Anybody else's dealership charge them to run a vagcom scan?

[billyhelmsorig]

dropped my car off at the dealership today because I scanned it and got a few error codes, one for misfires (guess i need new coil packs) and a code for the cam adjuster as well. there was another code but i don't remember what it was for. so i brought it to dealership not telling them that I have already scanned my car. (hoping they can replace what needs to be replaced under warranty otherwise I will just do it myself) but they told me its around 120 dollars to scan the car "if they cant find anything wrong" that just seems crazy for something that takes 30 seconds to do. do other dealers charge that much for a simple scan as well?

[booost]

In my experience, they charge you that diagnostic fee regardless of warranty status. It's so they get paid for the hour of looking at the car in case you decide not to get anything fixed. If you do need repairs they'll put that fee towards the balance. If something comes up that's covered by warranty you just pay the deductible.


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[billyhelmsorig]

In my experience, they charge you that diagnostic fee regardless of warranty status. It's so they get paid for the hour of looking at the car in case you decide not to get anything fixed. If you do need repairs they'll put that fee towards the balance. If something comes up that's covered by warranty you just pay the deductible.


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ok that makes more sense. pretty sure my cpo wont cover coil packs but any idea if the cam adjuster is something that's covered on cpo cars?

[jakeoboy67]

My dealer charges half an hour of labour every time(150$/Hour )every time I ask them to check codes.
so thats why I bought Vag-com

[AWDLover]

This is the reason I bought the vag com also. Unless it's something they may cover out of warranty (oil consumption, turbo) I will never take the car to the dealership again.

[booost]

my CPO booklet says camshaft under engine, covered items. Not positive though...


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[oascom]

never. im out of warranty i was at the dealer to check turbo becuase i had check engin light come once and i was thinking its bad turbo so they did a scan holded car for one day did many test drives washed my car and next day i had my car back and i didnt pay a cent. it was a bad gas that caused cel becuase even 10kmiles later i never had cel again. and what is more funny i tank my car only at shell but this time it was suspicious "off road" shell... and btw they did know im stage 2 tuned.

[billyhelmsorig]

So they called me back and said they didn't find any codes on a scan but I need motor mounts which is 850 after labor. So I guess I'll be ordering r8 coil packs and motor mount kit this week. Probably the cam adjuster as well and doing it all myself. I looked up a motor mount DIY and it seems pretty straight forward


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[Hugh@EuropaParts]

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[AWDLover]

So they called me back and said they didn't find any codes on a scan but I need motor mounts which is 850 after labor. So I guess I'll be ordering r8 coil packs and motor mount kit this week. Probably the cam adjuster as well and doing it all myself. I looked up a motor mount DIY and it seems pretty straight forward


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How many miles on your car?

[billyhelmsorig]

How many miles on your car?

Just hit 50k


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[b6onboost]

Depends.

If your car is under warranty and you are experiencing an issue, say rough idle or a CEL, the dealer should scan, diagnose, and repair it for free under warranty. If they can't find anything, and claim nothing is wrong, they still should not be charging you. Dealers see many intermittent issues and are unable to replicate, however they don't charge if you are under warranty.

Now if you come in, without issue, and just ask them to 'scan for codes' I can see them charging you a diagnostic fee because if there is no issue with the car, they shouldn't have to run a scan just for your piece of mind. Same goes if you scanned it, noticed codes, and now want them to check them out. If its just a gas cap code or something, you've just wasted their time since the car has no real mechanical issue.

[billyhelmsorig]

Depends.

If your car is under warranty and you are experiencing an issue, say rough idle or a CEL, the dealer should scan, diagnose, and repair it for free under warranty. If they can't find anything, and claim nothing is wrong, they still should not be charging you. Dealers see many intermittent issues and are unable to replicate, however they don't charge if you are under warranty.

Now if you come in, without issue, and just ask them to 'scan for codes' I can see them charging you a diagnostic fee because if there is no issue with the car, they shouldn't have to run a scan just for your piece of mind. Same goes if you scanned it, noticed codes, and now want them to check them out. If its just a gas cap code or something, you've just wasted their time since the car has no real mechanical issue.

Car has a rough idle so I scanned it and got codes for a misfire. Brought it to them and told them about the rough idle. I asked if they can look into it and suggested a scan. They didn't scan it but instead are pointing towards motor mounts that aren't covered under cpo so looks like I'm on my own. Just going to do new motor mounts and coil packs myself


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[b6onboost]

So you know its a misfire, the dealer is claiming motor mount, and you're just going to accept that and replace everything yourself?

I mean do whatever makes the most financial sense, but I'm pretty sure you know the problem whereas they're just guessing. With CPO don't you only have to pay like a flat $80 fee or something and the rest they take care of?

[booost]

Yes there's an $80 deductible but only if the work is covered by warranty, in his case coils or motor mounts (who really knows what the issue is) aren't covered, so you pay the diagnostic fee. If he decided to have them to do the mounts for example they would take off the diagnostic fee.

[billyhelmsorig]

So you know its a misfire, the dealer is claiming motor mount, and you're just going to accept that and replace everything yourself?

I mean do whatever makes the most financial sense, but I'm pretty sure you know the problem whereas they're just guessing. With CPO don't you only have to pay like a flat $80 fee or something and the rest they take care of?

Well I'm going to do R8 coils packs and then take it from there. Even if the dealership replaced the coil packs I would have switched them out for R8 coil packs anyways. If I still have the issue I'll look into the motor mounts and so forth


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