Hey guys,

Im gettin my brake fluid, coolant, and oil changed and got quoted 350.00 cnd, is that too much? or about right, 93 rx7 RHD twin.
Being done in calgary.

 

way way to much
i do everything myself
but its only~25 in oil, ~25 in coolant, and ~15 in brake fluid and like MAYBE a hour to do.

 

Three HUNDRED and FIFTY??
Holy Crap!..WHY?
Do it yourself.Save some Money and get to know your Car.
A rotary engine is pretty well the same as a Piston engine,IT is NOT made of Glass!.
Flush the Coolant and change it out.(50/50 coolant)
Drain the Brake fluid,Clean out Debris out of the Master,Fill,Bleed Fully and then Fill and Bleed.
Oil?.Drain oil,drain cooler.,Change Filter..Fill,Check Level.DONE!
Your Fluids should cost you about 80 bucks,Unless you are going Synthetic..So really "The Shop",and I use that Term Loosely,That you are Dealing with is Charging you about 270 For What?..LABOR!
Find another Shop or do it yourself.
Isn't there a "Rotary Shop" in Calgary?./Eunos or something like that?
Check on www.bcrotary.com .That Site has People Local to you and you can maybe find a shop that won't Rob you Blind.

 

Actually, that may not be too bad a price, depending on what they are charging per hour. I figure it below as:

Coolant flush- .75hr
brake flush- 1.3
oil change- .5
@ 95USD/hour that roughly $240
figure parts at roughly another $50-60 USD for oil, filter, coolant and brake fluid and I can see $350 out the door at some places dependant on environmental fees, disposal fees, taxes, etc.

 

ya i work at jiffy lube, but 350 for a maybe hundred dollar job that can be done easily by yourself. . . .

 

No, you cannot flush brakes by yourself without special equipment, which I would assume if he had he wouldnt be asking about price. So a freind (at least one) would be needed which might mean a 6-pack or two down the road. Flushing brakes (really flushing them, not just bleeding them) is a PITA and takes time, not really any way to shortcut the time either without vacumn tools.
For all we know the guy doesn't have tools (which admittedly is unlikely since he owns a 7) and without GOOD (no Autozone crap) flare wrenches the likelyhood of rounding off the bleed screws on a 7, which are likely corroded to hell, is high. Add in a set of ramps or jackstands, an oil-change tub, the few trips to the parts store to purchase new fluids then drop off the used fluids. Then of course actual time it takes to do the job, which is going to take your average backyard guy much longer than an "hour" to do. Most likely at least half a Saturday/Sunday. By the time its done paying $350 to just drop it off and pick it up is not that bad.
Personally, if I did not have a shop, I would pay someone to do pissant services like these, mostly because it costs more in terms of my time/energy than just paying a guy who actually CAN do it all in an hour to do so, who will do it right, and I know if there is an issue (like a little air left in the brake line) I can take it right back and they will take care of it. No need for me to waste more of my time dragging out the jack and tools and finding a helper (again) to rebleed the damned brakes.
Now of course if I were in school or unemployed and had a shitload more time than money and a bunch of friends with nothing better to do than get dirty and greasy helping me with my car, it might be a different story, but Im not, so it isnt

 

Um, are people not realizing that by the time the car is brought in, put up on the lift, the cooling system flushed, the brakes flushed and bled, oil changed, filter changed, inspection done, etc. etc. that there will be several hours of labour and about $100 in parts? The economics of a shop doing the work are the complete opposite of doing the job at home.

I think the price is reasonable.

 

aaron ur like some kind of genius but i have to dissagree with you here

 

if ur doing just regular oil id take it to Wal-mart honestly they ahve the best deal on oil changes and to have someone else do it for just a few dollars than what it cost to do it yourself isn;t bad.. about the coolant... just do that yourself drain it into a bucket or something. and the brakes is easy just like bleeding them thats gonna the the longest part about all of this

 

where did that come from?
im pretty sure, unless im blind and stupid, the op said nothing about flushing brakes.

 

Take it to a legitimate shop (not JiffyLube or some other chain) and the price is reasonable.

Then again, there are a lot of lowballers that don't understand the economics of running a business. Maybe that's why so many rotary shops pop up and then close down 6 months later?

 

The thing about taking your car to a shop is that if you have a nice car.(ALL RX7's LOL) If you take it to a shop that is unfamiliar with rotaries they will give themselves wiggle room in their original quotes. If you do the work yourself, you know for sure you can do it correctly and not take shortcuts. Beware of not working on you car! It will hate you for it! jkjk The amount of money is a matter of perspective. Its too much if you have 355$. Just fine if you have 350,000 In your budget for monthly maintenance. Hope this helped!

 

 

I do not know you so I cant say if your stupid or not, but changing brake fluid means flushing it, something Mazda recommends and so few "at home" mechanics ever actually do. In fact, If I were to guess, I would say its the second most neglected maintenance item on an RX7, after the trans/diff fluids (mostly diff fluids!)




No legit shop "upcharges" for an FC, unless they just dont want to do the work. Nothing he is wanting done is specific to rotary engines, just routine maintenance. If you do the work yourself, you are more likely, through inexperience, to not do the job right and cost yourself more money than an experienced technician who has dont the job literally thousands of times more than you. Theres also the fact that shops stand behind thier work, so if there is some issue later you have some comfort in knowing you dont have to re-do what you just did.

 

you can change most of the fluid by bleeding all the lines
or pressurize them slightly to get even much more of the fluid out
and i dont know you, im not callin u stupid.

 

I wish I lived back In Edmonton.
I would do that Job for FREE..(well, maybe an Ice Tea.).
I'm at the point now I look under the hood of the Montana and I am going Wtf is this?

 

$350 cdn is not unreasonable. It's almost entirely labor.

You can do all of these things yourself, and if you want to make it go fast buy a coolant fill funnel and Motive pressure bleeder. Even with the tools you'll be well under $350

 

sounds resonable to me.
in australia its around 100 per hour labour. 2.5 hours to do the job then ~100 in fluids and it works out.
people need to stop comparing doing things yourself with a shop doing it. sometimes people arent as clued up and want someone else that has experience to do the job

 

It's really hard to find a place you can trust. I hate to admit it.... But I work at walmart shop. The quality of employee is slightly higher in the shop as it's one of the highest pay grades in the store for hourlys, but still at least half are white trash low lifes.
Just 4 or 5 days ago I called back a customer because they sent out an evo x with 5000 miles on it a quart low on oil. And half the guys there don't check anything but the oil sure paperwork says diff was checked but it wasn't really.

 

If your going to a place like walmart or jiffy lube you really need to talk to the guys working on it until you find a guy who actually cares about cars and will take care of younthen deal only with him. I always give out my numbers to customers and tell them only deal with me.

 

wow lots of responses I ended up gettin it all done, all fluids were redline minus oil, had the diff, tranny, brake fluid , and oil changed no coolant cause i just put new coolant in like 5 months ago. It was not a wall-mart lol, i would never take my baby there, i don't even like the idea of some kid starting up my car cold, rippin it around not properly warmed up makes me shiver The shop only works on rotary engines, and he built my engine for me so i take it to him.....dunno if ur aloud to mention names and such, so i will just leave that blank.

Put her to sleep yesterday and im already sad will miss her durin the cold winter months.
And im not very inclined yet with doing all the work myself so i take it to the shop until i know how to do these things properlly myself without messing up. oil and coolant i could do but brakes i dunno how to do that yet but learnin as i go and loving it.

Thanks for replys guys.

 

All three things are super duper easy!!
Do it yourself and save $300.00

 

yea i had a shop fix one on my rides when my old lady hit a deer. cost me 650.00 and that was for a new hood, front headlight, radiator and do enough body work to get it to look good since the radiator was back to the engine... and they put new coolant in... seems like if u gave em 300 more dollars u should have been covered for a small accident.. the only reason i didnt do it myself in this situation was simply i couldnt get the radiator cooler lines to come apart where the all soldered..id do all that myself.. if u have time it will be well worth both money and experience...IMO

 

For coolant fills and "burping' the LISLE funnel can be got for around 60 bucks CDN,ordered through Benson Auto parts.

 

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