02 timing belt/w. pump replacement question

[Pawl]

3 dealerships in the area want $800 or more to replace water pump,timing belt and whatever the other belt is called,nu coolant,external belts. I asked about the tensioner.One guy said the 1st 100,000 mi change usually doesn't require a nu tensioner. I asked about replacing the camshaft seal & crankshaft seal. They said if it wasn't leaking they would not replace it.But if they did it is an additional $80. I think 100,000 miles on anything is alot. I feel when you have the car taken apart you should just replace something like this.
I called a 4th dealership nearby and the service guy said their dealership would do it for $499. They will change w pump,both timing belts, nu coolant,external belts. If it needs camshaft seal,crankshaftseal they would be $20 to $30 each.I said why is your dealership so much cheaper. He said with the economy down we are just trying to drum up business.I might call these 3 other dealerships that want $800 and see if they will match price. What does everybody think about the tensioner and the camshaft seal/crankshaft seal? Any red flags regarding the $499 price? Any thoughts? Thanks guys

[BullShifter]

$800 sounds about right. Is it V6 or 4 cylinder? $499 seems awfully cheap, are they using Honda parts?

[Pawl]

My car is a 4 cylinder with 101,000mi. It is a local dealership and I will do a face to face with the service guy I spoke to. They say they use only Honda genuine parts but I will verify. I will try to see if nearby dealerships will match the price.What do you think about the tensioner? I would guess most jobs they do don't involve replacing the tensioner. I have no reason to believe it will be in need of changing. I do know that if it was to go out down the road they are going right back into the place they are now. I also believe sometimes they don't want to change everything so they can come back later and work on your car some more. I think changing the seals is cheap insurance and if the price is actually $499 then there is room for seals and worst case scenario a tensioner

[CivicSpoon]

If there are 3 dealerships that are charging the same, or very similar price, then you should be confident that they are not trying to rip you off.

The other place that that is charging much less, could be telling the truth. They could just be really hurting (especially with 3 other dealerships around), and just offering a lower price to bring in more repeat customers (or any customers depending on how bad they are doing). Or...they could give you a low quote, and end up jacking up the price once they've started working on the car, or after they have finished. Or... they could just have some hourly employee do it, who doesn't have nearly the amount of experience as a flat-rate technician does.

As far as the tensioner and seals, I go by the rule of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

[jeffcoslacker]

is there some known issue with the seals on those? I know some earlier ones sometimes spit the balancer seal, but I don't remember any issues with camshaft seals. I'm with spoon, I don't replace seals that aren't leaking, unless it's a known issue. Not on a 100K mile Honda anyway.

[BullShifter]

The seals only take 2 minutes and you are there. I say why not. Just like the water pump, replace it you are there. As far as the tensioner, only if it's noisy. If it was a V6 I would say replace the hydraulic part. Might as well have the valves adjusted too since the valve cover is off. This is another 10 minutes, but I'm sure they will charge you another hour labor.

[dderolph]

I think any shop quoting a price over $500 is too high. I recently got a quote of $344 (before tax) to replace a timing belt in an '88 Accord from a local independent shop that's been in business for over 20 years. I'm sure other shops in the area would give similar quotes, maybe a little higher but not much higher. If seals needed to be replaced, that would cost more but would probably be $20-30 more, not $80.

Dealerships tend to be the most costly place to get service work done. Even so, I don't believe the Honda dealers in my area would tell me replacing the timing belt would cost $800. How could they justify such a high cost, based on labor time? That doesn't make sense. They are experts on Hondas. They should be able to perform this task in the same, OR LESS, time as independent shop.