Dealer rip-off

[Salsa03]

Went for an oil change on my Vibe last night!


72,000km....service dude says I need a power steering flush!!!!


Never heard of such a required/scheduled "maintenance"


Said no to it... then looked at my owner's manual....Pontiac says to check fluid level twice a year.,...but in the maintenance calendar they never talk about a fluid flush!


WHAT a rip-off!!!! 150$ they were charging for this..... what's next "Oh you car is due for a interior gas tank wash"

[mistamatrix]

What?! You mean you haven't done the interior gas tank wash yet?!
It's supposed to be done every other fillup!

lol

[Salsa03]

Damn... no wonder my TypeR stickers are not giving me any additional power!!!

[Clamhead]

For what it's worth,
I had an Acura Integra and they did recommend this flush every 60K. The service guy said it was like any other mechanical system (i.e. transmission) that had moving parts bathed in oil. There is wear occuring and it should be flushed occasionally. This was actually a pretty good dealership that I trusted. Nowhere near as pushy as Toyota seems to be.

It's actually not hard to do. Just unhook both lines to reservoir, cycle steering wheel back and forth a few times to pump out what's left (into a proper container of course) and refill to correct level.

I've done it on a few cars, there's nothing magical about it, and it certainly
won't cost $150 !!

[Clamhead]

oops, forgot to mention that as you refill with new fluid, cycle the steering wheel to fill the system.

[Salsa03]

Or you could do this


Take the thingy you "wet" turkeys with.... a baster...


Suck the oil out of the container..... then fill it up with new oil....


run it a few days, then do this again...


You can repeat it a third time....but after 2 shots, you would have replaced a fair amount of the oil....


But I usually say, if it works well....doesn't show sign of leakage, trouble, dirt....don't fix it!!!