Truck had 88K miles so I thought I would check the brake pads for wear. Took rear wheel off and noticed an oil leak at the rear hub getting gunk all over brake caliper etc. Took it to Dodge dealer, waited 2 hours for them to tell me it needed new wheel bearings, new brake pads, new parking brake shoes etc etc. to the tune of $1685 bucks.

Brought it home to discover that the rear hub had never been taken off the vehicle(factory installed rotor clips had not been disturbed). Took it apart myself bearings were fine, parking brake shoes needed cleaning up from the leaking rear hub seal and brake pads were hardly worn at all. Bought a rear hub seal for $42 and put it all back together and everything is fine.

Savings $1643 or 85 cases of beer.

Thats the difference between a "mechanic" and a "parts replacer"!

Another example of why they are known as “stealers” as opposed to “dealers”.

I work on my own truck also, so I am not defending the dealers. But; the dealers have to replace everything because if some nut has problems later from a fix like Don did or I would do, the dealer would be sued for major bucks!

The last place to get paying work done on your vehicle is the stealer...whoops I meant dealer. I do as much work as possible on my vehicles and when I hit my limits, I have trusted and honest auto repair shop that I take the vehicle too.

ken

Gotta watch out for job shops too. Took my wife's nissan in with a coolant leak at the overflow bottle. They came back with an estimate for replacing all belts, hoses, water pump, timing belt, etc. that totaled more than the blue book value of the vehicle. the problem was a leaking hose. Guess who doesn't get any more of my business.

I'm with you, I work on my own truck. Nobody will take the interest in your truck that you will.

It's a strange deal with dealers. I immediately noticed I was receiving much better treatment with my International truck than with my previous Duramax. With the Duramax, I'd take it in for a routine service and they would find a shopping list of questionable stuff from, wiring harness issues to fuel filter needing change out before recommended interval and then they tack on the "shop supplies" that really got me cranked! This truck goes in for a service every year with about 15,000Km per year of mileage and the bills are roughly half what that Duramx cost per year of service and that's with 30 liters of oil per change. I asked why they don't add the shop supplies and they just laughed and said there's enough mark-up on parts and labour without adding insult to injury by getting the customer to underwrite their cost of doing business. How refreshing!