replacing the ATF Fluid at 15K miles in a Tundra if you Tow a Trailer or Use Camper or Car-Top Carrier

Replacing the transmission fluid at my dealer means a drain and refill, not a full flush, which only gets about 4 quarts. I've been towing a 3k trailer quite a bit lately and just drained and refilled the 4 quarts myself. Even before, the fluid on the dipstick looked like it just came out of a quart bottle.

I'm a bit confused as to what exactly "replace the ATF fluid" means? Complete replacement which means a flush or just a drain and refill.

[akauth]

Originally posted by Parshal


Replacing the transmission fluid at my dealer means a drain and refill, not a full flush, which only gets about 4 quarts. I've been towing a 3k trailer quite a bit lately and just drained and refilled the 4 quarts myself. Even before, the fluid on the dipstick looked like it just came out of a quart bottle.

I'm a bit confused as to what exactly "replace the ATF fluid" means? Complete replacement which means a flush or just a drain and refill.

Replacing the ATF is a drain and refill. It's better to do a complete flush but it depends on how well you want to take care of your vehicle.

Going to a dealer is a two sided affair. A great dealer is going to take steps way beyond what the "minimum" and will take *great* care of your vehicle. And you're going to pay for that. Namely a 97% to 99.9% reliable vehicle for you and the person who owns it after you.

There aren't a lot of great dealers around but there are a ton of good ones and a lot that are okay or marginal.

Great doesn't mean that you only pay a little and get a lot - it doesn't work that way. But you often can pay a little more and get a LOT more in return.

For example, you can go to a dealer and say, "I want to change my radiator coolant according to factory specs".

There are several levels of service:

1) Drains and changes the fluid - done.
2) Drains and changes the fluid *and* replaces the thermostat - this is a "best practice" and honestly should be a minimum.
3) Flushes the coolant - done.
4) Flushes the coolant and replaces the thermostat - this is the best possible service for longetivity.

Personally, the latter is the dealer(s) that I frequent. I don't like paying their prices, unfortunately, but I do love having them work on my vehicle.

The difference between 1 and 4 is $68 vs. $150 or so. If money is really an object you can take the $68 route and it will work fine (maybe even as long as you have your vehicle).

But if you take the second route you will almost never have a coolant failure and you'll likely not even have to replace parts - ever. Nor will you get stranded because the dealers who do 4 will also go through and make sure that all your hoses are fine as a matter of course. You don't get blown hoses. They might even poke around more and notice and tell you that a bolt came loose from your brake line or that you had a torn boot on your front drive axle.

So which is cheaper? You can pay upfront or you can pay in the end with the same or more money (plus the inconvenience).

I agree with Ken. Do what you can yourself. It's nothing to change most of the fluids and then you can put in synthetics. Change the air filter.

But when it comes time to do something like an AC flush or trans service, take it to a dealer that has high standards and their goal is 100% complete satisfaction. You can afford them because you did some of the easy stuff yourself.

In the long run, it's a lot less headache. You get what you pay for.

(I have noticed that dealer service prices have jumped a lot in the past year though. I don't know why that is. Not sure if it's "for summer" or just it's gone up).

Alan

[TIGERTUNDRA]

I just got brochues / coupons from two area dealers who offerred full ATF flush for $99. I haven't called them to ask if they would do it with my fluids, some type of synth, and how much it would cost then.