My car failed smog, it was a gross pollutor.
NO3 was way high.

I applied for state funded smog repair assistance.
Under this if I take it to a state certified shop I pay the first $100 of the repairs and the state pays up to $500 after that.
Any more than that I have to pay out of pocket again.

The shop charged me $180 off the bat for diagnostic/inspection.
I found that a bit fishy.
so $100 was out of my pocket and $80 came from the state funded $500.
so $420 left.

They have had my car for 2 weeks now.

So far they have cleaned out my EGR and had to run further diganostics to deduce I have a bad Cat.

The guy calls me today and tells me they need to swap out the cat, but I will need to pay out of pocket.
he quoted me about $345 + tax for the cat and $90 for labor.
He told me I had $146 left on state funds, so I would have to pay roughly $220 out of pocket to get this done.

I've been looking at cats online, and $300+ for a cat seems ridiculously high.
I tell him I need to think it over and he calls back saying he'd knock off $20 on labor.
He seemed eager to get me to agree.
I told him, I need to know what kind of cat that is and the exact brand.
I have not agreed to move on with the repairs for now.
At the same time I am wondering where the hell the rest of the state funded cash went to.

How much should it have costed for him to do the EGR?
Is this guy ripping me off?

 

Clean the EGR valves?

I followed the DIY on here and took me about an hour and half. It wasn't hard at all!


$180 for diagnostics seems high, not sure on the cat

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TheMuffinMan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Clean the EGR valves?

I followed the DIY on here and took me about an hour and half. It wasn't hard at all!


$180 for diagnostics seems high, not sure on the cat</TD></TR></TABLE>
I'm not even sure what the hell they were charging in between.
Whatever happened in between is supposedly between them and the state.

 

well if you have to come up with more money out of pocket then if I was you I would demand to know the exact break down of what was done and what it's cost to do it was. If he stalls in the least then you know right off the bat he's lying because he should know all this already if he knows you only have XXX amount left in state funding. I'd still look at everything and see if anything looks "off".

to me it does sound fishy though.

Did he just clean the EGR ports or did he replace the EGR valve?

I cant recall what I paid for the cat for the Civic but I don't think it was exactly cheap. So if you truely do only have 146 left from the state then expect to pay something out of pocket cause a cat + labor is going to cost more than that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TouringAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well if you have to come up with more money out of pocket then if I was you I would demand to know the exact break down of what was done and what it's cost to do it was. If he stalls in the least then you know right off the bat he's lying because he should know all this already if he knows you only have XXX amount left in state funding. I'd still look at everything and see if anything looks "off".

to me it does sound fishy though.

Did he just clean the EGR ports or did he replace the EGR valve?

I cant recall what I paid for the cat for the Civic but I don't think it was exactly cheap. So if you truely do only have 146 left from the state then expect to pay something out of pocket cause a cat + labor is going to cost more than that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeh, I'm going to ask for a break down today.
I know cat+labor costs more than 146.
I'm looking onilne and cheap cats are 100, others are 179, some 230.
All OEM spec and smog legal ones.
I can't for the life of me find a cat for around $357.50 (the price he quoted me)
He was telling me how it was a "special" cat smog legal etc...
I see on e such cat online and it's like 270.
Supposedly the state approves the repairs, so he might have swallowed the state fees on bogus diagnostic time.
I think he just cleaned the EGR, to what extent, I dunno.

 

you can also guesstimate that he's probably going to mark parts up another 20% over what he paid so...

 

humm, still He's got me wondering where the rest of the money went.

 

If I were you, I would get my car out of that place before they either mess something up, or charge you out the *** for SIMPLE work.

 

last month i bought a cat from eastern catalytic and installed it myself in about an hour. Shops were quoting me 630 for the job. i say just buy a direct fit cat and replace it urself.

 

sounds like either the shop doesnt know whats wrong or there triyng to rip you off. if they tell you i needs something installs it and it needs something else then they dont know how to diag., they should know how to fix it without throwing a bunch of parts at it for no reason, check up on them and what there actually doing, to remove the egr and clean it should be about a half hour or 7 tenths so find out why there charging you so much, good luck

 

Guy just called me back.
the 337.11 + 20.39(tax) is labor included.
He said labor was $90 but he'll take off $20.
so the Cat is $247.11
He said it was a Magnaflow.

I found all these magnaflows
http://www.autopartswarehouse....age=6

Nothing that high.
I still have $146 in state funds, what should I do?

 

so after intial drop off I used up $80 in state funds.

500-80=420.

As of Yesterday I have 146 left, so $274 was used to further diagnosis and clean out the EGR.
Does that sound right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bruce Banner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As of Yesterday I have 146 left, so $274 was used to further diagnosis and clean out the EGR.
Does that sound right?</TD></TR></TABLE>

ask him for a break down of exactly where that $274 went, he should be able to tell you right away, otherwise he is lying.

and no, that does not sound right to me.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TouringAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

ask him for a break down of exactly where that $274 went, he should be able to tell you right away, otherwise he is lying.

and no, that does not sound right to me.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Just got off the phone with the guy.

Intial Drop off diganostic
$180. (100 came out of my pocket, 80 from the State $)

420 to go.

Cleaned out the EGR ports (said he went through the manifold too, std 3hr labor) So he charged me 3hrs labor. + some parts $3.60

420-270 = 150 -3.60 = $146 roughly.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bruce Banner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cleaned out the EGR ports (said he went through the manifold too, std 3hr labor) So he charged me 3hrs labor. + some parts $3.60

420-270 = 150 -3.60 = $146 roughly.</TD></TR></TABLE>



wow, thats a good way to screw someone.

Do a 3hr service on some EGR ports even though that wont solve their problem

I'd try to talk to the state or something and say this guy is ripping you off, cause he is technically ripping them off as well.

IDK, good luck

 

I just called the state.
3hr EGR is book time.
so it's "Legit"
I got the model # for the cat, online it's a $100 Cat.
so he's marking up $150 on the cat.
The only "savings" I get here is that the final smog test to approve it is free.
If I took it elsewhere I've have to pay for another smog test of about $50.

 

holy crap, that sucks!

so it's 'legit' even though it didn't solve your problem?

I guess the best thing you can try now is to argue the price of that cat if it can be bought for $100. Tell him you'll buy the cat and he can go ahead and charge the state the full $90 to install it

Sounds like you are sorta stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

They're trying to rip you off bro and its all legit, thats weak.

 

Yeh, I'm gonna call him back and ask if I can just bring his *** a cat.

 

I just can't win.
I told him I'd bring my own cat.
He said state will not approve repairs on parts I bring in, so he would charge me the $90 labor.
So I'd still be out of pocket $190.

 

simple as this.
u did get ripped off,
u shud sue.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by emerald_tuner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">simple as this.
u did get ripped off,
u shud sue. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Well according to the state cause the state has top approve each repair.
What they listed is "legit" and the state has no control how much they decide to mark up on a part like a cat.

 

definently did get ripped off my friend

 

Yeh, oh well.
Too late.

 

Is your car a 4 or cylinder? I like how everyone is saying "EGR Ports" as if there is more than one. 3hrs to clean a V6 egr port is a little high. 1.5 to 2.0 is more like it because you to pull of the plenum and drill it out. Direct fit converters are pretty expensive, and the ones that aren't get up there with welding flanges and make extensions and crap.

Go down to the shop and go off on the guy, and if they are a decent shop they will give you damn near anything to shut you up and get you out the door. Don't listen to the Backyard Barneys on this site, because everyone who has saved some $ by doing it themselves will say anything more is a rip off. They don't have to pay overhead, insurance, tools, etc. Mechanics have bills to pay and mouths to feed too.