Car Maintenance Makes Me Cry, Phase 2

[bjarvis]

Last June, I started catching up on a lot of neglected car maintenance. This past week, I finished the second half: replacing the timing belt and water pump (long overdue), along with the normal oil change.

As expected, it wasn't cheap:
Parts: $460.89
Labor: 447.40
Shop Supplies: 39.99

With taxes, it came to $978.33. Ouch.

Still, if one is to believe the owner's manual, the timing belt replacement is some 60,000 miles overdue so I was really pushing the envelope and a failure while driving could cause catastrophic damage as well as severe inconvenience.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

you're lucky the timing belt didn't break, though Honda (and others) are probably too conservative when it comes to such life expectancy in order to generate $$$$ for the dealers.

[wescobear.livejournal.com]

Ouch. That smarts.

A couple of months ago my Jetta wouldn't start. It was under warranty, so I had it towed to the dealer to ultimately find a squirrel had chewed the wiring. The wiring harness was only $50, but the diagnostic labor was almost $500! And no, the VW warranty doesn't cover damage caused by fluffy little morons.