Lexman97

I recently brought by 1997 SC400 to the dealer for an oil change. I’m currently at about 106k miles. When the mechanics finished working on the car, my service advisor told me that the rear main seal and the oil pan gasket are leaking. The advisor characterized both leaks as “moderate.” She says that their price for the oil pan gasket is about $290, which agrees pretty well with Alldata’s figure of 2.4 hours; however, they want $1200 for the rear main seal. I know that it’s a lengthy job due to the need to remove the transmission, but Alldata says it should be done in about 6 hours, and a technician I know at another Lexus dealer says he has done them in 3—not the 12 that the dealer quoted.

I had a mechanic friend jack the car up and take a look underneath, and he confirmed that there is some oil on the back of the engine, but he said that it could probably be ignored for a few months, so long as I keep an eye on the oil level. I do see some oil on the oil pan, even without crawling under the car, but I cannot determine its source. I can say with pretty good certainty that the valve covers are not leaking, since they were resealed less than a year ago.

I am not saying that the dealer is dishonest, but I know that they aren’t in the business of saving customers any money. I figured that if there is indeed a “moderate” leak, I should be able so see some signs of it underneath the car. I have NO oil spots on my garage floor under my car, but just to be sure I placed a large sheet of clean cardboard under the oil pan and the back of the engine… 16 hours later, there is not a single drop of oil on the cardboard.

Now for my questions:
1.) I know that a RMS leak is not totally unheard with this (or any other) car, but do you think that there could be a “moderate” leak that doesn’t deposit at least a little oil on the floor? In other words, if I’m not dripping enough oil to spot the floor, should I even worry about it?
2.) Can anyone recommend a specific independent shop in northern or central NJ, or northeastern PA (i.e., within 30 miles of the Clinton, NJ area)?

9secCivic

i actually worked at a honda dealership as a service advisor for a little bit while i was in a transitional period and needed some money coming in (i work on cars for a living, but did not want to deal with dealership type of work so i did the service thing for the time i needed to). needless to say i know how sketchy things are at dealerships. its terrible.

first and foremost.....dealerships have kids working for 6 bucks an hour doing oil changes. people go to the dealership to get oil changes because they think they are going to do a "good job" and what not, the ONLY thing you get out of having your oil changed at a dealership is an OEM oil filter. i have never seen a dealership that had "technicians" changing oil. so needless to say, odds are, whoever looked over your car and told you they had an oil leak probably had no idea what they are talking about.

this time of year, dealerships are S L O W. they will try to talk anybody into anything to get some work in the door. both service advisor's and technicians are paid off of how many hours of labor is billed out........hence the reason your 6 hour job was trying to be billed out at 12 hours. you would be AMAZED how often the dealership gets away with this.

in defence of the dealership, and like you said with your friend, just because your "good" and can do a job in half the amount of time the "book" says it should take, you should still be able to charge what the "book" says. however doubling that time is BS. i can R&R an integra/civic transmission in less than an hour because i have done it over 100 times......im not going to charge 1 hour labor to change a tranny just because im good at it. but like i said doubling alldata's time is BS.


if its not leaking bad enough to leave drips on the ground, im sure its not that bad. your best bet is to take it to an independent shop and have somebody who knows what they are talking about tell you what it really needs.

also keep in mind 99% of the time service advisor's have NO idea what they are talking about. not only that they are just relaying what the "tech" told them (or in your case a oil changer). and again, they are paid off of commission, so they will tell you whatever will make them the most money.


ok im done with my rant. as you can tell, i HATE dealerships.

KC95SC400

iTrader: (3)

I am a technician at a Toyota dealership. Yes, we are slow. Yes, we are in it to make money for ourselves.

But....

Where I work, any car with over 30k goes to the main shop and is looked at by techs (not hourly oil changers) even if it is JUST an oil change.

I would suggest you confirm that the oil pan is leaking, if so, have it resealed and have everything cleaned off. There is a good chance that oil that looks like it is coming from the main seal, is coming from the oil pan.

12 hours is steep. I wouldn't charge more than 8, even being as slow as it is. I recently put a dragon tourqe converter in my SC400 and it took me about 4 hours. I had never taken a transmission out of an SC400 until mine.

Like I said, 12 hours is very steep. You have to realize though, that completing services in less time than said service pays is how we make money. Most tech hourly pay is not very high.

KC