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Just quoted $350 for the same service on an '05 Grand Cherokee. Sounded a bit high to me, but after reading this and others seems about standard for "in-city" prices...
Heres how it works...Evidently you had a problem with the car AND DIDNT KNOW WHAT IT WAS..You take it to a shop and first they get paid to know what it takes to fix it and this figures into the total bill. If you know whats wrong and can fix it yourself sure you can save allot of money and avoid the dealers price on parts and get them at autozone...Problem is you got to know what to buy...if not you pay a mechanic and not cry because hes going to get paid...As a former GM line mechanic I dont do the free diagnostic stuff. My knowledge is worth big bucks .
It's probably the normal price these days. Out here, labor is $80.00/hour!
I remember that I changed the coil, plugs and wires myself in my '66 Dodge Dart back in the mid-'80s. About $10 for a coil, maybe $15 for the plug set and about $20-25 for the wires! Well under $100. That's one reason why I like '60s and '70s cars! The parts are not only less expensive, but in many cases it can be done by yourself (in other words, you can actually see the engine).
You're right. Cars of the 60s & 70s are much easier to work on then the cars of today. Labor sure isnt cheap especially at stealerships.
That car has one coil pack per cylinder and they sell for about $43 each. Plugs are under $5 each. If they replaced all 4 coils and all 4 plugs your total would be $192 and I can almost guarantee you that they only replaced the one bad one.
Diagnostics shouldn't take more than an hour. As for labor. I could train a millinial to do it in 30 mins.
Hate to say it but yeah... You got hosed......
Last edited by IMBACKAGAIN; 05-07-2018 at 08:55 AM..
Nothing is cheap at any sort of mechanic shop. Just because it's simply doesn't mean you'll end up paying $5 for it. If you don't want to pay, then do it yourself. Don't know how or have the time? then you are going to end up paying.
It varies a lot. My RAM has 16 iridium spark plugs and many of them are hard to get to. It is over $400, and the mechanic said he lost money on it because it took him considerably longer than book time. (Actually he said not to bring the truck back for a spark plug change again - but I should not ever need to change them again).
My son's Chrysler Sebring has 3 easy plugs and the back 3, you have to remove the upper intake manifold, which means removing the air filter, IAC, throttle control and about a doze other parts. We found the problem in the first plug (the wire was decayed away), the other two int eh front were not in bad shape. He decided to just not do the back ones. Replacing the wire ont eh front plug solved the problem he was having. I imagine it would be at least $400 to do the back three plugs because of all the stuff you have to take off.
On the other hand other cars (our old Ranger for example) you can do plugs and wires in literally a few minutes and the cost is very small.
My mechanic had the same issues as the above post, back 3 require removal of several other component assemblies.
B/C GM decided to mount the V6 sideways.
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$350 Northern VA
