gknoerlein

I ordered 6 of SP-580 for $42. I'll have to wait and see what their gap is when they arrive.
I stopped at the local Ford dealer and asked what it would cost me to have my plugs changed.

HE QUOTED ME $800 DOLLARS.

My jaw dropped. I do not mind the dealer making a profit, but not all at once and all from me. I wonder what alternate reality is he living in.

Mike A.

Geez... That's ridiculous. lol

kozal01

iTrader: (2)

Thats absolute insanity! Once you see how easy it is to change them out you will laugh.

gknoerlein

it was only after the Ford dealer quoted me $800 to change the plugs that I decided to give it a try myself.
My only concern is what to do if I get a plug that is hard to unscrew.

Steve83

...which will be easy to find once he has the ORIGINAL spec.Pay the $800. That's why they price it that way - it's not because it's always that difficult; it's to cover their asses on the ones that are nightmares.

gknoerlein

The Ford dealer estimate was $800 not "up to" $800. I was not told at the time, that the cost of replacing the plugs could be drastically less, since the vast majority of plug replacement jobs go very well.

Do you really think the dealer will adjust the price downward, if they do not have a nightmare or move the price even higher if they do? Especially after the customer has already signed on to the $800. Terrible temptation to put the dealer through. Better to try doing the job yourself first, and then if it turns out to be a nightmare, stop at the first problem plug, take it to the dealer and pay the justifiable nightmare price.

The estimate should have been presented as the typical cost of replacing the plugs with the $800 upper limit if there are problems. I will admit, that giving estimates are a public relations nightmare, especially if they are drastically wrong. A good service rep is worth his weight in gold and a bad rep will cost the dealer a lot of gold.

Steve83

The nature of an "estimate" is that your actual cost can be higher or lower - there's no need to redundantly repeat that. But they (apparently) always charge that much, even if everything goes well. And the "nightmare" scenario I mentioned would only cover labor - if things go so badly that additional parts (outside the original estimate's scope) are required, there would be additional labor to go with those additional parts.

You should spend some time talking to the advisor, so you thoroughly understand what it is that he's pricing to you, and what's NOT included.

Mike A.

I didn't use them but the way the dealer here quoted the plugs was a flat rate for the basic job and then +$100 extra for each one that breaks.

For a while they were working with people on changing the plugs in recognition of the problem but I guess that's over now.

gknoerlein

I think I may be overly concerned about nightmare broken plugs. That problem seems to have been corrected by a redesign of the spark plug. The threaded part of the new plug is much longer now and extends to where the spark gap is. The part of the plug that was previously breaking was not the threaded part, but a very long un-threaded, smaller diameter, sleeve part below it. That was on F-150 in the approximate 2008 year range and lower. Not sure of the years with the breakage problem, but I shouldn't have plug breakage on my 2012 because of the redesigned plug.

Mike A.

Ahhh... So used to talking about the breaking plugs on the 5.4 3V that I missed that yours was the 2012.

Yes, you're good. Even more ridiculous that they're wanting that much for those.