So another unsuccessful trip to the dealership. I say "unsuccessful" meaning "there's no way I'm paying that much for that".
About a month ago my wife took the Outlook in to the dealership to have an intermittent issue with the air bag light. I don't remember the exact figure but it was way more than sounded reasonable to fix. While it was there, they noted a water pump leak and we had it done. When we got the car home, there was a notable whine. Having owned plenty of junkers I knew immediately it was the power steering. I checked and the fluid was a bit low. I filled it to the full line but the noise continued. Fast forward to today (about a month later) when we finally had time to get it back in. They did a "diagnostic" for the power steering (for a charge of course) and stated that it was a leaking seal. I brought up the point that the issue started when they replaced the water pump and it was dismissed as unrelated. "It's on the other side of the engine". This may be true but I find it a strange coincidence. After doing some digging I found the PIT#4537 about the overfilling to address the issue. I haven't checked it yet but if the fluid level is at (or close to) where I left it, I'm going to overfill it and see if it addresses the issue. Seems a bit better than the $1300+ I was quoted for the power steering pump replacement. I find it disconcerting that this fix was not suggested or possibly not even known to them.
To add insult to injury, there was also a problem with the remotes. They both are only working intermittently. We had the battery replaced in one (at the dealer) and it didn't seem to fix the issue. They "ran a diagnostic" and determined the one remote they had tested bad. I explained that it was intermittent and neither remote worked but was told "the remote tested bad". Repalcement cost? $159. Oh.. plus the diagnostic fee.
So the outcome for today was that we got a worthless trip to the dealership. Well not completely but it turned into $150+ for an oil change.
I've pretty much written them off at this point. Not only are the "diagnostic" fees out of hand, the conclusions are questionable and the repair prices are ridiculous. These are the same guys that quoted $600+ to do the front brakes on this car. I ended up doing it myself. It took me about an hour. I miss the actual Saturn dealer. They always took good care of us and I never felt like I was getting overcharged.
It's tempting to drop kick this vehicle before it completely falls apart. It's kind of sad because it only has 60k miles on it and it's not even paid off. At the going rates we probably can't afford to keep it though...
Oh.... in case I actually need to do it, how bad is the power steering pump to replace? I'm guessing not $1000 worth of difficult (assuming parts to be ~$300)?
/rant (?)
About a month ago my wife took the Outlook in to the dealership to have an intermittent issue with the air bag light. I don't remember the exact figure but it was way more than sounded reasonable to fix. While it was there, they noted a water pump leak and we had it done. When we got the car home, there was a notable whine. Having owned plenty of junkers I knew immediately it was the power steering. I checked and the fluid was a bit low. I filled it to the full line but the noise continued. Fast forward to today (about a month later) when we finally had time to get it back in. They did a "diagnostic" for the power steering (for a charge of course) and stated that it was a leaking seal. I brought up the point that the issue started when they replaced the water pump and it was dismissed as unrelated. "It's on the other side of the engine". This may be true but I find it a strange coincidence. After doing some digging I found the PIT#4537 about the overfilling to address the issue. I haven't checked it yet but if the fluid level is at (or close to) where I left it, I'm going to overfill it and see if it addresses the issue. Seems a bit better than the $1300+ I was quoted for the power steering pump replacement. I find it disconcerting that this fix was not suggested or possibly not even known to them.
To add insult to injury, there was also a problem with the remotes. They both are only working intermittently. We had the battery replaced in one (at the dealer) and it didn't seem to fix the issue. They "ran a diagnostic" and determined the one remote they had tested bad. I explained that it was intermittent and neither remote worked but was told "the remote tested bad". Repalcement cost? $159. Oh.. plus the diagnostic fee.
So the outcome for today was that we got a worthless trip to the dealership. Well not completely but it turned into $150+ for an oil change.
I've pretty much written them off at this point. Not only are the "diagnostic" fees out of hand, the conclusions are questionable and the repair prices are ridiculous. These are the same guys that quoted $600+ to do the front brakes on this car. I ended up doing it myself. It took me about an hour. I miss the actual Saturn dealer. They always took good care of us and I never felt like I was getting overcharged.
It's tempting to drop kick this vehicle before it completely falls apart. It's kind of sad because it only has 60k miles on it and it's not even paid off. At the going rates we probably can't afford to keep it though...
Oh.... in case I actually need to do it, how bad is the power steering pump to replace? I'm guessing not $1000 worth of difficult (assuming parts to be ~$300)?
/rant (?)
