Got my 2015 Fit on Jan 24,2015. By March 2016 I had put about 30K
miles on it. Thats about 70% freeway miles and 30% local streets.
I never drive it on gravel roads(except my short driveway). I'm nearly 70
years old, so I'm not doing jack-rabbit starts and then slamming on the brakes at the next intersection. The car has run flawlessly and I am happy with how it has performed.

OK...so I have done regular maintence and oil changes at the dealership (Honda of Murfreesboro formerly Reddell Honda). So when I took it in at 30K miles they said the maintenance would run around $300. I thought that was reasonable since it had 30K miles. Then I got a call from the service advisor that the front tires were worn(3/32" tread) and that the rear tires were cupped. Keep in mind that these are the original tires that came on the car. Also, I had started to notice a pulsation in braking after about 24K miles. Turns out that the front rotors had to be turned to make them completely flat again.

Well after replacing tires, mounting and balancing and a 4 tire alignment
plus the rotor problem plus the "regular maintenance costs" the bill came to about $1194. Needless to say, that was a big surprise! I've included an attachment that details all the costs.

My complaints are 1) why did the rotors develop "high spots" after only
24K miles? 2) Why did the tires wear out after 30K miles?

Some have suggested that the rotors tend to warp if you brake the car and then drive through a puddle and the hot rotor gets wet. Really?
Then I guess I'll have to park the car whenever it rains! On the tire wear issue, what are other people getting as far as tire life goes??

Jim

 

They changed your transmission fluid too? What maintenance codes did you have? 3 is to replace transmission fluid.

My friend who has worked in the tire industry for a number of years measured mine a few weeks ago. I was around 22k and he said I still had 6/32 left. He was estimating maybe another 20k on there. How often are you rotating your tires? Keeping them inflated properly? I rotate mine every 5k, even though the maintenance minder says every 10k, I feel that is too long of an interval.

Did they get your approval to do the work? They're not allowed to just tack on work and stick you with the bill unless you approve the work. If you did approve the work, did you ask what the costs would be ahead of time to avoid the sticker shock?

 

The tires that come on the car from the factory are not designed to last that long. They are designed to give you a quiet ride and good fuel economy. It is what it is and is very very common for tires on a new Honda to need replacing at 30k. If your vehicle has less than 36k the machining of the brake rotors is 100% a warranty repair and you should not have been charged. You should request your wheels be hand torqued when servicing as well. This will help prevent warping. In return for my help I will accept Slick Pig BBQ as payment. God I miss Slick Pig.

 

The brake rotors are a known issue with Mexican-made Fits and this is a warranty repair. Properly, they should replace the rotors, not turn them, since the warpage is due to improper annealing of the cast iron rotors and you have no way to know if it has finished warping. Also, turning the rotors reduces their useful life.

Unless you are on a track or playing Canyon Racer you should not be able to harm the disks by any normal operation. They are designed to handle stops from high speed and rain splashes since these are normal to operation of a car.

Stock tires are made to hold the rims off of the ground until the car leaves the lot. You should be happy to be rid of them anyway if they are Firestones.

As far as the shocking cost, you forgot Rule #1: Don't go to the dealer for routine service. Find a good independent mechanic or do it yourself. The vast majority of dealers view routine service as an excuse to fish for more work, and you are at a disadvantage when your car is in their shop and apart.

 

[QUOTE=GeorgeL;1340554

As far as the shocking cost, you forgot Rule #1: Don't go to the dealer for routine service. Find a good independent mechanic or do it yourself. The vast majority of dealers view routine service as an excuse to fish for more work, and you are at a disadvantage when your car is in their shop and apart.[/QUOTE]

While this is true in some cases there are good dealers out there and lumping them all together as bad is plain ignorant. Purchasing a vehicle from a dealer and doing all of your service there can help when and if major repairs are needed outside of your warranty. If you ask for help most of the time you will get it. If you don't like your Honda dealer find a a different one. If the other ones are bad and or there are no other dealers in your area call Honda North America. Also independent shops being less expensive is a myth. My Honda dealer is the same price if not cheaper than most independents but I am lucky to be with one of the best dealers in the nation.

 

I'll advocate a different approach to service. Go to the dealer for issues that could be repaired under warranty, and shop around for everything else, dealers and independents. Even shopping between dealers if necessary, as they don't always charge the same price for the same service.

It was convenient to buy tires from the dealer, but I would have gone somewhere else if there were a better deal. You were not obliged to buy tires from them. I know, one-stop shopping, but sometimes, that convenience costs dearly.

 

You're lucky you got 30,000 miles out of your tires. I expect to be replacing mine around 25,000. For the record, I'm 63, and known 'round these parts as a slow driver.


Now you also know why at my age, I still change my own oil and rotate my own tires.

 

the 1194 pays mostly for the convenience of doing the work all together in one location.

if u were willing to shop around for brakes and tires, i am sure you could have made the price lower, but would that've been worth the effort and time? sometimes the answer is no.

and to answer the warped rotors.. ive owned 3 gens of Fits and i have NEVER had the rotor needing turning (flattening). in fact, ive never had one car that i owned that required turning the rotors (cars with normal brakes to big caliper brakes)

i dont know what the cause of ur problem was, but it could have been just a defect..?
the rotors can only take so much turning, id make sure next time you have enough material left.. or just get the rotors replaced.

 

Warped rotors seem to be more common on Honda's these days. My wife's 12 Odyssey had an issue with that at 35000 miles.

30000 miles out of tires is well within the range of normal lifespan. Personally, I prefer this. Tires are rubber; they get subjected to rain, snow, heat from rolling resistance friction, heat from hot days, sun baked, extreme cold, gravel, road salt or sand, dirt, pot holes and so on. Not to mention rubber naturally ages and dries out.
I like to keep tires relatively fresh, given their vital importance to a functioning car.
Never buy tires at the dealer. They are laughing all the way to the bank when you do.

 

Oh, and $129 for turning rotors is extortionate. Most good automotive machine shops charge $10 each for this.

Brand new factory Honda rotors have a MSRP of $83.18 each and can be had online for $57.90 each. I'd be very likely to demand new rotors in the case of warpage since you never know if the warped rotors have finished relieving their internal stresses. I don't think that I would accept any marked "Hecho en Mexico" though.

To NFRAP2V2: While there may be a few dealers out there who do business fairly, that is the exception rather than the rule. There is very good reason to be cautious. A reputable dealer would not have tried to charge the OP for turning rotors warped within the warranty period. That is clearly a defect.

 

I agree completely with you, sir. And NOT just because our first names happen to be George!

 

That's how much most dealerships and independents charge on average to turn rotors including the labor to remove and reinstall. Good luck getting a machine shop to remove and reinstall the rotors for $10. As far as your internal stresses go I don't think machining rotors would be common practice if that were something that you needed to worry about.

 

The dealer sure must be proud of their tires!

When I last bought tires (a few months ago) at a local place, I think I paid around $75 or $80 per tire, mounted and balanced, for decent Toyo all-season tires. These are not super fancy tires, or super high performance, but they are good and have a longer life than the stock tires. Most tire shops will mount and balance tires for free when you buy the tires from them, at least around here.

I'm not sure why they did an alignment if the front tires were not wearing unevenly and if you didn't have any complaints about pulling or other steering problems. (Actually, I fear I may know why they did it. The price is not unreasonable, if they actually did check and adjust it...I merely suspect that it was unnecessary work.)

For routine maintenance, I think you'd be well served to go to some independent garage.

 

The individual charges don't seem out of bounds. Not sure why they were doing transmission and brake fluid service at 15 months and 30k miles. Were you working to any maintenance minder codes? Code 3 is transmission fluid. There is no code for brake fluid but the manual says this is a 3 year item. (Those two alone are $190+, after the shop fees and taxes, of this.)

Alignment after installing new tires, absent uneven wear or other indications on the old tires, is probably unnecessary, but not abusively unreasonable as a "reasonable and prudent" check for getting best life out of the new tires.

There are surely cheaper places to buy tires. But, for a dealer, this also doesn't seem out of bounds.

It all adds up in a hurry.

 

Interesting that they didn't mention changing the disk brake pads. Did they put old pads onto freshly turned rotors?

Since they were doing a "Caliper Service" the rotors were a pull-off item. No excuse for charging $100 for that.

If I have to use a shop I really prefer a shop where you talk to the mechanic directly. At a dealer everything is filtered through a service writer and a service manager so by the time it gets to the customer a lot of the truth is lost. Paying the writer and manager isn't cheap, either.

 

OEM tires wearing out early is not surprising.

I got 42k out of my OEM tires on my 2012, could've pushed to 48-50k, but I'm fastidious about vehicle maintenance.

Your brakes should be covered under warranty. Is your car CVT? I have a 5MT in my 2012 and my brakes look like they'll be perfectly fine for at least another 40k miles (have 60k miles at the moment).

BTW, sup NFRAP2V2; NFR AP1 guy here.

 

How should I say this...mmmm... you got rip off bad bro; way bad.

Tires well as many had state here it is a must item and many get from 20 up to 50 miles top avering 30 miles. There is a threat about that.

From the other what tires did you get?

About the rotor I remember seen a couple of threats about bad rotors. Not sure if is a recal.

I would suggest going to an independet mecaninc next time. The only reason to go for a dealer are for recalls and nothing elese. They overcharge and they not know anything about mechanics.

I don;t thinks there is much you cna do now. Just verify it you can get the brake rotors under warranty.

 

On econo cars, it's cheaper to replace the rotors than have the shop machine them. Better yet, look into doing the job yourself as it's one of the simplest repair jobs out there.

 

Can you go back and complain?

 

Same here. . . I expect to be replacing my tires around 24-25K. They have worn horribly. And I drive very conservatively, I check the air pressure monthly and I've rotated the tires every 5K miles.