93 Legacy Wagon Advice

Hi everyone,

 

New guy here. I'll be honest I know very little about Subarus - they look good and have a great reputation. I am here on behalf of my daughter who has a 93 Legacy wagon 4x4 with 130,000 mi. She absolutely loves her car and it has been very reliable.

 

Recently it wouldn't start so she had it towed to a shop recomended by a friend. The shop told her a squirel, or some small animal, had gotten inside and chewed up the wiring on the cam position sensor. They replaced it (AutoZone part) and charged her $480. Based on what I have found on the internet this seems high to me. Is there alot of work involved with this repair? It looks like you remove the elec. connector, remove one bolt, pull the sensor out and replace it. Am I missing something?

 

My daughter has limited internet access so I am trying to help her out.

Thank you in advance for any info.

 

Mark

sounds like you got screwed, did you pay already? What was their hourly charge? I'm my own mechanic so I dont get screwed.

Ive done this repair on my subie, actually have replaced every sensor myself, and that one took me 5 minutes... thats WAY high for that. Unless they had to do some wiring repair, but even then that seems high... If i recall, the sensor cost me like $45 and youre correct, it's one bolt... I'd get a copy of the reciept from her and look at what they did...

Thanks guys for your help! I have already asked her to send me a copy of the receipt - I will let you know what it says. One thing I didn't mention before the shop told her they had to take several things apart on her engine to do this repair. Based on the photos I have seen it looks accessible without a major effort. She has more repairs coming up soon so I will have more questions and hope to avoid this in the future.

 

Thanks again,

Mark

Good luck dude, and depending on what state you live in there may be legal recourse for her. so look into that. I'm sick of shops taking advantage of people, and women in general.

good luck dude, and depending on what state you live in there may be legal recourse for her. So look into that. I'm sick of shops taking advantage of people, and women in general.

 

+1

that's all the work that's needed, you're absolutely right. $480 seems ridiculous for just that work, but now what's gotta be hunted down is exactly what was done. you said they had to tear apart some other stuff to get to it...did they replace anything along the way? did they use a different method? are they just bullshitting you? print out where you found your info about replacing the sensor and bring it to them. chances are, if you catch them taking advantage of the situation and you're absolutely in the right, you have grounds to get compensation. I don't see why not.

Thanks again everyone! My daughter is sending me a copy of the bill so I can see exactly what they did. Hopefully I will have that later today or tomorrow - I will let you know. I live a 1,000 mi. away so there is only so much I can do. Getting in my car and driving there to confront the shop/owner wouldn't be a good idea. I am just a LITTLE POed about this so I will give her all the info I can come up with and she will take it from there.

 

Thanks! Mark

Hi guys,

 

An update on this, sorry it took so long -

 

cam sensor

Labor:work performed--replaced cam sensor due to animal damage; repaired temp sensor wiring; cleaned corrosion from ignition wire $245

Part: 22056 AA070 cam sensor $282 Total $527

 

A little more work was performed but I am still questioning the amount. I do not know the hourly rate yet - my daughter is out of town for a few days. I have found the part # for the sensor as a referance # for other suppliers so I don't know if it is OEM or other?

 

Below are estimates for other work - the timing belt work seams way high and they are quoting an AutoZone part. Cloyes @ $200 or Gates @ $160 would be my choices. I read you have to pull the engine to get to the rear main seal? (leak). Differential (leak) not sure? She just sent this info to me and I haven't gone over it in detail with her yet. All of the parts are high -comments?

 

water pump

Part: 21111AA007 OEM water pump $181.73

Part: 84066 Autozone/Duralast timing belt component kit $399.98

Labor: 378.00

 

Part: VS50395R Autozone/Felpro valve cover gasket $128.84

Labor: 83.16

 

Total: $1171.71

 

crankshaft main bearing seal

Part: 806786040 OEM crankshaft main bearing seal--rear engine oil seal $26.51

Labor: 478.17

 

Total: $504.68

 

differential case

Labor: $270.27

Parts: ?

 

Thank you again for all your help, we really appreciate it.

 

Mark

Wow....

 

This place is over inflating everything on that list.

 

Not to be critical, as it really doesn't matter that much, but the 93 Legacy is a first generation Legacy rather than a second generation.

 

 

 

Anyway, here are the REAL prices for those parts, straight off the AutoZone website...

 

Cam Sensor 22056 AA070 - $80.99 (This job along with the work he did would take a shop under an hour on the Legacy. And the ignition wires have nothing to do with his repairs, and even if they were it would take under 5 minutes to clean and reinstall them)

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/catalog/oems/oemsShelf.jsp?categoryDisplayName=Internal+Engine&fromType=oem&fromString=search&parentId=51-0&filterByKeyWord=22056+AA070&currentPage=1&navValue=15100675&categoryNValue=15199999&rootType=oem&itemId=675-0&displayName=Camshaft+Interrupter-Magnet

 

Water Pump 21111AA007 - $61.99 Reasonable upcharge price - $75

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/catalog/oems/oemsShelf.jsp?categoryDisplayName=Collision%2C+Body+Parts+%26+Hardware&fromType=oem&fromString=search&parentId=43-0&filterByKeyWord=21111AA007&currentPage=1&navValue=14300095&categoryNValue=14399999&rootType=oem&itemId=95-0&displayName=Water+Pump

 

Timing Belt Kit 84066 - $239.99 Reasonable upcharge price - $250-300

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/catalog/parts/partsShelf.jsp?categoryDisplayName=Internal+Engine&fromType=parts&fromString=search&parentId=51-0&currentPage=1&filterByKeyWord=84066&isSearchByPartNumber=true&navValue=15101155&categoryNValue=15199999&fromWhere=&itemId=1155-0&displayName=Timing+Belt+Component+Kit&searchText=84066

 

 

Valve Cover Gasket VS50395R - $29.99 Reasonable upcharge price - $45

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/catalog/parts/partsShelf.jsp?categoryDisplayName=Collision%2C+Body+Parts+%26+Hardware&fromType=parts&fromString=search&parentId=43-0&currentPage=1&filterByKeyWord=VS50395R&isSearchByPartNumber=true&navValue=14300524&categoryNValue=14399999&fromWhere=&itemId=524-0&displayName=Valve+Cover+Gasket&searchText=VS50395R

 

Crank Main Seal - NO AUTOZONE PART #

 

 

 

 

I understand they have to jack the price a little to turn a profit, but these profits are WAY too high. They're trying to take advantage of your daughter, there's not a doubt in my mind. Print these out and send them to her, then have her take the documents to the repair shop along with 2 pieces of bread and tell her to make the owner of the shop a f*^& yourself sandwich.

 

And the labor is insane. At $80/hr it would take them 5 hours to replace the water pump and timing belt. For a well equipped repair shop with a couple employees this is plenty of time to do the job. Not only that, but $80/hr is what you'd be paying for a stealership to work on your car, not some Joe-Schmo scumbag with an air compressor and a 4 point lift.

Thank you PlatinumRacing and everyone who has helped me on this! Sorry about the generation thing but I started this here so I'll continue for now and then switch to 1 if I have any more questions. My feeling on auto repair is if I can't do it or don't want to do it I have no problem paying a reasonable price to an HONEST shop for the work. Because I know very little about Subarus I started searching the web for parts and prices - when I found the cam sensor for $50 - $160 the red flags started flying! While looking for info on the repair itself I found this site. Who better to ask than a group of people who own the same car - so I joined. And you guys have been great!

 

I also looked up all the prices, it just disqusts me that this shop has the nerve to be doing this. I agree a business needs to make a profit but to add 100% or more to the parts is criminal. Now when it comes to labor I had no idea about this car - so I looked at photos and then asked the question above about the sensor. So the labor is also out of line.

 

I have sent all this info to my daughter (she wanted me to thank you also) now it is up to her. She will always be my little girl but I can no longer tell her what to do - I can only make suggestions, the most important one is finding a different shop and then I hope she goes after these @** #****.

 

I will update this if anything interesting happens

 

Mark

absoutely, good luck! that's really ballsy that they'd do that, once you guys catch on then you can tear into them for it; I don't know about laws against that and legal battles, but i'd imagine it's a possibility.