Jump to content
CaddyInfo Cadillac Forum

Dealer wants $280 LABOR to change plugs and wires!!


Recommended Posts

OK, I had planned on doing this myself, but I always call the dealer before I replace anything on my cars to see how much I'm saving. It blew me away to find out they wanted this much.

Can't be that hard..... can it?

I have a '96 STS.

BTW, several wires are arcing and I'm getting misfire code. That's why I'm replacing.

Any feedback or tips? I already seen on another thread about moving the cross bar and ignition module.

Fred

Link to comment
Share on other sites


thats what i did. take off the strut bar and take off the ignition coil pack. there is lots of room than. overhead cam motors are easy to do wires on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AC Delco wires are very expensive, plugs too, but amortized over 100K+ miles it's not so bad.

One hour labor should cover it. $280/hour? Nah!

Regards,

Warren

Posted Image

There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. - Ludwig von Mises

Link to comment
Share on other sites

$280 certainly seems like a lot for plugs and wires. At $100 labor that is close to 3 hours.... What are they thinking? That is 22 minutes per plug but I guess that includes coffee breaks, smoke breaks, cell phone interruptions, P breaks and lunch, :lol:

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what it's worth, I just picked up a pack (8) of AC Delco 41-950 plugs from ebay for $15.00. Total with shipping to Canada was $30. So, with shipping it was $3.75 per plug. Can't beat that price.

Ken

1994 STS Pearl White 260,000 KM (163,000 miles)

<img src="http://img45.photobucket.com/albums/v137/caesar/caddycaesar.jpg" border="0" class="linked-sig-image" />

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, just for anyone who is interested...

I've got a '96 STS with 75K miles. Not a lot of miles, but a 10 year old car with 10 year old wires, etc. A couple of weeks ago I noticed some hesitation at start up and at low speed when cold. Almost like one or more cylinders were missing. I got theses codes:

1406 "Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) Position Sensor Performance"

0300 "Engine Misfire Detected"

Pulled the EGR and attempted to clean. It was very sticky and took some force to get open. Even after cleaning, it would still stick closed. Had to replace with a new one (AC Delco, of course!) for about $150 from gmpartsdirect.com .... dealer wanted around $260 for the part alone!!

No help with my problem though (although it needed to be replaced anyway).

Soooo, I turned off the lights in the garage at night and watched under the hood with the engine running. Ooooo, nice light show! :o a couple of the wires were arcing pretty good. So I replaced wires and plugs (AC Delco, of course). Dealer wanted $280 in labor to do this!!! :lol: HA!! (you might have seen my other post on this).

All of the plugs except for one were missing the platinum pad. And the spot on the electrode where the platinum pad used to be had a dimple in it where the metal was apparantly wearing down from the sparking. Other than that, everything looked like normal wear... except for some oil on the #2 plug. There was so much oil around the threads that a droplet actually formed on the end. ???

Anyway, car runs fine now. One of the new wires still arcs, so I'll have to go back to the parts store and see what they can do for me (O'Reilly).

Thanks for the input along the way from everyone.

Now I've got to figure out this whining/moaning that started yesterday!! :( Coming from passenger side of engine I think.

Fred

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bruce please move this to this thread so we have some closure on this problem otherwise the fix is lost, Thanks, Mike

http://caddyinfo.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9405

[and here it is, merged]

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bruce please move this to this thread so we have some closure on this problem otherwise the fix is lost, Thanks, Mike

http://caddyinfo.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9405

[and here it is, merged]

Mikey yer always wanting posts moved :P I cant keep up with you .....lol

Michael :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

heh,

I was scammed from the dealership I bought the car from after my first month of ownership for an $800 "not under warranty" screw job for just the wires and labor. I think the labor was about $600 of the charges. Shame on me I didn't know any better, but I didn't want my brand new baby to be neglected and I had the song & dance of "don't worry, it's under warranty for suuuuurrrrrreeee".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, I had planned on doing this myself, but I always call the dealer before I replace anything on my cars to see how much I'm saving. It blew me away to find out they wanted this much.

Can't be that hard..... can it?

I have a '96 STS.

BTW, several wires are arcing and I'm getting misfire code. That's why I'm replacing.

Any feedback or tips? I already seen on another thread about moving the cross bar and ignition module.

Fred

If it's for parts and labor the price is fine. Retail for parts, as charged by any dealer, is a killer. If the price is too rich for you, get the parts from some place like www.rockauto.com and do the labor yourself. This repair is of the most basic type. It should pose no problem, even for a novice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would change your plugs and wires for $280 including parts, just so I could take a day off and relax....... :lol:

May even spit shine the engine while I was at it........would have the spare time.

I might or might not need plugs/wires, but I'm curious: what do you get for a spit shine?

Regards,

Warren

Posted Image

There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. - Ludwig von Mises

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...